Putting a web video on page one of your web site, is not about information, it is not about product presentation, it is about trust establishment. As this article will explain, giving surfers a chance to see you, the owner, face to face in a web video, will immediately begin to establish trust in you, and facilitate their decision to want to do business with you

Trust is defined in the social sciences as having faith in others, believing in them. It may be shocking to know that having trust in another person is not the same as believing that person is ethical or law abiding. However, the degree to which one person trusts another is a reflection of belief in the other person’s honesty, fairness and benevolence. Important for establishing initial trust in business is that fact that a failure in trust is more easily forgiven if it is due to t a failure in competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. As a result, sometimes a business providing, at least temporarily, inferior services may fare better with their customers than a company providing superior services, if people feel the first company is honest and means well.

The phenomenon of trust is summed up in the following definition. It is described as a “heuristic decision rule, allowing the human to deal with complexities that would require unrealistic effort in rational reasoning. Lets break this definition down. Heuristic processes are trial and error approaches to problem solving which begin with the most accessible solution, and go on to another solution, only if the first solution doesn’t solve the problem. What this means in terms of business is that if a customer finds himself interacting with a business owner that he intrinsically wishes to trust, because the owner appears benevolent, good natured and well meaning. Then the customer will prefer to trust the owner and do business rather than get involved into complex rational thought about what might go wrong in the business relationship.

And now, what does this have to do with putting a video on page one of your web site. And here’s the answer. When a surfer goes onto a new web site, and thinks about doing business with someone he’s never met, he can rapidly be won over by a short online video of the owner talking with him. If he likes the look and personality of the owner than he will immediately wish to trust him and do business, because that will be the easiest solution for him to take.

And this realization leaves us with one more important take away lesson. A front page video needn’t trouble itself with a description of company services or products. It just has to provide a reason for the surfer to trust the owner. A short 40 second passionate description, by the owner saying that he established the family potato chip business 30 years ago because he wanted to provide people with a crispy chip that wouldn’t lose its favor in the package, will win trust right away.