If you, like me, are the kind of person who hides away when the video cameras come out, you might well ask, why on earth would you want content on your company website?

The reason why I'm recommending that you think differently today is because I believe that 1. video content is the future for business websites and that 2. business websites with video content attract more customers and drive higher sales.

On what basis do I make such claims? On a simple level think about when you go into a shop see the queue and realise you have a long wait for any service. If you're like me you'll leave thinking you'll pop in on the way back - but of course that rarely happens.

Its exactly the same when customers visit your website. If they cant see what they want in the first few moments they can easily get distracted and leave never to return! Customers need the human touch and that's what video content allows you to add to your website.

Now lets look at the hard facts - here are the latest stats from the US which leads business website development.

In a recent study more than 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched an online video during November 2008! We can conclude that when people are on the web, watching videos is a natural part of what they do - and we're not talking pornography anymore! Why is that? People respond best to different senses - visual, oral or a combination - and only rich content like video can provide this online.

In the same report online viewers were found to have watched on average 3.25 hours of video per person per month - growing 30% year on year. This may not sound like a lot but in fact that's around 25% of the time spent by the average punter watching TV.

We learn that 138 million Americans viewed 9.5 billion online videos in Nov07 alone, that the average online video duration was 2.8 minutes and the average viewer consumed 69 videos! That's 46% of the US population and shows that online videos are increasingly mainstream

, which has only really been easily accessible in the last 2 years, is winning a significant share of people's attention vs the box in the corner. And don't forget that as an average this hides the fact that some age groups watch a lot more than this and others less - possibly because they haven't found video relevant to them.

However the mode of consumption is very different from TV. People at their computers lean forwards intensely focused on their screen. They are surfing the web, snacking on bite size chunks of content.

Business websites should reflect this and break down their content into easily digested chunks.

As for stats about the sales impact of video content, I have seen recent case studies showing up to 300% increases in enquiries and sales through using online videos to support the sales process.

Why does this work? The reason is simple: a video is more compelling, more immediate, and less demanding than traditional web pages. A presents your key proposition in seconds, saving the user precious time. It stands to reason that this format gets better results. It's short. It's sharp. It's simple. As the Internet Advertising Bureau says "Web Videos are... the catalyst for keeping customers online for longer."