Your business is all about body motion, from dozens of people in a step aerobics class to a single individual lifting weights. Your customers hope those kinds of motions will yield some beneficial results, namely toned muscles and a better sense of well-being.
Since your business is all about motion, why not include some of it on your website?
By now you have probably heard about streaming video for the web, and you have probably seen some of it too. When used properly, streaming video is highlyeffective as a website element. However, there can be lots of thorny and expensive issues to solve when setting it up on your website (for example, the video file must be compressed so that your site visitors can view it properly, plus there is the cost of actually producing professional video) that may make using it a little problematic.
Fortunately, there is a cost-effective way around the expense and hassle of putting motion on your website.
Not just a flash in the pan.
One extremely cost-effective way to create motion for your website is to use movie files created by Macromedia Flash. In its early days, Flash was used strictly for creating animation of text, pictures and other elements for websites. Over the years, it has grown into a program that can also incorporate video.
One of the benefits of using Flash movies is that it requires no additional computer hardware to run. The only requirement is that your site visitors must have the Flash plug-in installed on their machines. It is free and available from www.macromedia.com. You will, however, need to have a notice on your website that portions of it will require the Flash plug-in.
You can have Flash presentations of:
A virtual tour of your club.
Put a collection of pictures of your club into an interactive presentation so that your site visitors can get a visual overview of all the equipment and services you provide.An exercise of the week or month.
Have one of your instructors perform a certain exercise (for example, concentration curls) as pictures are taken of each step. Your Flash design team can run those pictures together to create an animation of the exercise. You can change this weekly or monthly.Existing video.
If you already have a professionallymade video of your club (or of a certain class) you can have a Flash presentation that plays it. To do that you will first need to convert the video into one of two computer video formats: Apple QuickTime or Windows Media. Your website design team can do that for you. Once the video is converted, it is imported into the Flash program, then converted into a Flash movie ready for viewing on your website. It is cost- and time-effective in that you do not need any additional video streaming equipment. As long as your site visitor has the Flash plug-in, the video will play.
Furthermore, no matter which type of presentation you have, you have the option of letting a Flash presentation run on its own or require user interaction (e.g., click a button to move to the next part).
What’s more, Flash has the capability to include some slick coding features which you can use to create such elements as target heart rate and body mass index calculators. All your visitors have to do is enter figures, click a button, and get a result. This is different from normal web-based calculators in that you can have animations that accompany it.
Your website design team can offer you many other uses for Flash to enhance your site visitors’ experiences. But like everything else we have discussed over the past few months, you should use these elements in moderation. However, with lots of planning, organization and creativity, you can add memorable, effective motion to your website.
Dennis McDonoungh is President of BIT Concepts. He can be contacted at 888.298.4532, ext 202, or by email at dmcdon@bit-concepts.com, or visit www.bit-concepts.com.
