Wonder or Wander?
How Videos Make or Break it in the Attention Scale
You created videos to show off your business to the online world but your watch count hasn’t pinged a large number. It stagnant, and you don’t know what to do. You’ve done your best to ensure that the videos are of the highest quality, but they’re not sufficiently attracting enough eyeballs. You start to wonder what you did wrong.
A video consultant has looked over your videos and said that your videos are all too long. Each video runs 30 minutes where a speaker discusses various topics. How is it possible, you think, that those well-rendered videos of yours failed to catch interest?
According to the study undertaken by BBC News, the average attention span of a human runs as short as nine seconds. So, when we have to watch a video or read an article, the concentration fades and thoughts meander to other topics or we fall asleep or open another tab in a browser. This makes it important to keep videos as short as two to three minutes to sustain attention.
If we base how customers engage with videos according to the graph above, videos as long as five minutes can still retain 50% interest. With this in mind, we have to ensure that the most important aspect of what we want to share is shown at the first part of the video. Remember that the longer the video runs, the shorter the concentration gets. But, how about movies? Most movies run about 1 1/2 hours and yet cinemas remain full of people staring at the screen. That is because movies hold attention captive through catchy dialogue, fast action or an exciting storyline. Most business videos are visual and verbal explanations. There’s no jumping around or horseplay, unless the video is about humor or action.
How do you catch and maintain interest in your video:
It is essential that you take the attention of your viewers in the first few seconds. Go straight to the point and start on your main points before the first minute ends. Be spontaneous and conversational, too. A speech will make the video have a formal feel. This would disrupt attention immediately, as people always look for something entertaining to watch.
As the attention span is quite low, we can expect that there is lower engagement for videos above one minute. For business videos as long as 60 minutes, an average of only 13 minutes is watched. It is important to make a video short in length, yet meaty in content to make viewers watch as long as 3-5 minutes.
How do you make interesting videos that encourage customer engagement?
- Keep your video short.
- Make an interesting yet keyword-optimized title. Catch attention with a funny, shocking or intriguing title, yet insert some keywords to make it easier for search engines to find it.
- Keep a balance of steady and moving shots. If the camera stays static and focused only one thing, viewers will most click the ‘close’ button.
- Show your website address on the video to persuade customers to check out your site after watching.
- Make use of people who have a camera presence. Look for someone who’s photogenic, confident and smart. Viewers are more likely to stay and watch if the speakers are good-looking and certain of themselves.
- Spice up the comments section. Interesting exchange of feedback would cause intrigue with the readers and might make them watch the video some more. Delete any negative comments. You don’t want this type of comments influence your viewers.
- Study the mechanics of viral videos in YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. In YouTube, you have to do your best to get your video on the ‘Most Viewed’ section, while popular Facebook videos get shared many times.
- Tap everyone you know to watch your video and share it on the web. This will help spread the video, eventually making it viral.
- Use analytics and tracking application to properly measure the popularity of the video and determine it has been effective in capturing attention.
Before you upload your finished video, ask people you know to watch it first. Get their honest opinion. Did they watch it with eyes glued on the screen, looking for more clips to watch? Or did they turn off the video and switch to another after a few seconds? You’ll know your video is effective when almost everyone who’ve seen it liked, or better yet, raved about it. If the feedback isn’t what you expected, you’re better off editing or making a new video altogether.
Happy filming to you!
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