Watching, More or Less

Congratulations! You posted a video online! Now, are people watching it, more or less? I mean really - MORE or LESS...than your competition's videos. How can you ensure that they are watching YOUR videos MORE rather than LESS? Here are a few tips:

 1. Is your video long and packed with information? If so, you may want to think about creating a second video. You want your initial contact with potential clients to be short & to the point. A long, informative video has its place too...deeper in your website or shown at a follow-up meeting with a prospect. The first video should grab attention and give viewers a fast overview of what you have to offer. FACT: The average attention span for online video viewing is about 60-seconds.

SOLUTION: If you have a long video, you can still win in the viewer wars. Create a small "teaser" video out of your longer video and put that one on your front page. The viewer can click through to the longer version if they like what they see in the first video.

2. Make your video top heavy. Have you ever heard the Inverse Pyramid rule of journalism? A newspaper story has the most important information in the first paragraph. The last paragraph is usually non-essential background information. Readers often only read the beginning of a story to get the highlights of what happened. The same is true for online video. Viewers tend to trail off throughout a video, so why not put all of the important info at the beginning? FACT: By 50-seconds, only approximately 25% of your views are engaged.

SOLUTION: Is all the good info in your video buried at the end? If you like your video and don't want to make major structural changes to it, just add a brief "preview" at the beginning that gets all the pertinent information in quickly and grabs attention. Then, hopefully the viewer will stick around to the end to see the amazing content you have.

 3. Be specific & intentional with every shot. If you are vague, your views will lose interest.

SOLUTION: If you realize your video is a bit vague, sprinkle some facts throughout the video. You can create simple graphics that speak directly to your prospects for very little time or cost and incorporate them into the video that you already have.

 4. Talk to your views on a personal level. Make sure your audience can relate to the video.

SOLUTION: If you realize your video is a bit "techy" or unrelatable, try adding in a personal message from the CEO or an on-camera testimonial where someone talks directly to your prospective client.

 5. Your thumbnail and description is MORE important than the video itself! You know the saying "don't judge a book by its cover"? Well, unfortunately, your online video is judged by its cover. If your thumbnail & description don't speak to your prospective client, then they will never see your video. If it speaks to them, but your video offers something completely different than what they are expecting, then you will lose them. It is important to engage your view BEFORE they ever click play, or your play rates will remain low.

SOLUTION: This is the easiest fix and doesn't require any changes to your existing video! Make sure your description accurately describes the SOLUTION you provide to your prospective clients needs. Then find a thumbnail that comes right out of your video and captures the essence of the message you are trying to get across.

Darcie King
Producer
E Video Productions
www.EVideoProductions.net
darcie@evideoproductions.net 
Facebook.com/evideoproductions
twitter.com/evpdarcie 
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