Featured article by Sam Hartwell, Independent technology Author
Nowadays businesses produce lots of videos for marketing, and publish them on their own websites, video sharing platforms and social media. In order for these videos to be effective however, they need to be able to engage viewers so that they stay interested and watch them right through to the end.
Make no mistake coming up with engaging business videos can be challenging, especially considering your videos are going to have to compete with the thousands of other videos that are out there. That is why it is important that you focus on the most effective ways to make them as engaging as possible:
Try to create short videos
Ideally you should try to ensure that your business videos are short and focus on a single message. If your video is too long it is likely that viewers will stop watching mid-way, and some may not even stay to watch it in the first place.
Viewers generally prefer bite-sized video content that they can watch quickly, so it is important to be direct and get to the point. It may be best to aim to keep your videos about 60 seconds long or thereabouts, though on some social media platforms coming up with content that is 10 to 15 seconds long can work wonders.
Outline the objective and benefits in the first few seconds
The majority of viewers will decide within the first 5 to 10 seconds whether or not they want to keep watching, which means that is all the time you have to convince them that watching your business video will be worthwhile. To do that you should outline the objective of the video and the benefits they’ll gain – so that they know what’s in it for them.
Be as succinct as possible during the first few seconds of your video, and quickly explain exactly how your video will help them to learn something they may be interested in or solve a problem they may have.
Make videos that are more visual
Part of the reason why videos are more engaging than other types of content is because they are able to visually communicate information – and you need to take advantage of that. Think carefully about how your business videos can ‘show’ information – and consider using other methods such as screen recording on Mac, animation, or even slideshows.
Because more and more viewers nowadays watch videos without audio, you may want to consider adding subtitles or captions to your business videos as well – so that they can deliver their message without relying too heavily on a voiceover.
Provoke an emotional reaction in viewers
It can be tricky, but if you can provoke an emotional reaction and make your viewers ‘feel’ something – your business video will be much more engaging. The more intense the emotion, the more likely viewers are to share, comment, and react to your business video.
Try using storytelling elements to let viewers connect to the subject, and inject some personality into your business videos even if the topic itself is dry.
All of these tips should help you to come up with business videos that are much more engaging, and you should notice a marked difference as you start to implement them. Some experimentation may be required in order to find out what your target market finds most engaging, but at very least you’ll be on the right track.
Author Bio:
Sam Hartwell is enjoys creating business video content for his website and social media pages. He focuses on making sure he is able to get viewers to engage with his videos as much as possible, and regularly tweaks his approach to improve engagement levels.
