How To Get Viewers To Watch Your Videos To The End

Have you ever noticed how bad most online videos are?

Sure, they might include the brand message, but they just don't capture and hold your attention...

There could be a variety of reasons for this:

• Not hooking viewers with a problem or benefit
• Failing to communicate clearly
• Rambling and redundancy
• Low quality production
• and many others!

Most businesses make the mistake of treating videos like a box to be checked, as if all videos were created equally.

But consider this: you've read good books and you've read bad books. The good ones may have changed your life, but you probably didn't even finish the bad ones...

Well that's how videos are too!

The only difference is you need people to watch all of your video before they'll buy, a problem book publishers don't have to face.

So if you want your videos to drive more ROI, get more shares, and do more good in the world, then you'll want to make viewer retention a top priority.

Why You Should Make Video Quality a Priority

Remember that video has 4 big superpowers:

1. Attention
2. Clarity
3. Emotion
4. Perceived Value

Low quality videos might still be clear, but they certainly won't get the other three benefits.

Think about it...if you create a low-quality video, then it won't transfer your desired emotion, and the perceived value takes a huge hit.

But today, we're mostly focused on that first superpower, attention, because without it, none of the rest matters. You could have the most effective sales message in the world, but it won't mean a thing if nobody sticks around long enough to hear it.

And that's the big problem...how do you get people to watch your video from beginning to end?

Marketers have developed two solutions:

1. Create shorter videos
2. Create better videos

So let's explore each of those options...

Video Length: Is Shorter Always Better?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2:04

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When marketers don't know how to make compelling videos, they prioritize brevity over value.

This ensures that more people make it to your call-to-action before moving on to something more interesting.

But if you create a good video that offers valuable content and a high production value, then length is much less important.

In fact, long videos tend to perform better on YouTube than short videos, despite the fact that audience retention is a top-2 ranking factor.

Audience retention, which we'll discuss more in a minute, is the average percentage of your video that people watch before stopping. A good baseline is around 60%, which means that the average viewer watches about 60% of your video.

Now obviously it's easier to have a high audience retention when your video is only 30 seconds long, but how much value can you deliver in just 30 seconds? Not much.

That's why WireBuzz always says that the right length of a video is "just long enough to deliver a persuasive message, and not a second more." Sometimes, that means a 15-minute video, while in others it could be as short as 5-10 seconds. It's all about your video being capable of doing the job you're asking of it.

So instead of "shortchanging" (pun totally intended) your viewers with quick videos to cover up poor quality, create great videos that are based on persuasive scripting frameworks and make sure you design them to capture and hold your viewer's attention.

Otherwise, you're just leaving a ton of money on the table.

Audience Retention: How to Create Videos That Hold Your Viewer's Attention

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:26

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retaining your viewers is both an art and a science.

Just like with writing, your videos need to get the basic mechanics right:

• Clear, concise sentences
• A logical structure
• Good lighting
• Good audio
• etc.

These are things you absolutely need to do if you want your videos to be successful and hold your viewer's attention.

But they aren't enough...

There are other, more subtle factors that can have an immense impact on your audience retention. Watch Stronz's latest video to get all of them, so you can make your next video your very best video.

Long Story Short...

If you want to create videos that move your viewers to action, you need to hold their attention until the end.

But that doesn't mean you should only create short videos...often they don't provide enough value to make a real business impact. Instead, focus on creating compelling videos that are designed strategically to capture and maintain your viewer's attention.

And if you haven't already, watch this week's videos to get all the details.