How do you get your audience to keep watching your video once they’ve clicked on it? This is a big question for many of us as we enter 2022. There’s all sorts of theories about the amount of time that you have to grab your audience’s attention with your videos, to make that first impression. Is it the first 5 seconds, the first 10 seconds?
Grab your audience’s attention by making a big entrance
The prime opportunity to grab your audience’s attention is the first moment. There’s no magical duration but it’s unforgivingly super short. Put your biggest clincher in this first moment.
So what exactly is the biggest clincher? It’s the thing that the audience is most interested in out of everything that’s in your video. It could be the ‘solution’ to their ‘problem’. After this first moment, show the remaining content in descending order of interest to the audience. Think of it as making a big entrance. Don’t worry too much about the story arc, it can follow.
I’m using the marketing terms ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ and we could say that they are more appropriate to a promotional or marketing video. But it’s the same with all online videos where you want to retain viewer engagement – strike a chord with your viewer in that first moment. When you write your video script, your list of questions for the on-camera interview and write your shoot schedule, put the biggest clincher first. You story arc and the final video will flow much better this way.
Try to resist the temptation to start the video with an explanation of the services that your company offers, by describing how much experience your company has in the field or by listing the geographic locations of your company if these items are not the biggest clincher, which generally speaking, they aren’t. Instead cut to the chase straight away.
EXAMPLES OF BIGGEST CLINCHERS
For a corporate video, it could be the biggest reason that your audience would choose you over your competitor. For a case study video, it could be the biggest benefit you provided to your client. For a recruitment video, it could be the main reason why highly sought after talent would decide to work with you instead of your closest competitor.
Also, unless the opening text/slide/title places your biggest clincher front and centre, get rid of it. It’ll eat into your precious first moment.
2022 is going to be packed with video content and companies who find new ways to grab and then hold the attention of their audiences are going to reap the rewards. Let’s turn the old formula upside down in 2022. If you need help with grabbing your audience’s attention with your videos, a video producer and director with experience in script writing for video content will ensure that it all comes together well.