Don’t Be Boring — Tips For Engaging Video Content
Nicholas Longtin | August 2019
Video is a powerful marketing tool and can drastically increase the effectiveness of your landing pages, email marketing, social campaigns and other content marketing efforts. However, this performance hinges on one important factor; making videos people actually want to watch.
There are a lot of industry metrics and best practices we use as guidelines for video marketing but the most important rule is simple; don’t be boring. Simply using video content in your marketing won’t deliver results. Your videos need to deliver on some key factors to be engaging, meet your marketing goals, and not be boring.
Runtime and Audience
Consider carefully the audience for your video and the time investment you are asking of them. Concise editing is important in all digital marketing materials but especially for video content. The editing process is an important step in getting the running time and information whittled down to the essential content needed.
If your current video metrics show most viewers don’t make it at least 60% of the way through your video, it might need more editing.
Show Don’t Tell
Another video mistake to avoid is what’s called “talking head syndrome”. Studies have shown an audience’s attention wanes after only 8 seconds of watching a person speak. Many times your videos will require spoken or interview content in order to deliver the message.
However, don’t have long shots of someone speaking to the camera without editing in other content. Show viewers interesting related visuals over the narrated content and whenever possible, forgo the explanations entirely and show the viewers action shots that convey the message.
Get To The Point
A strong opening is key for grabbing the viewer’s attention immediately. Don’t delay getting to the interesting parts of your video. Long opening sequences and drawn out establishing shots will make your audience lose interest quickly. Get right to the point in your video. Include interesting content upfront to peak viewers’ interest and make them want to see what happens next.
Humor and Story
For thousands of years, humans have learned and grown through storytelling. If you want viewers to really absorb your message, tell a story. Video happens to be a powerful storytelling medium so take advantage of the format and use storytelling techniques to build your videos. Humor can also add an additional dimension to video content that makes your message more memorable and shareable.
One of my clients, Embossing Plus; is a local print finisher with an amazing array of machines that can create incredible print effects for customers. They wanted to promote their laser cutting services, which can create intricate designs on paper, leather, glass, wood and other materials.
For this campaign video is definitely the way to go. I created a series of videos where employees run into difficult scenarios around the office and use the laser cutter to save the day. Watch our first video in the series below and see all the techniques I described put to use.
