Creating video content can be challenging, but making sure the content you create engages viewers is more so. If you want to effectively engage viewers you need to create videos that are able to grab the attention of viewers, hold it, and drive them towards taking action.
Although that may sound like a very tall order, there are a few tips you could use to make it much easier for your videos to engage viewers:
- Create concise videos that focus on a single message
People often say that engaging videos need to be short – which isn’t exactly accurate. The optimal duration for videos can vary quite a bit, but what is more important is they are concise and tightly-focused around a single message.
Having a single message in each video will ensure that you can devote every second towards delivering it and avoid any distractions. On top of that if you frame it in a concise fashion, it should be able to retain viewers more effectively.
- Try to incite an emotional reaction
Videos that are able to make viewers react emotionally are generally far more engaging, and are better able at driving viewers into taking action. It is important that you try to structure your videos so that they provoke an emotional reaction of some kind – whether it tickles, inspires, shocks, or elicits some other emotional response.
One way to provoke emotional reactions more reliably is to structure your video as a story. People tend to like stories and are more likely to feel invested in their outcome – which can be used to provoke a more intense reaction.
- Make sure there is a hook in the first few seconds
One of the main points where viewers drop off and stop watching videos is right at the start – after the first 8 seconds or so. To convince them to keep watching, you need to add a hook that will give them a reason to stay.
A good hook is one that focuses on letting viewers know what they stand to gain by watching the video. Try to open the video with a short description of what it is about, and then explain how it will benefit viewers to watch it.
The more powerful a hook you place in the first few seconds of your video, the more viewers will stick around.
Naturally there are other factors that affect engagement as well – such as the video quality. Editing your video so that it is polished and looks good will count for a lot, and for example you could use Movavi Video Editor. It will let you apply effects such as slow motion with the steps but you should use them sparingly.
Overall the steps listed above are the three easiest ways to make sure the video content that you create is able to engage viewers. In fact if you were to start to apply them to the next video that you create and track its performance, you should be able to see how much of a difference it makes.