Utilizing video content as one of your business’s marketing tools is one of the most effective ways to capture your audience’s attention and drive engagement for your brand. Engaging video content has the power to convey complex messages in an easily digestible format. This makes them an ideal tool for businesses of any size to reach their customers in a positive manner. While video content can be a great tool, not all videos are created equal. To truly capture and hold your audience’s attention, your videos need certain traits to be engaging and memorable.
To ensure that your video content is delivering the message you want effectively and keeping viewers engaged, follow these tips:
1. Define Your Objective
Before you start shooting your video, you should have a clear understanding of what exactly you want to achieve with it. What is your main objective? Are you trying to entertain, inform, or persuade your audience? Your end goal may be a combination of all three but one should stick out from the others. Are you making a video based on your brand, a product/service, or something else? Once you have a clear objective in mind, you can create a video that will resonate with your audience with the method you have chosen.
2. Tell A Story
Humans are naturally drawn to stories. Taking your viewers on a visual journey can help them form a relationship with whatever aspect of your product or brand that you are putting on display. Creating a compelling narrative is a great way to build engagement and keep your audience interested. Make sure your story has a clear beginning, middle, and end. Use personal anecdotes, anecdotes from your team members, or from real life customers to create a connection with your audience.
3. Keep It Short
Attention spans are shorter than ever, so make sure your video doesn’t drag on for too long. Try to keep your video under two minutes to ensure that your message remains impactful and memorable. Capturing your audience from the get-go is just as important as the end message you want to deliver. With the general short attention span of audiences on social media, spreading out your story/information across multiple videos may be in your best interest to keep people engaged.
4. Add Emotion
Decide what emotion you want audiences to feel in your video. Do you want your video to be funny, sad, happy, or invoke anger? Particularly, humor can be a powerful tool to create engagement and make your video stand out from the crowd. Use humor when appropriate to create a memorable moment that will stand out in your audience’s mind. Humorous videos are generally more well received and more easily shareable than content that elicits other types of emotions.
5. Utilize Unique Visuals
The right visual will be able to hook your viewers’ attention to keep them from moving on to the next video. The right visual will draw out your audience’s emotions when used correctly. Be creative with your visuals and create a unique experience that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. Research your target market and see what type of visuals they may be the most accustomed to and play to your brand’s strengths.
6. Use Sound Effects and Music
Sound can add a powerful layer of emotion and depth to your videos. It can give your video an edge that sets it apart and makes it memorable by creating a full audio/visual experience. Your audience will be able to connect on a deeper level and it will make your content feel more professional and well put together.
7. Optimize For Mobile
While your target audience’s mobile use may vary, the majority of online video viewers are on mobile devices, so optimizing your video for mobile is crucial. Make sure your video is easily viewable on any screen size. You can take a step further in optimization by utilizing subtitles. Subtitles help your content stay viewable even while muted. While not ideal, the reality is that people may be in an area where they do not want the noise from their phone to be heard while still being interested in viewing content.
8. Consistency is Key
In today’s environment of short, quick videos and constant stimulation people are always looking for the “next thing”. Consistently posting is vital to creating and maintaining a solid base of viewers for your videos. Utilizing a content calendar is a great way to stay on top of things. Creating a series of videos around a theme or topic is a great way to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more. With each new video, you can build on your message and create a deeper connection with your audience. Consistency can lead to stronger leads and becoming more of a known voice in your industry.
9. Always Have A Call To Action
Every video should have a clear call-to-action that tells your audience what you want them to do next. Whether it’s visiting your website or subscribing to your YouTube channel, make sure your CTA is clear and compelling. This call to action could be in the description of the video if it does not fit in with the content itself.
10. Analyze Your Results
In order to create the most engaging video content possible, you need to analyze your results and see what worked and what didn’t. Use video analytics to measure the results of your videos and make data-driven decisions about how to improve your content in the future. You may have created what you think is a masterpiece of a video and it may be structurally perfect however if viewers aren’t interested then it is time to go back to the drawing board.
Conclusion
Creating engaging video content is a vital component of a successful marketing strategy. By following these 10 tips, you can ensure that your video content is engaging, memorable, and effective at reaching your audience. Remember, your video needs to tell a story, be entertaining, and always try to include a clear call-to-action. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating high-quality video content that drives engagement and builds brand awareness. Sounds like too much for you? Lead Lamp Media has a highly qualified video production team that can help! Contact us for high quality video production in the Central Pennsylvania area.