If there’s one goal that you should have when you create video content, it is to make it as engaging as possible. Engaging videos will be far more effective at fulfilling any goal, and will get more exposure while at the same time drive viewers to take action.
But how do you actually make video content that is ‘engaging’ in the first place? To be honest it isn’t as hard as you might think and you should basically be trying to create videos that are able to keep people watching and encourage them to react.
As you can imagine there are lots of ways to pull that off, but some of the most effective are to:
- Create concise and short videos
Generally speaking the longer the duration of your videos, the more viewers they will lose and the lower their completion rate will be. That is why one of the most frequently-used ways to create more engaging videos is to focus on making them short – normally about a minute or two long at most.
It should be noted however that the factors that determine the optimal video duration do vary and in some cases a video that is 2 minutes long may be far more engaging than a 15 second video. Simply put it is really about how you use each second of its duration, and whether or not you’re able to keep viewers interested throughout.
- Place a hook right at the start of the video
Opening your video with a long and drawn-out introduction is often a big mistake. Normally you’ll only have a few precious seconds to convince viewers to stay and watch your video content, and you need to take full advantage of each and every one of them by placing a hook right at the start of your video.
Essentially the hook should help to convince viewers to watch your video by letting them know how it will benefit them. If you can give viewers a strong reason to watch your video, your videos’ engagement levels should increase significantly.
- Use storytelling elements
Telling a story is a convincing way to frame your videos’ message in a relatable manner and make it more compelling. If you use a storytelling narrative structure viewers will feel more invested in the protagonist and the outcome of the story – which in turn can provoke them into an emotional reaction.
Try to find a story that you feel will viewers can relate to on a deep and emotional level. It may take some time and effort, but it will definitely help to make for more engaging videos.
- Show and don’t just tell
Always remember that the reason videos have the potential to be so engaging in the first place is because they are able to deliver information visually. In other words if you want your video to engage viewers, you should always try to find ways to ‘show’ the message and not lean too heavily on the voiceover (or text).
To be honest the bulk of your planning should focus on finding ways that you can effectively use visuals to convey the points in your video. Be creative and think outside the box to figure out unique ways of doing that.
If you do everything listed above, your videos should definitely be more engaging. Needless to say you should also make sure they look polished and their quality is good, and edit video footage ruthlessly to make that happen. That doesn’t have to be difficult however, and for example you could use Movavi Video Editor to make it easy.
At the end of the day you should also try to figure out what your audience responds to specifically, but that will take time. To get started you will need to track the engagement of each video that you publish and analyze it so that you can learn what your viewers seem to prefer.
