This year in particular, I have noticed a shortening of song length on a lot of my favourite Royalty Free music platforms which got me wondering whether this was indeed the path we were heading down for all media. Short songs, short video, short blog posts?
A lot of my clients understand the premise that you have under 10 seconds to grab the attention of your video viewer but there is also a plethora of blog posts on the interwebs about keeping video to under a minute otherwise your view count declines. A comprehensive study was done by HubSpot in April this year. This is true. Viewers will start bouncing off your video after 30 seconds IF they’re not interested in it or they do not have time to watch it at the time they clicked on it.
One thing I would like to stress is do not get distressed about not retaining the attention of all of your viewers right through to the very end of the video. Would you get distressed about a browsing shopper not coming to the POS register every time with a product in a brick and mortar store. No. Some shoppers may not even enter the store just give it a cursory glance from the doorway and a similar experience exists with online video views also.
What you really want to focus on is the relevance of your video content for the RIGHT viewer. If you hook the RIGHT viewer then any or all of the following actions may occur:
- they will like your video (content is relevant),
- they will subscribe to your channel or follow you on social media (content is engaging),
- they will share your video (content is worth engaging others who may also purchase your product),
- they will look for further information on your website or other places online (content is worth learning more about),
- they will call or e-mail you about your product or service (content is worth enquiring about),
- they will invite you to meet with them (content may be worth purchasing).
- they will purchase your product or service (content was compelling enough that it warranted purchasing with or without any of the previous actions).