How to keep your viewers watching your video

Corporate video production lengths are getting shorter.

But sometimes it’s impossible to deliver priority content in a neat one, two or three minutes.

[Let alone 7, 15 or 30 seconds, which is about as much view length as you’ll get from Instagram or Facebook.]

If your corporate video – whether that’s a marketing, recruitment, training or branding video – will be longer than 2 minutes, a thoughtful video structure must come into play.

We’ve picked up a few video tricks along the way

With our long history as a video production company, we’ve picked up a few tricks along the way.

Our strategy is to design changes in pace with ‘highs and lows’ at every possible ‘I’m getting bored’ moment.

Little tweaks will bring your audience back to attention where we think their attention might be dropping off.

How do we do this?

Pause narration to lift the music

A pause in the interview or narrated content for 5 to 15 seconds is an opportunity to lift the music and let it shine.

The narration will also benefit from this breathing room.

Add sound effects

Bringing in a sound effect will add an unexpected punch to a moment in time.

If it’s a manufacturing scene, we could lift that CNC punch sound.

If it’s a morning drone aerial, let’s bring in some birdsong.

Are we oceanside? Can you hear the waves breaking gently on the sand?

An office scene? That phone could ring.

Use multiple music tracks

The longer your edit, the more music you can play with.

When we bring in the new track, we also like to pause narration to lift the sound level of the new track up for a few seconds to snap your viewer back to the screen.

Animate graphic elements

Adding a subtle – repeat subtle – animation to a superimposed title will reinforce a key point.

This might also be an opportunity to add a sound effect to accompany the graphic on the screen.

Add fast or slow-motion sequences

Slow motion brings ‘special’ to the simplest of scenes – and gives an opportunity to take in that scene’s detail.

A sudden ramp forward in fast motion as we follow the camera onto your factory floor adds an unexpected punch.

Transition effects to define sections

An occasional transition effect can define sections and create a change to catch the eye of your audience.

This transition is also the perfect opportunity to lift the music at the same time.

You can’t hold a video together with special effects, so don’t overdo this.

Edit video content into smaller chunks

You can also look at your video structure in a different way.

Will your 8 minute’s worth of video content work harder for you as 2 or 3 shorter videos?

Can we break your video content into smaller, more easily digestible lengths?

Where is your audience watching your video?

Is it a corporate video for your home page to introduce how you’re different from your competitors?

Keep the length short, 2 to 3 mins max.

Is it a video for your product page to sell all benefits of that special piece of equipment?

Your viewer now wants detailed info, so you can afford to add enough length to cover this.

Do you have a captive audience invested in watching the video?

We’ve created videos as long as 13 minutes that had the audience clapping, laughing – and wiping away tears. And they watched the whole 13 minutes.

One final thought – if your video messaging stays strong on benefits to your target audience, ‘you’ not ‘we’ – you’ll keep them watching longer.