Video is the new King of Content. It’s how you get your clients to notice you when you’re competing for precious screen real estate and even more precious attention spans. The most sophisticated brand building and marketing campaigns are starting to include video as a key component right alongside social posts and blog content. The only question is how to optimize the video content you create to engage your distracted and time-crunched viewers. As a general rule, shorter videos have a higher chance of impacting your target audience than longer videos.
We’re living increasingly digitized lifestyles, and your clients expect and demand information to be easy to find, easy to digest, and succinct. Your audience has limitless options available for information and entertainment, and they’ve forgotten how to devote their focus to any one thing for an extended period of time. In other words, they don’t feel obligated to spend time with your video, and they have no problem clicking away if they don’t see what they are looking for quickly.
Due to the new marketing challenges of this digital age, it’s more important than ever that the content and length of your videos are carefully curated to align with your audience’s expectations. That’s the only way you’ll convince them to actually watch, click, and call.
What’s the Optimal Length for Video Content?
There’s no hard and fast rule that can tell you exactly how long your video should be to accommodate your viewers. You have to figure out what type of content you’re promoting and who your target audience is before even going into production.
For example, if you were leading a sales meeting, you wouldn’t want to open with a five-minute video. That will ensure that they’ll be more absorbed in their bagels and coffee than your pitch. Instead, you would want to set the tone of your meeting with a much shorter piece, and then fill in the gaps for prospective customers and partners afterwards. If you were creating a branding video, you would want to ensure your content doesn’t exceed about two minutes in order to give yourself a better chance of grabbing attention.
That said, there are situations where longer pieces are appropriate. Educational videos can be significantly longer because viewers are specifically seeking out this content to learn something they think is valuable, which means they’re willing to spend more time on your piece.
Do What it Takes to Create an Engaging Video
If the content of your video isn’t interesting, even three minutes can feel like an eternity for the audience. This is why it’s critical to spend the time and resources to create engaging videos that truly resonate with your viewers. An unscripted blurb on a handheld iPhone isn’t always going to cut it.
Don’t assume that filming a shorter video means that it’ll take less time to shoot and edit. A high quality, effective 30-second video can take over 20 hours to produce. A 15-minute training video may only take four hours to deliver. Production time varies greatly depending on your unique marketing needs and goals, but it’s always worth it to go the extra mile in creating truly compelling video content that grabs the attention of your audience and doesn’t let go. If it’s not worth doing right, it’s not worth doing. Give me a call at Monzo Media if you want to talk about a good target length for your next piece of video collateral, and how we can use video to get your audience’s attention.
