At GoEdison, we are all about variety, and of course, high quality and valuable content. Our friend Nick Berliner, Founder and CEO of The Caelus Camera, was nice enough to write a guest post about getting your audience attention with a video.
In today’s day and age, people spend very little time focusing on just one thing, yet a lot of time on the Internet. One of the biggest problems businesses face is keeping their audience engaged with their content. Whether it’s a product or service,
In today’s day and age, people spend very little time focusing on just one thing, yet a lot of time on the Internet. One of the biggest problems businesses face is keeping their audience engaged with their content. Whether it’s a product or service, brick, and mortar shop or an online store, it’s crucial to capture your audience’s attention within the first eight seconds – preferably the first three seconds if you can manage it.
Pretend Your Audience Has Severe ADHD
You have to think about what it is that everyone sees and skips past, then avoid whatever that is. People tend to drift away from things that look “sales-y” or “clickbait-y” – but it’s difficult to stay away from these tactics when you’re actually trying to sell someone something.
Instead, put the importance of their attention before the importance of your product or service. This means you shouldn’t worry about trying to sell to them immediately but attempt to get them interested before you even show them what you’re about. To do otherwise is putting the cart before the horse.
Engage Your Audience
You don’t have to use anything remotely similar to your company, at first, when engaging your audience. The Caelus Camera created a YouTube/Facebook ad for a client where they were simply sitting at their desks, and then one of them reached over and slapped the other one; no words were spoken. Their company was a car repair shop, which has nothing to do with being slapped, but it was funny and caught people’s attention.
It’s possible to start your ads with something attention-grabbing, then transition into your product or service as well. In fact, after watching a video online, 64% more users are going to buy that product. Videos have increased brand association by 139% – meaning users are much more likely to remember you if you have a video. Unfortunately, these same viewers stop watching the video in less than 2 minutes 60% of the time.
Capture Attention Immediately or Not at All
For the sake of emphasis, I’ll say it again: it’s so important to capture the audience’s attention immediately. Without that, you will just be another drop in the ocean of things consumers don’t want to spend their time on. It’s sad but true. However, if used correctly, a video can massively increase – not only your sales – but your brand recognition. Once you’ve established brand recognition, you’ll inherently have an engaged audience.