Say More in Less Time With Short Videos

In the past, there was a growing trend towards producing business videos which drag on and on. In fact, some ‘promotional videos’ were bordering on 5 minutes or more in length. 

Studies have shown, however, that shorter videos are actually a lot more effective than those extremely lengthy ones. As you may have heard, a single one minute video is worth 1.8 million words. There are things that you can convey in a video which you simply would not be able to convey in text no matter how hard you may try.

This is what makes video and especially short videos so effective. It can give potential consumers & existing customers the ‘low down’ on the type of solution that you offer, but ensure that they do not get bored reading through a ton of text. The problem is, many people have opted to go overboard with the length of their videos to cram as much information in as possible.

Fortunately, more and more people seem to realize that internet users tend to have short attention spans. So short that no matter how interesting your video is, the vast majority of them are going to click away within a few seconds.

The vast majority of people are going to click away within a few seconds.

In fact, the majority of people watching your video through a desktop computer will not watch for more than 2 minutes. If you can’t hook them within those 2 minutes, they’re gone. If your call-to-action is after those 2 minutes, then you’ve definitely lost that lead or even that customer! And on a mobile phone, the device most people nowadays use to watch videos, it is even much less!

Research suggests that around 20% of your viewers, yes, 1/5 of them will disappear after 10 seconds! This means that if you do not have a hook within those first 10 seconds then, you will have lost even more customers.

Around 1/3 of your viewers will be gone by the 30 second mark; this number will go up to 45% by the minute mark. So, if you produce something epically long, most people will not stick around until the end. This is why you really need to focus what to include in your videos. In the three or four scenes you have.

Your main message needs to be conveyed within those first 10 to 30 seconds.

Your main message needs to be conveyed within 10 to 30 seconds.

Any longer than that and you will be throwing customers and prospects away. You simply can’t ‘beat around the bush’ with a video and that also includes short videos you use on social media as part of your so-called 'social video marketing' campaigns.

One of the main reasons you may want produce videos for your business is because they are very easy to share. Studies discovered that videos SHORTER than 15 seconds are 37% more likely to be shared than videos that last anywhere between 30 seconds and one minute.

So in a nutshell, the longer your videos, the less likely they are to be shared. Again, this reinforces the notion that long, drawn out videos are nothing more than dead weight. They will do absolutely nothing for you in terms of converting more viewers into customers.

And that is why we are using more and more short videos of around 15 seconds like this one on LinkedIn and other other social media as an integral part of our new visual marketing strategy and that is why we also include education and training around social video marketing in our new digital leadership programs like this one in Financial Services and this one.

p.s. Want to read more articles on this and a number of other topics, check them out here.

Dr. Tony de Bree MBA PhD worked 26 years at ABN Amro Bank, including in instructional design, e-learning and multi-media. In 1997 he started reviewing startups & scale-ups as part of the ABN Amro corporate venturing activities. In 2001 became a successful online entrepreneur as his 'plan b', his personal 'outplacement 2.0' plan. Since 2011 he is a full-time self-employed entrepreneur, key-note speaker, trainer and author of a number of bestselling 'how-to-books' in Dutch for starters, startups, scale-ups and corporate & private investors (see here and here) on business transformation and personal transformation. He advises, trains and coaches executives, students, SMEs, starters, startups & scale-ups and corporate and private investors. Especially on sales & marketing, online business development, revenue modelling and social video marketing. You can contact him here.