We all love video. We love watching it, digesting it, reacting to it, and being entertained by it. We’re making that statement because if you’re the person out there reading this going, “Nope, not me. Hate video”, why are you reading a blog for a video production company?
Anyway, as entertaining and engaging as video has proven to be, not every situation calls for a 90-minute feature film that would bring Martin Scorcese to heel. Marketing videos are the perfect example.
When it comes to a marketing video for your business, the rules are simple. Short, sweet and to the point.
Increase Viewership
The average human attention span is eight seconds. That’s not a joke. For reference, that’s shorter than birds, goldfish, cats, and puts us neck and neck with dogs, who’s attention span clocks in at a stifling seven seconds.
Fun comparisons aside, that means that your video has eight seconds to get your audience’s attention, and then you’ve got to keep it. Once you have their attention, the last thing they want to see is a 10-minute video that drones on about every revolutionary feature of your service or product. I mean, we’re sure the features are great, but pick the highlights and keep it short.
Delivers Your Message Quickly
Whatever your goal is of your video, whether it be increased website traffic, more online sales from your store or making the phone ring more often, keeping your video short makes it easier for your audience to process and understand, meaning quicker conversion to your goals.
Let’s Be Frank- It’s Cheaper
Less video time means less overall cost for your company. It’s less time spent filming and less actual dollar amount spent on the production and editing process. Look, we’re a video production company, but even we don’t want to see our customers spending triple the budget that they need to for a film that’s three times too long.
Better Bang for The Buck
Speaking of budget, keeping your video short means that your video budget can go a lot further towards creating high quality content that is creative, innovative, and captivating. Nike put out this absolutely ground-breaking video this year that required the use of over 8000 hours of sports video footage. The final video is only 1:30 seconds long!
Better Search Rankings
The social media powerhouses, Facebook, Instagram and the like, have made it no secret that shorter videos are more heavily promoted and will be more favored in search results. Instagram recommends to posters that videos be kept under two minutes to help maximize the number of people that are watching your video to the end, and also to help give your video a boost in search rankings within the site.
Reduces Clutter
Cluttered videos can be distracting and downright nauseating to watch. You know the videos we’re talking about. The ones with way to much content and redundant statements stacked on top of one another, clearly trying to convey way too much information in a set time frame. Setting a time limit to your video of under two minutes will force you to really evaluate what content needs to be included in order to grab your audience’s attention and ultimately reach your company’s goals for your video.
Sit down and make a list of the few things you want to highlight. Then maybe cross one or two more off and go with what’s left.
Wider Variety of Uses
While social media platforms have expressed their preference for shorter videos, it also opens up more potential uses for your video on social sites. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have “Story” and “Stream” features respectively where you can post snippets of video to reach your target audience quickly and efficiently, sometimes in less than 15 seconds.
While we’re not recommending a marketing video only 15 seconds long, keeping your overall video shorter can make it easier to condense your message into snippets that can help you take advantage of additional advertising opportunities across multiple platforms. It’s far easier to condense two minutes into 20 seconds than it is to try and cram five minutes of content into a 15 second segment, right?
We love collaborating with our customers all over Virginia and the D.C. area to make the perfect videos to achieve their goals. We love telling company stories through visual content, helping to recruit new employees, or announcing new products and services that our clients are clearly ecstatic about. We also want to help you craft a video that fits your needs and lives up to its purpose. While some occasions call for a longer video, like recruitment videos, welcome videos, or training videos, marketing videos are best kept simple and straightforward.
Reach out to VIP today to talk about a marketing video for your company. Not too long ago we talked about why video is the best tool in your marketing arsenal. So if this chat wasn’t enough to convince you, maybe that one will!
