6 Tips on How to Increase Video Engagement

Video is very likely to be the most engaging medium online. A massive 82% of all content viewed online is video content. And an incredible 85% of internet users watch videos monthly. Businesses, entrepreneurs and creators worldwide are reaping the rewards of producing videos that are getting attention.

However, spreading your message via video engagement requires several key elements. To start, video quality needs to be great. Low-quality video won’t cut it. To achieve a high number of video views, you need to tell great stories. Furthermore, you need tools with the right features that allow you to focus and create content and clips that continuously drive profile views.

We discuss 6 top tips for how to increase your video engagement online. We cover the crucial aspects to creating and distributing successful video. We explain how using the right video hosting platform can be a key component to distributing winning video content online. If you can implement these tips from the beginning, your audience members will continue to rise.

Make It the Appropriate Length

You’ll find some advice out there telling you that a video should be “as short as possible.” This is not necessarily true, or a good idea. As we discussed here, the idea that you should keep your content super-short emerges from a misreading of statistics about the average time spent on a web page. But that statistic doesn’t mean people are only watching short content; more likely, it means that people are spending very little time on a page to decide whether they want to spend more time. Those who aren’t interested spend significantly less than the average time on the page, while those who spend significantly more. It’s a fact that people will watch long content, up to and including full-length movies.

So what’s an appropriate length if it’s not “as short as possible”? That depends on your audience, your subject matter, and what you are trying to accomplish. It might only be a few minutes, or it might be a couple of hours. It should always be enough to provide the information, tell the story, or make the persuasive argument or sales pitch that you intend — and no more.

Hook ‘Em Early

While those stats don’t tell us to keep videos short, they do tell us that there’s a very brief window of opportunity to attract people’s interest. It’s shorter than those average watch times you keep hearing about. You need to have something in the first thirty seconds of your video to persuade people that this is something they want to see more of. It could be an intriguing fact, some eye-catching video footage, something funny, or something alarming. But whatever it is, you need it upfront.

Invest in Good Technical Quality

People will watch long video content, and your video quality online is vital to your success. What they won’t watch is poor content that rambles or exhibits low technical quality. Investing in good quality equipment (from cameras to lights to software) and building the expertise to produce a high-quality video is a must if you want people to watch your video to the end. With a lot of high-quality, professional videos available, viewers have come to expect that quality and quickly notice any flaws.

Play it Straight — Don’t Try to Game the System

There are two reasons why the so-called “black hat” SEO is a poor idea, and why you shouldn’t try to second-guess the search engine algorithms to increase traffic. The first reason is that the algorithms keep changing, precisely to prevent people from doing that and more accurately reflect people’s real interests. The second is that any benefits from this sort of thing are strictly temporary, and if the video isn’t really what people are looking for it will lead to disappointment and be self-defeating. Play it straight, produce a high-quality video that your audience is looking for, and promote it honestly.

Take Risks — Don’t Play it Too Safe

You want your video to stand out and attract attention, and that means it needs to be different from the rest of the offerings out there. Being too cautious can lose more viewers than taking some risks and letting your imagination run free. You should have a good idea of who your audience is, and what interests them. Think of things that would appeal to your audience that aren’t being offered already. Create video content that addresses this gap. If you aren’t sure — that’s a good sign.

Story, Action, and Music Hold Attention

We’re past the point now where a talking head can make for an engaging video. You need to construct your video like a story, using the same construction you would use for a movie (drama, comedy, or documentary), adjusted for what is probably a shorter length. Your visual content should be varied and have plenty of motion and action, even if it’s just changes of viewpoint and perspective. Of course, if your subject matter allows for heavy action, so much the better.

Finally, don’t forget the soundtrack. Music is a huge part of what makes good video work. That raises issues of copyright (and we covered that subject here), but it’s well worth the time and effort it takes.

Conclusion

Producing online video that engages is a multifaceted process. Fortunately, if you use these tips, you can produce video content coupled with a video strategy that hooks and retains viewers more easily than ever.

To help you seamlessly implement and utilize the benefits of these 6 tips, you should consider using professional software to maximize your reach.

Dacast is a professional video streaming platform and video hosting solution that can help. With an online video enhancer, you can upload, transcode, organize, analyze, monetize and share your video content easily. With Dacast, you’ll optimize and maximize your video engagement metrics on all fronts.

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