Video has become a fundamental way that people consume content, and has allowed consumers to form deeper connections with brands. Over 60% of marketers and small business owners plan to increase investment in video marketing in 2017. If done correctly, video can better communicate your brand’s story, maximize user engagement, and boost conversion rates. If you haven’t considered incorporating video into your content strategy, you have probably already been left behind. According to The American Marketing Association, video content will be the driving factor behind 85% of search traffic in the United States by 2019.
Video can be used to demonstrate your brand’s personality, showcase products, drive awareness, or teach your audience something new. From live video to behind the scenes footage, there are immense opportunities to engage your audience with video content.
Length
The length of your videos go hand-in-hand with the amount of engagement they receive. The chart below shows that videos under 2 minutes in length receive the most engagement, followed by a significant decline in engagement after the 2 and 3 minute mark.
While shorter videos receive the highest engagement, it is sometimes necessary to create longer videos. For example, if your video content is a lengthy tutorial, remember that the amount of engagement barely drops between 6 and 12 minute mark. If you think your audience would benefit from a long-form video, don’t cut your video short just for the sake of shortening it. Think about the purpose of your video and what would resonate best with your audience.
Set the Tone and Style Early
It is key to set the right tone for your videos depending on your audience, and the goal of your video. According to a study by Think With Google, the tone of your videos can affect whether your audience decides to tune in or tune out. It is important to set the tone of your videos within the first five seconds, in order to grab your audience’s attention. The study reveals that among ten categories of style and tone, such as “humorous”, “emotional”, or “calming”, people were more likely to be engaged with videos that were humorous. Using humor will not be appropriate for every type of video, but the point is to set the right tone within the first five seconds.
Consider Which Platform Will Work Best
With the growth of social video, it is important to keep in mind that some video content is better suited for certain platforms over others. You should not try to push your video out on every platform and expect it to perform well on each channel. Facebook videos receive more engagement overall compared to YouTube videos; however, it takes fewer YouTube views to generate the same rate of engagement. It is important to think about the content in your video, as well as the format. 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched without the sound on, so a video without captions might not perform as well on Facebook than it would on YouTube.
An example of one brand that demonstrates engaging video content is Cooking Panda. The brand creates cooking videos that are short in length, typically lasting between 30 seconds and two minutes, visually appealing, and highly shareable for a niche audience. Data from Tubular Labs shows that these short-form videos perform much better on Facebook than any other platform, with 96% of the brand’s social reach coming from Facebook.
According to Tubular Insights, videos on YouTube average at nearly 15 minutes in length, while Facebook videos averaged just under a minute and a half. If your goal is to create short-form videos, Facebook is the best platform to use in terms of engagement. On the other hand, the longer a video is on YouTube, the more engagement it will receive. The most engaged videos on YouTube are nearly 10X longer than the most engaged videos uploaded to Facebook, so choosing the right platform for your video content is key.
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