The Power of Video Production for Businesses: Enhancing Communication and Engagement
Welcome to part 2 of What makes a good promotional video? Part one centred on the right message to the target audience and how often we have seen either the wrong message to the target audience, or a message to the wrong target audience. This week, let’s look at the length of a company marketing video.
Less is, in most cases, more!
How often have you skipped the ads as soon as you are able to on Youtube videos? It is both to do with the content of the ad within the allotted 5 second enforced watch time, but also the displayed length of what will be played should you continue. The hook needs to be swallowed within the allotted 5 seconds. This will get people watching more, but not if the ad to be played lasts longer than one minute. Statistics show that more people will continue to watch if the ad is less than 45s.
Our advice is to keep the video as short as you are able to. If people want more information, they can either read about it on the website, contact you, or indeed watch a longer version. The video should really be a signpost; pointing to where to go and what to do next. It should not be a lengthy explanatory piece on the intricacies of your product or service. Leave that to the salespeople and other marketing material. If you already have a captive audience, then you can afford to take longer, but as a general rule: keep it concise.
A captive audience.
Examples of when you have a captive audience are face-to-face sales meetings, internal training videos, internal marketing videos and events. In these situations, the audience cannot press skip or leave the room. However, we would still stress the general principle: less is more. People will remember better if the video they watch easily digestible and shorter. You can afford to elaborate a little more in these kinds of situations, especially if your audience has an active interest in the subject matter. But remember, that last thing you want to do to a prospective customer is bore them, although training and educational videos often do need more time to get important messages across.
How to get it right
Simply ask yourself how long you would be willing to watch a video for a service or product that your organisation may require. Bear in mind you will most likely be watching it in a work context. Time is short, and you are aware that you’re going to be watching a sales pitch. 30 seconds? 1 min? We advise under one minute generally unless there are other pertinent reasons for longer. You can always have a link to a longer cut, which viewers (now that you have their attention) can click through to.
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