If you’re creating videos for a website, undoubtedly you will want them to make them as engaging as possible. Contrary to popular belief however, coming up with engaging videos beings long before you start rolling the cameras – and the video’s design is integral to it.
Understanding Engagement
Before you can design engaging videos, you first need to understand engagement. That can be confusing as there are multiple definitions, and some may even appear to be at odds with one another.
The easiest way to understand engagement however is to think of it as the ability of a video to draw viewers in and keep their interest. In other words your video needs to be designed in such a way that it is able to retain, interest, and encourage viewers to react to it.
Although that may sound like a tall order, there are actually several aspects of your video that can be designed to improve your chances of accomplishing those goals.
Augmented Reality: What Is It and Examples of UseTips to Plan and Design Engaging Videos
As you can imagine, designing engaging videos involves a lot of careful planning, and special focus should be placed on the following areas:
1. Keep the duration short
The longer a video is, the less likely it is to retain viewers to the end as more and more will lost interest and click away. With that in mind it is best to keep the video brief, and normally it is good to design it to be around 60 seconds.
Quick Tips For Photo Editing And Why It Is ImportantIt is worth noting that the ‘optimum’ duration for videos can vary depending on your target market, so some research may be required.
2. Interest viewers in the first 8 seconds
During the first 8 seconds a significant number of viewers will decide whether to keep watching, with the rest following suit not long after. Because of that you should design your video to make full use of that time frame and try to interest viewers within it.
The Role of Typography in Logo DesignTo interest viewers within the first 8 seconds, focus on the benefits they stand to gain by watching the video. Alternatively suggest a problem they may be facing, and explain how the video could help them to solve it.
3. Trigger an emotional reaction
Ideally your video should be designed so that it provokes an emotional reaction from viewers, as that is more likely to cause them to stay and watch the video and react in turn. It is the reason why funny, inspiring, touching and shocking videos are so engaging.
How Is Augmented Reality Connecting Nature Using TechDesigning videos so that they trigger an emotional response can be difficult, and involves your choice of topic as well as how you present it. Storytelling elements can help to make viewers feel more invested in the subject of the video too.
4. Use visuals to ‘show’ the message
Videos have the edge over other forms of content because of their visual nature, and you should leverage that. When you are planning and designing your videos, try to think of ways that you can use visuals to ‘show’ the message rather than spelling it out with text or a voiceover.
The more visually interesting your video is, the more likely it is to not only engage viewers but also deliver your message more effectively.
If you use all the tips listed above to design your video, most of the legwork will be done by the time you actually start to record it. After that it is just a case of ensuring that you execute your plan, and making sure the video quality is up to par.
Assuming you want to record desktop footage to create the video, you should try Movavi Screen Capture Studio. It is an easy to use screen recorder that has its very own built-in editor, and will let you compile your video and ensure that it looks impressive with its features.
All said and done you should now know exactly what to do in order to design more engaging website videos. Just remember that it always helps to try new things and gauge how your viewers react to them – so you can learn from each and every video that you publish and make the next one more engaging than the last.
