In one minute a video can lead a trail of breadcrumbs that will a) attract viewers, b) talk about a feature or handle objections and c) get the audience to take action. If that seems like a tall order, read further and I will break down the composition on how to make every second count.
The First Five Seconds
The first five seconds are critical. It’s the countdown clock where the viewer decides whether or not to skip your ad and watch your video. This is the only chance to get their attention or their gone forever. That may be melodramatic, but nonetheless it’s true.
Just base it on your own experiences, browsing through youtube how many times did you actually watch the ad and what was different?
I can tell you that the most successful videos have a pattern interrupt in the first five seconds. Something that grabs attention and causes them to divert from their normal routine. It can be something as simple as causing the viewer to say hey that looks cool, or what did I just see.
When done well, it will raise curiosity and generate questions.
Time For Content
The next 30 to 40 seconds are the body of the video. The narrative depends on the goal, it can be spent talking about pain points and benefits of your product or service, it can also tell a story about your company or production process. The possibilities are limitless.
At this stage the audience still needs to watch in order to get to your call to action. How do you keep their attention and get them interested? There are a number of key points to watch out for, like relatability, conciseness and understandability but it ultimately boils down to execution.
A handful of seconds is not a lot to work with, It’s barely enough time to put on your socks and shoes – let alone getting the point across. A good studio will take extra care into understanding the subject material. That’s because when you truly understand something you can explain in a concise and simple way, enough that a 5 year old would understand.
As an example, when we talk about meeting goals, what image does it convey in your mind? If you’re targeting sports teams a Football goal? How about business executives? How about a graphic of charts going up, up and away.
The Call To Action
How many seconds this takes is entirely dependent on what the video wants to accomplish. A simple visit to a website? Just a couple seconds. How about a sign up? That would be a little longer.
If the video was done correctly, every single second before the call to action should have been prepping the viewer for this. Addressing common objections, getting them excited, interested or whatever emotion that will get them to the next step.
There are ways to execute a call to action to get better conversations, but that’s an entirely different article.
To summarize. In Sixty seconds, An animated video should be able to grab attention, educate the audience and push them into action. We have the metrics and data to know this works, and i’ll be talking about that in my next article. So please look forward to that.
Till next time.