Publishing videos on your blog can be an excellent way to attract more traffic and interest a wider audience. However the true benefit of video content is just how engaging it can be – but that doesn’t happen all on its own.
Coming up with engaging videos for a blog can be challenging, and it can be difficult. The fact of the matter is that there are lot of factors at play, and many different areas that you need to consider.
That being said, the benefits of engaging more viewers make it more than worthwhile – which is why it is worth the effort to do so, and to start at the beginning.
Key Characteristics of Engaging Videos
When you want to come up with engaging videos, you should first understand what makes videos more (or less) engaging. That is why it helps to identify the key characteristics of engaging videos:
- Short duration: Most videos that are engaging have short durations, due to the fact that many viewers will gradually stop watching as the video progresses. To ensure that most of your audience is retained through to the end, keeping the video short is better – in most cases. While there is no fixed duration that you should aim for, creating videos in the 15 to 60 second range should be a good start.
- Direct approach: Viewers tend to decide whether or not to keep watching fairly early in the video, at around the 8.5 second mark, give or take. That is why it is best to adopt a direct approach and get straight to the point by outlining what the video is about and how it could benefit viewers within those first few seconds.
- Tightly focused topics: Considering engaging videos are short and direct, it should come as no surprise that they have tightly focused topics. If a topic is too general it is unlikely you’ll be able to cover it in a short video. As such, it may be best to whittle down general topics into several more specific sub-topics, and create an individual video for each.
- Provokes emotions: By nature people tend to be more engaged by videos that provoke an emotional response, and they are also more likely to feel compelled to react to it or share it. Regardless of whether your video makes people feel happy, inspired, tickled, or something else entirely – if it provokes an emotion it is more likely to be engaging, and the more intense the emotion is, the more engaging it will be.
Ideally you should try to incorporate these characteristics in the videos that you create, as it will help make them that much more engaging.
Planning a Video
Now that you know the characteristics that your video should have – you can start to plan it. As a rule it is best to be methodical and follow these steps:
- Find a good topic: Based on what was discussed previously you should try to find a tightly-focused topic that you feel can be covered in a short video. On top of that however it is important that it is something viewers will find interesting and invaluable.
A good place to start is to research your target market and find out what topics they would be interested in. It may also help to research your competitors to get an idea of what content their viewers respond to, and how you can do better.
- Decide how to ‘show’ things: Part of the advantage of videos is the fact that you can ‘show’ information visually rather than simply using text or a voiceover. That is something that you should take advantage of, as videos that are more visual are generally more engaging.
It is worth keeping in mind that many people watch videos on mute nowadays as well, so if your video can get its message across without relying on a voiceover it stands a better chance of engaging these viewers. If not – use subtitles.
- Incorporate storytelling elements: Some of the most engaging videos take the form of ‘stories’ that are about a particular subject (i.e. character). It is much easier to make viewers feel emotionally invested in the outcome of a video if it is told as a story, with a central character that they can relate to.
Of course not all topics are suitable to take on story form directly, in which case you should consider incorporating some storytelling elements. In particular the standard structure of a story can help, such as an introduction that outlines the problem, the content that helps detail the solution, and the conclusion that draws it all together.
- Write out the script: Although writing a script may seem difficult, it is essential if you want to make your videos as engaging as possible. By writing a script that details every aspect of the video, you will be able to go over your ideas and refine them.
More importantly based on your script you’ll be able to ensure that your video incorporates the characteristics mentioned previously. In particular you can get a rough idea of its duration and make sure it is able to be direct especially in the first 8 seconds. It is also possible to improve its conclusion or call to action.
As you can see the planning that is involved in creating a video can be hefty, but it is important. By planning your video you’ll be able to refine it before you start recording, and will save yourself time (and money) in the process.
Recording a Video
Once you’ve planned out your video, recording and editing it will be much easier. By this point you should know exactly what your video is going to look like, and also have a good idea what kind of footage you need to record to edit it.
In most cases you should be able to record the video using a digital camera, smartphone, or camcorder of some kind. To make sure its quality is good you should ensure the scenes that you’re recording are well lit, and the camera is steady. If necessary you may want to use a stand to help in that regard.
Based on your script you should be able to split your video into ‘scenes’ and shoot each scene separately. While videos that are shot in a single take may look good – they are more difficult to pull off and if something goes wrong you’ll have to re-shoot the entire video.
If you want to record footage of an app or software then you should look at a desktop recording software such as Movavi Screen Capture Studio. Not only will it let you record the footage that you need, but you can also then use its built-in editor to compile the footage along with videos from other sources.
Make no mistake the editor in Movavi Screen Capture Studio will have everything you need to edit and improve your videos. With its features you can split videos into segments, trim out unwanted parts, merge clips together, enhance the video quality, and fix common problems. Additionally it will let you add audio tracks containing background music or a voiceover, insert subtitles, apply special effects and filters, include animated transitions, and more.
In short if you want a way to create impressive-looking videos using screen recording and other means, Movavi Screen Capture Studio will fit the bill perfectly. It will act as a production studio of sorts, and give you the tools you need to both record as well as edit videos.
When you do record videos, be sure to record as many takes are as necessary – until you’re satisfied. Don’t discard any additional footage, as you may want to use it as B-roll footage when you cut your video.
Compiling and Editing a Video
As far as editing goes, the focus should be on compiling a smooth and engaging video that matches your plan as closely as possible. Embellishments such as special effects and other visual elements should be kept to a minimum, and only ever used to accentuate the video’s message.
Although editing should be able to fix many issues that may crop up in your footage, in some cases you may still need to go back and re-shoot some footage. In some cases that may be difficult or too prohibitive, and you may want to look for alternatives. If possible however, you should be open to the idea of re-shooting segments of video.
At the end of the day the editing involved in coming up with engaging videos isn’t all that complicated. In fact sometimes a simple approach works best, as it makes the video look more authentic and natural.
Before you perform any edit, just ask yourself: Does this help to make the video any more engaging, or help to deliver the message more effectively? If it doesn’t – you may want to think again about whether or not you really want to proceed.
By this point you should be fully aware of what is needed to come up with engaging videos for a blog. As you can see there are a lot of different areas to consider, but at least you should know how to go about making sure that your videos are as engaging as possible.