Grab Your Client’s Attention With These Minor Editing Tweaks
So you’ve put in the hours with capturing content, creating videos, and posting and engaging with your audience. But no matter how much time you put into a piece of content, your audience’s retention doesn’t seem to change…
You’re not lacking great ideas or execution!
We just have to face the facts- audience attention spans are getting shorter and it’s even harder to keep people watching your content.
The trick may just be in making one or two changes in your approach to editing…
WE love a reveal.
Conscious or not, if we’re promised a reveal we’ll stick around for it.
Think makeovers, transformations, product reveals, secret sharing, before and afters, etc. If you hand me a covered box, I’ll ask (sorry for the unintentional Seven reference) “What’s in the box?” Anyone would!
The key is piquing your audience’s curiosity just enough that they linger with the promise of discovering “what’s in the box.”
Pro Tip: You don’t always have to delay the gratification of the reveal. Sometimes just a few short seconds of suspense will do it- so long as what you’re revealing will be enough to spark conversation and engagement. (An example might be revealing the stocking you put over your camera lens to give photos a “softer feel”.)
Surprise me.
Similarly to a reveal, we want to hook the viewer by subverting their expectations. We can do this immediately (tricking the viewer’s eye) or setting the expectation and then explaining why/how we’re breaking it.
Set, Break, Explain: It could be a “hot take,” something you’ve heard a lot in your niche, a frequently debated topic, etc. Start by sharing the item that you’ll disprove/debate/discuss and then jump right in with your hottest take or tidbit.
Be sure to end with a call-to-action for viewers to share their thoughts on the topic!
Change the Viewer’s Perception: This one’s trickier and a bit more involved to do. Rather than giving your viewer a statement as the set expectation, you’re giving them visual cues. You’re saying “this is how it looks, and that’s that.”
When you subvert that expectation, you’re taking that visual and morphing it into something they weren’t anticipating. An example might be showing what your camera sees, then cutting from that to the same frame but the final edit.
quicker cuts, more angles.
Remember how I mentioned that audience attention spans are getting shorter? When someone is scrolling through their feed and first come across your video, there are only about 1.3- 3 seconds before they decide to scroll on or not. Crazy, right?
It’s true! So keep that in mind while you’re editing. For the first few seconds of your video, incorporate shorter clips.
Pro Tip: Alternate between shots from different angles - this gives the viewer a kind of immediate visual reward for sticking around.
Edit with a tone of voice.
Your personality doesn’t have to stop influencing your content once you’ve finished filming!
A great example of this is the TV show, The Office. While we never really learn much about the camera operators on the show, it feels like they have their own sense of humor that shines through the series.
When you get to the editing stage, don’t shy away from letting yourself have fun with it. Try doing some silly editing, leave in a few bloopers (it reminds people you’re human!), add some fun stickers, gifs, or overlays, or just pop in some additional text/comments!
does it pass the “ON MUTE” test?
Oftentimes throughout the day, we find ourselves checking social media with the audio off- maybe we’re in a public space or maybe we’re enjoying the silence. Either way, if viewers can’t understand your content without the audio, they’re scrolling on!
A super simple way to always pass the “on mute test” is by recording a voiceover and auto-generating captions.
With sound on, your audio will feel more consistent (rather than using audio that was recorded with the video) and your audience will begin to feel more familiar with you just by hearing your voice! It’s a win-win.
Pro Tip: You don’t always have to do voiceovers! Attaching trending, relevant sounds and pairing it with some on-screen text will also do the trick. Try shaking it up from time to time and see what feels most authentic to you.
I hope that inspires you to think outside of the box with your editing process!!