In the video below, I’m going to show you 10 ways that Mr. Beast, who has the number one channel on YouTube and almost 300 million subscribers, keeps viewers watching his videos and gets over 80% audience retention rate.
His latest video is titled, “I Built 100 Houses and Gave Them Away”, and it currently has 68 million views at the time of recording this content. As you can see, most of his videos get over 150 million views within a few weeks.
How does Mr Beast keep viewers watching?
Start with a strong hook
If 70% of your viewers or more are still watching your video in the first 30 seconds, there’s a high probability they’ll watch the rest of the video. Here’s an example from Mr. Beast’s video.
“In this video, we are building and giving away 100 houses”.
When you make your next video, start with a strong hook, such as asking a question, making a bold statement or teasing about what’s coming up later in the video,
Emotional Connection
Mr. Beast makes an emotional connection with the audience by telling a story of how he gave away a hundred houses to very poor people in poor countries. This was their reaction.
“Take off your blindfolds and turn around. Behind you is your brand new Home” .
Try to make an emotional connection with your audience by telling your own personal story related to the content of your video.
Preview what’s coming up later
If you preview what’s coming up later in your video, it’ll motivate viewers to keep watching the video to find out the answers. Here’s an example from Mr. Beast’s Video.
“With every single home we’re building in this video, we’re improving quality of life for families who don’t have a safe space to call home, and we spent millions of dollars just on this video building these houses”.
One of the easiest ways to preview what’s coming up later in your video is to create a listicle video. For example, you could list the main points that are going to be covered later in the video.
Use Cliffhangers
A cliffhanger is a situation or part of a play or movie that is very exciting or frightening because you are left for a long time not knowing what will happen next. Here’s an example of how Mr. Beast uses a cliffhanger in his video to keep viewers engaged.
“You are about to witness a family that lives in this house go to living in this house, and I cannot wait to see the look on their faces”.
Think about how you can include a cliffhanger in your own videos so it’ll motivate viewers to keep watching the video. Here’s another example of a cliffhanger used in Mr. Beast video,
“While walking through their new home, we realized they didn’t even know their house was free yet. Oh, you haven’t told ’em it’s free. No, no. Yeah, tell ’em it’s free.”
Add curiosity hooks
Curiosity Hooks are similar to the Strong Hook used in the first 30 seconds of your video, but you can use them throughout your video such as this example from Mr. Beast.
“But of course, this was just the beginning. We were able to build home after home for families in Jamaica, and we weren’t going to stop until we had built 100 houses”.
One way to add a curiosity hook in your own videos is to tease a valuable insight or solution, such as “By the end of this video, you’ll learn one trick that professionals use to engage their audience.”
Include a subplot
A plot contains the essential elements of a story, whereas a subplot contains extra elements that add interest and depth. Here’s an example clip from Mr. Beast’s Video.
“Come over here. I have something way better than just a picture. Can you ask him if he wants to play football with me?
Yeah.
Well, that’s convenient because not only are we giving this community houses, but we’re also giving them this giant soccer field.”
Mr Beast includes multiple subplots throughout his video to maintain viewer’s interest. I’ll place a link to his video in the description.
Keep viewers surprised
If you keep stacking value in the video by keeping them surprised, it will inspire them to keep watching, such as in this example,
“And this got me thinking. While giving away all these houses, I noticed a lot of people were struggling with transportation and I’m gonna solve it with this truck. Open it up. We’ve got bicycles for every single kid in this village.”
Think about how you can include a surprise factor in your video so you can wow your audience.
Higher Purpose
This is what Mr. Beast says on the about page on his channel…
“I give away money because it makes me happy”. Instead of keeping the millions of dollars he makes from his YouTube channel for himself, he gives it away by helping others.”
Do you have a higher purpose for your own videos rather than just making them for yourself?
Impactful Ending
How you finish presenting your content will determine if viewers will stay watching a video to the end as shown in this example from Mr. Beast
“And finally, house 100, take your blindfolds off and look at your new home”.
You probably won’t be able to create as high impact as Mr. Beast within your own videos because he has a whole team working for him and uses high production graphics
“I say used to because a tornado destroyed it.”
You can add a strong ending to your video by encouraging viewers to watch a related video. This will increase your viewing session on YouTube, which increases the probability of your video being recommended by YouTube.
Connect with viewers
YouTube is a social media platform, so it’s important to connect with your viewers in your videos so you can keep them engaged and keep them coming back for more of your content. Here’s how Mr. Beast. does it.
“Shout out to you guys because obviously if you didn’t watch these videos, we wouldn’t have been able to build a hundred houses, and if the channel continues to grow, I hope to do a thousand in the future.”
Here are the 10 ways Mr. Beast keeps viewers watching his videos and gets over 80% audience retention rate.
Watch this video for “5 surprising mistakes, killing your retention rate and how to fix it.”
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