A cockroach was crawling on my shoulder during my livestream.
I only knew about it because a viewer pointed it out to me on camera.
Keeping your viewers engaged during the first 30 seconds of your video
increases the probability of your viewers watching the rest of the video.
In the video below, I’m going to share the top 7 ways to engage viewers on YouTube.
SECRETS TO INCREASE AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ON YOUTUBE
Discover how to hook your viewers’ attention, get them to spend more time on each video, and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to other channels.
Click here to learn more
Use a strong hook
You can make a bold statement like YouTube receives over 50 billion views per day. You can start your video by asking a question like, what is the number one way to engage your viewers on YouTube? You can entertain your viewers by telling a short story like I did at the beginning of this video.
Alternatively, you can go straight into the content without giving an introduction.
Correctly structure your video.
As I mentioned previously, start off with a strong hook. then tell your viewers what to expect by watching the video. After you’ve done that, go straight into the meat of your content and end your video with a strong call to action.
For example, you can invite viewers to watch your next best video by linking to a video or playlist in the end screen. YouTube says “the longer you can keep people watching your videos or successive videos in a row, the higher the probability of a video being suggested by YouTube resulting in more traffic” So if a viewer binge watches multiple videos in a playlist, they’ll stay longer on the YouTube platform.
Instead of just using one hook at the beginning of your video, use multiple hooks throughout your video to reset the attention of your viewers. For example, you can tease viewers about what’s coming up later in the video, so they’ll keep watching to find out what it is.
Some other ways to keep viewers engaged throughout your video is to use jump cuts, transitions, and graphics.
A jump cut is where you jump from one scene to the other, therefore, resetting the attention of your viewer.
Transitions can be as simple as adding text on the screen or adding a motion graphic between the different points you wish to make in your video.
“Hey, Herman, what kind of audience retention should I be shooting for in the first 30 seconds of my video?”
Aim for 70 to 80% audience retention in the first 30 seconds of your video. The higher the better.
For example, in this video it says 70% of viewers are still watching at around the 30 second mark, which is above typical.
If you want to check the audience retention for any of your videos on YouTube, click on the engagement tab in YouTube analytics and look under key moments for audience retention.
Use the community tab.
Use the community tab to engage with your viewers. between uploads. You can add images, image polls, text polls, quizzes, or even post your latest video. I find that polls and quizzes attract the most responses, so use them frequently.
Reply to comments.
YouTube is a social media platform, so make sure you reply to every comment on your videos. If a viewer makes the time to leave a comment under your video, then respect that viewer by replying to their comment.
Viewers often ask questions in the comments, so it’s a great opportunity to reply to their comment. You can even reply to a comment by making a Short, and that viewer will receive a notification that you’ve made that short.
Here’s a hot tip.
Any question in your comments usually means that other people are asking the same question, so you can make a long form video or a short to reply to that comment. Another way is to keep to keep viewers engaged throughout your video is to ask questions.
For example, answer this question in the comments, what is the number one way you keep viewers engaged on your videos? If you want to get viewers to watch your next best video, pin a link to that video in the top of your comments. When viewers go to leave a comment to your video, they’ll see that link in the pinned comment.
You can also link to the next best video by placing that link within the first three lines of your video description. The first three lines is what viewers see while watching your video.
Another important thing to keep viewers watching is to use high energy in your video. If you’re really tired because you didn’t get much sleep, you’re depressed or not inspired, then it’s very difficult to deliver a high energy message throughout your video. If I’m very tired or uninspired, I’ll usually skip making a video.
Your viewers will know when you’ve forced creativity in your videos. If I don’t feel energized, I’ll leave my office and go outside to film the video. Alternatively, I’ll do some pushups, pull-ups or go for a run to get the heart pumping. If I’m batch filming multiple videos, I usually take a break between each video. This helps me to keep my energy flowing.
Attract different audiences with multiple formats.
Shorts are a great way to attract viewers that are scrolling through their phones using the Shorts feed. YouTube recently introduced the related links feature, which allows you to link from a short to a long form video.
For example, you can cut a segment from your long form video to make into a short. An attribution link will appear at the end of your shorts video, that links back to the original video.
Another format that works well is to go live on YouTube. This is a great way to engage with your viewers in real time because they can ask questions while you’re going through your presentation.
You can also repurpose the content for your live stream for YouTube podcasts, Shorts, long form videos, and even products. Here’s an important point to remember. Engaging viewers is an ongoing effort that requires building relationships and providing content that resonates with your audience.
Pay particular attention to YouTube analytics to see which engagement strategies are working best for your channel, then adjust accordingly.
For example, if you click on the audience tab in YouTube analytics, you’ll see videos growing your audience, channels your audience watches, what your audience watches, formats your viewers watch on YouTube, and when your viewers are on YouTube.
To view the engagement metrics for individual videos, click on the engagement tab and look under “key moments for audience retention“.
Now you know the top ways to engage viewers on YouTube.
Do you want to reach more audiences so you can get more views and subscribers?
Watch this video on how to add multi-language audio tracks so you can translate your content into different languages.
SECRETS TO INCREASE AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ON YOUTUBE
Discover how to hook your viewers’ attention, get them to spend more time on each video, and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to other channels.
Click here to learn more
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