If you look at your website statistics, you’re more than aware that people on the internet tend to have a very short attention span. They get bored very easily and move on to the next thing as soon as they feel they’re done. Now I agree that a short video for new users to quickly describe who you are and what you do is a good idea, however sometimes you need to increase the duration of your video, here’s why:
The length of a video is very much determined by the complexity of the idea being described. If you’re explaining the functions of a pen, you probably wouldn’t need that long, however if you’re trying to describe the function of a flux capacitor, you’re going to need a bit longer than 60 seconds. Your audience is going to feel confused and dazed about the amount of information being given to them in such a small space of time, which is why you need to consider the appropriate length of your video. You’ll also need to remember that the words per minute in a video averages 150, this makes it possible for the voice actor to read at a natural pace and it also gives the viewer enough time to understand the words that are being spoken. Quite simply, the more complicated your idea the more explaining it will require.
Now that you’ve won these users over you need to supply them with more relevant information, because this is what they want! You have to give people a reason to keep coming back to your website so keep posting those blogs and helpful tips because people desire information. If you have the same person coming back to your website but is yet to purchase anything, it could be because they haven’t seen the right type of information to convince them. Keep this in mind as you create content, you want to put yourself into the audiences’ position and think, “Would I find this useful?”.
Quite often you’ll see a great 5 minute video that say’s ‘part 1/3’ and the view count goes down drastically as you click on each of the sections. You can’t help but think that if it was just one 14 minute video (because of the 10 second outro and intro each time) more people would’ve sat through the entire video and it would’ve helped a greater number of them if they had known the entirety of the message. However the problems that people have with longer videos are that they struggle to keep them engaging and interesting and often it leads to a large number of people falling off midway or even before that point due to the length of the video. So ideally what you need to do is weigh up your options and decide whether or not it is interesting and engaging enough for your viewers to sit through.
Don’t be afraid to make a longer video, just be aware of the placement of the video on your website. It needs to not be the main focus of a page, but readily available for anyone who could be looking for it. Make sure that your users are fully aware of any extra information if they want to get their hands on it and of course, make sure that the video is informative and engaging so you keep them interested once they’ve found it.