Why do we seem to want to watch a video for only 2-3 minutes? What is it about that slice of time that feels like we’re getting something of value, yet watching any longer (and occasionally any less) just doesn’t seem to appeal to us?   And since there’s a great emphasis on video, what is the best strategy for including video in a lead-generation process?

First, why 2-3 minutes for videos? Ultimately, it’s because we’re all subconsciously programmed in some way for that amount of time. Music singles are rarely longer than 3 minutes. We’re all familiar with YouTube, and the average video length of the most popular ones, is less than 3 minutes.  People want to be in control, and will sit through a video when they can see that it’s length is something they can tolerate.    More relevant is the length of movie trailers, which are almost always less than 2.5 minutes – really, check for yourself. They are carefully crafted to draw you into the movie (some better than others) within that 2.5-minute limit.

So the lesson here is to create a 1-3 minute introduction video as your lead generation to draw people in and get the most interested to follow you back to your site for either more videos, perhaps an accompanying white paper, or other related resources on your site.  Or even better, when they share your video with others, say on Facebook, Twitter, etc.!   (Check out how the Opera Company of Philadelphia Video we produced has over 1 million hits in just 2 months!)

Utilize the SEO power of You Tube! The reason for this is YouTube allows you to insert a lot of keywords into your description and tags, and YouTube videos rank well (meaning, very visible) in Google searches.

This reminds me of the old days of SEO when you focused on putting lots of tags on web pages to improve ranking. Now people put those tags on videos. But remember, you want to drive people back to your website for your lead-generation purposes. So be sure to have a video library ready for your viewers to watch, put them on your website, and be sure to include a sign-up form for viewers to get more information (not to mention, to build your lead-generation database!)

Have a question?  Give us a call at 1-877-280-7245 or email us to schedule a time to speak.

Emilia Andrews

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