8 seconds! That's all you get, and then I'm gone.

• • Some folks just aren’t that into you. And it’s not all bad. Knowing who will not be drawn to your content is the first step to finding those that will. And those that want your information will already be disposed to give you more than 8 seconds of their precious time.You’ve got to go where they are. That involves research. And research is work. But if you want a responsive audience, not just one that gives you a little more than 8 seconds, find out who they are and what they want. The folks at CMSWire.com remind us, “… it stands to reason that if your brand doesn’t have a proactive presence on the channels your customers are using, chances are your customer will find another one that does.” By focusing on the market that is interested in your service, you’ve taken the first step to be relevant.

• • Don’t be fooled by “good” numbers. We talk about analytics all the time and the power of numbers. At NAMS, Inc. we LOVE numbers. We track: Opens, Clicks, Likes, Shares, Bounce Rates, Time on Page, and many others…But all of those things help us improve one number: Simply put, how many people took the action we wanted them to take? At the end of the day, if our content helps us improve conversions, we’ve had a good day. But if we increase any other number, and conversions remain flat—it’s back to the drawing board. We have to guard against feeling excited by misleading statistics.

• • Grab ‘em by the throat. Your premise may be dull as dirt, but your subject line has to be as exciting as sex on the beach under the moonlight. That’s why the clickbait advertising is all the rage on the big authority sites. With one good headline, people will click away from very well-written and very thoughtful articles to “Discover the Ancient Secrets of King Tut that Will Change the Way Your Wife Looks at YOU!” even though we have no idea who King Tut is or how ancient he is. When I was in the newspaper business, I was the founding editor of one of the news magazines. We spent hours coming up with great headlines—occasionally before we had the story to go with it…

• • Keep the story moving. We don’t sit through movies any longer if the story doesn’t move quickly. The cuts have to be fast, and the action intense. Thank you, MTV. Think about the last fiction book you read. I’d be willing to bet that if you weren’t dropped into some intense action in the first 10 pages, it was “buh, bye!” for that book. Last year, I finished a 17-book detective mystery series because the action was intense and the characters so likable. Seventeen books! I was/am a raving fan of the series. And now, I can’t wait for the next one to come out. . We get attached to great stories that move fast. Make sure yours does too.

• • Don’t make me read! Yes, I know. We all need to read more. But we’re not. Consumers love watching videos.” In fact, in a recent survey by Promo.com, they found 49 percent of people watch more than five videos per day. ... By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017. — (Cisco)

• • Shorter is better. Nobody is going to watch a 60-minute video any longer. Not a promotional video anyway. The average video watch time on Facebook as of 2020 is 10 seconds. Save your longer videos (less than 10 minutes though) for your targeted traffic. You need to catch their attention with short videos, then use the longer videos to education, build a relationship, and sell.

    We're not talking about webinars here. Just promotional style content.

 

• Use the tools. Creating content has never been simpler. New tools are coming out all the time. The prices are dropping and the drag-n-drop functionality is more amazing. 
   For example, take a look at the video I created here using a little tool called Doodly  Right now, the price is fantastic and well worth it.

  I used this explainer video for a product launch a few years ago and we still make sales on our product regularly. The video (which I created with Doodly in just a couple of hours) uses all seven of these steps we've talked about above. But there’s one thing that my wife said when she watched the 2-minute video that really stuck out.

“Wow, you have to watch that because the images that move through quickly keep you so engaged.”

Boom! That’s what we want.

Turn YOUR 8 seconds into more than 2 minutes of engaging video with a strong call-to-action.