Yesterday, I was sitting at a bench by the lake, looking at the audience retention graph on my phone for a video that showed 84% of viewers are still watching at the 30 second mark, which is above typical.
In the video below, you’ll learn 5 highly effective ways to start your YouTube video so you can increase audience retention and get more views.
Click here to Get My New Video Course
“SECRETS TO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT” You’ll 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.
1. Tell a story.
When you start your video with a story, it helps the viewer make a personal connection with you. It can be something simple as “yesterday I was sitting by the lake checking my audience retention graph.” Just make sure that your story leads into the main content of your video.
2. Ask a question.
When you ask a question at the beginning of your video, it makes viewers curious to want to know the answer. Here’s an example of a video that starts with a series of questions about the content that the viewer is about to receive.
Example
“What on earth are YouTube handles, where do they appear on YouTube, How can you choose the right one for your channel and how can you use them?”
This tells viewers what’s coming up later in the video and makes them curious to want to know the answers.
3. Make a bold statement.
When you make a bold statement at the beginning of a video, it makes you as curious to want to know why you made that particular statement.
Here’s a video that starts with a bold statement about what I achieved and how I achieved it. “I started my YouTube channel in 2006 and achieved 100,000 subscribers 16 years later due to consistency.”
I titled this video by asking a question, “Is consistency enough to grow YouTube channel”, then I started my YouTube channel by saying it was consistency that led me to getting 100,000 subscribers. You can use this combination of title and hook to get viewers to click on your video and watch your video all the way through.
4. Jump right in.
Instead of introducing your content at the beginning of your video or asking people to subscribe, you jump into the content right away as I’ve shown in this video.
“Number one, is not knowing your target audience. Ask yourself these questions. What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night?” If you can you entertain them in your video If you can tap into the mind of your target audience, it’ll be easy to create the right content for them. Number two, creating videos on topics your audience is not interested in.”
Jumping into your content right away shows that you respect the time of your viewers. If you wanna test this technique, make a video where you’re jumping into the content right away versus another video where you’re starting off with the introduction. Then look at your audience retention graph for both of the videos. If you get a higher intention for the video where you jumped into the content right away, you might want to get rid of your introduction.
5. Open loop.
The definition of an open loop is…
“a concept that in the telling of stories drives our brains to naturally
want to seek out some sort of conclusion.”
One way to create an open loop is to introduce a bit of content at the beginning of your video, but not give it all away. Basically, you’re given a preview of what’s coming up later in the video, so it motivates viewers to keep watching the video.
Here’s an example of a video where 82% of the viewers are still watching at the 30 second mark, by using an open loop at the beginning of the video. “I’m going to show you how to make a YouTube subscribe link like this popup link so you can promote your YouTube channel across your social media sites, websites, et cetera.”
So I previewed an image of the result you’ll get by watching the video. After starting this video with an open loop, I tell viewers what else they can expect if they continue watching the video. “You’ll also learn how to find your channel ID so you can make a subscribe link, how to test your subscribe link, how to unsubscribe from a YouTube channel and all the different places where you can add a YouTube subscribe link.”
I complete the loop by telling viewers the big benefit they’ll receive by watching the video. “You’ll make it ridiculously easy for anyone to subscribe to your channel from anywhere on the net.”
When you use open loop storytelling at the beginning of your video, your viewer will actually look forward to watching the rest of your video to see how the story resolves itself and to learn something new. They become invested in the story and eager to know what’s going to happen.
Let me know in the comments below which hook you are going to use in your next video.
Watch this video right now to discover the tricks to keep viewers watching the rest of your video so you can get your video recommended by YouTube.
Click here to Get My New Video Course
“SECRETS TO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT” You’ll 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.
Speak Your Mind