You've gone through the hard work of getting someone to land on your video.

They've clicked it. They're ready to watch.

But your job isn't done yet.

That's because if you want your video marketing strategy to be successful, you need to be able to retain your viewers – not just attract them.

Furthermore, you need to be able to retain them in two distinctive ways. Ideally, you'll be able to retain viewers in a single video, compelling them to watch the video in full, rather than bouncing away after a few seconds or a few minutes. You should also be able to retain your viewers in the long term, facilitating their loyalty and encouraging them to watch more of your videos in the future.

Maximizing video viewer retention isn't exactly easy, but there are some straightforward strategies that can help you perfect this art.

The Power of Video Viewer Retention

Video viewer retention is one of the most important aspects to consider as you optimize your video strategy. There are several reasons for this.

At the video level, a higher video retention rate is associated with wider, more frequent recommendations. In other words, if people watch your video all the way through, that video will be much more likely to be recommended to people who haven't seen it. This greatly increases your reach, your visibility, and ultimately, your video effectiveness.

At the channel level, retaining viewers allows you to snowball your viewer figures, ultimately multiplying the number of people you can reach and the perceived authority of your channel simultaneously. Each new permanent or semi-permanent member of your audience increases the total value of your channel.

Retaining viewers also gives you more opportunities to persuade them. A viewer may not be ready to buy your product or subscribe to your feed after a minute of viewing or even after a few videos, but the longer they watch and the more videos they watch, the more likely they'll be to take action.

On top of that, retention is typically cheaper than acquisition. It's much less expensive and more effective to retain existing viewers than to try and find new ones. If you're trying to make your marketing dollars go as far as possible, retention should be your top priority.

Retaining Video Viewers in a Single Video

These are some of the best strategies for retaining video viewers in a single video:

1.      Know your audience. Before you write the first word of your video script, you should take the time to get intimately acquainted with your audience. If you're running a business, you should already know who your audience is. Otherwise, you may need to do some market research to more thoroughly understand who your target demographics are and how to reach them. Some video producers are tempted to make videos that appeal to the broadest spectrum of people, hoping to pump up their viewer numbers. But it's typically much more effective to focus on a narrow, strategically relevant group of people; this way, you can feed them more “red meat” – giving them exactly what they need and want so they're motivated to keep watching. If you don't know who your target audience is, you won't be able to make content specifically relevant to them.

2.      Create a stellar video script (or at least an outline). Unless you're doing something with improv or natural conversation, your video should have a script. At the very least, it should have an outline. The scripting process is important not just to clarify your messaging but also to work through some of the challenges and problems that might preclude your video from retaining viewers in the first place. This is your opportunity to present, hone, and meticulously critique your own ideas, so only the best ideas make it to the final video.

3.      Start with an amazing hook. Let's face it. We're all busy, and we all have limited attention spans. Accordingly, it's hard to blame anyone for clicking away from a video after being bored by the first few seconds. If you want to overcome this hump and get your viewers to stay with you, you need to start your video with an amazing hook. That hook could be a tease of things to come, a promise of information to be conveyed in this video, a wildly entertaining joke, or anything else that gives viewers a reason to stick around. Make sure to nail this hook within the first few seconds, or you'll immediately start to lose viewer attention.

4.      Give people a good reason to keep watching. Even relatively dedicated viewers will only watch your video for a few minutes before leaving – unless they have a reason to stay. Your hook is merely the first opportunity to convince your viewers to stay; even the most powerful hook won't make people continue watching something boring or uninteresting. Every minute, and potentially every second of your video should have something interesting, informative, and relevant to maintain user attention. If you don't have something interesting, consider cutting that section of video.

5.      Remind them why they’re here. There are many ways to provide value to viewers in your video, such as giving them information, entertainment, or even a free giveaway. Whatever this value is, remind your viewers of it throughout your video. Remind them about the big climax that you've been teasing since the beginning. Remind them to stick around and subscribe to your channel so they can be entered in the giveaway. Give them a variety of jokes or pieces of useful information to convince them that it's good for them to stick around.

6.      Institute interrupts. One useful trick is to institute interrupts throughout your video, using quick cuts to reset viewer attention and maintain engagement. You can find examples of this almost anywhere, in any successful video channel online, as it has become quite widespread as a technique. There are several reasons why this works. For starters, it helps to cut out some of the dead space in your video. It also helps viewers focus, as it gives them a subtle point of stimulation periodically throughout the video. It's also a great opportunity to incorporate different takes and make sure your best foot is always forward.

7.      Incorporate more stills and graphics. You can make your video more engaging by incorporating more stills and graphics as well. There's nothing wrong with having a video with a talking head giving a monologue about a given topic. But after a while, this gets boring. You can maximize viewer retention by grabbing their attention with photos, graphics, data visuals, and similar pieces of visual media. Use them to illustrate or supplement your biggest points.

8.      Use B-roll footage. Similarly, consider grabbing B-roll footage and using it sparingly throughout your video. Even relatively uninteresting footage, like a stream flowing over rocks or people walking through a mall, can help give more substance to your video and make it seem more active and professional.

9.      Inject more humor and personality. Even if people are watching your video for informational purposes, they're going to want it to be interesting. You can make your video more interesting instantly by injecting more humor and personality into your work. Depending on your brand and the context of your video, humor may not be appropriate – but even if it isn't, you can use your natural personality and charisma to make a much more compelling, authentic presentation.

10.  Learn from your metrics. Finally, pay close attention to your video metrics. How often do people leave your video before it's finished? At what point in the video do they leave? What could be causing them to leave and how can you prevent their departure? Which of your videos seem to be the best at retaining viewers, and what makes them so effective?

Retaining Viewers on Your Video Channel

If you're more interested in retaining viewers on your video channel overall, these are the best strategies to do it:

11.  Be consistent. If each of your videos seems to have a different tone or vibe, it's only a matter of time before your hard-won subscribers leave. There's nothing wrong with tinkering with your formula or experimenting with novel ideas, but the foundational aspects of your brand need to be consistent over time if you want to retain your channel subscribers. They subscribed to you for a specific reason; if that reason is no longer relevant, they're going to leave.

12.  Keep delivering what people love. Figure out what your subscribers like best about your channel and keep giving it to them. Is it your humorous approach to the subject matter? Is it your unrelenting deep dive into topics no one else is covering? Is it your unique blend of avant-garde music and creepy visuals? Discover what made people fall in love with your brand via comments, surveys, and other forms of audience engagement, then incorporate those elements into all your future videos.

13.  Include opportunities for interaction/engagement. Speaking of engagement, always include opportunities for your audience to interact and engage with you directly. For example, you can ask people what they think about a topic and encourage them to share their responses in the comments section. You can also give them practical instructions to use in their daily life or challenge them to achieve specific goals. Subscribers will be much more loyal to your brand if they're taking action as a result of watching your videos.

14.  Get involved in the comments section. The comments section is one of your best opportunities for directly engaging with your audience, so take advantage of it. Answer some of the questions you get. Respond to some of the counterpoints that viewers are making. Say “thank you” when people compliment you. Even a single minor interaction could be sufficient to keep a viewer subscribing to your channel – and when new viewers see you actively engaging with your commenters, they'll be more likely to comment.

15.  Bring people to different channels. You can also encourage more loyalty from your viewers by introducing them to different channels associated with your brand. For example, you can encourage them to follow you on different social media platforms or get involved in your website. Even better, get them to sign up to an email newsletter list so you can notify them about new developments on your channel and in your business.

16.  Promote your new stuff. When you make a new video, make sure your subscribers all know about it. Not everyone pays attention to notifications or new video announcements, so try to reach them in alternative ways. Send out an email, post on social media, and use other channels to get the word out that you have new stuff for your viewers to watch.

17.  Nurture a community. Eventually, you may be in a position to nurture a full community around your brand. Forums, social media groups, and other platforms can bring your people together, allow them to form bonds with each other, and ultimately make them more loyal to your channel.

18.  Conduct surveys (and act on them!) Finally, make sure you conduct surveys with your audience and pay close attention to your results. Figure out what people like best and least about your channel and use that information to make your channel better. Not only will this improve your quality and appeal, but it will also show people how dedicated you are to your fans.

Creating videos and marketing those videos in ways that compel viewers to stay can be inordinately challenging.

This is especially true if you don't already have video script writers, video producers, editors, marketing pros, and other professionals on standby to help you succeed.

Thankfully, there are organizations like ours – Vid.co. We have all the resources and expertise you need to craft the best possible videos and retain the greatest percentage of your target viewers. From brainstorming to execution to distribution, we can help you achieve your video marketing goals.

Contact us today if you’re ready to get started!

‍