Viewers appreciate brevity. With that in mind, make your video only as long as it absolutely needs to be.
The standard guideline is 1-3 minutes because our research shows viewership trails off by up to 80% after 3 minutes. That said, most videos lose a significant portion of viewers after just 2 minutes. So our advice is that 2 minutes should be considered the upper threshold.
In this range, videos are usually informative and/or entertaining, intended for current or former students, customers or donors, as well as prospects who have already expressed interest. These viewers feel an affiliation with the sender, so they are more engaged and willing to watch.
When can the video be longer than 3 minutes? When the viewer is highly invested and truly wants and needs the information.
On the short end are promotional, sales and marketing videos meant primarily to engage new prospects. These should be 1 minute or less, depending on where they will run (e.g. social media, web, tv.)
There are more specific guidelines, as well as exceptions, depending on the strength of your viewers’ connection to the sender and the topic. The weaker the connection, the shorter the video should be.
Finally, don’t forget to track metrics. YouTube provides detailed viewership metrics, enabling you to see where the dropoff is occurring. Consider sending the video first to a small sample of your audience, checking the YouTube metrics, and adjusting before you send the video to your entire list.
We are pleased to have won a Gold Medallion
A video we produced for Delaware County Community College has won the Gold (highest honor) Medallion among two-year colleges and tech schools from the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations.
We’re proud to work with these new clients:
- Austin College
- Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates
- HelpHopeLive
- Kettering University
- Widener University
- WSFS Bank
By the way, you can view a variety of videos of varying lengths on our YouTube channel. As always, I’d love to hear from you.
Warm regards,
