Human attention spans are a trivial thing nowadays. As time has gone by, it has gotten harder and harder to catch people’s attention and deliver a message that we want them to hear. It was once believed that the average person receives a total of no less than 2,000 marketing messages a day, but that number has now been recomputed to be at least 5,000 today.
The challenge now is for businesses and marketers to capture the attentions of audiences and get the message across so that people not just learn about your product or service but actually avail of them. One of the factors that affects this greatly is the length of our media most especially in video.
What is the ideal and right length for video? Does it really matter at all how long your videos are?
While we might be looking for exact figures and clear-cut statistics, there really isn’t. While some studies have shown that a length of 2-3 minutes is the sweet spot of video length, that only applies to a few of the many categories out there. More than just finding the right numbers, what video marketers and business owners should be looking at is some helpful considerations that will hopefully help you land at a good estimate. Here are some pointers to help you decide what length your videos should be.
Determine the purpose
What’s your video for? It’s been proven that the effectivity of video length really varies according to where it’s going to go. Videos for social media, YouTube Advertising and the like are most likely to be shorter (around 30 to 90 seconds) and tutorials and online courses are sometimes better longer (anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes).
The goal is to first determine the purpose of the video and make it as short as possible while also fulfilling its purpose whether it’s to educate, advertise, explain or educate.
Factor in your audience
We know that attention spans are known to be short, but across different demographics there seems to be a significant difference in desired length. Business videos- for instance- might demand for a longer video length as compared to something like say a viral funny video.
We know for a fact that younger people have shorter attention spans than most people in their adult years, so that can also be an important factor as well.
Context over conciseness
The last thing to take into consideration is the amount of time necessary to get the message you want to relay across. How long will it take to communicate what you’d like to say?
If you’re out to explain an intricate Forex hack using a system you’re offering, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to deliver your message in less than a minute.
Length is one thing, but it’s not nearly as important as getting the message you want to send across.