How to Capture Attention in the First 5 Seconds?

Attention is the name of the game in online video marketing. The rule of the game is clear: Capture attention and get another chance to keep it...

Lose attention and waste time and money creating a video that will never get viewers to your call to action. This is a bad ending for a story that will never begin… how unfortunate and terrible a situation! The good news is you're not there yet, you've maximized audience interest and they've found your video.
Great!

Maybe they clicked by seeing the funny or entertaining picture in your share. Maybe it was a friend's message like "watch this video and your life will change". It doesn't matter. What matters is that you somehow find people in the state you want: The point of clicking the play button.

So how do you keep these eyes, which are ready to be cropped, closed and run away, open, sober and relevant?

Is there a magic formula?

I wish there was…
But here are some tactics we've tried and seen work. If you have more ideas, please share them with us in the comments section below. You will have made a very valuable contribution for both our readers and those researching this topic. We can also discuss it…
So here we go.

Fast Loading Time

This is very critical! Your video has to load fast. Every second counts in the tense and anxious world of the internet!

'Online video viewing' research shows that people start leaving if the video doesn't load in the first two seconds. After 10 seconds, only 40% of the audience will remain. This means that after the first two seconds, you will lose 5.8% of your viewers for every second your video doesn't load.
How bad!

What you can do

Test your videos on other computers and see how they load. Check on smartphone, tablet or PC. Run it in different browsers and measure your results.
If you are hosting your videos yourself and your videos are lagging, check your plugins by turning off one plugin at a time until you find the source of the problem. If this doesn't work, contact your web host and see if there is a problem originating from them.
The most well-known video sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv also work well in this regard. If you have any doubts, you can test as mentioned in the first step.

Tell People

Make sure your audience knows exactly what they want to see in the video. Summarize the main idea of your video in one or two sentences.
Don't bore your audience with a long logo image or a music montage at the beginning of the video. Especially if it's the same music montage placed at the beginning of every video you produce, this is a really bad idea… It doesn't go beyond giving people a bad experience.
Don't you believe it? Okay, try it yourself and see.
Take your phone out of your pocket or look at your watch. Just wait five seconds and experience what it feels like.

Take Action Now

You will focus on fitting your attention-grabbing introduction into these five seconds. Look at the first five seconds of your video. Say out loud how you feel.

How did you feel? Energetic? Natural?
Edit your video intro until it matches the vibe you want.

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