How to Make Your Videos 10x More Engaging (Without Fancy Trending Edits)
People assume that making engaging videos means:
New animations every .25 seconds
30 layers of sound design and color grading
Super quick cuts and never letting the video breathe for a second
I’m not saying that these don’t have a place in some videos. One of my all-time favorite movies is Tenet, where crazy things happen so fast you don’t have time to take in what just happened before the next thing happens.
But not a single crazy trick matters if the core of your video is boring.
Here’s what actually makes a video engaging:
Hook the viewer in the first 5 seconds. Lead with something interesting and experiment with different ways of ordering your material — and pay attention to what you feel when you re-watch your edits.
Talk like a real person. I’ve found it helpful to have someone sit next to the camera and work out the material with a conversation. This is more relatable than trying the polished newscaster approach.
Respect your audience’s attention — they’re being very generous giving it to you, in light of the multitude of other things they could have been watching.
Fancy edits can enhance a good video when used properly. But they won’t fix a video whose core is flimsy or whose aims are self-aggrandizing.
