Key Takeaways
- Hooking your audience in the first 3 seconds of a video significantly increases the chance they’ll watch more of your content.
- Three strategies to grab attention from the jump are montage, music, and graphics (GFX).
- A montage, especially with a hero shot, creates visual impact and grants credibility to your video content.
- Music is crucial in building pace, tension, and mood, even if it seems subtle.
- Graphics not only attract attention but also help to highlight key points and reinforce your firm’s professionalism.
Check out our legal marketing blog for more tips, tricks, and insights.
Complete Transcript
3-2-1. Did we get your attention?
Ron. Showrunner of Original Content: Hey, everybody! It’s another Two-Minute Tuesday. I am Ron, this is Erik, and guess what? Did you know that if you hook your audience in the first three seconds of your video, they’re then going to watch 65% more of your content? Then, you hook ‘em again, and they’ll watch the final 35% of your content. So hooking your audience in that first three seconds is crucial.
Erik, Videographer: Super important, right? But what are some of the tools you can use to do that? Well, actually, we used some of them in the first three seconds of our video today.
Ron: Whaaaaaaat?
Erik: I know, right? They are montage, music, and graphics, or GFX if you will. If you’re cool.
Ron: If you’re cool, GFX. So let’s talk about these, let’s lay these out. Let’s first talk about montage. What is montage exactly? Well, an exact definition is the visuals tethered together in your video without any audio connected to it. It’s the cinematic language that is happening in your video that connects everything into one cohesive idea. There are a lot of different variations in what we define as montage, but one unique definition is what we call the hero shot.
Erik: The hero shot. The hero shot is like a portrait. It’s you standing in a unique location, and you stand there looking at the camera, and the camera will either pan across, it can push in, it can pull out. It makes you, frankly, look like a bad***.
Ron: Yep.
Erik: It adds a lot of credibility and impact to the montage.
Ron: So, again, there are all these different ways to use montage and hero shots to bring impact to your story. But, because we have five senses, let’s make sure that not only do the first three seconds impact your eyes, but they also impact your ears. Let’s talk about music.
Erik: Music is super important, especially in the first three seconds. We could even say it’s 50% of the entire equation when we’re talking about hooking an audience. It builds pace, it builds momentum, it builds tension, and it can even offer release at times. Music is really subtle. You almost don’t notice it when it’s doing its job correctly. But you sure as heck notice it when it’s not working correctly. In fact, let’s rewind and listen to what I just said without music. . Music makes a huge difference. Super important. So, we’ve got montage, we’ve got music, now let’s add some design to the whole equation.
Ron: Yep. So, when we’re talking about design, we’re talking about graphics or GFX. Graphics bring attention and focus, but even more so, they can also reinforce and provide information. It also heightens and gives a whole different sense of professionalism and design throughout the piece. Good graphics are a marriage between information and aesthetics. The key thing is, you have to engage with your audience. Make great content that impacts them, and once you hook them, you can really provide the vital information they’re actually looking for. Remember, this is all about building a connection between your audience and your law firm or brand.
Erik: Using montage, music, and graphics in the correct mix will set the hooks in your audience and get them engaged with your content. So don’t waste those first three seconds.
Ron: And guess what? Once you hook ‘em with that first three seconds, remember: you gotta hook ‘em again. And then you gotta hook em again, and then you gotta hook em again. Oh, man, I’m in a hook loop! I gotta stop!
Erik: [laughs]
Ron: We hope you enjoyed this Two-Minute Tuesday content. Guess what? If you want to make engaging content that also hooks your viewership, go ahead and reach out to Chad [Henkel Director of Marketing]!
Erik: Chad’s the man!
Ron: Yep! And remember this: stay tuned for more…
Erik: Two-Minute Tuesdays!