We’ve been doing a little experimenting lately and have turned up some pretty interesting results regarding what works and what doesn't. So let’s look at the main ingredients you need in a video AND the one thing we’ve found that works for us and could work for you too.

1: Get under their skin

We’ve covered this one in more detail here. But this is pretty much the core foundation of any marketing.

The more you know about the people you want to reach, the bigger your chance of success.

Let’s break this down a little.

Let’s say you’re a radio station that only plays Abba. What kind of people do you think that might appeal to? Well first off you’ll want people who like music. But that’s a pretty broad church. For example they might be big into speed metal. So Dancing Queen isn’t going to be for them.

So, let’s look a bit deeper and target people who like music from the 70’s. That might get you a little closer to people who like Abba. You could target fans of the Mamma Mia movie or musical. The Eurovision Song Contest may also be a good way in. People of a certain age who were around when Abba were at their peak?

So you see how this works? The more you know, the deeper you dig, the better chance you’ll have of finding the right people.

2: Get emotional

If you can get into the head of your viewer with a topic they’re really struggling with, or something that they will really benefit from. They are more likely to pay attention. Then if it’s really good. They will want to share it with like minded people.

BUT it really does have to be all about them. Find out what they want (step 1) then press their emotional buttons to make them react.

Example: We do a lot of work with musicians. These people are really keen to sell tickets to their concerts. If we posted a video that gave them tips to help them achieve that easily do you think they’d be interested? We did actually do that. We got over 13 thousand views and picked up a lot of new followers ... from people in the music industry.

3: Get to the point

Your viewers are fickle.

If you don’t give them what they want and fast. They won’t hang around. That is unless you’ve proved yourself to be super valuable to them before.

But let’s assume you’re at ground zero here. You have to hit them between the eyes and the sooner you can do that the better. More on that later.

4: Get visual

It is video after all. The first thing that will make people stop scrolling is what they see.

Plus when you consider that over 85% of us browse social media on mute, visuals are all you have left.

So you’ve got to do something visual that makes them stop scrolling. Once you’ve got their attention you’ll need to hit them with what you’ve promised, make it visually interesting and leave them wanting more.

It's also worth pointing out here that video production quality on most channels is getting better. That means if you’re video isn’t visually stunning you’re less likely to grab attention. Go look at some of the most successful vloggers on YouTube and you'll see what we mean.

5: Get optimised

Once you’ve done all of that (and not before) you will need to consider what your social medial channel of choice actually wants from you. Well, we can tell you that.

They want you to keep people on their channel for as long as possible. Then they stand a better chance of selling stuff through advertising. So that means they are much more likely to show your video to more people if it does well with a smaller audience of your followers first.

They also want your videos to be in the right aspect ratio, some captions so the 85% not listening know what you’re going on about and maybe a thumbnail image.

Then you’ll need to play into the algorithm.

That’s the secret code the boffins cook up to determine what to show to who. So understand how hashtags work, what needs to go into the text accompanying your video, what time to post it and how to react to people who take an interest.

The gold dust

Once you have all those elements in place you will stand a much higher chance of getting a high volume of traffic to your videos. But there is one other thing we’ve found to work really well.

What you do in the first five seconds of the video can have the potential to make people stop scrolling or, if you’re on Instagram and make it to the discovery page, it will make them press play.

Remember, these people will not be listening so your impact needs to be a visual one.

We always use captions to our advantage with our short form videos. Often we’ll change the font size or make words bolder to highlight key words or phrases. But the first words that appear on screen can often have a big enough impact to encourage people to hang around.

So think really hard about the words that come out of your mouth first and how they’re going to look on screen.

For example:

We shot a video recently highlighting the need for musicians to use text when they upload videos of them performing (because nobody listens as you now know). We started that video with the phrase ‘musicians are making a big mistake on social media’.

So far that video has been watched over 14,000 times and we picked up over 20 new followers purely from that one video. Not bad huh?

Our video that started with the words ‘this is going to come as a bit of a shock’ did pretty well too with over 12,000 views to date.

Oh and let’s not forget the video where I had parcel tape over my mouth the entire time. Over 25,000 people seemed to like that one (my wife watched it on repeat).

No one fix

In order to go viral or stand even half a chance, you will need to do several things in varying quantities and even then it may not work. There is a large sprinkling of luck involved too of course.

The other thing to consider is why you want to go viral in the first place. But that's a whole other blog!

Want to learn some more?

You'll no doubt be aware that, as well as making videos, we love to teach you how to make your own.

We hold many training days where we come to you and help you learn any aspect of video making or video marketing that you need to get you to the next level.

These days are bespoke to you and you can even invite a bunch off friends or colleagues over to share the cost. Click on the button below to see how our coaching works.