The only constant about video marketing (and marketing in general) is that it’s always changing. We’ve watched the share of people who are watching videos on their mobile devices (vs desktops) steadily increase over the past few years.  We’ve adjusted to take advantage of different screen sizes and resolutions.  Today we’re talking about not just where they are seeing your content, but HOW.

Most of the people viewing your content on their mobile device are watching with the SOUND OFF.

As a company that focuses heavily on quality audio, this stings a bit.  We know that audio is more than half of the story.  A well-edited voiceover or interview, combined with just the right music can capture emotion like nothing else.  But how do you capture that emotion when the listener can’t even hear the message?

Stop the Scroll

First, we start with strong visuals.  Throughout your entire video, we use video content that will advance the story you’re telling.  For as much as is possible, we try to show, and not just tell, your message.  In particular, we focus on the visuals in the first few seconds of your film. Our goal here is to capture the viewer’s attention and stop the scroll.  We try to put a strong hook at the beginning of each of our films. Get them watching your video and invested in the content. At this point, some viewers will choose to click the sound on.

Captioning Your Video

We’ve also started delivering some captioned video content. Captions can be a great way to connect with viewers who choose to leave the sound off, as well as those who are impaired and cannot hear your audio.

Some platforms have built-in transcription options for your video.  We’ve been particularly happy with the auto-caption options when uploading a video to Facebook.  It does a good job, and you can edit your captions to correct any mistakes.  The editing process is a bit tedious, but having incorrect captions is worse than having no captions at all, so make the time to review and edit if necessary.

Branded & Captioned Content

We also started experimenting with a new format on some of our video shorts: Branded and Captioned content.  We next your standard size video (1920×1080) within a square box.  We add captions in the space below your video so that none of the visuals are covered by caption text, and can use the space above and below the video to provide a static source of information. Popular choices are a logo and web address, descriptive video title, quote, or review.

This static information means at the very first glance, at any point in your video, the viewer will know what the video is about, WHO the video is about, and how to find more information.

Next week we’ll talk about some other options on clarifying your message through video: how you incorporate text with graphics and design to enhance or as a substitute for voiceover/interview content.  Be sure you’re signed up for the 304 Collective newsletter so you’ll get that notification right in your inbox!