Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop. right there. Are people dropping like flies on your YouTube videos? What
if I told you that there is one easy thing that you can add to your videos that will make people
stick around and actually watch them? Well, stick around because in today's video,
we are talking all about YouTube intros. So right off the bat, what is a YouTube intro? An intro is
something that you include at the beginning of your YouTube video. And it helps explain what
the video is about. This is a way of orienting the viewer, so they know exactly what they're getting
themselves into. And this is actually what the majority of YouTubers get totally wrong and it
sets their video up for failure. One of the most common problems that YouTube has have is
the dramatic fall of audience retention during the first 30 seconds of their YouTube videos.
And the reason why intros are so important is because if you have a great intro, people are
going to stick around. People sticking around means that you have longer audience retention
and YouTube likes longer audience retention, because that means people are sticking around.
They're watching more videos, which means they're seeing more ads,
which means that Google or YouTube is making more money. It all comes down to the money.
"Oo hoo ho! Money, money, money!"
So if the majority of your users are dropping in the intro, that means they're not actually
watching the video and YouTube doesn't like that. As a result, your video,
isn't going to get promoted as much in search results or in the browse features,
which means overall that people aren't going to find your videos that you spent
so much time working on. So some common mistakes that I see in YouTube intros are
intros that don't actually tell you what the video is going to be about. Instead,
the person starts off talking about themselves, introducing themselves. You got the classic:
"Hey guys, welcome back to my channel!"
Raise your hand if you're guilty of doing this intro. (Aca-awkward!) It's because those intros
are so common here on YouTube, that a lot of people think that that's what they have to do
to be successful as well. But the problem with this intro is that it doesn't actually tell us
what the video's about it. Doesn't get to the point. So it wastes a lot of time at the
beginning of your video. And if someone's wanting to get into the meat and potatoes of your video,
and you started off with that, then they're probably going to leave. If
they've never heard of you before, or they don't know who you are,
and maybe they've never actually been to your channel before, they're
Going to say this. "OK, this person's not for me."
Other common mistakes that I see are too long of branding bumpers. You know,
those little intro packages that are so fun and they have your name and they have some cool music
and some clips. If those are way, way, way too long, people are going to bounce. Because again,
you're not letting them know what the video's about instead, you're just promoting yourself.
So if you're talking way too much about yourself in the beginning of your videos, that is a no-no.
And then right along with this, another common YouTube intro mistake that I see is rambling.
Just talking and talking and talking and talking, and you're not actually getting to the point.
Ideally, your intro should be anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds long, anything longer than that,
you need to nip it in the bud and get moving with the content purpose of the intro is to let people
know what they're in for what they're going to see what they're going to learn and then to get to it.
All right. Now, it's time for that one thing that can add to all of your videos, that's going
to make people stick around and watch your videos. And this magical element is called a hook. What is
a hook you ask? A hook is something that you add to the beginning of your video that hooks or grabs
the viewers attention. If you imagine a hook like a fish hook, once the hook is in the fish, it's
very difficult for the fish to get out of it. And that is what we're wanting to do with your intros.
The intro is so captivating. It's so memorable. It's so engaging that your viewer doesn't want to
go anywhere. They don't want to bounce. So this hook needs to be at the very beginning of your
video. And there are a variety of ways that you can do hooks to get people's attention.
For example, you can ask a question, you can share a strong statistic or fact, you can have a bold
statement or declaration. You can bark a command at the viewer. You can ask a what if question or
even have your video start en media res, which basically what that is is you take
a very interesting part of your actual video. And you put that at the very beginning of your video,
sort of like a teaser. It's like you're dangling a very juicy tidbit in front of them. And
right before you give it to them, you take it away. So that way they're incentivized to
watch the video because they want to know what happens at the end of that clip. These are
just a few hooks scenarios. There actually are way more. And I go way more in depth
teaching how to use each one of these in my signature program called the VidBoss Academy.
It teaches you all the steps to start and grow a successful YouTube channel.
So if you want to become a hook master, be sure to go to morganstradling.com/waitlist. So that way
you can be notified as soon as the doors opened up again. And after your hook, it's a good idea to
let people know what they're going to get in this video. You may have actually already done that in
the hook, but if you haven't just quickly recap, Hey, in this video, we're gonna talk about this,
this and this, or you're going to learn this. A lot of great intros are structured in the problem
and solution format. So you need to know what is the problem that me as the viewer am struggling
with, or I want to know. And then what is the outcome that this video is going to teach me? Now?
It doesn't matter whether this is an educational video or a vlog style video. You just need to
let people know, Hey, this is what brought you here. And this is what you're going to find out.
These different elements of the intro needs to happen very quickly, because at this point,
your viewer might be getting a little bored and we don't want to give them that opportunity.
So hop into the material just by including a hook into your YouTube videos is going to drastically
increase your audience retention time. That drop-off, that most people see at the beginning
of their YouTube videos. That is not going to be you the, let me know in the comments, which
of these hook methods you are going to use in your next video. Bad intros are one of the most common
newbie mistakes. And so while you're at it, check out this video where I talk about a few
other newbie mistakes that you definitely want to avoid. Are you guilty of doing them? Well,
you better check out that video just to make sure. Think of your viewer as a fish and your
hook as a fish hook. And if you hook...this is the dumbest analogy. It's not a bad analogy,
but like this... Thing. Yeah. Okay. No, you really
Need to move it on over.
That's all I got.