"Does it matter how long my final video is?" This is a question from Lindsay Brown.
Well, I think it depends on what sort of video that you're making. If it's what we'd call an
introduction video -- which is something you often have on the homepage of your
website, something to show people around and introduce them to your business -- you want to keep
it short. 1 to 2 minutes is absolutely adequate.
Any more than that and you risk them them not watching it to the end. That means that they
won't get to your final call to action and the whole point of the video may be lost.
If it's a demonstration
or maybe some more technical information,
then they can be longer. Maybe 3 to 5 minutes.
Really, the shorter the better. Anything you can cut out will make a difference.
What tends to happen is that when people -- or before people -- commit to watch a video on
YouTube or on your website,
they will look at how long it is.
If it's 8, 10, 12 minutes, they're just simply not going to watch it,
because they're not going to dedicate that much time.
So the shorter the better. Say the important stuff and leave the rest of it out.
I think really, in 1 to 3 minutes, that's the ideal
range for most videos.