“Get more views, increase engagement.”
Easier said than done, right?
Not everyone is interested in watching your videos or will randomly click on them. We don’t mean to be negative, but there’s a lot of competition. Engagement can make or break your chances. If you're not careful, it can be the death of your social media career.
You are up against 207 million content creators in the world!
There’s lots of work to do.
Let’s cut to the chase. We’ll share your secrets on how to create engaging video content.
What Happens If You Make Engaging Videos?
It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, where you live, or anything. If your videos aren't engaging, nobody will check them out. People have a short attention span. If you can't reel them in within the first few seconds, they will likely not stick around for the rest of your content. Nobody can say what makes a video genuinely engaging. Every content creator or publishing house has their formulae. You have to find what works for you. But there are key elements in every video that makes them engaging.
It's easy to fall into the trap of recycling old video content or repurposing previous posts repeatedly. That's why you need to come up with a variety of content. The more engaging your content is, the more likely you will get more views and clicks. You will notice longer watch times per video, and people will start to pay more attention. They will stick around and watch since they are emotionally connected. You will also get more detailed comments, and your viewers will express their opinions. When your videos become more engaging, they will be shared across various online platforms.
This is not limited to YouTube; your videos can be shared across X, Instagram, TikTok, and other websites. If your videos are engaging, users will embed them in community forums and share them as notes. So, yes, when your videos are engaging, there will be signs, and you will notice them.
Types of Engaging Video Styles and Formats
Popular video content types can successfully convert your audience. Below are the top ones.
Music Videos: Music videos can go viral. They can portray various themes, animations, sounds, and special effects. Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Justin Beiber, and many other celebrities have all cashed in on this. Gangnam Style is a great music video from which to draw inspiration. It garnered over 1 billion hits! We never expected it to reach the global stage, but then it happened.
Podcasts: You can reserve podcasts for moments when you can’t invest heavily in post-production. Keep it simple with clean, solid backgrounds and typography. Just add timestamps throughout the video to keep your viewers on track. They will probably play your podcast in the background and tune in from mobile devices.
How-to Videos: How-to videos are exactly what they sound like. They teach your viewers how to do stuff. You can cover basic things in it or make complete video guides. What matters is you walk them through the process step by step. How-to videos can be formal or informal, depending on your subject matter. Your approach will vary depending on what kind of video you're making. But it usually works, and these guides are conveniently shared across social media because everyone runs into issues that need solving.
User-Generated Content: User-generated content is the king of video engagement. When your users talk about their experiences, and you share them online, they prove that what you're doing is right. It can be testimonials, product reviews, or just users sharing experiences with your brand and their personal stories. You don't necessarily need to have them talk about your brand, but the themes they cover can be tied to your products and services. The goal here is that someone is talking and raising awareness about the matters people are concerned about but don’t voice. That’s the magic of user-generated content. The public relates to them.
Vlogs: Vlogs can take your viewers behind the scenes and give a sneak peek into your daily life. If you’re trying to forge personal connections with your viewers, vlogging is a great way.
7 Pro Tips on How to Make Engaging Videos
Here are seven pro tips on how to make engaging YouTube videos (or videos that go viral for any online platform and are shareable!):
1. Know Your Audience
Engagement is not rocket science. You cannot truly understand engagement without talking to your audience. The first step to video engagement is asking your audience questions. These questions can be specific or straightforward, such as about their favorite products, days, challenges, etc. A tried-and-true way to ask your audience questions is to use question stickers in your Instagram stories. You can also ask questions directly in your videos and tell them to post their answers in the comments.
Once you understand your audience's wants, you can craft your video script accordingly. You can in and be content with their sentiments. When your viewers encounter that video, it will speak directly to their internal dialogues. This will create a powerful connection and a sense of relevance. It will give your videos that "aha" moment or the "wow" factor, as the content will match their desires, intent, and aspirations.
One of the best examples of this is the Tupperware ads of the 1920s. The ad started with the slogan "Less Work, More Leisure." This slogan instantly connected with viewers, as the target audience was busy women seeking financial freedom. Try out crazy content video ideas or tracks that have yet to be explored by others. Don’t hesitate to think outside the box, like Apple did.
2. Use Striking Imagery and Visuals
This goes without saying, but visuals speak louder than words. Nobody wants to bother reading a text, but give them a picture, and they will instantly process it. Videos are one of the fastest ways to hook your audience's attention. If you want to know the science, you'll be glad to learn that the human brain processes images 6 to 600 times faster than text. We are, by nature, visual creatures. We can say that without a shred of doubt.
The good news is you have plenty of options for making striking visuals in the age of AI. You won't lack in that area. You can use Video Fusion by ModelsLab to create engaging videos. You can go from text to video with just a few prompts. The key thing here is being creative with your prompts and specific.
If your prompts are too vague, your outputs will also be unclear. AI technology is evolving, but we are still not there where AI can predict our thoughts. So, we must guide these tools to generate the content we want. If you are not careful, AI video content can be penalized by search engines and online platforms. That is why user input is key. We recommend fleshing out your initial ideas and filling in the gaps with AI-generated video content.
How do you do this? Come up with scripts. Write your dialogues—record voices.
Make basic placeholder animations or insert elements to guide AI models throughout the process. Upload them as raw recordings or files, and then start prompting. This will fine-tune and impress your results. It will also guide AI into creating curated content and adding personalization rather than just pumping out generic results. If you have any visual references to share, collect, and organize, get to work on them.
3. Focus on Sound
Excellent sound quality is a must for any engaging video. If you are narrating a script, speak slowly and clearly. Invest in a high-quality microphone and position the device correctly. Choose the correct type of microphone and use a pop filter. You can Edit your voices using a sound production tool like Adobe Audition. Reduce the extra noise in your videos and avoid echo. If you can control your audio environment, then that's better. Ensure you use high-quality audio editing software and remove background noises to make your audio crisp and clear.
You can use an AI audio generator if you don't have the option to record. Audiogen by ModelsLab will let you upload your voice recording samples and scripts. So, whatever new sounds or audio you generate, the tool will do it for you. You can translate your audio into multiple different languages. You can change vocal attributes like pitch, tone, reverb, volume, and playback speed. You won't always get the perfect environment for recording your audio. If you work in noisy environments, it can be challenging to capture high-quality sound. During times like this, AI audio generation APIs are invaluable. They also save you a lot of money. Since you don't have to hire speakers for your scripts, all you need is a few samples of voice recordings, and you are good to go. You can clone and recreate celebrity voices with the ModelsLab Audiogen API.
The same can be said for your background music. While purchasing copyright-free or royalty-free soundtracks online is a good idea, you can also use Audiogen to generate background music for your videos. High-quality voices and background music are essential to making engaging videos. Your viewers will not be interested if the visuals are good but there's no audio to back up the content.
You should also use speech-to-text transcription software to convert your voices into texts. If viewers have hearing disabilities or cannot listen to your soundtracks, they can at least read the text on the screen. Closed captions and subtitles can help you achieve this in your videos. This will boost engagement by making your content more accessible to a broader audience.
4. Make It Interactive
You can make your videos more interactive by adding quizzes, clickable hotspots, and using branching techniques. You can issue challenges in your videos and give rewards for completing them. It will make your audience more likely to share your content. Granted, you need a budget for this, but you don't have to issue any expensive challenges. MrBeast might be one of the most extreme examples, but you can do more minor things or things on a smaller scale, like prize giveaways or rewarding your viewers for referring others to your videos.
You can add video buttons to redirect your audience to any website. Clickable CTAs can be used to craft a choose-your-own-adventure experience. You can also embed many interactive elements in your videos.
Again, check the platform that allows embedding these elements. For example, you can add stickers on Instagram, but YouTube might not offer as many options.
Interactive videos can create tailored experiences and customize the content more. It makes your videos more enjoyable for each viewer and opens up new possibilities for storytelling.
You can also highlight elements throughout your videos to guide viewers through the viewing experience. This will ensure that your viewers cannot lose track and follow along. Branching videos are a good way to diversify your content. You can split a video into multiple segments and add links for every segment. Your viewers can click on those links and watch those subtopics individually. All those segments together can make up your whole video. And you can have a video summarizing all these segments near the end.
This makes your content more digestible and easy to approach rather than overwhelming your audience with too much content. A good example of an interactive video redirects the viewer to another page. For example, if you are making a video about selling shoes, if the user clicks on the interactive element, they will be redirected to the product page for purchase.
5. Use AI to Speed Up Content Production
You've got the recording process down and already use AI-generated voices in your content to speed up your sound production. What if we told you you could improve your editing workflows with AI? You can save time on time-consuming and laborious tasks such as masking, color correcting, and adjusting your videos' tones, hues, pacing, and levels.
You might also spend a lot of time denoising and deburring your footage and undoing unnecessary pixelation across different parts of your clips. AI video editing tools can significantly save time, speed up workflows, and streamline creative processes. It will give you more bandwidth and room for exploring innovation.
You can better express your ideas and let your thoughts flow freely. Translate them into visuals and showcase them in your content. Granted, it's an investment, but AI video editing tools can dramatically speed up the rate of your content production.
You will also need to hire fewer staff members for your video editing team. Instead, you can have a senior editor oversee your production process and let these tools do the rest. AI video editing technology is also getting smarter, so we can expect dramatic improvements in the future.
Good things are definitely in store.
Video Fusion by ModelsLab is an emerging tool in the current trending industry. You can use it to create deepfakes in your videos. For example, you may have a character in your film and want to add more players.
You can prompt Video Fusion to create deepfakes and insert them into your content. If you have any image or video samples for the faces, you can use them to develop deepfakes in your videos. If you have any image or video samples for the faces, you can use prompts to specify the body size, weight, dimension, age, and other attributes. ModelsLab can use your face image samples to generate hyper-realistic deepfakes for your videos.
You can also use 3D Verse by ModelsLab to generate 3D assets and models for your clips. These AI tools are helpful for editing and asset generation, and they assist you with placing different video elements or artifacts in your content. You can create props and objects, add custom environments, or remove backgrounds. A scene maker will soon help you extend or make new video scenes.
6. Be Genuine, and Don’t Fake Stuff
Your viewers can tell when you're lying or faking, so don't try to sell yourself too hard. Instead, be authentic in your videos. Tell personal stories and focus on building trust. It's okay to be yourself. Feature real people from your organization and select scenes carefully.
Communicate a clear message. Instead of focusing on the benefits of your products and services, consider your viewers' mindsets and connect with them. Talk about what interests them. Speak to the camera and smile.
It's not just about you; it's about them. If you remember that, you will be well on your way to success. If unsure what to discuss, you can analyze your audience demographics and see what conversations are trending. Find out what your viewers are looking for and respond to their searches. If there are any important matters that people are discussing in your industry, you can highlight them in your content and share your perspectives. These vlog audience interaction strategies will help you out.
7. Render It Right
Even the best engaging videos won't be good if they appear choppy or rendered correct. Rendering is an essential phase of the video-content-making process that most content creators get wrong. If you render too large file sizes, you won't be able to upload these clips on online platforms. You'll end up compressing your videos and that could create choppy or poor quality footage. Ensure you render in the correct format and optimize the resolution of your video clips. YouTube works well with 720p HD and 1080p videos.
4K videos are suitable for large TV screens, but not everyone watches videos on TV these days. Many viewers view your content on mobile devices, so please consider that. A good idea is to make sure your videos are mobile responsive. Thus, optimizing them for 720p to 1080p resolutions usually does the trick. WMV and MP4 formats work best. You can use QuickTime media format, but there could be compatibility issues.
Disable RAM Preview (video preview) when you render your videos because it could lag your software. You can find this option in your settings in Adobe After Effects, but other video editing suites will have a dynamic RAM preview feature. Also, stick to 30 FPS for the frame rate. Don't make the bitrate too high; it will create large file sizes.
Your clips will be watched by viewers with less stable internet connections or those who connect from different parts of the world. So, to make your content accessible, you must also optimize it for their viewing convenience.
Here are some tips for rendering videos smoothly:
Render shorter chunks in lossless format and concatenate them
Render the video first and then merge your audio later. This can reduce your file size and get your output right.
First, convert your videos into a format suitable for editing in your editing suite. This can also speed up the rendering process, as your software doesn’t have to consume extra RAM to read your files. Then, render those videos in the same converted format (that you used for input) to speed up the output process.
Conclusion
These are our best tips for creating engaging videos. Remember that these are ideas; what ultimately works for you depends on experimentation. We have also covered enough various video and vlog audience engagement techniques to keep you coming up with new ideas. Just do some research.
Also, pay attention to your viewers' comments because they are user-generated. If they respond to your videos or reply, making follow-up videos and continuing the content stream is a good idea. So there you have it—that's how you make engaging videos. Good luck with your content, and happy creating.
While you’re at it, try out ModelsLab APIs today!
FAQs
What kinds of videos engage a lot with viewers?
Reaction videos, follow-ups, videos that show vulnerability, and your authentic self usually do well. The human factor matters. Also, if the topic is very interesting or trending, you can get away with making your videos simple. If you create 3D animated videos for engagement, your time will be much more. Webinars and how-to guides are simple since all you do is demo the product/record your screen, and narrate.
Why should I use AI tools to create engaging video content?
While AI won’t generate fresh ideas, you can use AI tools to speed up your workflows. You can brainstorm ideas and scripts with AI. Use it as your assistant. The more creative you are with your prompts, the better the outputs. However, times are changing, and we are seeing dramatic shifts in the software landscape. Try Video Fusion and 3D Verse by ModelsLab; you’ll know what you’re discussing.
How often should I upload my video content?
Aim to make at least one video per week. Make it high-quality and authoritative. Don’t make videos to pump out content; your viewers can see through them. Be genuine, try your best, and follow a consistent posting schedule. Check what hours of the day and night your viewers are active on platforms, and schedule your uploads around those times for maximum engagement.
How do I know if my videos are engaging enough?
People will talk about them, and you’ll get a lot of reshares, likes, and comments. Track your video KPIs and audience demographics. You can see how your videos perform using Google Analytics and similar tools. Also, speak keywords that are trending or ranking high in your videos. That’s a good tactic to get your content noticed or crawled by search engines, including video-sharing platforms like TikTok and YouTube.