Did you know there are two hooks in every video? Crafting these hooks are INCREDIBLY important if you want to keep your viewers watching. If you’re losing viewers, this might be a reason why.

Coach Spotlight – Blake Rice

But first, I want to introduce you to Blake Rice. He has been a YouTube strategist on our team for quite awhile now and has been helping coach creators in Video Labs as well as consultations. But now that he is joining the podcast, I wanted to share a few things about him.

Blake loves analyzing titles and thumbnails and has mad photoshop skills. Which makes sense, considering he went to school for animation. He lived in Australia for 3 years, but is now living back in his home country of Canada. (Eh?)

Want to chat with Blake yourself? and he’ll give you a personally tailored growth strategy to take your channel to the next level.

Hooks

Hooks are more important than creators think. We spend a lot of time pouring over content and hooks are something a lot of people underestimate or just leave out completely.

If they are missing or just poorly constructed, it will lead to abandonment. So make sure you are giving them the attention that they deserve.

Common Mistakes

1) Inserting Call to Actions

Call to actions have no place in a hook. Don’t tell people to like, subscribe, comment or go to your website in your opening seconds. That is the opposite of grabbing a person’s attention.

2) Loooooong Hooks

Any hook that is longer than 15 seconds is way too long. Sometimes we come across “hooks” that are a minute or longer. These are unbearable. People are going to skip or abandon your content if it is too long. Can you do it in 5 seconds? Even Better!

With the popularity of short form content, you have to catch people quick or you will lose them completely.

3) Repeating the Title or Thumbnail

If the title says “How to make a Hamburger.” Don’t open your video by saying, “Today I’m going to teach you how to make a hamburger.” They already know that. That’s why they clicked!

Instead, show them why they need to stick around and actually watch this video, opposed to someone else’s. And I said SHOW – not tell. If you can ever show instead of tell in any part of your video, do it. But it’s especially important in your hook.

4) Branding

You do not need to open up your content with a branded spot. Especially if you are trying to reach a new audience, this branded spot isn’t going to mean anything to them. Instead, it will probably turn them away.

Anatomy of a Good Hook

Teasing not Telling

The point of your hook is not to tell what is going to happen in your video. You are wanting to teasing what to expect. You are trying to keep the momentum going from your title and thumbnail. Build that intrigue even further. The point it not to give everything away but

Keep it Short(s)

We are seeing hooks last about 5-10 seconds. It depends on the niche and the audience but if you’re going over 15 seconds, it’s definitely too long. It’s hard to keep any intrigue building for any longer than that.

Don’t forget that YouTube Shorts also need a hook. But these are (you guessed it!) even shorter. 1-3 seconds max. Look in your analytics to see the “swipe rate” of your shorts. What percentage of people actually stayed with you and who just swiped on?

Also, whenever you can in your shorts, line up your hook with the very last second of your video. Creating a loop gives your viewers such a sense of satisfaction and makes people want to watch it over and over. This is really interesting to watch especially with how-to channels, but even if it’s just you talking .

Visually Build off your Title and Thumbnail

If your thumbnail has a picture of a cheeseburger, start with an actual cheeseburger sizzling on a grill or you taking that first bite and reacting. If your audience is coming for the cheeseburger and your video opens to you sitting on your coach, people feel like they are in the wrong place.

Audibly Bring Them In

What kind of music can you use to draw them in? Or maybe it’s the sound of the grill? Can you make them hungry right off the bat?

Can you make your viewer feel scared, intrigued or happy? If you can elicit any emotion immediately, you’ve got them hooked. Hollywood does this all the time. There are plenty of videos out there with the wrong background music and it changes everything. ()

Storytelling

You can totally tackle storytelling in your hooks. In just a few seconds you can answer the questions:

  • Who is the character?
  • What do they want?
  • Why can’t they have what they want?
  • What is at stake if they can’t get it?

This can all be answered in a few seconds. and does this well. Presenting all of this quickly draws people in and builds that intrigue.

These stakes don’t have to be high. It can be something like, you lost Pictionary last week and you really want to win this week. It could be just because your viewer will miss out on eating this live-changing burger if they don’t make this recipe. (Have I ran this burger analogy into the ground yet?) Small stakes are actually often more relatable and affective at drawing your viewer in. The mom who can’t fold the laundry because her kids won’t stay in their beds for nap time is super relatable. (Especially for us that have had more than a few…)

The Second Hook

Every video has two hooks. One at the beginning and one at the end. The second hook is all about drawing your viewer into the call to action. This is often drawing them into the suggested video that will play next.

But no matter what your call to action is, avoid the use of ending language. You really never need to wrap up your content…ever. It feels wrong, but it’s keeping your viewers engaged. Never say the words, “And so…” Anything that follows this probably going to tell your viewer that the video is over. Instead use the word, “but.” “This burger was amazing, but this steak is going to blow your socks off. Watch this to find out how to make it.”

Power Tip

YouTube has new analytics! If you go into YouTube Studio and go to the audience tab, you will see that they are testing a new card called “top formats watched on other channels.” The categories are videos, shorts and lives. Before, you could see videos that your audience watched. But now, you can know what types of content your audience is drawn to so you can maximize that.

Keep changing lives!

Tim Schmoyer

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