I lit a candle

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I’ve got a framework that I want to share with you about how to craft an effective hook for YouTube.

Check out this graph…

That is one of my best-performing videos in terms of audience retention.

Sure, it has a slow decline throughout the video, but all this is a moot point when the views are good.

But regardless, a 75% retention rate through 30 seconds is nearly god-like.

In that particular video, I did something very unique that I got from watching Ed from FilmBooth (now CreatorBooth)

At the start of the video above, I lit a candle.

Yes a candle… and doing that immediately opens a curiosity gap that lingers for the entirety of the video.

I had seen another person in my space doing something similar,but he was forgetting an important part of the open gap that lighting the candle creates…. the CLOSING of the gap.

So at the end of this video, I blew out the candle.

I learned two things from this video…

1. The sooner you can stop people from leaving your video, the BETTER your retention will be.

2. making sure people stay throughout the intro is more important than retention for the rest of the video.

Number 2 is particularly interesting because think of your own experience when watching YouTube… Once a video has “convinced” or “hooked” you to keep watching, you turn your phone to full-screen and let it ride.

That is what we need to do.

You do that by asking questions, introducing interesting statistics, and beginning your story better.

I shared one of my favorite books for storytelling yesterday, so be sure to check that out.

How are your “hooks” going? Have you started your channel yet?

Chat soon,
Chris Myles