Are your talking head videos not getting the engagement you’re looking for? The value might be there, but you’re just not getting the clicks, the views, and audience engagement.
Let’s talk about the top 5 reasons why your talking head videos may be falling flat and how to fix them. We’ll discuss essential tips and tricks to keep your viewers engaged and improve your on-screen presence to increase your watch time on your platforms.
Whether you’re a content creator, marketer, or just someone looking to enhance their video production skills, this guide has you covered. Don’t miss out on the chance to level up your talking head video game and boost your online success!
Transcript
Hi, and welcome back to the channel. Today we are talking about why talking head videos sucks. Specifically, you’re talking head videos, they may be fantastic, but I’m guessing if you’re here and you’re searching this particular topic out, you recognize that there’s a reason you may not know what it is. But there’s some sort of reason out there that you’re talking head videos are not drawing views or they’re not landing the way that you’d like them to. So today, the top five reasons that your talking head videos do suck and how to fix them. Let’s dive in. The first is a reason that you hear me talking about all the time and that is a lack of energy, I would say hands down.
Mistake #1: Lack of energy
Number one, this is the biggest mistake people make when they are getting on video and they are communicating if you come across as if you are monotone or disinterested or timid or scared or trying to look small, your audience will also become disinterested, they will feel and pick up on the awkwardness that you feel. So the key is making sure that you ramp up your energy. Even if you don’t feel confident it’s going to make you look confident and it’s going to make your delivery and therefore your videos all that much more engaging. For most people, it’s about a 25% increase. If you want some more information about how to dial it up and what it feels like, check out this video.
Mistake #2: Framing and lighting
The second mistake that I see a lot of people make is with their framing and their lighting. Now there’s not a one size fits all rule for framing. So we’re gonna jump into that in just a second. But first let’s talk about lighting which is pretty standard. What it means is that you have to have enough light on your face that your audience can see your eyes.
There are lots of big names who create video content in the business world out there. Gary Vee is one of them who really sort of likes Chuck’s all the rest of the rules. But you will notice that in every single one of his videos, he has good lighting, you can see his face unless maybe somebody else shot it or you can see his eyes.
But if he shot it and one of his team members shot it, you are going to get a good clear view of this area. And the reason that’s so important is because we make a lot of connections with eye contact. And if you’d like to know a little bit more about how the brain and eye contact connect and why it’s so important, you could check out this podcast episode right here.
However, at the end of the day, it’s really all about having nice full light on the front of your face. A lot of people think that if they’re not loving the way they look, or maybe they like to have a few more wrinkles than they’d like to or they haven’t had their Botox lately, dim lighting is going to help that it is not dim lighting actually accentuates that problem.
So if you have full lighting on your face, you’re killing basically two birds or more with one stone. Now let’s talk about framing. It depends a little bit on the format of your video. Is it a horizontal video or landscape video like this one that’s used for YouTube? Is it a square video such as one that you might see on LinkedIn? Is it a vertical video you might see on Instagram reels or tick tock or YouTube shorts, I’m gonna give you the play by play for all of them the rule of thumb anyway and recognize that there’s always a little bit of leeway.
Any person who’s good at video will tell you it depends. But here’s a rule of thumb when you are shooting in a horizontal format like this one, you are going to want your framing to be sort of like mid chest to head for the most part again, talking head video. If you’re demonstrating something on YouTube, it’s going to be difficult to be this close and demonstrate it whether it’s yoga, how to fix a car, how to bake a cake, whatever talking head video, this sort of framing allows the audience to look into your eyes.
Now if you are doing something for Instagram reels or for tick tock or something like that framing it like this is also okay, but generally speaking, if you can show a little bit of a wider shot, and what I mean by wider is not a lot of dead space on the side. But if you can show a full body shot if you will almost head to toe for whatever reason that sort of framing is more engaging for the most part on tick tock or Instagram reels. It also allows you to use your hands and to show your hands so that you can gesture in a way that’s natural for you. That helps bump up your energy and it all sort of begins to come full circle.
Mistake #3: Weak audio quality
Number three is weak audio quality. Now I know that this sounds pretty basic, but here’s the deal. A lot of times it’s not that it’s staticky or anything like that. It’s that the audio is hollow and that the audio is tinny or echoey. And I will tell you I’m not perfect at this because sometimes I want to create a video and I want to create it very quickly. If you are looking for great microphones that you can use to enhance the quality of your audio. You can find them on my VIQ Academy Gear Starter Bundle, which you can find information for right here.
Generally speaking though, when you’re creating video for your website, let’s say that’s a durable video, that’s something that you’re going to want to be there for quite some time, which means that you are going to want to have a higher production level, there is some elements of audio that can be fixed in post production in edit, especially if you are outsourcing that particular elements of your video and content creation. However, it does take longer, and it’s going to cost you more. So when you’re creating a video for social media that’s top of funnel, it doesn’t have the same durability, but it is going to be if you’re doing it correctly, most of your audience’s sort of first connection with you first date, if you will, their first touch of awareness.
Mistake #4: Lack of structure and organization
And so you want to be firing on all cylinders. You want to make sure that they can hear you because if it’s staticky if there’s a buzz, if it sounds echoey, or tinny or hollow, subconsciously, we are more likely to tune out consciously, we recognize that it looks a little bit sloppy number four is about a lack of structure and organization.
Generally speaking, I don’t create a full sort of menu script that’s centered on my blog topic, I will create an outline. I will talk about key points or write those down if there are specific statistics PS statistics are never very compelling and talking head video, so try to avoid them at all costs. If I do you have to drop the key numbers something I’ll make sure it’s in my outline. So I know what it is specifically that I need to talk about.
But for most people just winging it is not a great idea. It’s easy to ramble, which makes post production more difficult. It’s easy to get convoluted and sort of in the weeds, you want to make sure that your videos are easy to follow and understand. And for most of us, that means that we need to have a general idea of what we’re saying, why we’re saying it and how we’re going to illustrate it. So have at the very least an outline.
Mistake #5: Neglecting visual engagement
Number five is neglecting visual engagement. Now you might be saying to me, or thinking Kerry, this is a talking head video, right? It’s not all about products and features and showing the cake or the fast car on the road or whatever it is, and you are correct. And there was a time not that long ago right around the beginning of COVID.
And a couple of months in where video content and Tik Tok were beginning to really escalate Tik Tok was much less curated than, for example, some of the other platforms like Instagram and we sort of recoiled at overly produced video because we automatically associated it with somebody trying to sell us something that’s not really the case any longer video use and understanding and knowledge about has grown so much. Over the past few years, the digital landscape has gotten so noisy that a little bit of visual engagement has actually come to be quite appreciated and which doesn’t mean that you need to have full scale video production.
But you will notice that on these videos there are even though it’s basically talking head video, there are some visual effects meaning we push in we take nap on the shot we wait now, there are thought bubbles or there are gifts or animations going along the bottom and there are little figures or bullet points that sort of underscore or highlight the key points of certain videos. That’s what I mean by visual engagement especially important in long form Tik Tok and instagram you can still get away with doing talking head videos and doing a couple of stickers and maybe some captions.
But if you’re doing a longer form talking head video, having that additional visual effect is super helpful and keeps people engaged and keeps them watching clearly through to the end. And there you have it with these five elements you will make sure that your talking head videos are performing the way that you want them to aka they don’t suck so a lot more that goes into delivering on camera video content creation and distribution.
If you have questions, let me know in the comments. Don’t forget to like and subscribe and I will see you in the next video.
