The Paradox of Choice
The secret reason making your videos plateau
The Paradox of Choice is highly relevant to YouTube.
→ Think about it for a second: how many times have you logged into YouTube hoping to watch something, but then you keep scrolling and scrolling in hopes of better content just a scroll away?
This happens exactly in your viewers' minds—there are so many videos uploaded with the new Shorts tab, "Videos You Might Like" tab, then you have an infinite number of choices.
Why It Affects Your Channel's Performance
Well, first let's look at your thumbnails. Are they blending into the YouTube homepage and blending with other videos?
If yes - then that's the first reason your videos are underperforming.
Fix it with my guide here: Guide
Now let's look at your video's intro - the most important part for retention.
This is where the viewer decides if they are going to watch your video or not.
Even a Netflix internal study revealed that viewers decided whether to watch a series or not in less than 5 seconds of starting the series.
This is why they started creating action-based hooks, intros, and introduced the skip intro button as well.
As Todd Yellin, Netflix's former VP of Product explained, they realized they needed to "hook" viewers almost instantly or lose them to the paradox of choice.
This applies to almost any video content today.
What Can You Do to Fix Your Retention?
Retention is one of the most important metrics if you want more leads, more booked calls, or newsletter signups.
Because if your viewer is not watching at least half the video, they are not going to book a call or sign up to your newsletter so you can send them sales emails by the shade of value every day.
Here's what to do:
Knock out those boring intros: "Hey guys, I'm Josh."
They don't care about Josh, they care about themselves. What's in it for the viewer?
Include visuals relating to the packaging.
If your thumbnail shows animations, show animations in the hook.
Recite and confirm to the viewer whatever your titles and thumbnails cover.
For example, if you mention "How to Scale Your TikTok Shop," repeat that and tell them the exact methods they are going to get instantly.
And no, you can't get away with uploading raw videos.
They were a trend, and trends come and go.
It's not even about short attention spans - it's about an endless sea of videos and the question: why should the viewer watch YOUR video?
That's it for today's rant.
See you next time, and if you want me and my team to scale your personal brand using these strategies, book a call