Video Thumbnail Tricks for Search Engine Optimization
As any experienced video marketing professional may tell you, an online video is pretty much useless without a thumbnail that engages the viewer. Think about it: what draws you to the videos you watch on YouTube? Along with a catchy title and strong positioning, video thumbnail selection is one of the most vital considerations when directing traffic to your online video content. But just what makes an eye-catching and engaging video thumbnail? We’ve compiled an outline below of some useful tricks that you can use to fully leverage your video thumbnails.
Use the Colors
The quickest way to improve your video thumbnail is to ensure that the colors featured are rich and engaging. A video thumbnail that is largely a neutral color like white, black, or grey simply doesn’t say anything about the content to potential viewers. It represents a missed opportunity. Therefore, you should endeavour to select an image that features rich colors that make your video “pop” in the eyes of your target audience. However, remember that the majority of humans find colors like yellow and bright neon hues as somewhat unpleasant on the eyes.
The next level of effort optimizing the colors of your video thumbnail is to research the page that your video will be appearing on. Look at the web page where you intend for your video to appear. Identify the colors, especially of the background. Then leverage this information to ensure that your thumbnail fits the theme but also stands out. A quick search on google for color combos can give you some great ideas.
Finally, as any good marketer knows, colors also inspire emotions, thoughts, and mindsets. The entire field of color psychology is committed to understanding what ideas color inspire. Using your video thumbnail, you can prime your audience with the best mindset in which to approach your video content.
Harness the Power of Faces
The human face is a powerful tool for non-verbal communication. We instinctively engage with people when are looking at their face, and especially when we make eye contact. This effect extends to our online content. Therefore, a quick and simple trick to improve the effectiveness of your video thumbnails is to prominently and clearly feature human faces in the images that you select. You might think that this is difficult since it can be challenging to find a frame from the video in which the featured individual has a neutral expression. However, this is actually an advantage. If the featured person is in the middle of speaking, chances are that they are also expressing their message non-verbally. Moreover, while you are scrutinizing the options for the video thumbnail, your audience will only give it a cursory glance before either clicking to view your content or scrolling past. As such, a blemish or weird facial expression is immaterial.
Avoid Text
Most of the time, using a video thumbnail with text is less than optimal. Why? When you put text in, say, your new corporate explainer video, the first concern is making it legible. Your video producer must ensure that the text color, size, and font lend themselves to being easily read. Now, when you take a frame with that text and shrink it down to 5% of the size, chances are that your text will become illegible. Moreover, an illegible text tends to be uninteresting and bland to look at. As such, it simply adds no value as a thumbnail. Instead, you should endeavour to enhance your video’s online placement by avoiding text in favour of more compelling and informative content.
However, if you must include text, ensure that is so small or otherwise illegible in the thumbnail image that it is clear to the viewer that it is not meant to be read. If the text can be read with difficulty, then you are compelling the viewer to exert undue effort before viewing your content.
Spark Curiosity
One of the most powerful human compulsions is curiosity. A viewer knows that if she does not satisfy her curiosity when it arises, that it will persist and grow in the future. It has a capacity for inspiring focus in your target audience. Moreover, curiosity will lead your audience not to only to click on your video absentmindedly but to pay close attention to your content in order to satisfy their need for an answer.
You can drive this curiosity by using an image that shows something that is one way or another outside of its natural state. For example, when a viewer sees an overturned car, their first reaction is to wonder how it ended up on its roof. Then, they develop a list of potential answers to this question. Finally, they will arrive at an explanation that she deems is most likely, and feel compelled to discover if they guessed correctly. This compulsion then leads them to closely watch your video to satisfy that curiosity, and therefore you have an engaged and interested audience!
Comment below and let us know what kind of video thumbnails you find most effective?
