If You Want Clarity And Authenticity In Your Video Marketing, Don’t Use Retention Editing.
Retention editing is a style of video editing that prioritizes keeping viewers engaged at all costs. It’s characterized by fast transitions, jump cuts, and a constant barrage of visual and auditory stimuli. Think MrBeast or those hyper-kinetic cooking videos that flood a teenager’s social media feeds, like this:
It works for MrBeast
While retention editing can be wildly successful for certain types of content, it’s often a poor fit for service professionals looking to build trust and authority through video podcasts and clips pulled from them for social. In most cases retention editing is used to maximize views instead of conversions.
This is a legitimate strategy for someone like MrBeast who relies on, for example, YouTube ad revenue. However, for someone focused on conversions – like a business using a podcast as content marketing – retention editing sacrifices speaking to our ideal audience for speaking to as many people as possible outside our ideal audience.
Paddy: “They don’t actually convert.”
Paddy Galloway is a top YouTube strategic who’s behind a lot of success, like MrBeast, and he knows that maximizing views has that cost to it:
I go into channels, and I try to maximize views. I try to take channels from a 1,000,000 views a month to 10,000,000 views a month to a 100,000,000 views a month. Sometimes that objective might be, hey, we actually have a niche product that is actually more focused on the more hardcore, really focused viewers in this niche. So expanding out broad doesn’t actually do much for our bigger business. The data shows they don’t actually convert because they go so broad.
– Paddy Galloway, the world’s top YouTube strategist, on Creator Science ep. 209
Here’s why retention editing isn’t a fit for the work we do for our clients:
- It sacrifices clarity for flash. Retention editing prioritizes keeping viewers’ eyes glued to the screen, which can sometimes mean sacrificing a clear and concise message. For service professionals, clarity is paramount. Your audience needs to understand your expertise and the value you offer.
- It undermines authenticity. The high pace of retention editing can feel artificial and manipulative, and is a turnoff for listeners seeking genuine connection.
- It prioritizes entertainment over substance. While entertainment has its place, service professionals should focus on delivering valuable content that educates and informs their audience.
What do we do instead?
Instead of retention editing, service professionals should focus on creating content that is clear, substantial, and really shows off your personality, expertise, and brand voice.
Now, maybe there’s someone out there who’s brand voice is loud, fast, and aggressive like retention editing. But “retention editing” as a philosophy often sacrifices too much of someone’s brand for more views, and those views are rarely from our ideal audience.
There is a philosophy regarding content marketing oft repeated on The Business Reboot Podcast: when someone consumes your content then meets you in real life, they should be meeting the same person.
Going off-brand in your content can have real business consequences. Your podcast is an extension of your professional brand, so ensure the media editing style used in your content reflects your values and resonates with your target audience.
Build relationships that drive action
Our clients build authority through the strategic, genuine content that Rooster High provides direction for alongside editing and publishing. While we don’t use a retention editing approach, we do shorten podcast episodes and polish them in various ways, or for our Podcast Minis (video clips in a podcast style) we might bring a great “hook” that our subject said to the beginning of the clip, to draw people in with real interest.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes post documenting some work with did with Leslie Gordon, PhD, a speech and accent coach:
If you know the strengths of podcasts and a genuine, goal-driven approach to content is something you know is worth spending the marketing budget on, reach out to me and we’ll see how we can work together.