Intro or no intro?

[captainzurple]

In my experience, I've always seen intros taken negatively. I've never had an intro myself, but most of the community finds it as "annoying", "too-soon-advertising", etc. Maybe instead of having an intro, find your own personal lingo you can say at the beginning of each video that's unique to you. Outros are always cool too, so you can promote your content at the end. People generally receive that much better since they can simply click off of the video if they don't want to watch it.

 

[tiktokchanz]

I prefer to have 5 - 10 seconds intro and 20 seconds outro as well on my videos. In the beginning, I didn't use these but after a month, I realize that I need to add some creativities for my contents. So I think you should add it to give it more appealing looks for your audiences

 

[KnowledgeVoyage]

I think an intro is an important part of your brand. Viewers come to associate the intro with your channel and it helps it stand out.

 

[wchap001]

I think an intro is an important part of your brand. Viewers come to associate the intro with your channel and it helps it stand out.

I dont think so. I feel like I dont need an into and I have a retention rate greater than 60 - 70% on most my videos. in all honesty, I usually skip intros from other channels causing me to skip around. Then again, I am kind of different vs other channels but tons of huge names never use intros. just a basic introduction at most and that is it

 

[HiEnergy]

My instructional screencasts usually have a 8 seconds long intro showing my logo and the video title.
During the intro a part of the final result (my videos are about music creation) plays.

 

[Simpsonthego]

I have been debating an intro, but the main thing about it is, how do you come up with a good idea for an intro? Obviously it needs to be catchy but also can't be cheesy otherwise you'll lose the viewer faster than not having an intro at all.

 

[AntsDeKing]

No intro is a better idea having an intro can be too long at times but having one can be appropriate for things such as a traveling channel or pets or things like that!

 

[ThriftyAV]

The positive to having an intro is branding. The negative is that it ONLY provides branding.
The two big mistakes with intros are
1) Leading with it. Get the audiences attention with a cold open teaser first.
2) Making it too long. YouTube viewers tend to be impatient. A long open will annoy viewers who click past it or click off your video entirely.

Check your audience retention graph. If your open is losing viewers, you will see the drop off.

 

[2xTREME]

Lovely ppl with lovely answers!! That helped me out too..I have a 7 secs intro and i have see in analytics that ppl do skip over that bit..So i think 2-3 secs intro or not an intro..But ofc depends on the content

 

[DinosaurAli94]

A while back I started to add a short (2-3 second) intro to my videos, but someone pointed out to me that I shouldn't do that. Now I have started to doubt myself, what do you guys think? (the video in my signature does not have that intro).

I actually really like the first 11 seconds of your video from your signature video as an intro - short, sweet and introduces your content well