“Branching” is an interactive element that can be added to videos to help make the experience more personalized for the viewer. In a branching video, viewers are given the opportunity to choose their own viewing path based on the feedback they provide within the video itself.
This feature is similar to another interactive feature called “dynamic personalized navigation” since both allow the viewer to have control over their video experience. Unlike dynamic personalized navigation, which takes viewers to different points within the same video they are viewing, interactive video branching takes viewers to an entirely different video based on their responses within the video.
When adding branching to your interactive video, you are instantly increasing your engagement rate amongst viewers. This is because you have the option to require viewers to engage with the video in order to continue their experience. Whether it’s a button, hotspot, or a question, viewers will need to provide some sort of feedback before they can move on to the next video. By having viewers choose their path, you’re able to provide them with more tailored content and call-to-action elements which are critical elements when helping to move your customers through the sales funnel. You can also use the data collected from the responses to be used as audience insights in future campaigns.
With branching, the viewer feels empowered to control their destiny and explore their topics of interest further which leads to higher levels of engagement.
Interactive video branching can serve as an easy way to keep viewers engaged and to encourage them to interact with more of your content. With Mindstamp, you can create deeply personalized videos that guide your viewer through a series of questions to provide them with content that's most valuable to them based on those insights.
Here’s how you can add branching into your videos using the Mindstamp interactive video platform:
*Branching can also be completed by using the hotspot, image, or text feature depending on what interactive feature makes the most sense for your video. For each feature, you’ll adjust the ‘Click Action’ as outlined in step three.
Interactive video branching is just one way to give your viewers a more personalized experience— something that is becoming increasingly important in video marketing. There are other ways to customize your interactive videos such as conditional logic, text-based personalization, and dynamic personalized navigation. However, including branching in your video allows you to stand out against linear videos by giving your audience the opportunity to “choose their own adventure.”
Letting each viewer decide the direction of their video is one of the top 10 Best Practices for Interactive Video in 2021— To see the remaining best practices and learn more tips on creating successful interactive videos, visit The 10 Best Practices for Interactive Video in 2021 or start your free trial with Mindstamp’s interactive video platform to see these video best practices in action.
