Let’s face it, these days the so-called attention age deficit is in full swing.

In fact, with each passing day, I’m presented with more and more – not to mention longer – videos to watch (and to distract me).

I’m sure you are too.

And that’s not a bad thing, necessarily.

Problem is, the more time we spend watching, the less time we spend doing, right?

The old saying "Knowledge is power" is flat-out wrong!

The correct statement is: "Applied knowledge is power."  With the obvious emphasis on "applied".

But there’s a Catch 22 to the process of acquiring and then applying such knowledge – TIME.

Watching multiple, increasingly longer videos every day, even on super-important, business-building topics, is a major time-sucker.

And often, after watching one or more of such videos, we find ourselves NOT going out of "passive mode" and into "active mode".

Clearly, that’s counterproductive to our growth.

But there is a way that we, as marketers and product creators, can mitigate that effect – at least the time-sucking aspect – for our customers.

It’s actually quite simple.

When we create videos, create them in a format (or formats) that allow the viewer to adjust the speed of playback.

Kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it?

Most of us know from previous instruction we’ve received or even from personal experience and observation, that we as humans are able to "process" verbal information at a rate two to three times as fast as the average speaker can deliver it.

In other words, our uptake is far greater than the average speaker’s output.

I have little doubt that if you’re reading this, you’ve been subjected to viewing a video that just seemed to drag on and on.   If you’re like me, it actually demotivated and de-energized you, so that by the end, you were considering taking a nap!

So why not allow our customers and viewers the option of mentally uploading the information at their own pace?   I mean, heck, they can always rewind or replay it if they missed or want to review anything.

My preferred player for viewing online videos is the native Windows Media Player, that plays videos in the WMV format.

As you can see in the lower left (sort of), it has some handy playback speed adjustment controls.

Here’s a close-up of the actual playback speed controls.

So, when I play back a video, especially a long one, I increase the speed to between 1.4 and 2.0 of normal playback.

I’m sure the time savings to me adds up to several hours each month.  Hours that I can spend doing, rather than viewing…

Yes, it’s true that some videos sound a bit "chipmunky" when they are played faster than normal.  But most are still quite discernible and it’s easy to get accustomed to the faster pace.

So, aside from telling you to limit the length of your videos by editing unscrupulously, I also recommend you produce your videos in a format (there are others besides WMV) that gives your customers the option of faster playback.

And when you produce a video product (even free stuff) with such a built-in option, tell your potential customers about it in your salesletter!  You may be quite surprised about the reaction you receive…and quite likely the increase in conversions you experience.

In part two of this short series, I’ll cover another simple adjustment to "business as usual" that I’ve only seen two people do.

Will you join them to serve your customers better?…