If you are building an app, you are going to want to build an app trailer, a video that tells your app’s story, that quickly convinces a potential user to quit stalling and click the Get/Buy link.

Lots of thoughtful advice here. One piece in particular that clicked for me:

You’ve probably seen YouTube pre-roll ads before. At the bottom-right, there’s a “Skip in 5… 4…” button that acts as gatekeeper until the timer hits zero. For mediocre ads, this wait time is excruciating. Every once in a while, you might run across a commercial that’s so interesting, so weird, so mysterious… you just have to keep watching.

The people who made these commercials knew they were battling the 5-second skip countdown, and you should think the same way. The rule of TV and YouTube ads definitely apply to app trailers: whatever you make, it needs a strong hook within the first 5 to 10 seconds.

Your app trailer is your elevator pitch. You have a limited amount of time to convince your potential user, so focus on quickly laying out the benefits of your app, or else make video so compelling that they’ll keep watching through to the end.