We all make mistakes. But when it comes to areas such as marketing, even small mistakes can end up negatively impacting your business or organisation. So how can you put your brand in the best position to make fewer video marketing mistakes going forward?
We've seen (and made) our fair share of video marketing mistakes, in everything from pre-production to filming, editing and distribution. In this post, you'll learn about 11 common video marketing mistakes, and why (plus how) to leave them behind as we enter 2022.
We are going to start with a big one: creating video content without first having a clear video marketing plan. This may sound like an obvious mistake to some readers, but it happens frequently enough that it needs addressing. Simply put, without a plan, you cannot expect to get measurable results from your video content.
So what do businesses need to include in a video marketing plan? First of all, you need to consider the purpose/goal of the video content. Typical video marketing goals include lead generation, brand awareness, increasing engagement, getting conversions, and improving customer understanding. While defining your goal, think about the message you want to convey and to whom.
In turn, having a plan will help to ensure that your video marketing efforts get the right results for your business.
Speaking of plans – we hate to break it to you, but 'going viral' is not a realistic goal for your video content. Sure, there are certain things you can do to give your video a slightly stronger chance of going viral. But at the end of the day, whether or not your video ends up going viral is largely out of your control.
Chances are, other video marketing goals are both more relevant and more achievable for your brand than virality. Rather than getting your video watched by as many people as possible, consider aiming to get in front of the right people. In other words, focus on reaching your target audience. The views you get from them will count more than random views from people uninterested in your company.
A call to action (CTA) is an instruction to the audience to act in a specific way. When you forget to include a clear CTA in your video, you miss out on a vital opportunity to get viewers to perform the desired action. This leaves viewers in suspense, as they don’t know what action to take after watching the video. So to point your audience in the right direction, add a clear CTA at the end of your video.
https://youtu.be/ACb52vD3F_I
Note how the above video for Bloomfield Sustainable Solutions ends with a call to get in touch, followed by an email address and a phone number for viewers to use.
Here are some more examples of effective video CTAs:
Of course, driving sales or conversions is a popular video marketing goal. But consumers don't want to be aggressively sold to. An overly promotional video comes across as desperate and unauthentic.
Instead, your video should be about connecting with your audience and addressing their wants and needs. Above all, remember: show, don't tell. For example, rather than talking about the features of your product or service, show viewers how it can benefit them. Storytelling is a great approach for this, as it can also establish an emotional connection with your brand.
One of the key benefits of video marketing is increasing brand awareness. In order for this to happen, your brand needs to be present in your video. Unfortunately, many companies forget to actually brand their video content. Don't be like them.
We are not suggesting your brand has to be the star of your video (unless you're making a brand film). Rather, it means incorporating elements of your brand into your video content. Think tone, visuals, colour scheme, fonts, and graphics or animation style. You will also want to familiarise viewers with your company's logo, so be sure to include that. If in doubt, consult your company's style/brand guide.
No matter how good your video is, most people don't have the time (or attention span) to watch 10 or so minutes of video content from a brand.
Because of this, the films we produce tend to be 1-3 minutes in duration. Any longer and you risk boring people or turning them off your content. Of course, this rule has its exceptions. Some video types require a longer run-time, such as training videos, demonstrations and tutorials. But if your video initially turns out quite long, consider turning it into a series of short and digestible videos. Or think about whether you are packing your video with too much information. As well as affecting the video length, too much information can overwhelm viewers.
Also remember that if you want people to continue watching your video, the first 10 seconds are crucial. Don’t waste too much time on a long and complicated introduction. Instead, jump straight into the action and give viewers a reason to stick around.
This mistake can cause serious damage to the reputation of your business. After all, would you trust the quality of a company that publishes low-resolution, shoddily-made content? No, you would rather go with a company that cares about the quality of what it shares. So don't compromise on quality.
This doesn't mean your video needs to have a Blockbuster-worthy production (or budget). You just need a good quality camera or screen recording software, a decent external microphone and great lighting. To ensure you get professional-looking video content, you can hire a video production team to do the important work for you.
Accounting for a soundless video experience can no longer be an afterthought. This is important for accommodating people who are deaf or hard of hearing – and also for consumers in general.
According to a survey by Verizon, 69% of people watch video with the sound off in public places. Also, on social media, videos tend to autoplay on mute. This means that accounts have to rely on visual content alone to engage users to continue watching.
So how can you account for this in your video content? One obvious option is to provide captions and/or transcriptions for your video content. Some video sharing platforms automatically create captions for videos. But these are not always accurate.
If you think SEO is mainly for websites and text-based content, you are mistaken. Because if you want people to organically find and watch your video content, you need to optimise it for search engines. Video SEO includes everything from having a keyword strategy to optimising your titles, descriptions and even thumbnails (see point 10) for driving organic search engine traffic. And by search engines, we don’t just mean Google, Bing and so on. In fact, YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google.
Do you post your video content on YouTube? (If you currently don't, now might be time to start – see point 11.) Check out our list of 12 tips for improving YouTube SEO.
Sure, most platforms will automatically generate a thumbnail for your video. Since this does not require any effort on the part of whoever is publishing the video, some companies will simply let the platform do its thing. But this can result in thumbnails that look dull, blurry and unprofessional.
So if you want more people to click on your videos, you cannot rely on auto-generated thumbnails. After all, thumbnails are often the first thing people see before deciding whether to watch a video.
Set yourself up for success by reading our guide to creating custom video thumbnails.
Last but certainly not least is the mistake of only posting your video in one place. Distribution is a core part of any video marketing strategy. If you have quality video content, then it deserves to get seen by as much of your audience as possible. So many digital platforms and services allow users to post and share video content. Here are some examples of places to post your video:
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