Creating compelling video content for a company is an excellent way to reach an audience and promote engagement. Coming up with video content is also a useful marketing tool, and can make a difference to an audience. Remember — to a consumer, a marketing video is a reflection of the brand (just ask us during our free webinar training). To get off on the right foot when implementing an effective video marketing strategy, here are 7 mistakes to avoid in video marketing.
1. Not addressing your target audience
It’s essential to target your audience, which is why Business Collective recommends double checking to make sure that’s what you’re doing in your marketing videos. Figure out who you are targeting and focus on that select group of people.
Sure, you have products and services that can benefit a wide audience. However, your video will be more effective if you focus on one point and don’t cast too wide a net. Different people have different pain points. You need to decide which ones you want to address. Remember, when you try to speak to everyone, you speak to no one.
The Fix: Focus your message on a specific and well-defined target audience.
Entrepreneur adds to Business Collective’s thoughts by stating that one of the biggest mistakes companies make is creating videos without truly understanding their audience. So if you don’t know your audience well enough, take the time to learn about them before putting together some videos.
In order for video marketing to be successful, you must know your audience. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to start creating videos without a good grasp on their audience's interests and tastes. Try gathering as much information as possible about your target audience. Do they enjoy short videos or in-depth explainers? Do they use YouTube, or are they more of a Vimeo crowd? This info is essential for your video marketing strategy.
2. Cutting corners
Are you cutting corners to get the job done? Forbes says not to do that because it could backfire. If you can’t afford a certain video format, wait for a while. Whatever you do, don’t push out a video that looks and sounds horrible because it’s a reflection of your company.
Some startups are quick to cut costs when it comes to quality elements such as animation, or storytelling, which would elevate the final video piece. “Thinking that as long as their product is good, everything will work out okay, is a mistake.” Blasco warns. “That’s just wishful thinking.”
Online, people have no other way to form an opinion about you and your products than through the quality of your content. There are no lovely storefronts or personal one-on-one conversations.
“From your website to your videos, every piece of content you put out there acts as a reflection of your brand. Put a shoddy video in front of your audience, and any distaste it causes will likely be transferred to your brand and products,” he concludes.
3. Not sending a clear message
After you figure out your audience, Entrepreneur mentions how important it is to send a clear message. If at the end of the video your audience doesn’t understand what your point was then it was a waste of everyone’s time. Carefully think about what you want to say before filming the video.
This comes down to two mistakes mentioned earlier — not knowing your audience and the lack of a strategy. You need to have one or two takeaways from the video to ensure that the message doesn’t get muddled. Videos need to be short and tightly focused. Don't try to tackle too much in one video. Each video should focus on one topic, question, task, process, etc. If your videos lack focus, break them up into separate videos.
4. Too much content
Forbes says there’s such a thing as having too much material in your video. Remember that an audience has a short attention span, so the shorter the video, the better. Stay focused on your idea and try to deliver it as quickly yet effectively as possible.
Video marketing pieces tend to be notoriously short. Some would point to the audience’s shorter and shorter attention span, others to the information overload we’ve all been exposed to. The fact is that nearly 75% of marketing videos are under two-minutes in length, and there's only so much you can cover effectively within that timeframe. “Trying to cram as much information as you possibly can on a single video is a mistake that ends up backfiring nine times out of ten. Blasco advises, “When in doubt, specificity and a clear focus on a single idea are the way to go.”
Business Collective also mentions paying attention to how other people have done their marketing videos. If the video doesn’t grab you in the first several seconds, then it needs to be improved. Keep this in mind as you put your marketing videos together.
How long was the last online video you watched? Thirty seconds? Maybe two minutes? Research shows that 20 percent of people click away from a video within the first 10 seconds if it isn’t engaging enough. Plus, the more time you add to a video, the less likely people are to finish watching it.
The Fix: Keep it short, sweet and to the point. About 60-90 seconds is the magic length.
Similarly, TAR Productions mentions being specific about what you want to share as well. You can’t possibly cover everything, so don’t even try to cover it all. Cover what you can and stay specific. It’ll be a lot more useful for an audience.
Don’t try to share everything you know in just one video. It’ll overwhelm the audience, and they won’t watch the video all the way through. No one likes information overload, and you’ll see that reflected in your average drop-off rates.
Solution: Stick to one main point in every video – remember, you can make more videos later. It’s great that you have a lot to say, as this means you’ll be able to keep up a consistent flow of videos. Don’t limit your future video creation opportunities by forcing all of your material into a single clip. More videos means a greater opportunity to invest in a solid distribution strategy and reach more customers.
5. Posting it only in one place
Do you plan to post your videos in more than one place? Facebook and Instagram make seem like obvious places to post it, but don’t forget about other social media channels. Get creative and get your video out there across all platforms! Entrepreneur explains more about why this is so important below:
One major mistake businesses make on a regular basis is posting videos in just one place. This simply isn’t going to earn you the reach you need. Many people have this idea that making money and creating traffic happens from a single url, like magic. While there are occasions where a single video just magically goes viral, for the most part businesses have to put real work in to spread the news. Don’t just post on YouTube and forget about it. Post on Facebook. Share it on your other social platforms. If your video is under a minute, you can post it to Instagram.
6. No Clear Marketing Strategy
Similar to not having a clear message as we mentioned on #3, having no clear marketing strategy, according to TAR Productions, is also a bad idea. Develop an effective plan and stick to it — how it performs depends on it.
A clear video marketing strategy includes several different components:
A simple, one-line statement that summarizes: The type of video you want to create, the target demographic for the video and the takeaways you want the audience to leave with.
An understanding of the topic, as well as how you’ll use your video to further your business goals (e.g. facilitating internal training, marketing a new product or supporting the sales department).
An outline of who will create the content. If you have a strategic production partner, make sure to document who is involved and what their responsibilities and requirements will be. Or, if you’re using an in-house team, break down each step of the production process and note each person that will be involved along the way.
A clear guide for where you’ll distribute the video.
An understanding of how you’ll measure the performance of the video marketing campaign from start to finish.
Solution: Take a few hours – even a few days, if necessary – and use them to create a clear strategy. That way, after your clip is completed, you can evaluate your efforts based on the above criteria and implement any necessary changes in your next video marketing campaign.
7. Expecting instant results
Some people’s videos do take off right away, but Business Collective says not to get discouraged if it takes a while to gain traction. You may need to get more traffic to your website first or post it on social media more regularly to get the word out. Stay patient, and you should get more and more views.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. This same mantra can be applied to video marketing. Very rarely do videos go viral. And when they do, most of the time it’s because of an established social media presence.
The Fix: Understand that a good video marketing strategy requires consistency, dedication and patience.
Producing marketing videos are powerful when you intend to help people learn more about your site, blog, or products (or all three)! Not making these mistakes can help you succeed and continue to make other effective marketing videos in the future. Share your thoughts in the comments below as to what else you can do to create useful videos and join us for our next free webinar training.
Sources: Forbes, Business Collective, Entrepreneur, TARProductions
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