In case you didn’t know, video marketing is super-effective and video’s rise to dominance amongst digital content has continued throughout 2018 with forecasts suggesting that 82% of all internet traffic will be comprised of video by 2021.
The time for adopting video is now. However, compared to traditional forms of marketing, video comes with a rather unique set of common mistakes that businesses often make when they’re starting their first video campaign.
The solution? Brush up on your video marketing knowledge by familiarising yourself with the following seven common video marketing mistakes:
1. Lack of Audience Research
Problem: Each and every type, style and genre of video has its own audience demographic. If you ignore this fact then your video will come across as nonspecific and directionless. Failing to know your audience, their likely characteristics, buying behaviours and tendencies will reduce your video’s effectiveness.
Solution: Start by simply thinking about your audience. Key factors to consider include age, gender and industry or job-type. You can gather a significant amount of audience information from your site and social media analytics but there are tools designed specifically to put businesses in touch with their target demographic.
Gut Check It allows you to contact groups of consumers from almost any demographic and Survey Monkey allows for the inexpensive creation of business questionnaires which can be sent out to past or prospective customers.
You can also use sensible audience clues gathered from site and social media analytics to guide your video creation; for example, would your audience prefer a short and snappy fun-type video or a longer, more in-depth explainer?
Useful Search keywords for Audience Research:
- “Like” + [brand name]
- “I wish” + [one of your product features]
- “Love” + [a feature you provide]
- “Detest” + [competitor brand names or product features]
2. Poor Planning and Strategy
Problem: Tightly linked with poor audience research is a general lack of strategy. Many businesses start making video without planning the long-term trajectory of their video marketing plan. The result is a muddled set of videos which lack continuity and a consistent theme.
Solution: Plan your strategy from the outset. Planning your video marketing strategy is no different to planning other aspects of marketing and advertising. From ideation through to end result, plan the type of videos you’re creating, the continuity between them, the methods you’ll use to produce each video and the platforms on which you’ll post them.
As always, it’s best to note everything down in a brainstorm before drawing key objectives and processes up into a proper plan.
3. Not Presenting a Clear Core Message
Problem: Video strategy is closely matched to your intended message. What is the point of your video? Sometimes, this will be obvious. For example, if your video is a customer testimonial then the message is plain and simple but if it’s a more complex overview of your brand, products or services then you’ll need to work out exactly what you want your viewer to take away from the video.
Solution: You often have a limited time to convey your message. Wistia suggest that 2 minutes is the sweet spot for video length and you should try and convey your key message before the middle point.
Secondary to your core message is delivery. If your video intent is product interaction and ultimately increased purchasing then try and avoid an overly sales-y dialogue. This form of advertising is outdated and instead, adverts with storylines are all the rage. This is because they provide value to the viewer – they’re interesting and engaging and do more than just present a product.
“The Last Customer” by Coca Cola is the perfect example of a story-based advert that provides value to the viewer without overtly advertising a product.
4. Leaving out a Call to Action
Problem: When you’ve decided upon a video format, motive and message you’ll need to punctuate it with a call to action. If you create a video and leave out a call to action then it’s less likely that viewers will be compelled to do anything after watching it. You’re leaving money on the table by leaving out a CTA!
Solution: Initially ask, what CTA should you place in your video?
Some common CTAs include:
- Subscribe to your channel
- Follow / Like your Page
- Share with your friends
- Comment on the video
- Check out other content
But where should you place your CTA? Research from Wistia suggests that there are 3 effective positions for CTAs:
- Pre-roll: You could place your CTA right at the start of the video, before the footage starts rolling.
- Mid-roll: The mid-roll CTA is placed between the beginning and end of the video, usually at the point of maximum engagement. E.g, you could place it as an answer to a question raised in your video.
- Post-roll: Post-roll CTAs ensure to target those who have watched your video for the duration. The fact someone watches till the end often insinuates greater engagement and interest and thus, the post-roll CTA provides an exit from the video to your CTA’s page.
Wistia analysed 481,514 video CTAs from a total of 324,015 videos. They found that an astonishing 95.9% of CTAs are placed post-roll. 4% opt for mid-roll and just 0.1% go for pre-roll.
5. Producing Bland or Boring Videos
Problem: One of the main driving factors behind the video revolution is that videos engage viewers more effectively than other content formats. Video is more engaging than text: 4 times more consumers prefer to watch video than read product info in text form and 4 out 5 say that video is important for businesses.
These stats hinge around your video being attractive and engaging. If you create a bland and boring video with an outdated graphical style then it’ll fall by the wayside.
Solution: Broadly speaking, you need to make sure you get the basics of your video right. Proper subject lighting with tungsten lamps, a pro audio track and a well scripted dialogue are essential. That’s not to say that you can’t produce a professional video with a minimum set up, effective lightning rigs can be created out of china ball lampshades, for example.
Modern videography also makes use of exciting 3D graphics, animations and titles. These assets are easily purchased through digital markets, such as Envato, which contains millions of digital assets covering every facet of video production. You can purchase entire templates for editors like After Effects, allowing you to shape your video into something professional with little effort.
6. Posting on Just the One Platform
Problem: A major video marketing mistake is only posting videos on one platform. The disadvantages of this is that your marketing reach will be severely limited. Developing video content requires a significant amount of resource ranging from copywriting video scripts, video editors to designers that all work in unison to create beautiful scenes and stories so don’t waste it all on just one platform.
Solution: The quick and easy solution is to simply share your video content across multiple platforms. However, if you’re looking for a long-term, cost-effective solution it’s recommended that you do your platform research before even making the content, let alone distribution. Audience research is a key aspect to this, knowing who your audience is and their preferred platforms enables you to create highly digestible video content that’s more likely to be shared.
7. Not Optimising Your Video
Problem: Poorly optimised video reduces its searchability, ranking and ultimately, it’s reach. Failing to optimise your video is a silly mistake as it really affects how far your video can go. Once you’ve created your video, skipping this last step is an easy mistake but it really is the last hurdle so jump it with confidence!
Solution: Once you’ve created a video you’re happy with, it’s time to optimise. Both YouTube and Google search through video metadata so you must use relevant keywords across the category, tags, title, caption and description.
Conclusion
Video marketing is relatively new and familiarising yourself with this new form of content will ensure that you can use it for maximum effectiveness. It’s not always about creating super-expensive videos with tons of flashy graphics and Hollywood acting, it’s about squeezing the most out of the resources you have. With a few tactical choices and practical knowledge of video marketing and its associated mistakes, you can position yourself to get the most out of this exciting content format.
For more video and content marketing articles, check these previous Marketing.com.au articles: