Video marketing mistakes are all too common.

There’s no doubt that video is king when it comes to effectively conveying a message to the desired target audience. Video is engaging, effective and it’s a medium that people actively seek out. 

However, there is a proven science to effective video marketing. It’s not something that will just work if you don’t do it properly.

There are a whole list of common video marketing mistakes that we’ve seen other make. And they’re all avoidable.

 

MAKING A VIDEO WITHOUT A PLAN

It’s super important that, when making video content for a marketing campaign, you have a clear plan and clear objective.

What do you want the video to do? Are you trying to recruit? Are you looking to increase footfall into your store? Drive sales on a particular product? These are all things that you need to identify before starting to make a video.

Don’t just making a video for the sake of making a video. It won’t do anything for you and it’s a waste of time and money.

 

CHOOSING THE CHEAPEST QUOTE

We get it, times are hard and marketing budgets have taken a hit.

But one of the biggest mistakes we see from video marketers is choosing video partners purely because they had the cheapest quote.

The view is often that the expensive options are a bigger risk because there is more investment on the line.

When in reality, it’s the cheapest options that are the biggest risk because it’s more likely to go wrong.

If it’s cheap, then there’s a reason it’s cheap. They may not have the necessary experience (and they know it) or, even worse, they could be under-quoting to win the job with the view to add extra costs when you’re already tied in.

Fast, Cheap, Good. You can only pick two, which would you like?

 

MAKING THE VIDEO TOO LONG

A recent study from Microsoft shows that people’s attention spans have dropped to just 8 seconds. Partly due to how the internet has conditioned our minds.

What this means for your video is that it needs to be as short as possible. We usually recommend somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds, depending on the content and the usage.

If you’re making marketing videos that are over 4 minutes, people just aren’t going to watch it all. Would you?

How many times have you been on YouTube, seen an interesting video, but not watched it because it’s too long?

Short and sweet. Always.

 

 

CONFUSED MESSAGING

The temptation is to include as much information as possible in your video. But the reality is that this will do more harm than good.

By cramming too much information into a video, you’re diluting your message and your viewer will switch off.

Would you rather have five weak messages or one really strong message?

Focus on one key message, keep the video on target, and include a call to action.

If you have more than one message to get across, you’re better off making more than one video.

 

EXPECTING INSTANT RESULTS

Successful video marketing is an ongoing effort that brings results over time. Instant video marketing success hardly ever happens.

Even when it does, there’s a lot of planning, exceptional SEO practices, and complex strategy that goes on behind the scenes. Not to mention a big slice of luck.

They are often also a bit of a flash in the pan and don’t give you much longevity.

At the end of the day, creating great video content for your business is a marathon and not a sprint.

 

CHOOSING THE WRONG VIDEO PARTNER

Choosing a video partner that lacks the experience and expertise to deliver effective video content is, by far, the biggest mistake that video marketers make.

Whether you like it or not, your customers will see the quality of your video as a direct reflection of the quality of your business.

Quality isn’t just about how it looks either. Cameras capable of shooting a nice image are becoming cheaper all the time. Meaning that just about anyone can get their hands on one.

You can have the nicest looking video, with all the cool transitions, but if it’s made by a company who don’t have the necessary industry experience, then it’s worthless to you.

 

 

NEED A VIDEO CONTENT PARTNER? JUST HOLLER!

At Holler we have over 10 years of experience in creating engaging and effective video content for companies large and small.

Trusted by the likes of BP, Dell and Oracle, we’ve got a proven track record of producing video marketing content that actually works.

If you’ve got a video marketing campaign on the horizon and you need a safe pair of hands get in touch today.