5 Video Marketing Mistakes You Must Avoid
Video content marketing has become a buzzword in the last couple of years. Considering the rise in video consumption, most businesses are actively investing in video marketing to support their marketing goals.
In fact, the latest video marketing statistics suggest that 52% of businesses are creating videos to educate their target audience about their products. And, 88% of companies admit that videos are an important part of their marketing strategies.
Videos are the most popular content formats that can rightly capture the short attention span of the viewers. It can be repurposed across various digital channels and expand your potential audience. It offers the best medium to showcase your products as well as build your brand identity.
However, there are certain mistakes that businesses make that can hinder their chances of success in video marketing campaigns. Here are some of the most common video marketing mistakes you need to avoid, along with some tips on how you can prevent them.
Mistake #1: Ignoring the Target Audience
Creating a video that does not target the right audience is the biggest mistake in video marketing. It creates an imbalance between your product offerings and customers’ expectations that could result in failed video marketing campaigns.
Every target customer has certain pain points or challenges and they are looking for answers to address those particular questions. Creating video content that you think your audience might need rather than the ones that your customers might actually want is a bad practice. Your audience might not even view the video let alone engage with it. Hence, it is essential to consider your target audience and their concerns before actually working on the video.
Here are some tips to help you get started.
- Create buyer personas representing your ideal customers. Consider the demographics, job title, industry, pain points, and the purchasing process when building your buyer personas. This will help you create more compelling videos for them.
Here is a sample buyer persona template you can use.
- Conduct simple keyword research to understand what your target customers are looking for. Monitor the search traffic for those keywords and accordingly plan your video strategy.
Martin Seeley, CEO of Mattress Next Day says, “If you ignore your target audience, you miss out on attracting potential customers to your videos and ultimately to your brand. It will not reach the right people. Further, it will add on to the risk of making your offering irrelevant to the customers it is meant for.”
Mistake #2: Neglecting Video SEO
SEO is no longer confined to blog posts, articles, and websites. Videos are rapidly jumping on the bandwagon. Search engines need some content for crawling and figuring out what your video content offers. It also needs to check how your video content relates to the search queries. By neglecting video SEO, you are missing out on various SEO benefits that would certainly affect your video reach and engagement.
Here are some video SEO tips that you must follow for every video.
- Incorporate keywords into your video titles and descriptions to improve their search visibility.
- Design a captivating thumbnail using a combination of engaging pictures and text.
- Transcribe each video and add closed captions to make your video accessible to everyone.
- Add timestamps to your videos and break your video content into small digestible sections. This makes your content more accessible to search engines.
Here is an example of a Google search result depicting how timestamps are displayed.
- Host your video on a third-party video hosting platform like Cincopa and embed the same on your website using the video’s URL. This will improve your website performance as well.
Chase Hughes, Founder of ProAI says, “You can boost the visibility of your videos by adding them to relevant pages on your website. This way, you ensure that your video content ranks as the original YouTube video in Google search results as well as the webpage that contains the embedded video. Further, your website visitors will be able to engage with your video content through this webpage.”
Mistake #3: Overlooking the Call-to-Action
A call to action (CTA) is a set of instructions you give to your viewers directing them to the next steps. Not including a clear CTA will leave them confused. They would not know what to do after they finish your video.
Never assume that your viewers will take the right action. Instead, tell them exactly what to do next and eliminate the confusion. Give them clear instructions. Whether it is checking out your website, signing up for your newsletter through a signup form, or making a purchase, ensure that your video has a distinct CTA.
Check out this video published on YouTube by Hello Fresh. Although the video is short, it distinctly informs the viewers about the action they must take.
Embed Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRyi0_hDrxs&t=21s&ab_channel=HelloFreshUK
Write a simple CTA, devoid of any technical jargon. Use words like ‘now’, ‘today’, or ‘right away’ to create a sense of urgency and convince viewers to take action immediately. Add visual elements or cues around your CTA text to grab your viewers’ attention.
Alex Taylor, Head of Marketing at Digital Signage NYC says, “You ought to keep your CTA relevant to your video’s content. For instance, if your video is explaining certain features of your product, your CTA could be ‘Learn more’ or ‘Get Started’. Similarly, if your video is about a limited time discount offer, the CTA content could be ‘Avail Now’.”
Mistake #4: Poor Video Quality and Production Values
The success of video marketing heavily depends on the quality of your videos. Some of the common video production mistakes that most businesses make include bad lighting, poor sound quality, shaky footage, poor branding, and so on.
Publishing low-quality content leaves a negative impression of your brand on the minds of your viewers. In fact, 67% of viewers have admitted to developing a negative perception of a brand if their video quality is not up to the mark. And, 23% of new customers would stop buying from a brand producing poor-quality videos. This further impacts your video engagement strategy.
Here are a few tips you can follow to generate high-quality videos for your business.
- Invest in the right quality equipment for shooting your videos. If you are a beginner, you can go for your smartphone camera or a DSLR.
- Record your videos in ambient lighting areas. Go for natural lighting if possible.
- Invest in a versatile microphone to record audio without any disturbances. Remember sound quality is as important as video quality.
- Utilize Cincopa’s suite of video advertising software and ready-to-use templates to create professional videos for your business.
Damian Grabarczyk, the co-founder and growth marketer of PetLab Co., says, “In updating our video content’s production values to reflect PetLab’s high standards better, we hit a pivotal moment. Initially, our videos didn’t reflect the excellence our pet wellness brand stands for, affecting how pet owners perceived us. To bridge this gap, we invested in higher-quality visuals and storytelling, directly aligning with what our audience expects from a leading pet care brand. This shift not only enhanced our brand’s image but significantly increased our social media engagement. This strategic enhancement led to a noticeable rise in followers, crossing a million on platforms like TikTok and Instagram and significantly lifting our conversion rates. It proved that quality video content is not just about aesthetics; it’s pivotal for growth and audience trust.”
Mistake #5: Ignoring Video Analytics
Last but not least, failing to analyze the performance of your video marketing campaigns is the worst mistake you can commit. Measuring your video marketing performance is important as it helps you understand what type of videos or which video marketing strategy is working for your brand and which is not. Video marketing success goes way beyond hitting a certain number of views on YouTube.
Utilize video analytics to understand what your viewers want (and like). Some of the important metrics to track include –
- Viewing time
- Drop-off points
- Conversion rate
- Subscriber growth
- Video engagement – likes, comments, and shares
Cincopa offers integrated video analytics tools that monitor the performance of your marketing videos and give solid insights on the engagement and drop-off points. It also shared detailed analytics about how your viewers behave while interacting with your videos. Leverage these insights to identify the areas of improvement and revamp your video content strategy.
Saba Mobebpour,CEO of Dropshipping Categories says, “In our video marketing campaigns, we analyzed how many viewers were watching our videos till the end. Measuring attention span data helped us gauge the ideal length of our videos, its audience, and engagement better.”
Conclusion
Video marketing is an effective medium for business promotion. By avoiding the video marketing mistakes we mentioned in this post, you can leverage this versatile marketing medium to reach your desired customers and grow your business.
Cincopa offers a comprehensive video marketing solution that takes care of all the nitty-gritty of video marketing. From building a powerful video strategy to publishing it on various channels and monitoring its performance, Cincopa helps you optimize your video marketing efforts. Sign up for a free Cincopa trial and explore how you can streamline your video marketing efforts.
