Video marketing is so prevalent that by 2016, 74% of all internet traffic will be in the form of a video.
The reason videos are so popular is because it’s far easier to consume content by watching an engaging video rather than trying to read about it.
But what do your video marketing efforts look like? Have you dabbled in a bit of video creation but failed to get any results?
It’s quite possible that you are making one – if not all – of these video marketing mistakes.
And for more on this topic, book yourself onto Econsultancy’s Video Marketing Strategy Training or download the Online Video Best Practice Guide.
1. Trying to achieve all marketing goals in one video
Nurturing prospects with content at different stages of the funnel is one of the best ways to build customers.
But unfortunately, not every marketer is using video to effectively nurture their audience through each cycle.
When creating a video, you need to outline your goal first. Are you looking to build brand awareness? Are you looking to drive leads? Or are you looking to increase conversions?
How to fix it:
For a video campaign to be effective, you need to be creating separate videos to achieve each individual goal. A typical journey will cover the three stages of awareness, consideration and decision.
So for example, some of the most effective videos to use at these three stages include:
- Awareness stage: educational, how-to videos
- Consideration: company related videos
- Decision: testimonials and case studies
By automating your video marketing, you’re far more likely to take a prospect through to becoming a lifelong customer.
2. Creating a video that’s too long
One of the biggest reasons that a person would want to watch your video is because they want a quick way to consume your content. A video that goes on for longer than two minutes is a sure-fire way to turn your audience off.
In fact, Wistia found that for a video of 4-5 minutes, fewer than 60% of viewers will stay to watch, against 75% for a 1-2 minute video.
The goal of a video is to get your message across in the shortest, most engaging way possible.
How to fix it:
Think of your video as the hook rather than the manual. Tease your audience with some of the best bits about your product or service, and leave them wanting to find out more.
This video from Sony is the perfect example:
It’s only 38 seconds long, it doesn’t give too much away and it’s perfectly targeted to get Sony’s audience excited for the new release.
When thinking about your video, try and highlight one main selling point, rather than trying to fill it full of every feature you have.
3. Not focusing on your target audience
Sure, everyone wants to create a video that’s going to be viewed by millions of people. But if you go into video marketing with this mindset, you’re not focusing on what really matters to your business – ROI.
A video of a dog riding a skateboard may rack up plenty of views, but do those viewers really care about buying your email marketing service for example? Probably not.
That’s not to say that you can’t create a viral video, but you just need to make sure that it relates to your audience and what you do.
How to fix it:
Take a look at the infamous Dollar Shave video as the perfect example:
It’s a product video that’s fun, engaging and simple: buy quality razors for just $1.
4. Forgetting to include the call to action
Using a call-to-action in your video is really important as your viewers need to know where to go next.
The call-to-action you use will vary depending on the goal of your video, as talked about in point one.
How to fix it:
If your goal is to drive more leads, then point them to a lead-conversion piece like an ebook. If you goal is to convert, then tell them where they can buy your product or how to contact you.
So for example, we’ve created a series of educational videos for our clients to understand more about what we do. To help us build a stronger lead list, we’ve included a call-to-action that asks the viewer for their email address to carry on watching the content:
5. Not optimizing the landing page
Once you’ve created your video, there’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure that people see it.
Unfortunately, Google still doesn’t have the ability to read video content, so if you want your audience to find it then you’re going to have to optimize the landing page.
How to fix it:
First you need to add the keywords of your video to your landing page. So let’s say you’re targeting ’email marketing’, you need to add these keywords to your title header, in the URL, meta description and within the first sentence of your intro.
Next, include the transcript of the video on the landing page, so that Google can understand the video content.
Finally, don’t forget to include social sharing buttons and an embed code so that people can share the video for you and further increase the chance of more people seeing it.
6. Not having an effective promotion strategy
Promoting your video is arguably the most important step, yet many marketers seem to think their work is done once they’ve created a good piece of content.
Unfortunately, your audience won’t just stumble on your video, you need to put it in front of them, so therefore a good outreach strategy needs to be in place so you can achieve the goals that you want to with your video.
How to fix it:
Put together an action plan to promote and outreach the video. This should look a little bit like these tips below:
- Blog about your video.
- Upload it to all of your social channels.
- Outreach to influencers and ask them if they would share it.
- Write guest posts surrounding the content of your video and link back to it.
- Email your database.
- Pay to advertise across all channels.
The more effort you put into promoting and outreaching, the better chance you will have of achieving your goals!
To learn more about content distribution strategies, check out Econsultancy’s guide on How To Go Viral.
Are you making these six video marketing mistakes?
