Video is an excellent marketing tool, and as technology advances, so too do the opportunities for business owners to utilize video in a variety of exciting ways. Video is an excellent way to get more engagement on your blog, your website in general, and your social media accounts, for example, which means a better reputation and more sales. Plus, video is great for SEO purposes; it keeps people on your site for longer, and it shows – particularly when you update your site regularly and add new video content – that you are a site to be trusted. So, of course, if you don’t currently use the power of video on your marketing or you think you could do more, now is the time to start.
However, there are issues. Getting this element of marketing wrong is relatively easy, unfortunately. Everyone who sets out to produce a video, no matter how skilled they are or how big their current audience is, will experience the same situation at some time. They will devote a significant amount of effort to developing the ideal concept for a video blog. They will pour their hearts and souls into every frame of material, working diligently until everything is flawless in their eyes. They’ll submit the video, view it a few times to ensure it looks good, push publish, and then… nothing. Few people watch it and even fewer interact with it.
So what can be done? It’s like that, without realizing it, you’ve made some mistakes with your video that need to be rectified if you want people to see it and for it to work for you in terms of marketing. With that in mind, here are some of the main mistakes to avoid when making a video for your business; if you can get past these, you’ll have a much better chance of success.
Don’t Forget To Use A Script
It’s impossible to overstate how important it is to plan ahead. Even though improvised videos are pretty popular, they still almost always follow a script, even if it doesn’t seem that way. There is a big difference between an unscripted video and an improvised one, the most obvious of which is the plethora of awkward pauses and filling words (such as ‘um’ and ‘er’) that make the entire thing look amateur and uncomfortable to watch.
In order to write a good script, it’s critical to have a clear notion of why you’re producing a video and what you’re attempting to accomplish with it before you start recording. Your audience’s time will only be wasted if you don’t (not to mention your own). In this case, it’s best to work backward; what is it that you want to achieve? More sales? More engagement? More feedback? Whatever it is, this needs to be the main focus of your video, and you can create a narrative around getting to that point. Even if you go off script and improvise to make the recording seem more natural, you’ll still get the right message across if you know what you’re aiming for, and that’s the most important thing.
Don’t Forget Your Call To Action
The call to action can be a potent weapon if used correctly, and therefore this is essential to get right. Whenever you upload a video on your site, do you find yourself scratching your head about why no one has commented on it? Because you didn’t instruct them to, most likely. Is it a shock to you that no one clicked through to your website or made a purchase after seeing your video? You shouldn’t be surprised because you have to tell them to do it if you want them to do it.
Make sure to include a call to action after your video, or your audience will go away and forget about what it was they were meant to do. You’ve probably done it yourself; you’ll find an interesting video, watch it, digest the information, and then go on to the next thing on your list because you’re busy. But if that video asks you to like, comment, subscribe, or share it, you might be more tempted to quickly do that before clicking away. It won’t always work, but if you neglect to include the CTA, it won’t work at all.
Don’t Forget Your Target Audience
The most common cause of video failure is a lack of attention to detail. If the subject matter isn’t engaging to your intended audience, there is nothing you can do to make them sit up and listen – they just won’t care enough to engage.
Think about what your audience wants to know, what their issues are, and what kind of material they would want to learn about. Try to make films on these subjects, and don’t go too far off the beaten path.
As well as this, you must consider the type of video that will most appeal to your target audience. Would they prefer a talking head style video? Or perhaps it’s best to investigate different animation styles because this will make your target market more interested. It could be you need to inject some comedy into the script, or a more serious tone might work better. You’ll need to carry out market research on both your audience and their preferred video style if you are going to get this right. It might take longer to get done, but it will be worth it as your marketing budget won’t go to waste, and you’ll engage the right people immediately.
Don’t Bury Your Video In The Text
There is no way around the reality that people’s attention spans have shrunk in the modern era. The technology we all love so much has meant that we now expect to get everything we need within seconds (in terms of information, at least). In the past, your audience might have diligently read through an entire article, but today things are different, and you need to hook them right at the start.
The title of an article is the first thing that most people read, and it’s common for those who do read on to solely focus on the opening paragraph for what they consider to be ‘need to know’ information. The number of people who read the full post is decreasing at an alarming rate. What has this got to do with videos? Surely the point of a video is that you give people all the information they need in a quick, easily digestible form that means they don’t even have to read the article?
The problem is placement. It’s as simple as that. People may not see your video if it is buried too deep in the text; they may not even know it exists. This is going to be disappointing if you have spent time, effort, and money creating your video, and no one ever reaches it because the first paragraph of your article is enough for them, or they didn’t like your title. Therefore, you’ll need to think about where the video goes on your blog. Ideally, it will need to be underneath the first paragraph or the title. Make sure it can be seen, and you’ll get much better engagement. It may sound simple, but this trick does work.
Don’t Make The Video Too Long
As we’ve said, you’ll have to deal with people’s attention spans while you’re making a video, and this directly relates to how long your video is. Make sure your video blog is the proper length to avoid the problem or people clicking away before getting to the real message or the call the action. If you take a long time to get to these points, you’ll have missed out before people just don’t have the time to spare to watch longer videos (unless, of course, the video is particularly entertaining, but that might require a bigger budget and higher production values than you’re able to achieve right at the start).
The average duration of a video is around four minutes and twenty seconds, according to a recent survey. However, this does not mean you have to follow suit and make yours the same length. A good rule of thumb to consider is that for every thirty seconds of video, you’re likely to lose more viewers, particularly if you haven’t already captured their attention. Make your video as brief as possible; as long as you include all the pertinent details, a shorter video will do a lot more good than a longer one.
Don’t Forget To Promote Your Videos
The videos you make for your blog aren’t – or shouldn’t be – generated in a vacuum. As soon as you post a video to your blog, you should promote it widely using all of the usual means of publicity. Publish a tweet. Send Facebook posts. Make sure your RSS feed is up to date.
Assuming that those who viewed your videos in the past would return to check whether you’ve added new ones is a bad strategy. It’s also a bad idea to think that simply because someone visits your blog, they’ll see your video as well. Those kinds of projects are too time-consuming for most people since they have so much going on in their life, and their attention spans are stretched thin. In order to have your videos seen, you need to market each one as if it were your first. If you don’t do this, no one will view them.