Video Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Read Time: 5 minutes

Regardless of what types of products you sell or what types of services you offer, a strong video marketing strategy can likely play a major role in your brand’s success in the digital age. However, it’s important to understand that not all video marketing plans yield ideal results. To optimize your return on investment, you need to be familiar with common video marketing errors that can prevent you from achieving your goals.

The following are video mistakes to avoid when planning and implementing your strategy:

Not Using a Script or Storyboard

Creating video content without any kind of plan is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Without a script or storyboard, it’s easy to ramble or lose focus. To ensure your video is tight and on-point, it’s important to write a script or storyboard before starting to film.

Forgetting Your Target Audience

It’s vital to understand who you’re creating your video for. Without understanding the target audience, you have no idea what kind of content should be included in the video, how it should be presented, or what kind of tone to use. If you don’t know who your target audience is, you won’t be able to create video content that resonates with them.

Not Including CTAs Throughout Your Videos

It’s important to include some kind of call-to-action (CTA) throughout your video. Whether it’s to visit your website, check out a product page, or sign up for something, having CTAs in the video will help guide viewers toward taking action and generating conversions. Not including any CTAs means that viewers won’t know what to do next.

Poor Quality Video/Audio

Creating video content with poor-quality video and audio will reflect poorly on your brand and drive away potential customers. Invest in a good camera and microphone, as well as any other equipment you may need before starting to create videos.

Burying the Embedded Video Far Down the Page

When creating video content, it’s important to make sure the embedded video is placed prominently on your website page. Placing a link far down the page means that viewers may not find it and could be missing out on great content. Make sure the embedded video is visible from the top of the page or at least close to the top.

Making a Video Too Long

If your video is too long, viewers will lose interest and likely won’t finish watching it. It’s important to make sure that your video is concise and to the point. This allows it to remain engaging throughout its runtime.

According to studies and surveys, the ideal length for online video content is 2 minutes or less. Anything longer should be split into several shorter videos if possible.

That’s not to say there’s no room for longer videos in your marketing strategy. Some videos, such as product tutorials or certain types of explainer videos, may require longer runtimes. In this case, make sure that the video is broken up into sections and that the most important points are upfront. This will ensure that viewers stick around until the end.

Overloading Your Audience With Too Much Information in a Single Video

When creating video content, remember that your audience doesn’t want to be overloaded with too much information in a single video. Instead, focus on one key point or topic and develop it thoroughly in the clip.

Not Promoting Your Videos

Once your video is complete, it’s important to promote it. If you don’t promote your video, people won’t know that it exists and therefore can’t watch it. Make sure to share the video on social media and other platforms in order to get more views and engagement.

This is one of the easiest video marketing mistakes to avoid. However, it can be surprisingly common.

Not Using a Color Scheme

Using a consistent color scheme throughout your video will help create a unified look and feel. It’s also important to make sure that the colors you choose to match or complement the branding of your business. This helps tie the video back to your brand, making it more memorable.

Not Considering the Various Social Channels You’ll Share Your Video On

When creating video content, you need to take into account the various social channels that you’ll be sharing your video on. Different platforms have different specs and requirements for uploading videos, so make sure that you are aware of any potential differences before starting to create your video.

Not Accounting for Mobile Viewers

This is a video editing mistake and video production mistake that can sabotage your video marketing efforts in an age when mobile online traffic is more dominant than desktop traffic. Make sure to optimize your video for mobile viewers, as this will help ensure that you reach the largest possible audience.

Not Branding Your Videos

Branding your videos is an important step in video marketing, as it helps viewers to recognize and remember your video. Make sure to include some form of branding at the beginning and/or end of your video so that viewers know who produced it.

Not Optimizing Your Video for SEO

When creating video content, it’s important to optimize your video for SEO. This means including relevant keywords and phrases throughout the video description and tags, as well as optimizing for platforms such as YouTube. Doing so will help increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Remember, planning and implementing an effective video marketing strategy doesn’t merely involve familiarizing yourself with video marketing best practices. It also involves knowing where your strategy could go wrong and planning accordingly. The tips here will help you avoid making video mistakes that could cost both time and money.

Making Common Video Editing Mistakes

Always pointing the camera at the right subject and capturing the footage you need to generate strong content is vital. That said, if you make common video editing mistakes, you could sabotage your efforts!

There’s no need for that to happen. Editing mistakes to avoid making include:

Poor audio quality
Out-of-sync audio
Incomplete transitions (this occurs when a viewer sees a black screen before a transition to the next clip)
Not removing unwanted background music
Inconsistent audio levels

These all highlight an important point that’s easy to overlook when creating video marketing content. Yes, what you show your audience on camera is critical, but a marketing video isn’t just a series of images. Sound is just as important as sight when using this type of content as a marketing tool.

Remember that video editing is a key element of video production. The only time this may not be the case is if you are shooting a live video. That’s only because editing footage that’s being broadcast while you’re filming it is virtually impossible.

Produce Video Marketing Content Easily and Affordably With Powtoon

One of the simplest video marketing mistakes to make involves producing and releasing weak video content. Fortunately, thanks to Powtoon’s templates and numerous other resources, even if your video production budget and experience are minimal, you can still generate quality video content with ease. Sign up for free today to learn more!

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Hanna Abitbul

Hanna is Powtoon's Content Marketing Strategist. She joined Powtoon as a copywriter in 2019, after graduating from university with a specialized degree in marketing and business. She continues to inspire people to create incredible video content with blog posts, videos, guides, and more. Hanna's passions include reading, singing, and caring for animals (#proudvegan). Nothing makes her happier than waking up to her two black kitties who, contrary to popular belief, are good luck!