Video marketing is an extremely effective and integral part of your online advertising approach. Since the world of marketing moves incredibly quickly these days almost too quickly for some brands to keep up with it it’s absolutely imperative that you do everything in your power to identify your target audience and create engaging video content that speaks directly to them. On top of that, you also need to focus on simultaneously attracting new audience members that might not necessarily share all of the same values as your original core target audience. And therein lies the greatest challenge that online marketers have to face: appealing to a broad range of potential customers while still maintaining a strong relationship with their existing clientele.
For those of us who aren’t well-versed in the unique language of video marketing, knowing where to the start is the first essential piece of the puzzle. Of course, it’s expected that with any new business and advertising measure, a few mistakes will be made along the way. As long as you recognize them right away and learn from them, however, there’s no reason why your marketing campaign can’t be successful. Here are a few key video marketing mistakes you should try to avoid at all costs.
1. Always Focusing on the Hard Sell
While it’s certainly true that the main point of any type of marketing campaign is to increase brand awareness and sales, placing your focus only on the latter can actually hurt your chances of success. When people make search queries, their main objective is to find the answers to their questions and solutions to pressing problems. Your video content should reflect those inquiries and provide the answers that your customers are looking for. If they feel like all you’re trying to do is sell them a product or service, then they’ll quickly lose interest and turn to your competitors for what they’re seeking. Create meaningful, memorable, and engaging video content with an uplifting message to give your customers what they want and increase the likelihood that they’ll share your videos with their followers and friends.
2. Leaving SEO Out of the Equation
Cleverly incorporating SEO tactics into your video marketing campaign is one of the most effective ways to improve your customer outreach strategy. Conduct online market research and find out what your customers are searching for the most, what types of questions they’re asking, and then use this information to your advantage by integrating it directly into your video titles and descriptions. Think of it as leaving breadcrumbs for your customers to be able to find your brand (the solution) through the dark passageways of the Internet (the problem). It’s simple. All you have to do is use the auto-suggest results offered by Google and YouTube to see what the most common long and short-form search queries are that relate to your brand and industry.
3. Making Lengthy Videos
Long marketing videos are a big no-no because most people are short on time and find long, rambling, uninformative videos irritating. Keep the videos short and to the point without compromising on the core brand message that you want to communicate. In the same vein, you should also make sure that the message itself is captivating enough so that people will want to sit through it without being tempted to hit the “skip ad” button or simply exit the video altogether. A few major brands have managed to successfully accomplish this. Make sure you’re one of them.
4. Failing to Use Social Media in Your Advertising Campaign
These days, literally everyone and their grandmother are on social media. That means you need to tailor all of your advertising efforts including your video content to fit within the standards of each and every social media platform. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, and pretty much every other emerging social media platform should be on your radar. The reason for this is that everyone has their favourite go-to social media platform that they use more frequently than others. Some people prefer Facebook over Instagram, whereas others might be fonder of Twitter. Uploading your video content on as many social media platforms as possible automatically increases the chances that it’ll be seen by more people, plain and simple.
5. Failing to Tailor Video Content for the Platform It’s Published on
To add to the previous point, each online marketing platform has its own unique set of formatting standards that can essentially help you optimize your content better. If you’re using Facebook to advertise your brand, make sure that your video content is properly formatted to meet its community standards. Use relevant hashtags wherever possible and if you happen to score some coveted celebrity endorsement, then put that at the forefront of your content. These points apply across all social media and online advertising platforms.
6. Convoluting or Over-Thinking Your Video Marketing Strategy
When it comes to creating valuable and engaging content to attract a wider target audience, it can be way too easy to get into your own head. This is especially true in today’s hyper-sensitive climate where every little thing can be picked apart and deemed too offensive for some people. Try not to let this happen when you’re creating video marketing content. It’s important to understand that you’ll never be able to please or appeal to everyone’s sensibilities and tastes. With that in mind, focus on the people you know you can reach and have a positive impact on. Those people are the bread and butter of your brand and having their support could be the difference between increasing your followers and losing them altogether. Just focus on creating meaningful interactions and content that’s true to your brand because most people are smart enough to quickly spot disingenuousness.
Numero Uno Web Solutions is one of the leading online marketing and SEO companies throughout North America. We’ve helped countless businesses create and uphold strong online presences by implementing innovative and industry-proven strategies that work. To learn more about how we can help you optimize your video marketing campaigns across a wide variety of online platforms, please feel free to contact us today!
