Video marketing is booming as videos have become an increasingly popular way for consumers to be entertained, educated and informed about new products. However, there are a number of common audience complaints about videos that can actually cause your video marketing efforts to backfire. Knowing these complaints can help you avoid them and make your marketing more effective:
* Too much of a hard sell
* Mismatched style and tone
* A misleading title new line and/or description
* Poor visuals
* Products, not people
* No real benefit to the video
* The videos are too long
* The videos are disorganized or incomplete
Let’s look at each of these in turn.
A Hard Sell
These days, audiences want to be entertained as well as informed. A video which is too much of a hard sell will have little value for most viewers. Combining quality content with a clear call to action at the end of your video and a URL in your description is a much more subtle way of making sales.
Mismatched Style and Tone
A mismatched style and tone can confuse the audience. If you have a light-hearted cartoon video for example, but you’re trying to sell a business-related product worth thousands of dollars, this can be a serious mismatch. On the other hand, having a very formal style and tone to sell a cheap little widget can also confuse people.
Misleading Titles
Misleading titles are very common on YouTube because it has become such a large search engine and people are desperate for traffic, and for money from view of their videos if they choose to monetize them.
However, it can be extremely annoying for viewers, who click on the title expecting to see one thing and get something else instead. Be honest in your titles and descriptions of the video. Don’t pad your keywords. Use accurate ones to describe the video, because all three elements are important for search results at YouTube and Google as well.
Poor Visuals
A video should be of a reasonable quality even if it is only made with your smartphone. It should be clear, easy to see, and there should be a purpose to the fact that it is a video rather than, for example, a blog post or article. If the quality is less than ideal, use the enhancements feature at YouTube to adjust the quality of the video, color, lighting and so on.
Poor Content or Disorganized Content
There should be a beginning, middle and end to your video and a point to it. One of the best ways to ensure this happens is to script it before you ever shoot it.
Products, Not People
Storytelling in marketing is effective because it shows what life will be like once you buy and start using the product. Be sure your video has a human element to it and isn’t all about the item you are trying to sell.
No Real Benefit to the Video
There should be some underlying message or reason for the video. Don’t just make it for the sake of having a video.
Too Long
There’s nothing worse than a long-winded and rambling video which does not get to the point. This being the case, script your video and make sure that it is no more than seven to nine minutes long. This is the maximum permitted length of video on YouTube in any case. Shorter ones are fine, but the minimum should be about two minutes, to capture and maintain viewer attention. GEICO can do it in 15 seconds, but most marketers will need more time than that.
Disorganized or Incomplete
Again, scripting should help you make sure you craft an interesting video which doesn’t leave anything out.
Avoid these common errors and you should be able to create interesting videos your target audience will love.
