Video marketing can offer powerful KPI and deliver to goals ranging from brand awareness to increased sales. 75% of users will visit a brand website after watching a video and 80% of visitors to your site will watch a video whilst only 20% will read all your content.
However, it’s a competitive marketplace and you need to do everything you can to maximise viewers of your video – and that means avoiding some of the mistakes I’ve seen over my 20 years’ experience in the industry…
Why do you need a video?
The evidence shows that video marketing can work hard for your business. But you need to be clear on what you want to achieve. Many brands know that video content works effectively but they only loosely define their objectives and therefore never really know if they have had success.
Fix: Set SMART objectives about what you want to get out the campaign. Are you raising brand awareness? Do you want to reach new audiences? Once you have a clear idea of your goals, you can start to meet them.
With digital marketing, you get real-time stats, so you can continuously improve how you market your content. Maximise the power of these metrics by understanding exactly what you want to achieve and set up the measurements before you start; for instance if you need to create tracking codes for Google Analytics.
Too much on one video
Often brands have so many features to their products that they want to cram them all in. This results in a lack of clarity and a confused audience. It reduces ROI, and delivers a video which is too long, failing to achieve the potential engagement of a shorter video.
Fix: It is important to focus on one strong message done well rather than try to do much and miss your point altogether. Above all prioritise your most significant content first to grab attention.
With the length of a video, as a rule of thumb shorter is better. There are times when a longer film will work for your brand of course but generally try to keep under one minute. 30 seconds is the best if you can do it.
Not using your video in the right way
We often see pre-roll ads which don’t mention the brand in the first five seconds and are wasting the opportunity. Or businesses bury their brand films deep in their YouTube channels with no seeding or thought about a campaign. It is also important to ensure that your video is contextualised properly. If you do not think of YouTube as a destination you could be using potential consumers. It is vital that your channel is structured well and meets your audience’s needs when they find your content.
Fix: Think about where your video is being used online and what the objectives are for the film. If you want your audience to act, ensure that you add a call to action early on before they may lose interest. Ensure that your landing page or YouTube channel is structured to continue the user journey and reinforce your brand story.
Too many audiences
Often people try to connect with too many audiences. It is better to focus on reaching fewer people but a more targeted audience. We’ve been asked by clients to take their video viral but actually they had a specific audience to reach and it was much more worthwhile to target them through the messages and seeding.
Fix: Set up brand personas so that you know who you are speaking to. Think about who that person would follow on social media, what they watch and how they spend their time. This will help you to identify the kind of content which will appeal to them.
Video seeding and SEO
Now that you have your amazing content, wait and watch the views come in. If only that would work…
Fix: SEO is vital to drive traffic to your video content and therefore ensure you keep up to date with what’s happening in the industry, for instance mobile is now vital after mobilegeddon. Remember to add relevant keywords to your videos, use keyword-rich titles and ensure that landing pages are optimised.
First of all seed your video via all your owned channels. To build trust and motivate them to share why not give your fans an exclusive peek at your video?
But it’s not enough to stop at your own fan base, you need to reach out. Identity bloggers and influencers for your brand and start to build a relationship with them via social media. Then send them a preview link to your film asking them to share it on their blog and networks. It is essential to get to know them, their site and what kind of content they share. Just with PR, your story needs to stand out and be relevant to them and their audiences. Finally consider setting aside budget for advertising, especially on YouTube, which can be highly targeted and get your video to the right audiences.
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