Video marketing can really allow your company to be creative in your marketing endeavors. It can be very effective, getting your company in front of a much larger audience and turning those views into sales.
However, video marketing is not as simple as uploading a video on YouTube or TikTok and expecting it to become an overnight success. There’s so much more to it! And, of course, there are some mistakes that are commonly made by businesses that end up hurting their revenue, branding, and even their reputations.
There are some common mistakes made by companies attempting video marketing that need to be addressed before you begin your video production process. We’ll examine those mistakes and explain why they can hurt your video marketing strategy.
Let’s take a look at common mistakes you and your company should avoid when creating your video marketing strategy:
1) Making Videos “Just Because You Can”
Video marketing has become easy to do because video-making and editing software is available to everyone. You can even get video creation apps on your phone, which means you might start video marketing without having a good reason for creating video content. The video creation apps on the market today are also very affordable, which means you could end up spending too much time making video content for video views that never lead to conversions or any video marketing goals whatsoever. Don’t assume that video marketing should be the next step in your company’s marketing plan just because you can create video content easily.
Take a look at what your brand is, what you’re trying to sell. Save the dance challenges and silly shenanigans for your personal account.
Posting random videos that you’ve made to your business account will lead to videos that don’t serve a specific marketing purpose, and they won’t benefit your business at all. Some videos that are off topic or off brand may confuse your viewers on what it is your company does.
2) Assuming Video Marketing is Just an Extension of Traditional Marketing
Video marketing is video marketing. It doesn’t matter whether you are buying video ads on YouTube or TikTok or posting directly to your company’s social media account, video marketing is video marketing regardless.
However, you should also be aware that video content has different dynamics than other types of digital content do. And just because video ads exist doesn’t mean they’re the best video format.
Understanding these dynamics is part of the reason video marketing can be so effective, particularly online video marketing that works for your business goals (which might include getting more video views, video SEO, video conversions, etc.).
3) Paying Too Much Attention to Vanity Metrics
One of the most common mistakes companies make in video marketing is paying attention to video views. Measuring video views is important, of course, but video views are not the only video metric you should be measuring.
You also need to pay attention to video engagement stats such as video likes and comments, as well as video conversions (the metrics that matter for your business).
This all comes back to video marketing goals, which you should specify before starting video production. It is where video views and video conversions meet video SEO (keyword research) and video analytics tools like Google Analytics or social video analytics platforms.
4) Relying Too Much on Video View Counts for Social Media Platforms
Every social media platform has its own audience, which means video views can vary from platform to platform. This is why video marketers need to pay attention to video views on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and video ads on Instagram or Snapchat.
A video that has a lot of video views on YouTube might have zero video views on Facebook or TikTok. And a video that does well on one video platform might not be successful on a video ad network.
Measuring video views for social media video marketing is important, but doing that alone can lead to video marketing mistakes. You also need to focus on video engagement metrics and video conversions (which vary from video platform to video platform). Engagements on both ends, customer and business, establish a form of trust between the two parties.
5) Not Doing Keyword Research for Video SEO
Keyword research is video marketing that focuses on video SEO, which includes finding video keywords to target. You can also think of video SEO as a type of video content creation because you should be using video keywords in your video titles and descriptions.
For example, if you’re making cooking videos, you should include words like “recipe,” “video recipes,” and “how to cook video.”
It can be easy to forget this, but video keywords are important because video search is video SEO. It’s not just about video views anymore. Video searches are growing on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram video ads, and video ads on Snapchat.
This also includes doing hashtag research on whatever platform you’re posting to. You have to be careful on platforms like TikTok that limit how many hashtags you’re allowed to use on one video, whereas on Instagram you can use as many as you want, though it might look cluttered and desperate if you’re using too many.
6) Not Understanding How Video Ads are Different Than Regular Videos
Video ads are video marketing strategies that are usually paid for by the business in order for the platform the ad is on to promote the video and get it in front of as many people as possible. This can include video ads on YouTube, video ads on Facebook, video ads on TikTok, video ads on Instagram video stories, and video ads on Snapchat.
But even though they’re all video advertising formats, the dynamics behind each ad type are different. For example, video views for an IGTV video ad are not the same as video views for a video ad on YouTube.
The reason video marketing mistakes can happen is because video ads are different, but video marketers aren’t always aware of those differences. This causes them to make video marketing mistakes like thinking that video view thresholds (which vary by platform) are the same across multiple platforms.
If you’re new to paid ads on social media, you can look for bargains as a first timer. Some platforms will offer you credits if you haven’t utilized ads in a while, too. It’s worth looking for a deal if you want to see how paid ads work for your business.
7) Not Optimizing for Mobile Video
Another video marketing mistake is not optimizing video content for mobile video platforms.
Today, more than half of video views come from mobile video, which means they come from video ads on Instagram video stories (which allow you to upload video content up to one minute long), video ads on Snapchat (which can run video ads of up to 10 seconds), video ads on YouTube (which can run video ads of up to 6 minutes long), video ads on TikTok (which allow you to upload video content up to one minute long), and video SEO.
For video marketers, this means optimizing for mobile video is important because it has become crucial for video views, video conversions, video rankings, video search volume, video engagement metrics (like video completion rate), and video ad delivery.
8) Not Optimizing for Local Video Markets
Today’s video marketing mistakes can come from not optimizing video content for local video markets. For example, if you’re a company that creates videos about nutrition or personal training, it’s essential to make video content that’s optimized for local video markets like Houston video marketing, Los Angeles video marketing, San Francisco video marketing, or Chicago video marketing.
Knowing the physical market your business is in will help you to target the audience your business is designed to sell to. Video marketing isn’t just for grabbing the attention of virtual customers, it can also translate to bringing in physical customers from your area, too, and it’s important to not ignore them.
This is because the video search volume on YouTube for video keywords related to nutrition and personal training varies by city. This means optimizing for local video markets can help you find video keywords that have video search volume in your targeted video city.
9) Not Utilizing Facebook Video Marketing
Video marketing mistakes include not doing video marketing on social video platforms. While video marketers have focused a lot on video ads on TikTok, video ads on Instagram video stories, and video ads on Snapchat, one of the most underutilized video platforms is Facebook.
It’s often easy to overlook this platform because video marketers are so focused on video ads on Instagram video stories, video ads on Snapchat, video ads on TikTok, video SEO, and YouTube. Facebook is now considered for older folks, too, so they might not be your target audience. However, this is a mistake because Facebook videos get more than 4 billion video views each day.
That means this platform needs to be on your radar as part of your video marketing strategy because it’s a video platform video marketers can’t afford to ignore.
10) Not Creating Video Content That Stands Out
Video content mistakes include not making video content that stands out. There are more video marketers than ever before, and video marketing is becoming increasingly competitive as video platforms like TikTok gain in popularity.
This is why video marketers make mistakes when they don’t stand out from the crowd because video SEO has become so competitive. There are video marketers who have video SEO down to an art, and video marketers who are still learning the ropes in video marketing.
But there’s no doubt about it that video marketing mistakes can come from not making video content that stands out—from other video marketers creating video content around the same topics as you’re covering.
11) Not Understanding the Role of Video Thumbnails in Video SEO
Another video marketing mistake video marketers make is not understanding the role video thumbnails play in video SEO. While video optimization for local video markets, social video platforms, and video content that stands out are all important video marketing elements to optimize a video marketing strategy around,
It’s essential for video marketers to understand video thumbnails have a significant impact on video SEO, video rankings, video conversions, and video performance. However, video marketers make mistakes when they don’t use video thumbnails for their videos because video thumbnail optimization can be used as a powerful video marketing tool to increase traffic and leads for businesses.
In fact—especially if you’re video marketing for local video markets —video thumbnails can be used to completely change video SEO and video ranking results.
Video thumbnails are so important video marketers need to prioritize video thumbnail optimization for video SEO.
12) Not Adding Call-to-Actions in Videos
Another video marketing mistake that many companies have made is not adding video call-to-actions. While video marketers have focused their video SEO efforts around video titles, video descriptions, and video tags, adding video thumbnails optimized for video search isn’t the only important video element that needs attention.
Video marketers should also be adding call-to-actions to videos because it can help video content creators increase video shares and video conversions. You want your viewers and prospective customers to engage with your content in order to further your outreach and start a rapport with any potential customers. The more video views your videos get, the more backlinks video content creators can build to video websites.
Call-to-actions can be anything from asking your viewers to subscribe to links to other videos or products, asking them to answer a question in the comments section, really anything that gets your viewers to interact with your video. This is because video shares give video rankings a boost and help video SEO efforts, too.
13) Not Optimizing Video Titles for Video SEO
Optimizing video titles to make them easy to search for. For video marketers who are just beginning to learn video SEO, video titles can be difficult to optimize because video ranking algorithms are constantly changing. However, video marketers need to make video marketing mistakes by not optimizing video titles for video SEO because video titles play an important role in helping videos rank on Google and YouTube.
If you’re not feeling confident in your video marketing skills, consider outsourcing to a marketing firm, like C&I Studios. We can help you get started on the right track when it comes to video marketing and video production.
Outsourcing will help save you time and quite possibly money as they help you bring in more income.
Contact us to get started today!