The X Reasons Why Most Businesses Don’t Succeed in Video Marketing
Video marketing has incredible potential. Videos tend to be shorter and more compelling than comparable written content, they introduce information faster and in a more digestible way, and if harnessed properly, they can lead to a massive increase in your return on investment.
Still, most businesses fail at video marketing. They end up spending too much money, exerting too much effort, and not generating enough of a return to justify continuing this strategy. If video marketing is so effective, why do so many brands fail?
They Don’t Have a Comprehensive Strategy
If you want to be successful in video marketing, you need to have a comprehensive video marketing strategy in place. That’s because video marketing is far too open and far too multifaceted to support a blind campaign.
For example, some audiences are better served with short videos, while others prefer longer, more in-depth videos. Depending on your intentions, you may choose to host your videos on your own website, or try and distribute them through YouTube.
Your videos may be polished and professional or more playful and casual, depending on your motivations and your target market. How many videos per week is the right number to produce, and how much money should you be spending on each video?
You need to do your research and consider your options before you start rolling out new videos.
They Have Unprofessional Production
Many amateur video marketers end up using unprofessional equipment or resorting to amateur techniques for their video production – and unfortunately, it’s obvious in the finished product. If you’re using an old camera, if you’re improvising the lighting, or if you’re having someone hold a smartphone rather than using a tripod, the quality of your work is going to decline.
Unpolished, sketchy videos do have a place in some contexts with some demographics, but for the most part, you’ll want to make sure your production looks as professional as possible.
They’re Using the Wrong Partner
If you don’t know how to make a video on your own, your only real option is to hire a partner to help you with video production. That could mean working with a video agency, hiring a videographer freelancer, or even putting together a team of video professionals within your organization.
In any case, if you hire the wrong people, you’re going to regret it. Make sure you do your due diligence with all your new video partners and look at portfolio work before making any final decisions.
They Don’t Understand Their Target Audience
If you want your videos to be effective, you need to know who your target audience is and how they think. A video that’s entertaining and informative to a teenage girl probably isn’t going to be the same video that’s entertaining and informative to a middle-aged man. If you try to make your video as generic as possible, to appeal to all demographics hypothetically, you’re going to fail; instead of being equally appealing to all, you’ll end up being equally unappealing to all.
There Aren’t Enough Calls to Action (CTAs)
Some video marketing strategies fail simply because there aren’t enough calls to action (CTAs). There are many different types of CTAs that you can include, serving different purposes and providing different advantages, but you’ll need at least some to be successful.
For example, your CTA may encourage viewers to purchase a product sold by your company, or it may direct them back to your website. You could even include a CTA that links to another video, or motivate your viewers to like and subscribe to your channel. The point is, you need to motivate your audience to take action if you want some tangible benefit from this strategy.
There Isn’t Enough Value
All content marketing hinges on one important concept; providing value to your customers. If you want your marketing video to be effective, it needs to give value to your customers in some form. That could mean providing value through information or entertainment, but if that value isn’t sufficient, people won’t even bother watching until the end.
They Quit Too Soon
Some marketers fail with video marketing simply because they quit too soon. It takes a long time to build an audience and start reaping the full value of your content marketing strategy; if you quit after only producing a handful of videos, or if you never spend any money on promoting your work, you’re never going to realize that potential.
It’s not necessarily difficult, and it’s certainly not impossible to see excellent results in a video marketing campaign. However, before you begin, you need to have a thoroughly researched and documented strategy in place. Video marketing won’t give you immediate results in exchange for no effort; instead, your results are dependent on your ability to make video marketing work for you.