4 Reasons Your Video Marketing Isn't Working
Connecting with your customers on a personal level is easier than ever today. In 2015, video rocketed to the forefront of marketing, and still, relatively few businesses take advantage of this powerful and accessible tool.
If you're making videos and not attracting viewers, you may be making one (or more) of these common mistakes.
Your Video Has Zero Personality
The quality of the video doesn't always matter, but the quality of the content does. Today's Youtube trending videos offered the perfect example. Markiplier has made over a thousand videos and has more than 2 million subscribers. This 2013 video has 15,634,881 views. It's just the story of the guy's life, illustrated with bad whiteboard drawing. Evidently, he plays video games and people find this entertaining.
Why is this a good example? It's low-budget and the story is...well, it's much like any life story, except for that part at the end where he makes a ton of money by recording random stuff and posting it on YouTube. But no matter what he's saying (I watched several videos), he delivers a well-rehearsed script with enthusiasm, energy, and emotion.
Your video should be chock full of personality. That's what makes it interesting. Even if your product is life insurance or truck rentals or restaurant supplies, find a way to add interest, speak with enthusiasm, and rehearse until it's perfect. Remember Ben Stein as the teacher in Ferris Bueller? Don't be that guy.
You Have Bad Timing
If your video is too long, viewers are likely to get bored and wander off. Too short, and it won't deliver the message. One way to make sure it's exactly the right length is to keep it focused on a single subject or small group of topics. Most Ted Talks are about 18 minutes long - for good reason.
This 12-minute talk by Shawn Achor is lively, fast-moving, funny, and informative. Which is probably why it's one of the top 20 most popular Ted Talks of all time.
Make your videos exactly as long as they should be, and not one second longer.
It's Not Accessible
Not everyone will have the patience to sit through the video, and some people simply prefer to read a transcript. YouTube provides closed captioning for hearing-impaired users. Unfortunately, much like online translations, their transcriptions are often full of mistakes and omissions. Since Google indexes the transcriptions, it's worthwhile to transcribe your videos by hand or hire a professional transcription service like Speechpad (don't worry, it's cheap).
Upload your transcription to the "Caption" section, and you'll help YouTube and Google accurately index your video for higher rank.
You're Not Promoting
For any kind of web content, an effective promotion strategy is literally everything. A friend of mine recently said that he spends 20% of the time writing, and 80% promoting. But that's really only part of the story. You have to build your audience before you can reach your audience. Remember the guy in the first video? In the video I used or in another I watched, he said something really important. In the beginning, he only had a few people watching, and he just kept going. Even with no audience, he continued to make videos.
It can be frustrating at first. Don't give up too early, even if no one is watching. If you're interesting, your audience will slowly filter in...and building social media audience is sort of like a snowball rolling downhill. As more people watch, more will recommend, and your viewership will start to grow faster.
