If you’re going to spend time and money making videos, it’s best to make sure they do the job you want them to do.  Here are five mistakes that businesses make when producing their first videos and tips on how to avoid them.

1. Too much content in one video

Attention spans are short and getting shorter, so there is little point in making a video that lasts more than a few minutes. But you probably can’t squeeze everything you want to say into one short video, so it’s better to plan a series of videos, each with their own focus, than try to cover everything at once.

2. Too promotional

Try to avoid pushing your product or service too hard. Don’t think of your video as an advertisement but more as a story about your product that will engage your audience. People like to see themselves reflected in what they are watching so that it seems relevant to them. So make sure you understand who your potential customers are and produce a video that speaks to them and their needs.

3. Bad branding

While you don’t want your video to be overly promotional you still want it to reflect your brand and leave viewers in no doubt about who you are. So pay attention to your branding, whether that’s through inclusion of your logo or ensuring that the colour palette used in the video matches your corporate colours.  

4. Cutting corners

As a start-up you won’t be in a position to throw a lot of money at your marketing videos but it’s important to avoid producing a low quality video. A poor video will do your business more harm than good. Good planning of content is key and when it comes to shooting the video, a bit of professional help can go a long way. And that won’t cost the earth.   

5. Not optimising for distribution

The ‘build it and they will come’ approach just doesn’t work. After investing in making a good video, you’ll want to ensure as many people as possible will see it. Ways to boost views include search engine optimisation of your title and description, uploading it to more than one platform, for example, YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, and using your social media channels to share it.

We started by saying that your video should do what you want it to do. That means you need it to be part of a wider marketing strategy that has clear goals and you need a clear vision of what your video is trying to achieve.

Before investing time and money in making your first video, why not talk to one of our marketing professionals to find out how your business could benefit from our experience.