Wondering what a scary movie for content marketers would be? 

Action.

It would begin with just another day in the office; the main character sits at their desk, opens their laptop, and smiles feeling ready to tackle their morning emails. 

But wait, something feels….different. 

There’s a chill in the air (and it’s not the AC they’ve been waiting on maintenance to fix) and the urge to open a second tab and look at their company’s social media arises.

What’s there before them? Posted for the world to see and has been up for 4 hours? A video that’s too long, off-brand, and not optimized for SEO — eeeeek! 👻

End scene.

This frightening film would be rated R for reality as scary videos aren’t just restricted to Halloween; video editing mistakes haunt the web every day. 

And like every other piece of content your company produces, video is a direct reflection of your brand and requires just as much attention, if not more, as static images for social posts, blogs, and other work. Of course it’s important to nail your businesses’ brand voice, imagery, and more all in a short clip, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. 

Let’s take a look at the top five video marketing mistakes and how to avoid them:

Creating one video for multiple purposes

Do you have one video to achieve multiple goals? Your potential leads are scrolling away in fear! Every type of marketing video has its own way of helping people overcome all kinds of obstacles.

From how-tos and explainers to product announcements, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to video creation, and that’s why you can’t use a single video to explain your product, announce a new launch, and promote your brand. 

Here’s a closer look at some of the most popular types of videos and what they require:

How-Tos

Brands use how-to videos to establish themselves as leaders in their industry. Why? Well, when a company creates a professionally made video with helpful tips, people begin to see that business as the one they should go to for future advice. 

The most successful how-to videos visually walk viewers through important steps, using detailed imagery and descriptions to help people achieve their goals. And this type of video isn’t typically made to display how to use a product, but more so to showcase how to solve other issues that come up in whatever industry a business is in. 

Remember, you’re trying to establish yourself as an industry leader! How-to videos are a part of the well-rounded content you need to do so.

Explainers

If you think explainers are the same as how-tos, you’re really scaring us. When compared to how-tos, this type of video is where explaining your business, product, or brand comes into play. 

Explainer videos are the perfect addition to your homepage or another important, relevant landing page to help potential customers better understand who you are. 

To have your explainer video stand out, make sure you:

• Display specific problems or pain points 
• Introduce your product or service as the solution
• Explain exactly what it does, who you are, and why people should buy from you

Fact or opinion? 84% of people who watch an explainer video decide to make a purchase.

Fact! According to HubSpot, 94% watch explainer videos to understand a product better, and 84% purchase after viewing.

Customer Testimonial

The customer testimonial has come a long way in the marketing space. What was once only found on separate review websites or a Google My Business page has now earned itself a spot across businesses’ websites or even have a dedicated landing page.

Displaying front and center what people say about your brand is an obviously smart marketing strategy to persuade leads to become customers. However, the customer testimonial has evolved once again, this time into videos! 

⅓ of all online activity is spent watching videos, so it only makes sense that you can now watch customer reviews unfold. What makes a great customer testimonial video? Take a look below.

Product Announcements

You created a product from the ground up and officially have something that consumers can use — that was only half the challenge, scary right? The next spooky stage of the process is to successfully launch your new product and ensure it reaches its target audience who will see its full potential. 

To do that, you need an effective product announcement video to pull people in and lead them towards making a purchase. If you haven’t been creating this type of video, then it’s one of the top mistakes you’re making in marketing! 

To create an effective product announcement video you need to write a script that includes what it is, how to use it, and what to expect: release date, special features, price, and more. 

And don’t forget to use eye-catching visuals and upbeat music to raise excitement and build suspense just like your favorite horror movie (without the jump scares.)

Tone and design is off-brand

If content marketers were to check under our beds and in our closets every night it wouldn’t be for ghosts or ghouls, but just in case off-brand videos were watching our every edit. 

We love seeing businesses understand that video marketing is key to their success, but nothing is more frightening than video content that isn’t cohesive with a brand’s logo, colors, fonts, or tone. 

If you don’t create content to match your brand across all channels, you run the risk of:

• Poor SEO rankings and website traffic
• Not being seen as an authority in the industry
• Losing traction on social media
• People not connecting on a personal level with your company

Aside from technical issues, great, on-brand content helps build trust with future and existing customers. If every video you post is different, you’re missing out on the opportunity to provide a valuable experience people will want to stick around for.

Fact or opinion? Consistent presentation of a brand has seen to increase revenue by 13%.

Opinion! It has actually seen to increase revenue by 33%.

No defined planning or goals

You know you need to produce video content because you’ve seen the stats and how well your competitors are doing. So, you head into the office, jump online, and throw together a video clip with some information because something is better than nothing, right?

Aaaaaaaaah! 😱

You wouldn’t do this with your marketing campaigns (we hope) so don’t do this with your video content either. Every piece of content needs to be treated exactly how your favorite candy company makes their chocolate: with a consistent purpose, carefully wrapped until it’s ready to be consumed by happy customers.

Set your goal

Of course, every video needs a goal, but sometimes that objective can get lost in production. Set your goal and keep a reminder throughout the entire creation process, whether that be a virtual sticky note or written on a whiteboard with a big red circle around it.

Keeping this goal top of mind while making the video will help you continuously ask yourself, “Does this scene help us answer the problem being asked?” “Does it take us one step closer to achieving the goal?”

Determine an audience

A short, chilling tale: creating a video just to create it without a target audience in mind. 

Sometimes we think this may be a myth, but it’s true — people do produce content without considering who they want to view it. 

Don’t let this be you. 

Take the time to… 

➡️ Analyze your customer base

➡️ Create specific personas 

➡️ Define who you don’t think is interested in your product

➡️ Look at your competitors

➡️ … and don’t overcomplicate it!

It may seem difficult to pinpoint a specific consumer, but you can avoid this top video marketing mistake by narrowing it down with a little data and competitor research.

Write a script

Boo! Did the lack of planning for your video content scare you? 

Establishing what you’re going to say in your script, whether it’s for a talking head video or voice-over, will help you better articulate your main points and sound more confident, resulting in a strong, educational or convincing video. 

During the scriptwriting stage, you can even map out visual and audio elements and identify points of the video where you need to transition to a different section of script or speaker. 

A beginner video editing mistake? Forgetting to make it sound natural — no one wants to watch or listen to someone who sounds like they’re reading off paper.

Trim and refine your video

Once you have your video made with your killer script incorporated, it’s time to trim and refine. This stage is critical for you to go back and review if there are unnecessary clips that aren’t helping you answer your video’s question. Make sure the story is still clear and hasn’t been lost after editing.

Here you will also want to make sure the video’s length isn’t too long as we all know viewers now take interest in short-form videos the most. Keep it short, sweet (or scary), and to the point.

Fact or opinion? 68% of people will watch a full video if it’s a minute long or less.

Fact! A minute or less appears to be a sweet spot for viewers, with it dropping to 18% if the video is 61 to 120 seconds long.

Not optimizing for SEO

If you want your target audience to see your content, you need to get it in front of Google first. 

Tackling search engine optimization is a frightening concept all year round, as there are constant changes to SEO rules and tips and tricks to master. If you’re not optimizing your video for SEO, it’s a sure-fire way to not be positioning yourself as best as you could against competitors. 

To get your video to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to:

• Find topics with “traffic potential” and conduct keyword research. The truth is not every topic has the potential to receive views from Google. Even if it has a ton on YouTube, it might not rank in the SERPs. Pick a topic that has a strong “video intent” with keyword research tools to find what subjects people are searching for.
• Use on-page optimization. On-page optimization refers to the actions you can take to improve your video’s position in the rankings. Actions include improving your website load speed, meta-tags, internal links, and design.
• Upload an attractive thumbnail. Even though it’s just an image, a poorly made video thumbnail won’t grab the attention of viewers. Create an enticing thumbnail accurately displaying what is in the video; you can even add brief text to help explain what your video is about.

Choosing the wrong video editor

The scariest thing you could say to the Wibbitz team is that you’re using an outdated, complicated video editor to create your videos or worse — spending a monstrous amount of money on a marketing agency to make videos for you. 

If either of these is true, then it’s a clear sign you need a new video editing software. 

Your business needs an online video creation platform that makes it easy for anyone, especially beginners, to create professional, short-form videos on their own. With the Wibbitz media assets library, simple text positioning, presets for text animations, and more, you can take your video editing strategy from spooky to sophisticated in minutes.

Start your 7-day free trial today!