The Mistakes That Kill Video-Marketing Campaigns (and How to Avoid Them)

April 14, 2014

Video-Marketing is a powerful medium. just this week we looked at how Orbitz were using video after discovering travel bookings increased 45% and 74% after watching online videos.

More companies are investing in video-marketing campaigns, and when your company decides to do so, you want to make sure that you are seeing a return on investment.

That’s why we’ve composed this brief list of mistakes we see happening in corporate videos which can result in a lot of wasted time and money.

As always, if you want to talk about how to get the best investment from creating cinematic-quality corporate videos and digital-marketing campaign, give us a call.

Irrelevant or Boring Content

One of the biggest fears of investing in a corporate video is that once its produced, nobody wants to watch it.

Irrelevant or boring content happens when you don’t have a clear idea who your target market is and what information they need.

There is a myth that certain subjects or topics are automatically boring. To the right person, when presented in the right way, any subject can be fascinating.

As a video-marketing team, our focus is to ensure the content of your corporate video stays on track with the interests of your target audience.

Here are some of the methods that you can use to make sure you avoid this mistake with your corporate video:

• Create a thorough customer profile for the purpose of your video. Unless you know who it is you want to reach, your content won’t connect with your target audience.
• Outline the value of the video for your customer. Viral Corporate Videos are ones that are valuable to the customer. This might be because they are entertaining, or help the viewer solve a problem (as in a tutorial), or are uplifting and inspirational. Your video must have value to the viewer if you really want people to share and engage with it.

Entertaining… But Doesn’t Convert

One of the dangers of corporate video-marketing is creating a campaign that is entertaining, but has no knock-on impact that benefits your company.

Ask a group of people to recall some of their favourite adverts and you’ll find that people can recall videos that made an impact in some way. Ask them if they can remember the brand or if they use the brand featured in these videos and you can see the real problem with a lot of videos made today.

They’re fun to watch, but the viewer forgets the company and isn’t compelled to buy…

So how do you avoid this trap?

• Combine entertainment while reinforcing product performance. Blendtec’s viral video-marketing campaign is an excellent example of this.
• Tie the product directly to the source of entertainment. Make sure your storyline is relevant to the product. Using puppies to promote a dog rescue service works. Using puppies to promote a mobile phone may not be the best choice.

No Emotional Connection

Connecting emotionally with your audience is a smart sales strategy for your business. People are moved by their emotions, and just about every purchase is made based on a “gut” instinct which is then reinforced by the facts and features of the product.

Even if you’re in the B2B industry, clients aren’t moved by facts alone. The powerful B2B marketing phrase:

“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment”

Demonstrates the sales influence of fear, uncertainty and doubt in corporate sales.

What you don’t want to do is invest in a corporate video just to give the dry facts and figures about your product. Without an emotional connection, your product or service will fail to have an edge over the competition.

When commissioning your own video-marketing campaign, consider the following:

• What emotion is important to the buying cycle of your customer? Are they interested in feeling secure and safe with the purchase? Are their buying instincts based more on being inspired, or even entertained?
• Is the emotion you’re encouraging related to your product? Simply encouraging your customer to “feel” something isn’t going to work if its irrelevant to your product. Orbitz videos sparked an emotion of adventure or tranquility which matched the relevant holidays. What emotions match your product?

No Focus on the Benefits

As with traditional marketing, one of the biggest mistakes is to focus too heavily on features, and not enough on benefits.

But what does this mean in video?

With corporate videos you have the unique ability to provide a visual experience of what it is like to use your product. If you don’t use this to show your customer how your product can change their life, you’re missing a great opportunity.

How do you know if your corporate video is focused on the benefits?

One of the best ways is to include footage demonstrating the end result of your product.

This might be demonstrating the success of communication within business aviation, or providing a snapshot of what it’s like to attend a college.

Fails to Make Best Use of the Video Format

Video is a powerful sales tool, and too often companies are let down by corporate videos that simply “point and shoot” to tell a story.

You’ve probably experienced this watching other videos. Things seem wooden as employees or customers simply stand in front of the camera and tell a story that might as well be written down.

Video opens up so many more opportunities to ignite your viewer’s imaginations. We want to cry when a company has a great product but is let down by a poor video.

Here are a couple of tips from us to make sure this doesn’t happen to you:

• Use motion graphics and animation to keep attention when you communicate your marketing message.
• Use music and motion graphics integrated with live film to create a lively and active video experience.
• Avoid the “point and shoot” technique – When hiring a video production company make sure they have experience of film techniques to give your corporate video a cinematic quality.

These are just some of the mistakes we’ve seen in corporate videos today. If you’ve got any concerns about your own company video please get in touch and we’ll happily give you some advice.