Three common video mistakes (and how to fix them)
10 June 2021
When you’re making a video, for the first time it’s tempting to take a look at what everyone else is doing first. However that means you are in danger of making the same mistakes they make. There are a lot of mistakes that novice video marketers make and that can result in a poor performance.
So here are three of the more common mistakes I see and how to fix them.
1. Grabbing attention
The mistake:
When you hit record on the camera there can often be a few moments of fiddling around or getting into the zone before doing your thing. The first few seconds of any video are vital as these are the moments that will grab your viewer’s attention. If those first golden moments are not golden then you become prey to the scrolling finger of doom. Most video views last no more than a few seconds and nobody wants that.
The fix:
Edit that stuff out before uploading your video or at least be ready with a compelling way to grab attention. Remember you have to make people stop and watch and that means the first few seconds need to clearly spell out what’s going to happen or at the very least make people stop scrolling.
So make sure you are ready to stop them in their tracks.
2. Spelling it out
The mistake:
You’ve made your video, uploaded it and hit go but the views are really poor. What happened? You were clear, the microphone was on. What went wrong?
An amazing 85% of people watch video on social media without sound. So your video needs to make as much sense with or without audio. If you forget the captions a large percentage of your viewing public won’t be able to understand you.
You will often see graphics or captions on videos saying something like ‘turn the sound on’ but that’s another mistake. Most people have sound off because they are somewhere they don’t want the sound on in the first place. If they can’t listen, telling them to won’t help them
Imagine if 80% of your audience were deaf. How would that change the video you made?
The fix:
Make sure your video contains captions. There are some apps available that will do that for you. YouTube and Facebook will do it for you too but it needs checking. They use voice recognition software to convert what you said into text so if you weren’t clear, have a strong accent or there are some other noises on the video, the software will make mistakes. Also there won’t be any punctuation so you will need to add that. It’s a time consuming process but an essential one as such a large portion of your audience will need it.
You can read more about adding captions by clicking here.
3. Telling them what's next
The mistake:
You’ve made a great video and it gets lots of views, great. Now what? If you just end the video with a goodbye and do nothing more that’s a huge missed opportunity. You have them in the palm of your hand. They’ve paid attention and heard everything you said. Now is your chance to hit them with something else. If you leave them with nothing that might be the last time they see you.
The fix:
Always leave with a call to action. Give them the opportunity to find out more about your products or services, take advantage of a special offer or maybe just follow you but give them something. This is also a great opportunity to invite a conversation. Social media loves conversations so ask your viewer something so they might comment. If your post gets lots of comments then the algorithm will see this as a popular post and show it to more people.
Learn to avoid the mistakes
If you'd like to learn more about the best ways to construct an online video course, why not get in touch and book a 20 minute call. I'd be more than happy to answer your questions.
Alternatively you might want to get together with some friends or colleagues and book a workshop where we can cover many aspects of making video. From lighting and editing to filming and a whole lot more. Click here
to take a look.
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