See also: How not to use Twitter / How not to use LinkedIn / How not to do content marketing / How not to use Facebook / How not to use Google+/ How not to blog/ How not to calculate social ROI
We’ve all heard that video is the new corporate must-have and that it’s 5,000 times more engaging than anything else out there in marketing land. But there are lots of ways to get it wrong. These are just a few.
‘We’ve all got iPhones now, so we can all make videos’
This annoying phrase has been chucked around a fair bit over the last couple of years, mainly by people producing substandard video content. Yes, it is factually correct; most of us have the technology in our pockets to record a video. But that doesn’t mean we all have the skills, ideas and understanding of narrative structure and brand identity to produce professional quality video. Owning a paint brush doesn’t turn you into Picasso.
Go off-piste
Tearing up the brand rule book is an error far too many organisations make when it comes to producing video; maybe because relatively few people are used to the process. Whatever the reason: if you wouldn’t break a brand rule on social or in other written collateral, don’t do so on film. Make sure the person putting the video together understands your brand.
Calls to action
Again, brands new to video that would never fail to include calls to action elsewhere often fail to do so when making the leap to film. It stands to reason that you probably want to ellicit some kind of response from the people that view your videos. Even if it’s just a case of including clickable links leading to ‘more information,’ it’s worth making it easy for interested parties.
Long = boring
Videos, much like any other form of content, need to be of the correct length if they are to resonate with their audience (just ask Lord of the Rings fans). In the B2B Marketing context, this means that you’re going to need a petty remarkable piece of content if you’re going to retain your audience’s interest for more than, say, two minutes. In short, keep it brief.
Integrate and recycle
Decent video content does not come without meaningful investment, so make sure you’re making the most of your video budget. Perhaps you could repurpose the video content, making a whitepaper or blog from the content. Whatever you do, don’t forget to integrate the video across your channels, and share it as widely as possible.