5 Video Marketing Mistakes You Might be Making (And How To Fix Them)

First published on Mumbrella.

Video is incredibly effective in boosting engagement, dwell time and conversions. It’s little wonder that marketers have been doubling down on their video investment in 2022.

But knowing this potential makes it all the more frustrating when a video falls flat and doesn’t get the results you were hoping for. If you’re investing time and money in creating video content, you want it to deliver.

Sometimes experimental ideas simply fail to resonate. But often, engagement is lacking when we fail to follow the fundamental best practice when it comes to video. At Vouch, we’ve noticed five video mistakes that are commonly made and created features within our platform that are specifically designed to stop them from happening.

How many are you guilty of?

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1. It’s too long or lacks structure

No one likes to admit they have a short attention span, but in reality, most of us do. According to a Microsoft study, it’s just eight seconds long. No wonder short form video has taken off in such a big way. Show us a long video that takes ages to get to the point and you can bet we’ll either zone out or scroll on.

When asking for a testimonial, review or UGC, structure your request with considered questions that’ll get the best from your subject. Then create short snippets of the most impactful soundbites. You can either use them at the start of your video, to entice the viewer to keep watching, or post them alone to drive your user to your blog, or YouTube, where longer form content thrives.

Fix it: You can add any questions you like in the Vouch platform, but for next level control, set a time limit when you send the video request. Once you’ve set the maximum duration, your respondent won’t be able to record past that point.

2. It doesn’t have captions

You can’t assume your audience will watch your videos with sound on. On platforms like LinkedIn, the default is to show videos with sound off, and if you’re a B2B brand, your audience may be watching your videos in the office, so can’t crank the volume.

Adding closed captions to your videos caters for these environments and ensures that, even without sound, your audience will still be able to get value from it. And if they’re getting value they’re more likely to stick around and engage. It also helps people who are hard of hearing, or struggle to understand the accent of the speaker. 

Fix it: Vouch automatically generates transcriptions for every video that’s recorded. A huge timesaving for busy content teams. You can jump in to edit if you need to, and export videos with the closed captions burnt on to the video, or without.

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3. It’s scripted

It can be tempting to script your videos. A sure fire way to get your messaging spot on and cram in every single point you want to cover, right? The only snag is, unless we’ve been professionally trained, most of us sound really dull reading from a script. And when we sound boring, our audience gets bored.

Fix it: Vouch has a ‘speaker notes’ function, with just enough room for a couple of bullet points. You don’t want to waffle, but you do want to convey your points in your own unique style. It’s these details that really amps up the authenticity in your video, stops it sounding like an infomercial, and makes people want to listen.

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4. It's formatted incorrectly 

Every social platform will have an optimum aspect ratio. Some, like Instagram, will have multiple i.e. one for posts and another for Stories/ Reels. Adhering to these ratios on the different social platforms and filling the screens of viewers, avoid those telltale black bars, and encourage engagement across the board. 

Fix it: Use Vouch’s aspect ratio feature to control the exact video you receive. Whether you want to create a 16:9 video for your website, or a 3:4 video for your social channels, these presets will set your respondent’s video, so they can’t go wrong.

5. You failed to repurpose it 

Sometimes content deserves a second chance. If you posted at an unusual time, or experimented with a new format or platform, poor performance could be as simple as wrong place, wrong time.

Repurposing content is a marketer’s secret weapon for getting value for money and a full content schedule, at a time when social platforms reward consistency. You could try reposting the same clip on a different social platform, giving a fresh audience a chance to appreciate your content. Just remember to reformat to suit that platform.

Fix it: Vouch’s sharing options give you loads of outputs to experiment with, from embeds to social sharing, Playlinks and downloads. You can also use our editing suite to chop up your clip. One simple Q&A video could be published in full on YouTube or your website, then edited into multiple short clips for your social channels. 

Of course these tips are easy to follow, but even easier to forget. That’s why we’ve baked in features that can be used as guardrails when you’re creating video with Vouch. Use them next time you create a video and watch your engagement soar. 
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Like to try Vouch?

Loved by companies like Canva, Nike, Cisco, Stryker, HubSpot, Amazon and more, tools like Vouch make leveraging video in your business remarkably easy.

Be sure to book a Vouch demo today and chat with a video content expert.

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