YouTube has helped companies of all sizes take advantage of video marketing. Whether you’re creating informational videos to display on your channel or adverts to display at the beginning of other people’s videos, YouTube marketing can help you to achieve many leads. However, like any type of marketing, there are certain rules you need to follow to succeed. Below are just a few common YouTube marketing mistakes that you should avoid when creating video content for this platform.
Using poor quality visuals/audio
Nowadays, there’s no excuse to be creating videos with grainy footage or distorted audio. Most devices have good quality cameras and microphones, although it can still be worth buying separate microphones and cameras to ensure the quality is high. This will help to make your company look more professional. It’s worth noting that you don’t have to make video content yourself – in fact, many companies find it much more impactful to pay a video production company to help bring their video ideas to life.
Making every video overly promotional
Not every video has to be an overtly promotional advert for your product or service. In fact, informational videos like explainer videos on topics, behind-the-scenes videos of making products and tutorial videos on certain tasks can be just as valuable – these videos can help answer questions that people are actively searching for, build brand awareness and help establish your company as trusted experts.
Failing to maintain branding
While certain videos can be more informational than promotional, you should still add some type of branding to the video to let people know who your company is. This could include putting your logo in the corner and possibly a link to your website as well as mentioning your company by name.
Ignore YouTube SEO
Just as SEO is required to help get your website seen on Google, SEO is also necessary to help people find your website on YouTube. Adding certain keywords to the title and description could help you to rank higher for certain search terms, helping your video to get more views. You can find guides on YouTube SEO online.
Not sharing videos on social media/your website
Don’t just rely on people searching for your videos to get views. You can also encourage views by sharing videos on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Embedding videos on your website can also be another way to get views (although you may want to avoid autoplay videos as these can be a little annoying).
Not frontloading video ads
When it comes to video adverts, YouTube often offers the option to skip them after five seconds. This is why it’s important to hook people immediately by frontloading your videos with the most eye-catching visuals or striking audio you can think of. Don’t wait until five seconds into your video to provide an interesting fact or deliver a memorable image when you can do it right off the bat.
Disabling comments
Many companies disable comments on their YouTube videos as a way of discouraging potentially negative criticism. However, this may suggest to customers that your company has something to hide, as well as eliminating a source of leads. Unless you’re getting a flood of negative comments, keep the comment section open.
Responding late to questions in comments
It’s important to engage your audience on YouTube through video comments. This is particularly important when it comes to questions from potential customers – swiftly responding to questions in comments could help to maximize leads. Respond too late or fail to respond at all, and these customers may move on. Search through comments on a regular basis to make sure you’re not missing out on these leads.
Not adding subtitles
Some of your viewers may not be fluent in English or may be watching with the sound off. Make sure that your videos have subtitles enabled do that these viewers can still get all the necessary information they need from your videos.
Trying too hard to imitate other videos
Other videos can be a great inspiration, but you should be careful of trying to imitate them too much. The most successful videos are original videos that stand out. Try to think outside of the box by exploring topics in depth that others have only lightly touched on or by subverting expectations in adverts.
