Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Video Content

Video is the new frontier of consumable content. People are hungry for information, but they want it in the form of entertainment, which is why we’ve seen a huge increase in video content circulating the web.

Whether you’re looking to increase engagement on your website (time on page), create content for your email campaigns, expand your social media presence, or simply drive more business, video is the way to go.

Here are the top 5 mistakes you’ll want to avoid:

1. Poor Audio Quality

Excuse me, what was that? Yes you heard me, poor audio quality.

If you are choosing between doing video or not, definitely DO IT. But you don’t want to make rookie mistakes that will end up hurting your brand image. The perceived quality of your video will take a huge hit if the sound is not up to par. Even if you have perfect script writing, great lighting, etc., poor sound quality can create a bad impression right off the bat.

So what can you do to insure great sound quality? You have a few choices depending on your dedication to creating video content. Of course there’s the ol’ smartphone route, this is OK if it’s your only option. The problem with using your phone recorder is that it picks up sounds throughout the room you are in, instead of focusing on your voice. A better alternative is to purchase an external microphone. Here are a few options:

A lavalier microphone (Olympus: $25 on Amazon)

This type of microphone attaches to your clothes and is great for videos where you or your staff wants to appear on camera (Explainer Videos, FAQ, Welcome to my Agency,etc.).

You can also get a simple computer microphone, they start at around $15 and go upwards from there. A high quality product with a reasonable price is the CAD microphone (Also sold on Amazon, $46).

2. Length

This may be an obvious one to some people, but you would be surprised as to just how short the majority of consumer’s attention spans are. There is no dictionary answer as to how long a video should be. So the best answer is as short as you can make it and it depends on the type of video.

Here are some recommendations on length for various types of videos:

Explainer/FAQ: 60-120 seconds. This might seem difficult to fit everything you want to say into this time frame, which is why video series are great. You’re more likely to get a positive response on a handful of short videos rather than one long video. This also allows you to share more content over a span of time rather than one video in one instance. 45-90 seconds is long enough to get your consumers attention, but short enough to trigger questions. Don’t try to cram a million things into one video, highlight what is important and leave it at that.

Testimonials: 30-60 seconds. Testimonials tend to play by a slightly different set of rules. For one, a customer may record a testimonial video for you and you don’t want to  cut them off if they have a lot of great things to say about your business. But if you have control and are using these videos for marketing, 1 to 2 minutes is ideal.

The reason testimonials can be longer is because consumers usually watch them when they are eager to learn more about a company or service, so they are looking for something more informative rather than a “teaser” video.

3. Lack of visuals

This seems like an oxymoron, right? The entire video already IS a visual so why would you need to add more? While on the subject of short attention spans, to truly comprehend something consumers need a mix of words and visuals. Visuals will reiterate what you are saying and can create a longer lasting effect on the consumer.

If you are creating an explanatory video, for example, and you’re discussing Umbrella insurance. Overlay an image of an Umbrella or add a visual that relates to what you’re saying.

4. Hosting on YouTube

This one isn’t as obvious to most people, but  still a very important consideration when deciding on where to host your video content. Many people host their videos on YouTube because it’s free. But with any free service there’s often a price to pay. In this case, the price you pay comes in the form of advertising.

It is important to remember that unless your primary goal is to create videos that will help you to rank organically in the search engines, you must be aware of the downsides of hosting your videos on YouTube. Here’s why:

Advertisements from potentially competing services

The truth is you have no control over what is played before or after your videos on YouTube.

Do you want your clients directed to YouTube where they could possibly run into one of Geico’s unskippable pre-roll ads?

Pre-roll ads play in advance of videos.  The most effective pre-roll ads are targeted with key words. For example, if your birthday video says Happy Birthday from X Insurance Agency, there is a good chance that an insurance company advertisement will play before your video.

So, it’s no surprise that GEICO is trying to capitalize on this with one small part of the $1 billion they’ve spent on advertising this year.

Read: Ad of the Day: Geico Makes Clever Preroll Ads That Are Basically Unskippable

Bad user experience

When your video viewers are directed to YouTube, the amount of “noise”  on the page can interfere with the message you’re trying to get across in your video.

Would you want your clients to click on your video and be directed here?

Not only could an Ad appear in the lower third of the video, but this user interface messy, it can be extremely distracting.

It is critical to remember that when sharing video content with your prospects and current clients that you make sure your brand and contact information is “front and center’.  

That is why we STRONGLY advise against sending your clients to YouTube to watch your video content.  

Keep the user experience clean, inviting, and easy. How can you do this? by using a third party hosting site like Wistia or Vimeo. These platforms offer a free version and allow you to customize the user experience in an ad-free environment with no distractions.  

5. Skipping out on Birthdays and Holidays

Not every service provider has access to their client’s birthdays, as an insurance agent you have the ability to make your clients feel recognized on their special day. Birthday videos are great way to show that you care, and Holiday videos allow you to touch your book throughout the year.

Takeaway

There's plenty of reasons that you should embrace video in your agency.

You can create videos for customer testimonials, why work with my agency, explanation of coverages, meet the staff, birthdays and holidays, the list goes on.  

In fact 76% of marketers plan to add video to their sites, making it a higher priority than Facebook, Twitter and blogging. This is likely because 80% of online visitors will watch a video, while only 20% will actually read content.  

However, before you decide on your video strategy you should have clear goals in mind (organic SEO vs customer experience). You also must be aware of the major mistakes to keep in mind, as mentioned above.

If customer experience is the goal, you should make sure that your clients (and prospects) watch your video content without distractions or pre-roll ads, & the noise of the YouTube interface.

Keep in mind great sound quality, optimum length, engaging visuals, and consider hosting on a third party platform, this will set your agency up to start creating great video content!