You did it. Finally, you produced and updated your first series of marketing videos. You wrote the scripts, filmed them, edited them, and posted them to an online platform. All that is left to do is sit back, relax, and see the views roll in.
Haha. Funny story, right?
In the past, I created my very first collection of promoting movies, I used to be stumped. Befuddled. Frustrated. Here I had a collection of what I thought were nice examples of visual content material, and yet, nobody was watching them.
Where did I go wrong?
I wished I understood what I knew now. My absence-of-views problem was one that many marketers seem to face — which is why we determined to make a list of the most common factors that keep viewers away. Read on, and bookmark them for reference if you are formulating your next video content strategy.
Why No One is Watching Your Videos
1) They are too long.
It seems like we are past the point of requiring evidence that helps the dwindling human attention span, however, just in case — studies say it’s about 8 seconds. What’s more, roughly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under one minute, so in sum: Keep it short.
Brian Halligan, HubSpot’s CEO, said: “You are asking to borrow somebody’s brain.” If you ask somebody to borrow anything, the considerate thing to do is to be respectful of that person’s time, and once they may need it back. Generally, we need our brains — so if you create something like video content, keep in mind that you have your viewer’s brain on loan.
That is not to say that your video must be limited to eight seconds — after all, how much can you possibly say in that amount of time? However, if you create it, ensure that those first few seconds are highly engaging, as that is once you will need to grab the viewer’s attention to maintain it.
2) You’re going after the wrong audience.
I really like puppy videos. You like puppy videos. Everybody loves puppy videos. However what the heck do they have to do with your brand?
Whenever you make visual content, that is a question you should ask yourself: “What the heck does this have to do with my brand?” And while there may be a method to incorporate a puppy into that, it must be relevant to your audience.
Once you set out to create a video marketing strategy, one of the most crucial things to consider is what your target audience wants to watch — current and prospective customers alike. Entertainment aside, what is going to be useful to them? What will get their attention, make them happy that they allow you to borrow their brains, and answer the questions that brought them to your content in the first place?
3) You are utilizing the wrong channel.
When people think of “video marketing,” usually, the first thing that comes to mind is YouTube. And that isn’t a wrong assumption to make. After all, around a third of all Internet users — all of them — utilize YouTube.
However, YouTube is not the only place where videos are consumed — and it isn’t the only place where you will discover your audience. Think about that 45% of people, for example, watch more than an hour of videos on either YouTube or facebook. What’s more, Facebook is the most prevalent social media channel, with 79% of all U.S. online adults using it. So when you are concentrating on YouTube alone, and not making original video content on Facebook — well, you may be missing out on a key portion of viewers.
However, where you publish videos also relies on who you are trying to reach. Generation Z, for example — according to AdWeek, one of the youngest online demographics — “cannot live without YouTube,” and is over 1.4X more likely to consume content on that channel than on Fb.
That’s why it’s useful to determine where the different segments of your target audience spend their time online, which could help dictate what type of video you are going to create and where it will be shared. The Pew Research Center’s annual Social Media Update is particularly useful for that, which breaks down who’s utilizing what. Have a look, and determine if, based on who you want watching your videos, you should broaden or narrow your content distribution.
4) You are not promoting them on other channels.
Let’s say you create an original content video on Fb. Do not just leave it there — since that limits its viewability.
“However does not that go against what you just said about utilizing the right channel?” On the surface, maybe. However, here’s the thing — repurposing that Fb video for other channels could help to drive both engagement and traffic.
Right here’s where something such as Instagram could be a great resource. Now that verified accounts have the option of including links to their Story posts — that’s the thing at the bottom that normally says, “see more” under and upwards-pointing carrot arrow — it serves as another vehicle for driving traffic to a website where you want more engagement. You could now add links to Snapchat Stories, too.
You do not have to create an entirely new video from scratch for something like this, either. You could take the most attention-grabbing 15-second clips of your longer video, and utilize them to build a cohesive series of shorter videos to use as Instagram Story segments to get more fans to where you wish visitors to go, whether that’s to a full-length video or other content.