Are your videos falling flat? This could be why

Video is incredibly effective in boosting engagement, dwell time and conversions. It’s little wonder that marketers have beendoubling downon 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.

The very best avoid making these simple mistakes:

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.

2. You went for the hard sell

The TikTok and BeReal audiences of 2022 crave authentic content. And with most of us subjected to anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every day, we’re hardwired to disconnect. If your video sounds like a sales pitch, your audience will struggle to connect with it.

Instead of going for the hard sell, earn your audience’s attention by offering value exchange with every video you share. If they’re giving you their time, a valuable insight or an authentic story will go a long way.

3. There are no 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.

4. 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.

You can provide a‘speaker notes’function, with just enough room for a couple of bullet points for this very reason. 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.

5. It has the wrong formatting

每个社交平台都有一个最佳的方面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.

Brief videos with their final destination in mind. If you want to create a 16:9 video for your website, but the video has been filmed portrait, you’ll struggle to make it work. Be super clear at the briefing stage to give yourself the most editing options.

6. Failing to repurpose

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.

Or try a different approach. For example, one simple Q&A video could be published in full on YouTube, edited into multiple short clips for Instagram and TikTok, the transcription could become a blog post, or a LinkedIn post, and then the audio becomes a clip on your podcast. It’s one of the many reasons why marketers see so much value in video.

Of course these tips are easy to follow, but even easier to forget, so use them as a checklist next time you create a video and watch your engagement soar.

Vouch’s co-founder Gary Zurnamer