Video Mistake #4:
Videos that Don’t Serve Your Business Goals


Michelle filming Lisa_Photo

Videos are an amazing way to communicate, show creativity, and express your brand story. However, a video for your business should serve a greater goal: ideally, it will help you achieve your business objectives.

It’s essential to know what your goals are when creating video and to begin with the end in mind. If you can identify the goals of your video before you start the content writing and development process, you can reverse-engineer and design videos that best suit your bigger business goals. This will ensure that you get a return on your investment of time and money — great videos often require both.

A common mistake found in business videos is the creator isn’t clear on what they are trying to achieve.  This results in a lack of focus within the content and an audience that gets distracted. Another mistake is the creator tries to achieve too much in one video, and so the video plays too long and the audience loses focus.

Have you ever watched a video of a talking head and wondered exactly where the video is going?The speaker goes on extraneous tangents or goes into too much detail.  The minute a speaker does this, they’ve lost their audience, who will click away before they ever hear the call to action. Then it’s lose/lose for both the creator and the viewer.

To ensure you keep your audience’s attention, you might ask yourself the following questions before creating your video:

  1. What is the goal for creating the video? What do I want to achieve?  Do I want to create an understanding of a situation, increase awareness, or inspire my audience to action?
  2. What effect do I want to have on the audience’s hearts and minds?
  3. What actions do you want your audience to take after viewing the video? Do you want them to enroll in your program, opt into your list, become a fan of your brand, or support your initiative?
  4. Who is your target audience and how can you best reach them?  What is their age range? What type of material do they respond to?  A twenty-something audience might prefer a fast-paced video with quickly moving images, while a middle-age audience might find this unappealing.

Once you determine the goals of the video and where it fits in your marketing and communications strategy, your content writing will become easier and focused.

Kristan Kirsh, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at Energy Recovery Group, produced a video for her company that is a perfect example of a video that achieved its goals.

Kristan wanted to increase employee engagement and get them excited about the annual sales meeting.  This video not only entertained the employees, it was shared virally within the company, was talked about at the water cooler, and brought various departments together.  Moreover, the annual sales meeting was well attended.

Here is the video that Kirstan produced:

If you take time to strategically think through your goals before creating your content, your video may become the silver bullet that fast tracks your success in achieving your goals.

Have you seen any videos that have increased your awareness, caused an inner shift, or inspired you to action?  Please share them in the comments section below.

And please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need support in planning your video strategy and content for a successful outcome.

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Comments & Responses

4 Responses so far.

  1. Excellent tips. I’ve never tried video, but have watched enough to know just what annoys me. I don’t like the sound of my voice or like being in front of the camera though, so that’s always put me off creating one for my business.

    • Yes, what you are saying is so common which is why so many people delay making videos. It helps to put the focus back on the client and the message you want to deliver to them – they care far more about your message than anything else! On camera training can also help you make some adjustments so that you start to like yourself on camera better! We’ve seen clients transform on camera with the right training.

  2. Erin Hatton says:

    Great tips. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

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