Five common mistakes businesses make with video

There have a been a plethora of reports telling us that 2012 is the year of the online video. Obviously I'm not going to disagree with but it's important businesses approach video with the same thoroughness they would any other aspect of their marketing and promotion. So here are the top five mistakes businesses make when considering video.

“Yeah, a video – it’s just like a moving brochure, innit?”

Well, in a word, NO. A video is nothing like a moving brochure, and should indeed be so much more. Yes, we know you’ve spent a lot of money on print media, but this is different, and in many ways better. Let’s see it for what it is – a promotional video, not a video copy of your brochure. As Marshall Mcluha put it; “The medium is the message” and this message is video, not paper.

“Strategy? What strategy?”

OK, strategy is an overused word, but if you’re going to spend time and money on a company video then you need to make sure it matches everything else and is a part of an overall plan. You’ve probably coordinated your website, brochure, sales collateral and marketing materials, so you need to ensure that your video fits in with this plan too.
A good video production company will spend time with you, making sure that your video is a part of the marketing mix, not a standalone piece of film.

“Oh, John has a camera”

John is lovely. OK, so some see him as ‘that weird guy in accounts who wears sandals and goes to music festivals all the time’, but he’s got a a HUGE video camera, and he can do the job, right?

WRONG! Yes, we know you want to save money, and we know he probably thinks he can do the job well, but a well thought out and effective corporate video isn’t quite the same as some grainy film of Muse at Glastonbury, and it’s your corporate image that’s going to suffer.

Having a video produced doesn’t have to cost the earth, and a good video production company will help you find ways to cut down costs that don’t mean risking a final shot of someone asleep in a tent with marker pen all over their face getting in there by accident.

“We don’t need a script – we’re a zany, ad-libbing kind of crowd”

Which is fine, until you get in front of a camera. Unless you’re a professional and do this all the time, you WON’T be able to wing it in front of the camera. You’ll look stilted, you’ll grasp for words, and you’ll look unprofessional. All the reasons NOT to work without a script.

Let your corporate video production company help you to develop a natural sounding script that will showcase you and your business at it’s best.

“Video? Nah, not for us mate”
 

Why not? We’ve yet to find a company that wouldn’t benefit from some sort of video to help enhance their promotion and marketing. Whether it be for customer testimonials, case studies, business overviews or explaining services, a video works in a way that written text or websites can’t, and is ideal to add in to your marketing mix.  Don’t assume it’s not for you without investigating it properly – look into it, find out if your competitors are using it, think about what it could do for you, and you might find it could be a good fit for your company. If you’d like to talk more about how video could help your marketing, why not drop us a line at gordon@iotamedia.co.uk