The Biggest YouTube Marketing Mistakes That Too Many Brands Make

With over 2.6 billion users, YouTube is the largest video marketing platform across the globe. The popularity of YouTube is because the audiovisual medium allows brands to engage with their audience in a unique and interactive manner. YouTube being the most popular search engine, also plays a vital role in its increasing popularity.

However, in a hurry to explore this tremendous opportunity of YouTube marketing, marketers and businesses make common mistakes while making their videos, leading to a complete failure of your video marketing strategy.

Here we give you the lowdown on some such mistakes and tips to avoid them.

1. Making Lengthy Introductions

Have you ever come across a video where the content is insignificant to the actual topic? Do you wait long enough for the person to share the relevant information? Most probably, the answer is no, and you move on to the following video.

The same thing may happen if the start of your video isn't gripping and is filled with boring introductions. Therefore, to make the viewer stay, ensure that the opening is short, exciting, informative, and backed by exceptional content.

2. Not Having a Solid Content Strategy

At the end of the day, video content is also content, and to achieve the desired results, you need to plan and strategize your videos according to your marketing plans.

Creating random videos with no set goals won't take you anywhere. Set a clear goal to define the parameters and timeline for your videos, and curate content to achieve that goal.

3. Lack of Proper Branding

Another common mistake made by brands while creating video content for YouTube is the lack of branding. Even if your content is remarkable, you won't get any leads or conversions through your videos if the user can't place your brand name with it.

Ensure that your video content has appropriate branding so the user can remember you even after the videos end. Also, ensure to keep your branding and logos consistent in all your content so the viewers can quickly identify you.

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4. Making Poor-Quality Videos

One major downer for any viewer is a video that has poor audio and video quality. If your sound isn't straightforward and has a noise problem and pixelated images, no one will watch that video.

You need to ensure that your videos have crystal-clear sound and high-definition picture quality so that the user experience is to notch no matter on which screen they watch the video.

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5. Providing Too Much Information

Suppose you are watching a video on SEO strategies, and it talks about SEO, PPC, and social media in that single video. You would feel confused at the end of it. Too much information does that.

Therefore, only stick to one specific message, topic, or information in a single video. It will enhance the clarity of the content and make it more appealing to the audience.

6. Not Focusing on the Target Audience

Every business has a target audience that they want to capture. Creating your YouTube videos without considering your target audience's interests won't fetch you any results.

While creating your video content, research what your target audience likes and create content around it. You can look at your competition's video to get an idea. Conduct surveys and ask people to fill out feedback forms to learn about their interests.

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7. Hoping for Instant Gratification

Many marketers expect their videos to become viral within minutes and gain millions of followers in a day. In reality, that rarely happens. It takes time and consistency to build your brand on YouTube and gather followers.

Expecting instant results from your videos is like hoping to drink rich wine the same day you brew it. Consistently optimize your videos and post more content to see results with time.

8. Ignoring SEO

As mentioned earlier, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. And it also requires search engine optimization so that your video ranks for the correct search queries or keywords.

Without SEO for your video, your content won't be visible to the right people. Sometimes, it won't even show even if the user has entered the relevant keywords because the YouTube algorithm hasn't recognized your video ideal for the query due to a lack of YouTube SEO. Therefore, you need to ensure that your videos are fully optimized.

9. Ignoring Titles and Subtitles

Your title is what the viewers read first to know what the video is about. If your title is ambiguous and misleading, the viewer may not watch the videos or leave halfway feeling cheated. Therefore, make sure your title is small, precise, and has the right keywords.

Another common mistake is not adding subtitles to your video. Subtitles open your video content to a larger audience that may not understand the language the video is in. Adding subtitles also increases the engagement levels of your video.

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10. Not Asking for Subscribers and Comments

You may feel that the user would automatically subscribe to your channel and comment if they like your content. However, most people need more encouragement.

Ask your viewers to subscribe, like, comment, and share your videos at the end to reach more audiences and gain followers.

11. Not Having Proper Analytics

Feeling happy about getting more views on your video is not a bad thing. It shows that the audience finds your content relatable and insightful. However, as a business, you need more than just views on your YouTube to succeed.

Therefore, set up analytics mechanisms that measure important KPIs and parameters. Such parameters include click-through rate, watch time, engagement levels, etc.

Tip: We recommend that you use a reliable YouTube Analytics tool that helps you know the performance of your channel. A good recommendation is DashClicks' Analytics app.

12. Not Having a Good Storyline

Storytelling has been influencing people's life since the dawn of time. And nothing intrigues the human mind more than a well-dictated story. Videos are one of the best ways to create gripping stories.

However, when creating content for video marketing, most marketers fail to recognize the potential of stories. Using storylines to create engaging videos will improve your KPIs.

13. Not Understanding Customer Emotions

A lot of viewers and subscribers get emotionally invested in a brand when watching its videos. If your videos don't emotionally connect with your target audience, the chances are high that they will leave the video in between and never look back.

Understand your target audience's psyche and how their emotions work and create content accordingly.

14. Trying to Achieve Too Many Goals With One Video

A lot of businesses want to achieve all their video marketing goals with one single video. And that becomes the prime reason for the downfall of their video marketing.

The saying ‘Never keep all your eggs in one basket’ works here as well. Make different videos for different goals and keep them separate to get the best results.

15. Avoid Long-Form Videos

Another common mistake that businesses make during video marketing is creating long-form videos to get more view time. It may work for some popular types of content, but most people don't have the attention span of hours and skip halfway.

Stick to short-form videos whenever possible, as they have greater chances of views and engagement.

Summing up!

Being one of the most popular video marketing platforms, YouTube is an excellent marketing tool when used right. However, the key is to understand YouTube algorithms and audience interests and integrate your marketing goals with them.