Ensure your content creation is professional, not amateur, by avoiding these five mistakes.
When producing a video for your brand or project, authenticity should be one of your aims. Making things look “real” helps build stronger connections with your brand or organization.
But it’s a fine line—you want to achieve transparency without looking like a rookie with shaky mobile phone footage and bad audio. Without polished video production, an attempt at genuineness can land with a thud and downgrade your brand’s value and audience’s respect.
Professional vs. amateur
Crafting a high-quality, professional video is far more demanding than it initially appears. The profound impact that video has on customers’ perception of your business cannot be overstated, underscoring the significance of its execution. It is undoubtedly worth the effort to deliver a video that truly shines.
Crafting engaging video content that audiences want to watch can have an incredible payoff for your brand: more than 1 billion hours of video are consumed on YouTube every day, and one of the world’s most popular apps, TikTok, is powered completely by video. According to research cited in The Drum, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it as text.
As a marketer or even as a business owner, you’re likely already conscious of video’s dominance. But creating video is not enough on its own: it needs to be something your audience wants to watch.
As you embark on your next filming project, it’s important to recognize that just as good video creates lots of brand equity, bad video can seriously tarnish your brand.
Creating content that’s polished and professional is key. Doing so means taking your audience and the competition seriously by putting out video that’s captivating rather than tedious.
Five video mistakes to avoid
So how do you strike a balance between video that conveys something genuine without veering into unprofessional? Here are five mistakes we recommend avoiding. View these as videos on you YouTube Channel!
- Weak storyline
Even a one-minute video needs to tell a clear story, and good storytelling requires planning. Be sure to examine in advance who your audience is, where they’ll view the content, and what message or call to action you want to convey. Stringing b-roll and music together without illustrating a purpose or narrative likely won’t serve your marketing goals. - Wrong length for the platform or audience
The needs of a short TikTok video will be different than those in a 10-minute YouTube video. You must understand your various platforms and what your viewers expect of you in each location. For example, a video of interviews (a “talking head”-style piece) that’s lengthy won’t be an effective reel for Instagram, where people are scrolling through brief clips. This length would be more effective on your website or emailed out to current (or potential) clients. - Shaky footage and unnecessary camera movement
Your visuals help tell the story, so it’s important to craft them thoughtfully. Capturing your subjects at the right angles, and establishing whether to use a close or wide shot, are important choices that affect the quality. Recording with a hand held camera causing unintentional movement can also divert your audience and give them motion sickness in the process! - Poor audio quality
This is a crucial differentiator between bad and good video content. Too much background noise and hard-to-understand dialogue can make or break your video project. Focus on using high-quality microphones and filming in locations where the speaker can be easily heard. - Overuse of transition, effects, and fillers
Like differing framing techniques, it’s engaging to use these as creative enhancements for your video but choose wisely. Overdoing any of them can be distracting, off-brand, or confusing. Be thoughtful with editing and remember the aim is to not only tell the story, but keep the audience’s attention.
Finding the right partner
The best way to avoid looking like an amateur is to select the right partner!
Creating great video content seems simple thanks to the abundance of technology. But going it alone can mean wasted staff time, unfinished projects, and poor-quality footage. By engaging a content partner, you can depend on experts to capture and edit videos with the right high-quality equipment and, most importantly, to deliver good storytelling.
Our team loves collaborating with clients to ensure video content accurately reflects a brand’s story and image. Reach out via the contact form to talk about how we can help you through the process.
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