Introduction
You’ve decided to create video content. Smart move. Video is dominating the digital landscape, driving engagement through the roof, and converting prospects like nothing else can.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: most video content is terrible.
Not because people lack good intentions or creative ideas, but because they fall into the same predictable traps that turn potentially brilliant videos into scroll-past disasters. And in a world where you have approximately 3 seconds to capture someone’s attention, these mistakes are expensive.
Let’s talk about what not to do.
1. Starting Without a Clear Goal
Here’s how most video projects begin: “We need video content!”
Great. But why? What’s it supposed to achieve?
The most common mistake in video creation is skipping straight to production without defining what success looks like.
Are you trying to drive conversions?
Build brand awareness?
Educate your audience?
Each goal requires a completely different approach.
Without a clear objective, you end up with a video that tries to do everything and accomplishes nothing. Your call-to-action becomes muddled. Your messaging gets diluted. And your audience leaves confused about what you actually wanted them to do.
Define your goal first. Everything else follows from there.
2. Forgetting About Your Audience
You know what your customers care about? Themselves. Their problems. Their challenges. Their goals.
You know what they don’t care about? Your company’s founding story, your office dog, or how many awards you’ve won (unless those things directly solve their problems).
Too many videos are created from the company’s perspective rather than the customer’s. They’re filled with industry jargon, inside jokes, and details that matter to you but mean nothing to the people you’re trying to reach.
Before you shoot a single frame, ask yourself: “If I were my target customer, would I actually care about this?” If the answer isn’t an immediate yes, rewrite your script.
Want videos that turn heads? Check out our article on the importance of case study videos.
3. Prioritising Production Value Over Substance
Let’s get something straight: a beautifully shot video with terrible content is still terrible content. It’s just expensive, terrible content.
The obsession with cinematic quality has led countless brands to pour budgets into high-end production while neglecting the fundamentals: a compelling story, a clear message, and genuine value for the viewer.
Your audience will forgive imperfect lighting. They’ll overlook a slightly shaky camera. What they won’t forgive is wasting their time with vapid content that looks pretty but says nothing.
Substance first. Always.
4. Making It Too Long
Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to watch your 10-minute brand manifesto video. They just don’t.
The sweet spot for most marketing videos is 60-90 seconds. For social media, you’re looking at 30 seconds or less. Even educational content should rarely exceed 3-4 minutes unless it’s genuinely delivering substantial value throughout.
Every second of your video needs to earn its place. If a scene, a sentence, or a shot isn’t actively moving your message forward or providing value, cut it. Be ruthless. Your viewer’s attention is a gift, and you’re competing with literally everything else on the internet for it.
Respect their time, or lose their attention.
5. Ignoring the First Three Seconds
Here’s a sobering reality: most people will decide whether to keep watching your video within the first three seconds.
Three. Seconds.
That’s how long you have to prove your video is worth their time. Yet countless videos waste this precious window with company logos, slow fades, or generic establishing shots that communicate absolutely nothing of value.
Start with impact. Lead with the problem, the promise, or the payoff. Give viewers an immediate reason to keep watching. You can establish context later, once you’ve earned their attention.
Those opening seconds aren’t a formality. They’re the entire ballgame.
Mastering the first three seconds is vital for any social media strategy. Check out our top 10 tips for boosting social media engagement.
6. Neglecting Audio Quality
Want to know the fastest way to make your video feel amateurish and unwatchable? Bad audio.
People will tolerate less-than-perfect video quality. They’ll accept simple graphics or basic editing. But poor audio, whether it’s muffled dialogue, background noise, or inconsistent volume levels, is the death knell for viewer engagement.
Your audience might not consciously notice great audio, but they’ll absolutely notice bad audio. It creates cognitive friction, makes your content harder to process, and screams, “We didn’t care enough to get this right.”
Invest in a decent microphone. Record in a quiet space. Edit your audio carefully. It matters more than you think.
7. Creating Videos That Don’t Work on Mute
Here’s a statistic that should fundamentally change how you create video content: the majority of social media videos are watched without sound. 85% of social media videos, in fact.
Yet brands continue creating videos that are completely incomprehensible unless you can hear them. No captions. No text overlays. Nothing but talking heads saying things you can’t hear.
This isn’t optional anymore. Your videos need to work on mute. Use captions. Add text to emphasise key points. Make sure your visual storytelling is strong enough to carry the message even without audio.
Don’t make your audience choose between unmuting your video and moving on. They’ll move on every time.
8. Forgetting the Call-to-Action
You’ve created compelling content. Your viewer has watched the entire video. They’re interested, engaged, and ready to take the next step.
What next step? You never told them.
The number of videos that end without a clear call-to-action is staggering. All that effort to capture attention, build interest, and create desire, but no direction for what to do with it.
Tell your viewers exactly what you want them to do next. Visit your website. Download your guide. Book a demo. Make it specific, make it clear, and make it easy.
A video without a CTA is a missed opportunity.
9. Not Optimising for Platform
A video created for your website doesn’t work on Instagram. An Instagram video doesn’t work on LinkedIn. A LinkedIn video doesn’t work on TikTok.
Each platform has its own audience expectations, aspect ratios, ideal lengths, and content norms. Ignoring these differences and posting the same video everywhere is lazy, and it shows.
Vertical video for Stories and Reels. Square for feed posts. Landscape for YouTube and websites. Different hooks for different audiences. Platform-specific optimisation isn’t extra work; it’s the baseline for effectiveness.
One size fits none.
10. Publishing Without Testing
You’ve spent hours (or days, or weeks) creating your video. It’s finally done. Time to hit publish and celebrate, right?
Not quite.
The biggest mistake you can make is launching your video into the world without testing it first. Play it on different devices. Watch it on mobile and desktop. Check how it looks with and without sound. Make sure your captions are accurate and your CTAs are clear.
Ask someone outside your team to watch it. Do they understand the message? Does the CTA make sense? Would they take action?
These final checks catch the embarrassing typos, the broken links, and the confusing elements that seem obvious once you see them but somehow made it through production.
Test before you publish. Always.
Conclusion
Creating great video content isn’t rocket science, but it does require intentionality. Every choice matters: from your opening frame to your closing CTA, from your audio quality to your platform optimisation.
The good news? Now you know what to avoid. These ten mistakes are responsible for more failed video content than any lack of creativity or budget constraints. Sidestep them, and you’re already ahead of most of the competition.
Video is too powerful a tool to waste on amateur mistakes. Your audience is ready to engage. Your message deserves to be heard. Now go create something worth watching.