Three video mistakes businesses should avoid

1. Using AI-generated testimonials

I honestly don't understand why a business would use an AI-generated testimonial.

A testimonial is useful because a real client is talking about what it was like to work with you. They can explain the problem they had, what you did and what changed for them.

If the person is generated by AI, none of that happened. They didn't hire you, use your service or have an experience to share. It gives a potential customer no reason to believe what they're watching.

Using AI to help organize ideas or speed up part of your workflow is a different conversation. I'm talking about creating a fake person or quote and presenting it as a customer experience. It makes the business look bad.

If you don't have testimonials yet, that's fine. Explain how your service works. Answer a question customers keep asking. Show your process or talk about why you started the business. There are plenty of useful videos you can make until you have a real client story to tell.

2. Creating content just to get views

Views are good. I'm not saying businesses should ignore them. But a high view count doesn't automatically mean the video did anything useful for your business.

Someone might watch the video and still have no idea what you do.

This happens when a business starts chasing whatever is popular that week. They use a trending sound, copy a format that worked for somebody else or make a video that has almost nothing to do with their actual work.

One post might get attention. Then someone opens the profile and sees a group of disconnected videos that don't explain the business or help them decide whether they want to work with it.

A better goal is to build a consistent group of videos that shows what your business knows and how you work. Your content can answer questions, explain your process, show examples of your work or help people understand how you approach a problem.

Some of those videos might get a lot of views and some probably won't. They can still be useful if they're reaching the right people and communicating something that matters.

3. Treating video like decoration

The third mistake is treating video like something you add to your website because it looks cool.

Looking good is part of the job. I care about how a video looks. But the conversation shouldn't start and end there.

It should start with what the business needs to communicate. Maybe customers don't understand how the service works. Maybe they want to see the quality of your work before they contact you. Maybe your sales team keeps answering the same question.

For WAZA Home Comfort, the useful part of the process video was showing homeowners what to expect from an installation. The video had a clear job to do before we made decisions about how it should look.

Once you know what the video needs to say, you can decide what should be filmed and how the story should come together. Without that purpose, you can end up with a nice-looking video that doesn't help anyone understand the business.