From the Branded Out Loud blog, five reason online videos don't work: Too many bad videos, not enough popcorn to make up for it. Here they are:
- The quality of the actual video.
- The person being filmed does not have a dynamic personality.
- Lack of sound and visual effects.
- Uninteresting content.
- Not enough information to make a watching decision.
I'll add two more:
- It's aimed at yourself, not your audience. (You might say this is covered by #4 above.) Too many nonprofit online videos are look-at-us, aren't-we-great brag pieces. They should instead strive to connect the viewer with the action.
- It doesn't go anywhere. No call to action. No "so what." Even if you're not trying to raise funds, you should have some kind of next step in mind. "We want viewers to be more aware" is not an action.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for nearly 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. 
