Multimedia offerings have become increasingly popular as more brands seek to compete for the loyalty and attention of users. As mobile devices continue to become faster and more powerful, the amount of video content consumed by users on a daily basis has skyrocketed. This has led to everybody – from Fortune 500 companies to small bloggers – creating their very own video content.

Unfortunately, not all video content is destined to perform well. There are some potential issues that could be holding back your videos from doing their best; let’s talk about some of the most common reasons your videos might be failing in the marketplace of content.

Bad  Aesthetics

Video – obviously – relies on visual presentation. Even the greatest of videos cannot show their true colors if people are not willing to click on them. Because of this, basic aesthetics – such as thumbnails – matter immensely. One quick look through a YouTube search and you’ll see plenty of videos with flashy thumbnails and thorough descriptions. Whether you’re embedding on your website or pinging servers on YouTube directly, attracting people is paramount to video performance.

But once you do have the attention of viewers, you need to maintain it. Because of this, the aesthetics of any video throughout its duration matter just as much. Everything from the resolution of the video to the lighting and effects within it will either make or break how many people decide to continue watching. Ultimately, not everybody has the ability to produce professionally-edited videos – but applying as much aesthetic creativity within your means is essential to maximizing the number of views and shares each video gets.

Lack of Creativity

One of the biggest ways videos achieve success is by tapping into creativity. Without this vital element, even videos with excellent content and discussion will fall flat. The proper planning process for any video created from scratch will consider how best to make the video a creative and entertaining one. While this may not be possible with live video streams, planning any video should consider how best to incorporate entertainment and persuasion. Many people use story-telling as one great way to capture the attention spans of viewers. However you decide to be creative, just remember that captivating and dazzling the senses of your viewers determines how successful any video will be.

Improper Optimizations

Another common reason why some videos – despite being otherwise successful – never take off is due to a failure surrounding optimization. In order for people to find your videos, they must be optimized with the right keywords, titles and descriptions. Without this vital information – or with information that is not ideal for the audience you’re targeting – a video can never reach the audience it was intended to reach. Ultimately, pinging servers with a variety of keywords and relevant phrases will allow it to be seen and ultimately go viral under the right circumstances.

Building a successful video involves creativity, good aesthetics and various forms of SEO. While not all videos that execute these tasks perfectly will be successful, many that have fallen short have also failed in one or more of these areas. Now that you know what to look out for, you can improve and ultimately produce videos in the future that excel among their target audiences.