Short-Form Video: A to Z

If there’s one thing we know about the internet, it’s this: the online landscape is constantly changing, and what’s cool today may be out of date by next month. But for the past few years, one format has dominated social media, advertising, and the excitingly complex world of digital marketing. Any guesses as to what that is? The answer is one you’ll find the moment you click on any social media app: short-form video.

With so many jargon-heavy terms popping up every week, you may be confused by the clunkiness of the term “short-form video.” 

To boil this term down, it basically refers to all the bite-sized video content we consume online (through apps and websites)—mostly without even realizing it! This includes viral TikToks, trending audio clips on Reels, and YouTube Shorts. In the recent past, short-form videos have become the hottest tool for marketers and advertisers to engage with their online audiences, particularly Gen Z. To tap into this new market, it can be worth pausing for a second to understand how short-form videos can level up your marketing strategy and upgrade your content to better connect with your audience. We’ll go over exactly why short-form videos are so powerful and give you some tips for how you can use video marketing to grow your following. Let’s dive in. 

The Power Of Short-Form Video

1. Short Attention, Maximum Retention

Newsflash: attention spans are dropping, people! 

In a world where everyone seems to be struggling to focus on a single piece of content, short-form videos can help us navigate the new digital landscape to form meaningful connections with our audience. So, how can we go about doing that?

Well, brief videos can benefit your relationship with your audience by providing great content without asking for a lot of their time.

For example, if you had to choose between spending half an hour watching a video (that you may or may not be interested in) versus clicking through a bunch of 30-second clips to find one you like, which would you pick? We’re betting it’s the latter! Short-form videos also force you to distill your content into the most important message you want to share with your audience, which will help you cut out the noise and put your best foot forward.

2. Low Cost, High Yield

What’s one thing that every business loves? More bang for your buck–and that’s the kind of promise that short-form videos provide. 

Take a second to think about the differences in company time, resources, and energy when executing a quick Reel versus a complex video ad. No matter how meticulous and detail-oriented you are, you’ll still spend less time conceptualizing and executing a 10-second Reel than you will for other forms of video marketing. It’s just simple math! As a result, short-form videos tend to come at a much lower company cost with a significantly greater yield. 

3. You’re The Sample Too

Let’s do a little exercise. Scroll through a bunch of TikToks and Reels and make a mental note of which ones you loved and which were so boring that you wanted to scroll past after a few seconds. From this, look at the videos that are subtly pushing a product to you to learn all that you can about the effectiveness of video marketing. Chances are you’ll find that content that’s beautiful, funny, and engaging will look no different than an influencer’s organic content. Ultimately, once you look at yourself as a sample for your audience, the power of short-form video will start to make a lot more sense!

Now that we’ve discussed why short-form videos are so powerful in today’s digital landscape, let’s go over a few of our favorite tips for creating short-form content and how you can make your reels, TikToks, and other videos stand out – even if they’re only 5 seconds long! 

Upgrade Your Content 

1. Experiment With Creativity 

One of the easiest ways to stay authentic to your brand while also churning out engaging content is by staying as creative as possible. This includes using trending audio clips or meme formats to cleverly promote products. The golden rule is to create content you would want to engage with yourself. If your post seems too obviously promotional or dull, the chances are that your short-form video content won’t work.

Ultimately, try to constantly push the boundaries, trends, and unspoken rules of social media to create videos that convey your message effectively and inspire others to interact with your brand in a meaningful way. Plus, unique approaches to short-form videos will help your content stand out! 

2. Cater To Phone Zombies 

Have you heard of the term “phone zombies”? It refers to people who do everything with their eyes glued to their phones, walking around cities as “zombies.” If the world we live in now has a popular term for those obsessed with their phones, we should adjust our marketing strategy accordingly.

Now—more than ever—most content is consumed via phones. So, if you aren’t always thinking of ways to create short-form content meant to be watched through a black rectangle, you might fall behind and miss out on reaching a growing digital audience. For example, some TikToks take advantage of the mirror effect of our black screens as the punchline of a joke. This is the perfect example of the medium influencing the content—which you can do too.

3. Best Foot Forward

Short-form content demands you to impress your audience immediately because if you don’t, your audience will move on to the next best thing. For example, in the music industry, they say that if someone switches the radio station within the first 30 seconds of hearing a song, it’s likely a goner. This same idea applies to video marketing. Because you only have a  few seconds to intrigue the audience, you should always open with an engaging hook. The first few seconds of your video have to pique curiosity enough that your audience chooses to spend more of their time with you.

To really capture someone’s attention, you need to make your initial seconds have a lasting impact! Consider adding a mysterious headline to your Reel cover, or telling the audience exactly what you’ll convey to them over the next 15 seconds. 

All in all, short-form video marketing is an exciting medium that allows brands to play around with their marketing techniques. Our increasingly digital world comes with a decreased attention span, so creating engaging content is key to making an impact on your audience and driving conversions for your business. You just have to stay creative, draw your audience in with incredible hooks, and create content that is always optimized for the mobile experience to become the video pro we know you can be!

Always in your corner,

The Content Queens