It is no secret that video has, by now, become an extremely powerful marketing tool. Though more expensive to produce, overall, video, as a content format, is more attention-grabbing and much more easily digested than written content. And, though written content still reigns as king, video has slowly been becoming the driving force behind many modern marketing campaigns.
With that said, among the various video formats, there is one that is slowly overtaking the rest of the group. Thanks to TikTok and YouTube Shorts, short-form videos have become immensely popular among pretty much every kind of audience, making it an indispensable marketing tool.
But, how do we make use of this tool? What are some modern trends when it comes to creating short-form videos? What are some of their advantages over other types of videos? Read on and find out!
What Is a Short-Form Video?
So, let’s start with the most obvious question, what is a short-form video?
By definition, a short-form video is any video that is 60 seconds long or shorter. However, that doesn’t always have to apply, and some videos can last up to 2 minutes and still be considered short-form.
However, this is usually an exception, and not the rule, that mainly applies to YouTube. Instagram stories and TikTok videos usually last no more than 60 seconds. YouTube Shorts usually follow this pattern, but they can last longer as well. Some even consider anything shorter than 10 minutes on YouTube to be a short-form video, due videos on YT usually lasting 12-15 minutes on average.
Advantages of the Short-Form Video Format
So, what makes short-form videos so popular among marketers and audiences alike? What are some of their features that make them perfect for reinforcing a brand image?
Easily Digestible Information
One of the greatest strengths of creating short-form vids (let’s call them shorts from now on) is that they’re very easily digestible.
This is due to the fact that they condense information that could take up 10 minutes of someone’s time to just 60 seconds. This means that the audience can consume more videos in the same amount of time and retain more information on a wider range of topics than they could ever before.
High Levels of Engagement
If there’s one truth when it comes to creating engagement is that people like to follow fads. Anything that’s popular, people want to be a part of it, and they want to be a part of it now, and shorts are what’s popular right now.
That’s why short-form videos are able to draw in so much attention, and garner such high levels of engagement. On top of that, a great number of influencers are also jumping on the bandwagon, and their communities are quick to follow them. By leveraging that popularity of shorts, combined with the loyalty of communities, it’s easy to understand why brands are pushing shorts as their go-to tool for creating engagement.
Easily Repurposed
Another strength of short-form videos is how easy they are to repurpose, but also how easy it is to create them.
Imagine you have a longer video on a certain topic. You can easily chop that video up, and create teasers and trailers with the most important info, and create a short – it’s that easy to create a short-form video.
Then you can play with your content some more, and create shorts for each of your target platforms, as well as each of your target audiences, and all of a sudden, you’re hitting engagement levels across multiple platforms like you’ve never seen before, and like you had very little chances of hitting with the original video.
High ROI
The fact that shorts are so easily created, followed by their relatively “raw” presentation that’s popular with the crowds means that ROI for shorts is exceptionally high.
If you were to check with some of the best production companies that make videos for brands, you’ll see that their most requested products are shorts.
As we said in the beginning, videos, though popular, can be quite expensive to produce compared to something like blog posts, but shorts, owing to their short length and “raw” aesthetic are much cheaper to produce while being extremely effective at what they do.
Short-Form Video Trends to Look Out For
Those are some pretty convincing arguments for you to start utilizing shorts, aren’t they? If you’re convinced, let’s take a look at some of the most popular trends found within shorts.
Branded Challenges
You’ve probably already heard of TikTok challenges – they’re special, often humorous, challenges TikTok users are issuing to each other for the purposes of entertainment, and these challenges, if creative enough, can spiral in popularity extremely fast.
Now, remember what we said about engagement generation and shorts? This is exactly what we’re talking about! If you, as a brand, manage to create a challenge entertaining enough, and invite some of the influencers on your payroll to participate, you’ll suddenly find that you’ve got tons of fans joining in, spreading your message further, resulting in a massive reach and engagement.
Behind the Scenes
One of the fastest ways to alienate your audience is to appear as a massive corporate entity that cares about nothing but churning out products and raking in profits.
People nowadays are more sensitive when it comes to their identity and uniqueness. They don’t want to be just another consumer, just another number on your quarterly report. And they don’t want you, as a brand, to be an impersonal machine for creating money.
They want the personal touch. They want to see the human side of your enterprise.
Enter behind the scenes shorts. These vids show exactly that – that your company is made of people just like them, working passionately for something they believe in. Once you’ve shown your customers that, you’ll have created a stronger, more personal bond with them, and a trust that your product they’re consuming is high-quality and was made by humans for humans.
FAQ Videos
There is no better way to garner engagement, and get people interested in your product than creating quick FAQ shorts.
Once you’ve attracted a prospect’s attention, you’re now pulling them into your marketing funnel. Your next step, after creating awareness and garnering interest, is to create intent and consideration, and the best way to do that is to explain what your product does, and, more importantly, how it addresses the pain points of your prospect and why they should consider buying.
With an FAQ short, you’re essentially accelerating this journey through the funnel, and bringing the prospect closer to the bottom of the funnel and conversion.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content is some of the best ways one can create interest in one’s brand, and, simultaneously, create a bond of trust with one’s customers.
It’s no secret that word-of-mouth marketing is some of the strongest forms of marketing since times immemorial. It’s simply that people tend to trust other people more, even if they’re strangers, than they trust a brand.
The reason behind this is that those other people don’t have a horse in this race, or so people think. The common perception that an average person stands to gain no benefit from promoting a product that is bad or doesn’t work, so most people will tend to trust what another person says about a product.
If you manage to convince even a small fraction of users to create content about your product, then you’ll soon have an army of customers that are vouching personally for your product. But, be careful – this only works if your product is actually as good as you’re saying it is.
Product Teasers
One of the most common forms of shorts is product teasers. If you want to create hype for a new product, but keep your customers wanting more, then your best bet is to create a product teaser.
The reason why product teasers are able to create so much hype is simple – it shrouds your product in a veneer of mystery, and people like a little mystery in their lives. They like getting excited for your next release, but also getting a sneak-peak at what that next release will be – the movie and gaming industries have been doing it for years, and if it works for them, it will work for you, too!
Influencer Ads
Finally, let’s mention influencer ads as well.
We already mentioned many times the power of influencers and influencer marketing. Generally, as a rule, most influencers tend to follow trends – that’s how they keep their content fresh and engaging for their audiences.
From this, you can surmise that influencers are also very likely to engage in creating shorts, as that’s the most popular video format right now, and, if you can have a few of these influencers working with you to create shorts about your products, then you’ve also getting a lot of exposure and greatly boosting your engagement.
Final Words
All in all, short-form videos are, if not the future of marketing, then certainly a very powerful marketing tool that’s very strong in the current market. And, though jumping on bandwagons is usually viewed with disdain, some bandwagons are worth jumping on – short-form videos are just one such bandwagon.
