As we head into March and look ahead to the rest of the year, it’s clear that short-form videos will continue to dominate the digital landscape. With the increase in usage of social media platforms and the need for fast and easily digestible content, short-form videos are growing increasingly important to a brand’s marketing strategy.
Based on reports by HubSpot, short-form videos had the highest return on investment (ROI) out of all other video formats and are #1 for lead generation and engagement. On top of that, around 90% of marketers using this video format are anticipated to increase or maintain their investments this year, with 1 in 5 marketers expecting to utilize short-form videos for the first time in 2023.
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What are short-form videos?
Short-form videos are typically less than two minutes in length and can be used for a variety of purposes (marketing, educating, entertainment, etc.). They are designed to capture the audience’s attention and communicate a message quickly. However, marketers have come to a consensus that an ideal short-form video should be under 60 seconds, with a majority who believe the optimal length should range from 31-60 seconds.
Comparing short-form to long-form videos (over 3 minutes), while the latter may be able to provide consumers with more details and information about a company, their brand and services, B2B and B2C marketers have found short-form content to be more succinct and effective.
Benefits of short-form video format
By leveraging the short-form video format, your business may be able to grow in a multitude of ways thus allowing you to achieve your marketing goals. Short-form videos are bite-sized content — they’re easy to consume, making them ideal for audiences in today’s fast-paced digital world. Audiences can obtain any information needed without having to sit through lengthy videos.
Another benefit of short-form videos would be how they can be shared across a variety of platforms, making them accessible to a wide audience. This increases the reach of the content and helps businesses connect with existing or potential customers. Furthermore, short-form videos can be highly engaging as they often rely on visual storytelling to communicate their message. Thus gaining the ability to capture audiences’ attention and increase engagement levels.
5 trends for short-form videos
Explainer videos (Microlearning)
Explainer videos are usually videos that educate audiences about a specific topic or concept and are ideal for microlearning. They typically use animated graphics, voiceovers and on-screen text to convey complex ideas simply and engagingly. This video trend type is a popular tool among businesses that are looking to improve their content marketing efforts.
There is a multitude of ways explainer videos can be used. For example, to explain a new product or service, educate consumers on using a product or highlight the benefits of a particular service. This helps the business to build brand awareness, increase customer understanding and loyalty, and ultimately drive sales.
Explainer videos are particularly useful for startups and SMEs out there that may be offering innovative or disruptive products or services that require explanations, as they make complex information easier to understand. By creating high-quality, visually engaging explainer videos, businesses would also be able to stand out and differentiate themselves from their competitors, capturing the attention of potential customers.
At the end of the day, well-crafted explainer videos can drive engagement for businesses and influence consumers to make informed decisions.
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User-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is the type of videos that are created and shared by consumers of a brand and are likely to be the most trusted form of marketing. They can take a variety of forms — product reviews, testimonials or even creative videos that feature a brand’s product or service and are conveyed through platforms such as Instagram or Tiktok videos.
UGC helps businesses to build trust with customers. By featuring customers in their videos, businesses can showcase their loyal and satisfied client base, which can help establish and boost the brand’s trust and credibility. UGC could also be a cost-effective way for businesses to create compelling and engaging content, without breaking the bank. By encouraging their customers to create videos, businesses would be able to save on video production costs while still producing content that resonates with their audiences.
When a product or service is well-received, people are likely to approve and share about it. As customers share about them, they are effectively encouraging others to check them out. This helps businesses to reach new audiences who may not have been aware of the brand previously.
Behind-the-scenes videos
Behind-the-scenes (BTS) videos allow audiences to get a glimpse of the inner workings and processes of your business and could potentially help to increase your business, as it humanizes the brand and connects with audiences in a more personal way.
It could be showcasing the creativity and hard work that goes into creating a product or service, a sneak peek of upcoming products or events, or simply the day-to-day activities of employees behind the brand. By providing audiences with a look into your business, it creates a sense of transparency and authenticity, which leads to building trust with customers.
Behind-the-scenes videos also allow businesses to develop a stronger emotional connection with their audiences. By showing what goes on behind the scenes, businesses can create a sense of empathy and reliability with their audience, building a more loyal customer base. When audiences receive a sneak peek of products or events coming up, it helps to generate buzz and excitement as well.
Soundless optimisation
Soundless optimisation involves the creation of videos that are designed to be watched without sound. With social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which autoplay videos without sound, it’s important to come up with strategic ways to get the attention of audiences by creating videos that can be easily understood without audio.
Such videos allow businesses to reach a wider audience. Many these days often browse social media in public places, where they may not be able to listen to audio all the time. By creating videos that can be easily understood without sound, businesses can ensure that their message is still getting across, regardless of where or when they are watching the video.
Businesses can rely on the use of captions, texts or subtitles to convey important information, allowing audiences to understand what the video is about even without audio. Strong visuals, graphics, or animation are alternative ways that could aid in telling a story or showcasing certain products or services. These are just some ways businesses can leverage the soundless optimisation video trend to make more creative and memorable content.
READ MORE: Here are the top 5 free video tools for SMEs
Influencer ads
Influencer ads are videos that are created and shared by social media influencers. With the rise of influencer marketing, many businesses have started partnering with influencers to create videos that promote their products and services.
This form of video helps businesses to reach a highly targeted and engaged audience. Influencers have a large following of loyal followers who trust their recommendations. By partnering with them, businesses can tap into this pool of audience and generate buzz around their brand.
Influencer ads also help businesses to create more authentic and relatable content as these influencers have built their following by sharing content that resonates with their audiences. One thing to note is that it’s important to give influencers creative control over the content as well. This allows them to showcase the brand’s product or service authentically to their audience.
Short-form videos are truly a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes looking to reach a wider audience, increase engagement levels and create more impactful, memorable content. From explainer videos to influencer ads, incorporating these video trends into your next marketing strategy can help your business create videos that are optimized for social media, reach a wider audience and help you to achieve your marketing goals.
If you’re looking for other ways how you could leverage video content to grow your business, drop us a message at [email protected] to get in touch.