Ever lost 30 minutes (ok, 2 HOURS) of your evening scrolling through short videos on your social feeds? You’re not alone. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts dominate the social media landscape and their popularity is growing.
In fact, Hubspot’s 2024 State of Marketing report found that 96% of consumers prefer to watch short-form videos to learn about a product or service.
In today’s landscape, short-form video content is a must-have for small businesses that want to connect with their audience. But if you’re wondering why is it so powerful and how the heck you can use it to grow your business – keep reading!
Why are short form videos so popular?
People are drawn to video because it engages multiple senses all at once – sight, sound, storytelling, delivering a more immersive experience. It lets viewers see real people, hear their voices, and experience their emotions. After all, authenticity sells and videos helps viewers build an emotional connection to a brand.
In a world where attention spans are shrinking, short-form video content also delivers instant gratification. Video can be one of the most effective ways to provide value on social media – within seconds. So it’s no surprise that in 2024, short-form video has the highest ROI, as well as being the best content format for lead generation and engagement. (Stats from Hubspot 2024 State of Marketing Report)
Video is THE perfect way to capture your brand story
One of my favourite things about short form video is the ability to tell the “whole story” of a business.
Through video, you can showcase your products, services and the people behind your brand and build a personal relationship with customers online.
Whether you’re a local bakery showing how you create your best-selling cake or a boutique giving a tour of your shop, short form videos can help customers to feel connected to your brand before they’ve even set foot through the doors!
It’s also worth noting that short form videos are well-suited to storytelling. You can take viewers on a journey, from the problem your product solves to the happy customer who benefits from it. This form of storytelling tends to resonate well with audiences as it can feel much more relatable seeing or hearing it from a human being!
Let’s get started with planning short form videos to promote your business!
Before you do ANYTHING – identifying your target audience is crucial. You want to create content which not only shares your story but speaks to your target audiences interests, challenges and demographic. Depending on who your key audience is, you’ll want to make sure you share your video content on the platforms where that audience is most active – check out the image below to see which might be the best platform for you.
Here are some tips to get you started with creating short form video content:
- First things first, you need to think about the purpose of your video. What are you trying to achieve? For example, if you want to generate more sales for a particular product, you might want to create a video that shows the journey from production to person. Or share a video of someone using and describing what they love about the product and how it’s impacted them positively.
- With your purpose in mind, think about what type of video might be best for communicating your purpose which resonated with your audience. Examples of different types of videos include – Share 3-5 helpful hints and tips, share a before and after transformation, share a story or something entertaining which shows your brand’s values.
- Short form videos are great to give people a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your business and brand. Sharing sneak peeks that people don’t ordinarily get to see can be really engaging. An example of this could be sharing a video of the creation process or “a day in the life of” video.
- Don’t forget to share your values with your audience. Be sure to highlight the passion that goes into making your products or providing your services. This can be done through videos about the history of your brand, things you do to take care of your staff or ways that you give back to the community.
- Share your business personality and get on board with the edutainment trend by creating videos that inform AND entertain your audience.
- Include clear calls to actions on your videos – such as directing viewers to your website or encouraging them to follow your page or interact with you.
Need a hand to get started?
Why not book some one-to-one or group training with me?
Or join me for my next Creating Short Form Videos for Social Media workshop where we’ll cover everything you need to create short-form videos with confidence. From planning and editing content, to handy tools and software. Find out more and book your place.
