How to Add Short-Form Video to Your Content Marketing Strategy

Sleeping on short-form video in 2023? It’d be as counterproductive as marketing your business on MySpace (although we do miss it).

Nowadays, to grab your audience’s attention and stand out online, you must step up your content marketing game – and short-form video is key.

But we bet you’re already thinking: “I just haven’t got the time.”

So, after sharing all the ingredients for a successful video marketing strategy, we’ll also show you how you can embrace it without working harder.

Why is short-form video marketing essential in 2023?

Did you know that 84% of consumers are “sold” thanks to the videos posted by brands?

You see, social media has changed, and so have your audience’s priorities and… their brains, too. For real! 

• People are looking to connect with personal brands and stories (NOT soulless corporations and generic facts)
• Our attention span is getting lower: it’s gone down by a whopping 25% in 15 years and is now only 8.25 seconds

When you combine the two, it only makes sense that short-form video has been rising in popularity – and will keep on doing that.  

Some social media platforms have played an active role in this, and some others had to adapt (and quickly!) to keep up. Now, most of the biggest ones prioritise short-form videos:

• TikTok – The undisputed star of this format! This fast-growing platform has over 1 billion active users. Although it does let you upload videos up to 10 minutes long, they can be between 15 seconds and 3 minutes when recorded through the app – which is what performs best
• Instagram Reels – With 1.35 billion active users, Instagram keeps growing – but gone are the days of it being a photo platform to post your breakfast! Reels (which is what Instagram calls its short videos, up to 90 seconds long) are now what gets you the highest reach and engagement. And you can automatically share them on Facebook, too
• YouTube Shorts – 1.5 billion active users and counting. YouTube is still full of longer-form videos too, of course, but it’s now pushing a vertical TikTok-style format lasting up to 60 seconds. 

For example, this is how YouTube shorts are compared against other videos for our client!

And guess what? Short-form video is also gaining popularity on social media that haven’t found their own term for it (yet). So, it makes it easier for you to stand out on platforms like LinkedIn, too.

For example, our lovely client here saw massive results from sharing his short-form videos on LinkedIn – even though it’s not a ‘dedicated’ video platform!

Let’s get real. Even if your initial gut reaction was “Ugh, now I have to do short-form videos?!”,  we bet we’re on the same page now: it’d be crazy not to, don’t you think? 

(Plus, as we teased, it doesn’t have to be as difficult and time-consuming as you fear.)

What makes an effective video marketing strategy?

Yes, short-form video is ridiculously popular, and some platforms are actively pushing it. But that doesn’t mean you can just hit record, start waffling and post it. 

If you want to see an actual ROI and results, you need a strategy first – and with our Video VIP package, we’re here to help along every step of the way.

Here’s the difference between recording-and-hoping-for-the-best and developing an effective short-video marketing strategy.

1. Knowing your audience 

You’re not here to create videos for yourself or ‘everyone’. To cut through the noise, you must make them for your specific target clients. 

• What are they interested in when it comes to your industry?
• What questions are they asking? 
• What do they need to know to work with you?
• What’s stopping them from taking action right now?
• Where do they actually hang out? (For example, no point wasting your energy on growing a TikTok channel if most of your target clients use Instagram and LinkedIn)

2. Setting goals for your short-form video content 

Not clear on your actual aims? Then you won’t be able to measure the success of your short-from video strategy – or know when it’s time to open that bottle of champagne to celebrate it.

So, define what exactly you’re trying to achieve (psst: this will also influence the types of videos you’ll create).

For example, your goal could be increasing your brand awareness – like reaching 10k Instagram followers whilst keeping a 4% engagement rate – or getting 30% more sales every month.

3. Topic-planning and script-writing

Try and picture yourself pressing ‘record’ and improvising your videos. Eek, I can hear your heartbeat increase from here! And that’s why I’d never recommend doing that.

• Start from your existing content – Repurpose the core topics you’ve already covered in your text-based social media posts and blogs (easier, isn’t it?)
• Break those topics down into smaller chunks – It’s called short-form video for a reason! If you try and say too much or jump from one idea to the next in 60 seconds, you’ll confuse your audience
• Place storytelling and your personality at the core of your scripts – Not only are our brains wired to connect with them: stories are what sets you apart from everyone else. After all, your competitors could easily spit out the same facts (which is why “giving value” is no longer enough). But what can’t they do? Share your anecdotes, funny episodes, poignant moments and perspective on a topic. As cheesy as it might sound, there’s only one you. So, use this to your advantage in your short-form videos
• Focus on the hook – Forget about the 5-second rules: your audience will only take 3 to decide whether or not to keep watching (fussy, we know). That’s why you need a powerful intro to stop their scrolling 

4. Keyword research and captions 

You’ll be investing time – and probably money – in your short-form videos: it only makes sense to reach as many people as possible and get the very most out of them.

Why you need keywords

Social media algorithms will show your videos to a portion of your existing followers. But when you also add keywords and hashtags?

• You’ll reach people who are actively looking for those topics – For example, one of Martin’s very first TikToks reached over 800 people… even when he only had 50 followers!
• The algorithm will recommend your videos to users who’ve already engaged with that type of content

The importance of captions

Your videos will stop your dream clients’ scrolling and make them fall in love with your brand. Your captions? They’ll spark a conversation!

• Once again, focus on the hook – Most platforms only show the first lines of your caption. So, get your audience to click “see more” by making them intrigued and curious
• Write compelling captions, and speak directly to your target clients
• Incorporate your keywords and hashtags
• Always include a call to action – Depending on your videos and goals, it could range from answering a question to booking a call with you (and anything in between). You just don’t want people to watch it and keep scrolling

5. Recording and editing your short-form video content 

Time for the fun part (yes, we know you want to replace that with ‘scary’, but hear me out).

Filming short-form videos using the right foundations and equipment

Recording your videos is actually A BREEZE once that initial planning is out of the way. Instead of improvising them and running the risk of losing your train of thought (and waffling), you’ll have a clear script. Easy peasy.

As for your equipment… Well, technically, you only need your phone to get started. But you’re not just here to “make videos”. You want to create the kind of short-form videos that’ll position you as an expert, don’t you?

The good thing is that, when you book our Video VIP package, we’ll send you a recording kit with a microphone, ring light and props (all super profesh).

Editing your short-form video content to make it engaging 

Unless you’re trying to recreate that The Shining scene of Danny riding around the hotel, DON’T upload a long single shot. 

• Edit your video and make it easier to digest through cuts and transitions. Don’t be afraid to try new things (oh, and don’t be boring)
• Reduce silence and, if relevant, some background music, too
• Add captions to make your short-form videos accessible to everyone (plus, 3 out of 4 people watch them on mute. So, without captions, you’d be missing out BIG TIME!)
• Make use of things like sounds, emojis, and zoom in and out – these are things that will keep your audience highly engaged 

6. Staying consistent

Short-form videos will be part of your content marketing strategy, and content marketing only works when you create excellent pieces consistently.

So, don’t put one video out and, if it doesn’t bring you a lead within minutes, complain that “video doesn’t work”. 

To put things into perspective, short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy. For it to work, though, you must stay consistent (and that’s why batch-creating your videos is the best hack).

Add short-form video to your content marketing strategy – without working harder

Let’s face it: creating short-form videos in 2023 is a no-brainer. And you can get a headstart by repurposing your best stand-out content (like thought-leadership blog posts) into dozens of TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and more.

But we get it:

• You haven’t got that much premium content to begin with
• You haven’t got the time to follow all those steps regularly 
• Looking for the right content marketing strategist for your video ideas AND an SEO expert for keyword research AND a copywriter for scripts and captions AND a video editor? AND managing all of them? That sounds even more overwhelming and time-consuming than doing it yourself (let alone ‘expensive’)

Well, that’s exactly why we created our all-in one Video VIP package: so that you can finally make the most of short-form video content without wasting ridiculous amounts of time and money.

It takes an average of 68 hours to plan, create and edit 25 short-form videos. We’ll save you 65 of those.

Our team will take care of all the content strategy, scripting and editing. All you have to do? 

• Complete our story capture questionnaire and have an in-depth call with us
• Record the actual videos (‘being you’ is the only thing we can’t do), which you’ll get to do in only 3 hours thanks to our help

And if you want to see some pretty cool results, here’s a screenshot from a client of ours once we started publishing their short form video – pretty cool, right? 😉

Deal? Then let’s get started with your video content marketing strategy!