The Rise of Short-Form Video Content

On this episode of 1000 Ways to Market Your Business, Samantha Scott, APR, is joined by Ellie Marchiori, Creative Strategist at Pushing the Envelope.

The episode delves into the growing importance of short-form videos in marketing strategies. Tips on developing a solid strategy, consistency, equipment needs, and engaging with the community are shared, along with the significance of understanding platform demographics. Short form video is here to stay, offering valuable, and the two provide actionable advice for businesses looking to leverage this medium!

Have a question or feedback to share? Visit www.getpushing.com or one of our many social media channels. We look forward to hearing from you.

#marketing #business #communication #strategy

Transcript

Samantha: 0:05

Hi, I'm Samantha Scott, APR. Welcome to another edition of 1000 Ways to Market Your Business, a podcast by Pushing the Envelope. Today, I'm joined by Ellie Marchiori.

Ellie: 0:15

Hi, thank you for having me. I am the Creative Strategist at Pushing the Envelope and I'm so happy to be here.

Samantha: 0:20

Awesome. And who better to talk about this? So today we're talking about short form video, why this is so important, how it's taking the marketing world by storm. It's not going anywhere. Definitely as we head into 2025, we're going to see more and more of this short form video. I'm so excited to talk about it with you.

Ellie: 0:36

Yeah, and you know one of the main draws of the short form video is that it gives brands a chance to be more authentic and show a little bit more of their personality, versus these longer, more polished videos.

Samantha: 0:48

I agree. I liken it to kind of more real style videos and not playing off the double entendre of real and Reel, R E A L. It just feels more genuine, like you said. You know, it's not meant to be overly commercial, overly perfect. I think people kind of shy away from that even now as consumers, where it's like, okay, I know what this is, I understand this is a commercial, I understand you're trying to sell me something, versus a behind the scenes, a genuine kind of short format, less polished type video.

Ellie: 1:15

Yeah. And it really does offer a lot more creative freedom for a brand, which is becoming more and more important.

Samantha: 1:21

Absolutely. So let's talk about how this impacts marketing strategies. I mean, speed and timing have really become crucial. Time to market. And that could be, this just happened and within five minutes it's gotta be on the internet. But also speed in terms of how it's produced and the length of these, because we're talking short form videos, we're talking about less than 60 seconds.

Ellie: 1:44

Yeah, and one key point that I wanted to bring up right away, too, is it's so important to target to the right audience. And I think Target, for example, does a really great job at this with some of the videos and Reels that they put out there, the short form Reels like on Facebook. You'll see in their Reels, like, they're not using supermodels. They'll use normal, everyday looking people to show their clothes or the products they have, and that's really who their target audience is. So I think they're one brand that does that really well.

Samantha: 2:14

And they also use user generated content. So it's not just them creating the content, but they're sharing content that their fans, their customers, are creating on their behalf. So that's definitely a way that these short form videos are changing marketing strategy. Right. So in addition to Target and their user generated content, another thing we keep in mind is the timing of when we're publishing this content. So keeping in mind the time of year, what your audience is interested in, how they're going to see this content, what it's going to motivate them to do, and how that aligns with your marketing strategy overall. And another impact that I would say, and you might agree with this, we're both budget ladies, is keeping in mind budget because we can produce a ton of these short format videos really, really inexpensively, both in terms of the cost of time, but also in the cost of actual production versus these longer format videos. I'm not saying we should just do away with all long format videos. There's a place for those, but this route of these shorter format, 15 second, 20 second little clips really can be budget-friendly and impactful for businesses, especially small businesses.

Ellie: 3:16

Yeah, and especially too, if you have your strategy set beforehand, you know, you can create a calendar as part of your strategy and have, you know, even like a series. Plan them out and then shoot them all at one time. You can even bring a change of clothes, you know, so they look different. The things like that are definitely gonna help if you are on a budget or your business is just starting out. There's definitely ways that you can create video content that doesn't have to be overly produced.

Samantha: 3:41

Absolutely, and, you know, we talk a lot about strategy in this podcast, I do in our TrendTalks Marketing videos, but it's just really, really important. I would say this has to be built into your strategy. So have a strategy for short form video, but make sure that falls in line with your overall brand and what you're trying to accomplish as a marketing strategy for your business overall. What do you want to accomplish? You just want people watching your video so you feel popular? Or do you actually want them to do something, take an action, go to your website, make a purchase, go to an event? Think about those end results. What do you want this to create? What action do you want your audience to take while you're building out your strategy?

Ellie: 4:16

Yeah, and I have a couple tips for businesses for video if you're just getting started. Start small and experiment. You don't have to have the overly produced videos. And that's going to help you a lot in the beginning so you're not spending all your time and all your money on these long videos that aren't going to be beneficial for you. So definitely start small. Some of the videos that I really like on Facebook are the recipe ones. So you'll see a lot of times it's just one person. You can actually get a tool that you can put on your head and put your phone on it. And so then when they're doing, you know, making the recipe, it's from like their point of view. And those are really simple. It's one person doing it. There's texts on screen, you know, like 30 seconds and they capture your attention and doing something like that sometimes is going to be more beneficial than doing a highly produced, longer video.

Samantha: 5:02

I would add to that point, because you talk about equipment. You don't need fancy equipment to do this. The smartphones nowadays have incredible cameras. I mean, it's amazing the way that that's continuing to develop. So if you've got a decent smartphone, maybe a gimbal, if you want to get really fancy, a ring light, I mean, but this stuff is super inexpensive. I mean, aside from the phone, you could probably get all of that for less than 200 bucks. And I think with starting small, I'd also say start with the basics, you know, be mindful of sound and lighting and location, so that things aren't distracting. You know, you've got a simple background, but also what you're wearing and just in general, keep all those kind of basics in mind as you're getting started.

Ellie: 5:39

Yeah, and I would say the next point that I have is consistency. And so that kind of goes back to the strategy part, and just making sure that you have a plan, so that when it comes time to film your videos, you're not just stuck wondering what you're going to talk about. So come up with a plan, a strategy, whether you're going to do a bi-weekly video, a weekly video, a monthly video. If you can plan out your topics and strategize it, it's going to be a lot easier to talk about your points and just being consistent and making sure, you know, even if you have five people watching your video, making sure that you're still being consistent because that is going to grow your brand.

Samantha: 6:11

I would say consistency in the scheduling, the production of that when you release those videos, but also consistency in the look and style the length. You know, if you're gonna do one that's a minute long, and the next is only 15 seconds, it can kind of feel a little bit clunky. Or the branding of it. And there's plenty of tools you can use from Canva to other tools for video editing to create something that's really pretty and well-branded that you can have at the beginning and just make sure it's consistent how you're producing those videos, too.

Ellie: 6:38

Yeah, absolutely. And then the last one would just be to engage with your community. You know, even, again, if you have five people that are following you, the same people that are commenting on your videos, it still is important to comment back, thank them for watching. Even if you get negative feedback, I think it's important to address that, without being defensive, and that just shows, again, that you can be authentic to your audience.

Samantha: 7:01

Those are really great tips and I've got two other ones. One would be benchmark. Look for people, you've mentioned, you know, you really appreciate Target. Find others that you might appreciate. You like their style, you can connect with them, you appreciate their videos, you like the way that they're produced, the content, etc. And try to use this as benchmarks and inspiration. Oh, I could approach it this way versus the way I thought I was going to do it. So keep that in mind too. And those could be in industry or out, right? Like, we don't work for Target, and we don't always work for retailers, but we can still use that concept in our plans. And my other point would be get to the point and do it fast. And that might take practice. I know, I'm a little chatty. So think about that too. Do a dry run. Can I really get this out in 20 seconds, effectively, or 30 seconds, or a minute? And do some dry runs so you can really get to the point and capture people's attention because your audience will tell you everything that you need to know if you know where to look. We can see how long they're watching your videos. Are they dropping out? Are they, you know, not interested in the intro? So maybe switch that up. But look at the data, the metrics for your videos. It's really going to help you produce better content, short form and otherwise.

Ellie: 8:05

Yeah. And just adding onto that, I would say it's important to understand your audience and what platforms they're on, because the audience is going to differ Facebook from Instagram to YouTube to TikTok. They're kind of all over the place. So really honing in on who your audience is and then focusing more on those channels. You don't have to do videos on every single one. Maybe get more information on your audience and see what the age demographic is or where their interests are and then choose a couple channels to really go after.

Samantha: 8:33

Yes. I will now get on my soapbox of data and targeting just briefly, but so important what you just talked about because I don't think people understand that you can actually look at, and maybe I'm underestimating folks, and I apologize if you already know this, but you can actually go in platforms and see where their audiences are. So, the majority of people using Instagram are not in the United States, for example. So if you're trying to use Instagram to drive traffic to your business and you're in the United States and you don't sell things online, that might not be the best place for you to invest your time. So, so important. So look at where people are coming from, not just to you so you can see your own data, but look at the platform information as well. So you can Google like, where are people that are on Facebook? Where are they from if they're watching YouTube? And think about that. And you know, I laughed when you said TikTok because I'm thinking like, not every business needs to be on TikTok. What value are you providing there? And what is it going to do for you if you're on there making silly videos? But I digress. Off my soapbox now. Awesome. Well, I think this has been a really great discussion, really surface. We could go on for hours about short form video. But I think the bottom line is it's not going anywhere. And if you're strategic with it, you can still have fun and you can make it really, really valuable for your business.

Ellie: 9:44

Agreed.

Samantha: 9:45

Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, Ellie. Thank you all for listening. This is our final episode of 1000 Ways to Market Your Business season two. If you haven't listened to our others, check them out. And we'll be back for season three.