What is the Importance of Short Video Clips?

Video has been a big player in the digital marketing space. Nowadays, shorter videos, typically lasting about a minute, are proving to be the hot cake of the day. 

Social media apps like TikTok have thrived on this form of content, providing a concept of short bursts of entertainment that has become a hit. It is among the planet’s most downloaded apps. 

With over 500 million users signed up, it is also among the most popular. TikTok is proof of the immense power of short videos and their appeal to audiences. 

But why exactly are short videos highly effective compared to longer ones?

Well, for one, research indicates that attention spans these days aren’t what they used to be a few years ago. The figures generally reveal that the average person can concentrate for roughly 60 seconds.

YouTube statistics further illustrate these findings. The platform sees videos watched for an average 50% of the entire view duration of the content.

In other words, if you’re making really long videos for your marketing, chances are your viewers are distracted and leave before you get to the good stuff.

The power of short videos is undeniable. Every business should have a video strategy.

It is estimated that 60% of viewers lose interest past the 2nd-minute mark. If you’re not using this type of content for your blog or business, be sure to get on it right away. 

Here are popular uses for short videos

Education

The place of video as an important learning tool goes without question. Given that human beings comprehend more by what they see than what they read, video is a critical part of the learning process.

And the shorter the video, the more effective it is for learning. 

Educational videos are an excellent way to uplift typically mundane classroom experiences into something exciting. 

They are perfect for incorporating present-day technology into visual explanations that can’t quite be brought out by text or words alone. Short educational videos allow the instructor’s creativity to flourish and the student’s imagination to wander.

Length is one of the most important aspects of effective educational videos. As with many other technology-based learning tools, its success also hinges upon the nature of the user.

Recent studies featuring 15-minute long videos found that almost all participants made it to the sixth minute.

However, only 60% reached the 12-minute mark while a meager 20% stayed till the end.

When making an educational video, think visual rather than words. If you use too much dialogue, the video slows down. For example, take a look at this 2 minute video on cooking egg rice —

No dialogue. All cooking. It’s an easy enough video to understand and digest. No wonder it has over 10 million views.

Time and again, the benefits of short videos have continually come to light. No other form of content has been able to offer retention and engagement quite to the same level. What’s more, this type of content has been proven to inspire self-interest. 

When learning becomes fun, students are motivated to be a part of it. They look forward to learning and consequently put in the time for classroom work. Consequently, students get better grades, teachers revel in good averages, and everyone’s happy. 

Additionally, short videos offer flexibility. They fit in perfectly with a congested classroom schedule allowing teachers to achieve more in little time.

Promotion

When cruising through videos on YouTube, you’re often met by pop-up ads usually at the start of the video. If you’re anything like most people, you’ll be clicking away at the skip button until you get past it. 

The truth of the matter is: no one likes ads! 

Unless you’re featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme bridging two trucks with an epic split like in the famous Volvo trucks campaign, chances are we’ll be skipping right through it as soon as we can.

Therefore make the first couple of seconds as powerful as can be. Let the video be shorter. A good promotional video should preferably be around half a minute but no longer than 60 seconds. 

Here’s our short promotional video for Madison Square Garden:

When the content is short and starts with a bang, people are more inclined to see where it’s going. If the duration drags on into minutes, it’s likely viewers will decide it’s not worth their time before giving it a chance.

So shorter videos offer a better chance that your ad will even be viewed in the first place.

Promotional videos should therefore be built into short, teaser-like trailers. You don’t have to cover all you need to say about the event or sale in one go. Just put enough into the conversation to pass important points and get people excited about the deal. 

After all, there’s no better advertising tool like suspense when pulled off right. It will channel attention your way, providing better click-through numbers with its immense power to draw in audiences.

It’s customary to end the promo video with a discount code, if that’s kind of an event, and a call-to-action.

Entertainment

Shorter videos are all the rage these days wherever you go. From Facebook to TikTok, content is getting compressed into shorter formats all around us. Even YouTube mostly recommends shorter videos to its audiences in recent times. 

Minutes-long videos have been thrust to the back of the line. Content running into hours rarely gets a look despite what it has to offer. Long videos seldom get the chance to impress.

The preference of today’s audience has shifted to shorter content they can enjoy on the go during breaks at school, work, and other places where people don’t generally have time to sit through minutes.

Shorter videos have become an especially important tool for social media platforms. Beyond that sphere, shorter videos are also proving a hit in terms of music videos. 

Did you know, for example, that 8 of the 10 most viewed videos on YouTube are all songs? 

Music videos are generally the shortest form of entertainment available. That they top the viewing charts is a testament to their appeal. Obviously their repeatability has aided that cause a lot but you still can’t dismiss the power of short videos.

Shareability is also another aspect of short videos that makes them appealing for entertainment purposes. People will generally be more inclined to share a short funny video they’ve come across than an entire hour-long documentary that they like.

What’s more, those on the receiving end are more likely to open a seconds-long video than a longer one.

Make short form videos part of your video campaign

I’ve discussed in this post and video the importance of native videos in a video marketing campaign. Read about HERE.

And watch the video below 👇

10 years ago you could have made a video and posted it on YouTube. Then you could take that link and share it on all your social media platforms.

Today, this is no longer the case. You’ll need to slice and dice that same video, and upload these unique cuts to your various social media platforms.

That 10 minute educational video could be posted on YouTube and LinkedIn. But if you had Twitter or TikTok, you’ll need to condense that content to 1 minute or less.

And this is why it’s crucial to have short video clips in your video campaign —

You’ll need short video clips to post meaningful content on social media platforms designed and optimized for short form content.

So if you want to stand out on TikTok, Instagram or Twitter (where short form video is preferred), make sure to include short video clips as part of your overall video marketing campaign.

 
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