Short-Form vs. Long-Form Content In Video Marketing

Video marketing is one of the primary content strategies online businesses and brands use nowadays. Videos are proven to be effective in increasing engagement and drawing audiences. Considering this, more and more digital marketers are looking into creating video content. 

According to recent reports, roughly 91% of marketers use videos as a marketing tool, and 96% state that video content has been a key element in their marketing strategies. In addition to this, 92% of marketers who use video mention receiving good results and positive ROI from their video marketing campaigns.

However, there is a lot to uncover in video marketing strategies. One of which is the difference between two types of video content – short-form and long-form video formats. Most content and digital marketers use a mix of short-form and long-form video content in their strategies. But what makes these types of video formats effective exactly?

Here’s a comprehensive guide and comparison of short-form and long-form video content for video marketing to give you a better idea. 

 

What Is Short-Form Video Content

 

To start, let’s define what short-form video content exactly is. Short-form content are videos that are less than 3 minutes long. They can be anything from a 10-second video teaser to a 1-minute highlight clip.

Short-form videos are designed to be brief in order to be easily digestible. Because of this, short-form video content has become increasingly popular on social media platforms where viewers can continuously scroll through and consume content continuously.

But did you know that short-form videos have been present since 2012? A popular short-form video app known as Vine pioneered this type of video format. However, it wasn’t until the launch of TikTok did bite-size video content rose in popularity. 

Now, most social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube feature short-form video content in one way or another. However, the three primary platforms for this particular type of video content are TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. 

TikTok is a popular video-sharing social media platform dedicated to short-form content. It is the most downloaded mobile app in the world and is specifically popular with the younger demographic. 

Instagram is another media-focused social platform that recently incorporated short-form video through features such as Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels. On the other hand, video-sharing giant YouTube couldn’t miss the growing popularity of short-form content and introduced YouTube Shorts on their platform.

 

Tips When Creating Short-Form Content

 

Capitalize on trends

Social media trends are one of the easiest and most effective ways to see what viewers are looking for at the moment. Trends can be in the form of audio or content that people are repeatedly creating or watching because they find it engaging and entertaining. And most often than not, content trends are at the top of people’s For You pages and search engines.

Capitalizing on current trends fast and early is one way to boost your content’s visibility. Considering this, look into up-and-coming trends and find ways to incorporate them in your short-form videos. 

 

Find ways to grab viewers’ attention

Snackable videos are designed to be easily consumed. Most of the time, viewers mindlessly swipe through tons of content. Because of this dynamic, it can be easier to get ignored than to be noticed. Considering this, content marketers need to find ways to grab viewers’ attention.

One way to do this is to start your short-form videos with a hook. There are various ways to do this. You can begin with an intriguing line or audio such as “Oh My God!” or “You’ll never guess what…” 

The goal is to get your viewers excited and hooked enough to commit to watching your content despite the competition.

 

Know how short is short

Although short-form videos are supposed to be bite-size, there are still some time considerations depending on the platform you want to publish on. 

For example, the ideal video length for TikTok videos is generally somewhere around 10 to 20 seconds for the best conversion rate. On the other hand, Instagram Reels are ideally 10 to 30 seconds long, while YouTube Shorts are somewhere between 15 to 60 seconds long. 

 

What Is Long-Form Video Content

 

Long-form video content has been the norm in the content creation industry. Some examples of this are movies and film documentaries. However, this type of video content has long evolved since, especially when it comes to online marketing and the digital world.

Instead of hours-long video content, long-form videos nowadays are typically just around 10 to 30 minutes long. These are often found on platforms such as YouTube. Long-form video content is generally used to inform and educate. Content marketers can offer more value because it’s not as limited compared to short-form video content. 

There is a variety of long-form video styles marketers use in their video marketing strategies. According to recent reports, brands love to produce explainer videos, tutorial videos, product demonstrations, customer testimonials, and the like to engage with their target audience. 

 

Tips When Creating Long-Form Content

 

Be creative in your storytelling

One of the biggest challenges of long-form video content is keeping audiences engaged and interested throughout the video. Short-form videos work well for short attention spans. However, long videos can’t really rely solely on the initial burst of interest.

Instead, they need to keep viewers engaged for significantly longer. To do this, one thing content creators need to look at and pay attention to is their storytelling technique. Some of the most common storytelling strategies include three parts – the hook, conflict, and the payoff. 

With this method, content creators need to pique their viewers’ interest and build up excitement. Then comes a conflict that may or may not affect the outcome. Then, it reaches the climax or the payoff, where it shows the result and resolution of the story.

This storytelling method keeps viewers engaged and invested in the subject enough to finish a longer video.

 

Optimize your title and thumbnail

One of the benefits of using long-form videos is that it contributes to SEO ranking. However, a critical part of this is to know how to optimize your videos for search engines. To optimize your titles, incorporate key and relevant keywords. You can also add these keywords to your video tags and description for the algorithm.

Aside from your title, the video thumbnail is one of the first things people see when browsing on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. Considering this, it is also critical to learn how to create optimized video thumbnails that will still grab people’s attention.

One of the tactics digital video marketers use when creating thumbnails is to bright and eye-catching colors that will pop up when placed on a plain white or black background. Aside from that, they also avoid cluttering their design too much. Instead, they opt to keep the thumbnail clean with minimal elements to be less distracting.

 

Which Is Better: Short Form or Long Form Content?

There is a lot to consider when it comes to creating video content. However, one persistent question in the industry is which one between short-form and long-form content is actually better. 

Short-form content works inexplicably well for shorter attention spans. If done correctly, short videos are great for delivering messages and engaging audiences fast and easy. In addition to this, short-form videos are significantly easier and quicker to produce. 

However, short-form video content is also highly limited. Digital marketers only have a couple of seconds and they need to be instantly engaging to catch the attention of viewers. 

On the flip side, long-form video content is great for providing viewers with valuable information. Because its longer, it is also more effective in creating relationships and connections with the audience. Not only that, long-form videos are great for boosting SEO ranking and performance. 

However, long-form videos are a lot more tedious to produce. Not only do they take more time, but it requires much more effort and resources to create high-quality long-form video content.

Considering all these, the ideal video marketing strategy is to utilize both short-form and long-form content to reach a specific targeted audience. Aside from that, both short and long-form content help in achieving particular video marketing goals and objectives. 

For example, short videos are great for engaging audiences and boosting online visibility. However, long-form videos are best for educating your customers and establishing your brand as a reliable and trustworthy source of information. 

Want to know more about video marketing strategies? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company, and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.