Short-form video: The power of quick and engaging content

In today’s high-speed media economy, you often only have seconds to catch someone’s attention and deliver your message. If you want to keep your marketing campaigns from getting dismissed as TL;DR, you’ll need to develop an engaging short-form video content strategy.

However, managing short-form video can be challenging for many marketers because they need a tech stack that can accommodate video production, collaboration, organization, and distribution.

A digital asset management (DAM) solution can make it easier to plan and execute a short-form video strategy because it provides a centralized hub for managing video content. Many DAM solutions have tons of organization features, such as AI-powered tagging and facial recognition, that allow marketers to quickly search for and locate the files they need. Plus, with integrations with tools like Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects, teams can make and save edits quickly that are instantly available in the brand library for use.

After reading this guide, and especially if you’re equipped with a DAM solution, you should be ready to put a short-form video strategy into motion.

What is short-form video content?

Short-form video is a type of video content that typically runs for 60 seconds or less and is designed for quick and easy consumption. The format has become an essential tool for marketers, creators, and influencers to connect with their audience and build engagement across multiple channels.

Here are a few examples of where organizations use short-form content to keep audiences engaged and promote their business:

• Social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat, and Twitter
• E-commerce websites that showcase product features, customer reviews, or influencer promotions
• Travel and tourism websites to showcase destinations and attractions in a visually-appealing way
• Training and education platforms, such as LinkedIn Learning and Udemy, provide quick tutorials and how-to videos
• Corporate communications, such as internal training videos and company announcements

Why short-form video content matters for marketing

For marketers, short videos offer a powerful tool to connect with their audience, tell their brand’s story, drive engagement, and boost sales. They allow marketers to tell stories, showcase products, and convey brand personality in a visually-compelling way that resonates with consumers. As social media platforms prioritize video content, short-form videos will become increasingly important for marketers to incorporate into their marketing strategies.

And since short-form video can be produced and distributed quickly, it allows marketers to respond to shifting trends and take advantage of engagement opportunities. Managing short video content through a DAM solution streamlines operations and makes it easy to upload, edit, locate, and share short videos to put them in front of the right audience when it matters most.

Here are a few reasons short-form video content has become so important for marketing teams:

• 73% of consumers say they’d prefer to learn about products or services from short videos
• 90% of marketers using short-form videos expect to increase or maintain their investment next year
• Nearly all short-form videos are watched for over 40% of their duration

Benefits of short-form videos in marketing campaigns

Short-form video has numerous benefits for marketers looking to reach and engage with their target audience:

Easy to consume

As survey data demonstrates, short videos are more likely to be watched in their entirety, as they are easy to consume and do not require a significant time investment. This can increase the chances of successfully conveying a brand message or promoting a product.

Reach a wider audience

Most short videos are highly shareable, making them an effective way to increase brand visibility and reach a wider audience. When a video is shared, it has the potential to go viral, leading to increased exposure and engagement.

Canto’s ability to embed videos provides a great alternative to online platforms like YouTube, which will often suggest additional videos that may not align with your brand’s identity or values.

Showcase products

Short videos are also ideal for showcasing product features and benefits in an engaging and visual way, making it easier for consumers to understand and appreciate the product’s value. Incorporating quick-hitting videos into product descriptions and other campaigns gives people a simple way to instantly understand what a product, service, or brand is all about.

And leveraging your product videos is a snap with DAM organization tools. Canto’s AI-powered Smart Tags automatically label video assets with relevant keywords, making it easy to find videos later, even if your team doesn’t have the time to label everything manually. When you know exactly what assets you have at your disposal, you never have to worry about videos getting lost or unused again.

Cost-effective production

Finally, short-form videos are more cost-effective than longer-form content, as they require less production time and resources. They also allow marketers to reuse long-form content by breaking it into smaller pieces that can be distributed across multiple channels. This makes them an ideal option for smaller businesses with limited budgets and larger companies looking to scale content production to increase their marketing reach.

With a DAM platform, marketers can implement efficient workflows for producing, organizing, and sharing their short-form video content. For example, if your team is getting new content from influencers or outside contributors, you can utilize upload links to streamline intake, metadata collection, and approval before it enters your Canto library. And Canto’s Portal feature allows your teams to curate polished and branded media libraries full of your new influencer video content for specific campaigns.

Types of short-form videos

Short videos are a flexible format that can take a variety of forms, which is one of the reasons why it’s such a valuable tool for marketers. Here are some common types of short videos that companies use to reach different audiences and serve their diverse needs:

• Product demos: Short-form content showcasing a product’s features and benefits, highlighting its value to potential customers
• Quick tutorials: Short instructional videos that teach viewers how to do something quickly and easily, often used for DIY or how-to content (see some great Canto explainer short video examples)
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs): Brief videos that answer common questions customers may have about a product or service
• Behind-the-scenes content: Videos that provide a sneak peek into the making of a product, service, or event, giving viewers an exclusive look at the process
• Entertaining content: Short-form content designed to be fun, engaging, and entertaining, often used to capture viewers’ attention and maintain engagement
• Brand awareness: Content designed to increase familiarity with a brand, showcasing its values, distinctive voice, and unique selling points
• Customer reviews: Videos that feature real customers sharing their experiences and opinions about a product or service, providing valuable social proof, and building trust with potential customers

Next, you need to track all of this content to make it usable. Keeping track of all your short-form video content is easy with a DAM like Canto. You can label each file with keyword tags and metadata associated with video type, media channel, or specific people to ensure that a simple search from any team will bring up fast, relevant results.

Tips for creative and effective short videos

Creating short-form video content that consistently drives engagement and resonates with viewers might sound like a heavy lift, but putting the right strategy and process in place from the beginning can help streamline the process. Whether you’re making short videos for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube or using them on other channels, there are a few best practices worth following to ensure your content is always top-notch.

Keep these eight tips for effective short videos in mind:

• Keep it concise: The ideal short video should be between 15 to 60 seconds to capture and maintain viewers’ attention
• Grab attention quickly: The first few seconds are crucial to capturing your viewers’ attention, so make sure the opening is engaging and visually appealing
• Tell a story: Create a narrative arc for your video to capture your viewers’ attention, generate emotional engagement, and encourage them to watch the entire video
• Focus on visuals: Short video content relies heavily on visuals to convey its message, so make sure it is visually appealing and well-crafted
• Use captions: Many viewers watch videos on social media without sound, so including captions can ensure anyone watching can still follow the story
• Optimize for mobile: Every short video should be optimized for mobile viewing, with easy-to-read text in vertical or square format
• Get creative: Short videos are an opportunity to showcase your creativity and capture your audience’s imagination, so experiment with different styles and formats
• Include a call-to-action: Encourage viewers to take the next step, whether it’s to follow on social media, visit your website, or make a purchase

Effectively organize and execute your short-form video strategy with Canto

Canto’s powerful array of DAM features makes it an essential tool for marketing teams looking to execute their short-form video content strategy. Managing your short-form video content strategy is a lot easier when you have AI-powered tools that help you tag assets accurately, so you can find exactly what you need when you need it. Canto’s upload link and Portal features also make working with influencers, ambassadors, and video vendors simple and efficient. Video editing integrations allow you to keep the production process within your DAM ecosystem, which minimizes the risk of files being lost or used in the wrong place.

Canto provides a variety of video enhancement capabilities that eliminate time-consuming manual tasks and make it easier to scale short video content. By analyzing the audio track of any uploaded video, Canto can also automatically generate captions in multiple languages. If you’d instead use pre-generated captions instead, you can easily add the file to Canto so it can incorporate the captions seamlessly. Canto even allows you to embed fully-optimized videos into your website or e-commerce platform directly from Canto.
To learn more about how you can tap into Canto’s extensive short-form video functionality, sign up today for a free trial.