The Power of Video Marketing: How to Win with Short & Long-Form Video in 2025

With the rise of short-form video content on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, marketers have taken advantage of the opportunity to get their branded content into the algorithm. From jumping on trends to educational content, creating video content gives brands a higher chance of having their content seen and captivating potential customers. However, engaging consumers is one thing – converting them is another. In this blog, we’ll discuss some general video marketing tips and then dive into short-form and long-form videos individually to help you win with video marketing in 2025.

Video Marketing Tips

When developing your video marketing strategy, the first steps are to:

1. Identify the platforms you want to post on

2. Decide on your video marketing goals/content types

3. Research your key competitors

Step one is decided based on where your audience is. You can post high-quality video content, but it won't do you any good if it’s in the wrong place. The second step can also affect what platforms you post on. If your goal is to build brand identity and awareness, organic and trendy TikToks and Reels might be the way to go. However, if you are looking to drive product consideration or conversion, long-form how-to videos or product demonstrations might work better.

Lastly, researching your competitors is key in any market, but when you're devoting time and money into video content, ensure you understand what is already out there and how to compete with it. Identify brands with a similar audience segment, and find their strengths and weaknesses. How can you take advantage of what they are not providing to consumers? Can you improve on what they are doing well?

Once you have outlined your video marketing strategy, here are some tips to help you with creation and analytics:

• High-quality – high-quality content tends to be favoured by algorithms and audiences

• Make your goal clear – whether it’s participating in a trend or highlighting a product, don’t be overly complex with your messaging; stick to your main objective

• Captions – make your videos more accessible to a broader audience

• Sound – when the sound is heard, audio elements can help captivate your audience, reinforce your message, and even increase your algorithm performance

• Brand elements – ensure viewers will associate the video with your brand

• Platform-specific – use formatting and app-specific tools for each platform you post on

• Repurpose content – blog posts and other past content can be repurposed into video content as a low-cost opportunity to give them a second life

• Analytics – ensure you have clearly defined metrics based on your goals that determine your video’s success – how can you improve next time?

Short-Form Video

Moving on to short-form video more specifically, the most common social media platforms for these videos are TikTok, Instagram/Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts. All three of these options are optimal for mobile viewing, meaning you can reach your audience anywhere, at any point in the day. While this can be useful, keep in mind that this means they could watch your video very briefly, without sound, or without devoted attention. Consider posting times and video goals for these platforms with these barriers in mind.

Further, many people come to these platforms for entertainment. This means they may be quick to scroll past a video that is obviously branded. Once again, align your video goals with this possibility and captivate quickly, ideally in the first 3-5 seconds. Another tool on these platforms is to pay attention to trending audio. Even if you are not participating in an audio-specific trend, using trending/recognizable audio in your video can help boost it in the algorithm.

Long-Form Video

On the other hand, long-form videos tend to be posted on YouTube or on a brand’s website. While other platforms do provide longer video options, they often do better in spaces designed for long-form content. Video goals and searchability are the most critical factors here. Consumers who are already interested in your brand, products, or services are more likely to take the time to watch a longer video, often to learn more about the product/service. While this is a smaller audience segment, they are also more likely to convert (if they like what they see).

This brings us to searchability. When it comes to YouTube or videos on your website, the most common way people find them is by searching for them. This means that your video title, SEO, etc., must be optimized to ensure it can be found easily. And, of course, the video should be high-quality, on-topic, and informative, with a clear CTA to get the desired results.

Video marketing can require significant effort, but can also yield significant results. Need more tips or marketing assistance? Contact unLOCKEd today!

Author: Sarah Murphy