Alex RodiaThere is no better way to communicate your brand story and message than video. It’s the ultimate medium for sharing your message and telling the world what makes your company unique. But it can be tricky to get started and know how to plan your content. How much should you include, and what should you exclude? What’s the perfect length of a corporate video? That’s what we’ll take a closer look at in this article.
Of course, there’s no exact answer to that question; it always depends on the context. The content of, for example, a marketing video differs from that of a brand video, and there’s no silver bullet. But the general rule is to always keep your videos as short as possible.
The Shorter Your Corporate Video Is, The Better
The shorter your video is, the more you will have to boil down your message to its very essence. This will sharpen your pitch and force you to leave out anything that’s not relevant.
And the shorter it is, the more people will watch it the whole way through. People’s attention spans are constantly shrinking, and the shorter the message, the better your chances of getting your point across. It doesn’t matter how compelling the content is; for the most part, people tend to “check out” after about two minutes. And with the flood of content they have at their fingertips, the next video is always just a scroll away. So if people get just a twinge of boredom…. you’ve lost them
Related reading: 4 Tips on How To Avoid Information Overload in Your Videos
The Perfect Length of Brand and Marketing Videos
While there are no rules without exceptions, there are best practices. And our experience shows that videos under 2:30 minutes generally perform the best. And somewhere between 1:30-2:00 minutes tends to be the sweet spot for longer-form video.
According to Hubspot, a marketing video needs to capture a viewer’s attention within the first 8 seconds, the average length of online attention spans.
Related reading: How To Create Authentic Brand Videos–And Why It Matters
Different Platforms Have Different Requirements
When planning your video, you need to know where you want to publish it. Different platforms have different time limits. For example, in the Insta feed, you cannot post videos longer than one minute. And if you’re creating a TV commercial, you may want to keep it as short as 30, 15 or even just 5 seconds.
Apart from the technical limits, there are also the platform norms to consider and the preferences of each algorithm. On LinkedIn, we often see the best performance from ~30-second videos, on Twitter 20-45 seconds is a good length, and on Facebook, you can go a little longer with 30-90 seconds.
All of these factors should be considered when deciding on the length of your video. Sometimes you want to shoot a video specifically for one platform. Other times it may work to pull the derivatives from the longer form video and create shorter cutdowns.
Recommended reading: What To Include In Yor Brand Video – and What To Leave Out
There’s A Time and Place For Longer Videos Too
Of course, long-form videos also have their place. If, for example, you’re creating a docu-style film, a webinar, or a keynote talk, a longer video is an effective forum for this. Just know that long-form content usually needs its proper context because it will not be engaging enough without that.
And regardless of how long you make your video, It’s important to understand that many people will not watch it in its entirety. Many will watch a bit here and there or just catch a glimpse of it in their social media feeds. The question then, is will they still catch your core message?
Partner With an Award-Winning Video Marketing Agency
Getting your message to fit into a video that’s just 15 seconds may feel like mission impossible. But believe us, it’s not. Not only is it possible, but it will benefit your brand and marketing immensely. And don’t worry, getting your story to fit that time limit is our job. We’ve done this before. We’ll make it happen.
Partnering with an experienced and creative video production agency is the best way to ensure you get your message across within the time frame that serves your purposes. Writing scripts and planning videos is a particular skill set, and it takes talent and experience to get it right and ensure you get the most bang for your buck.
Covalent is a video marketing agency with experience in all kinds of corporate video productions, from brand videos and commercials to marketing videos and educational explainer videos. We are known for creating video content that feels authentic and unique.
If you’re looking to get started with brand video production, we should chat! Let’s explore how we can make your brand come alive with video.