Rapid Visual Storytelling: How to Create Short-Form Videos that Captivate

Launching a business can be a challenge under the best of circumstances. You have more ideas than time, and you’re eager to just get rolling – but you have to get noticed first.

Overnight success happens, but it’s pretty rare. It takes time to build connections and earn your audience. Fortunately, you don’t need a bottomless ad budget to do it – just some strategic short-form video storytelling.

Photo credit: Freepik

Storytelling for Brands

You may think stories are just for books and Hollywood films, but they can be a secret weapon for your brand. Storytelling builds trust, which is crucial to attracting an audience and getting them to take the action you want – whether that’s buying a product or subscribing to a service.

Not a storyteller? You don’t have to be! As your brand creator, you are the best person to share your story – and short-form videos are the way to do it. You can showcase who you are as a brand, not just your products, and deliver value without needing a sales pitch.

In short, video makes your brand memorable because it presents you as a human with a business instead of a faceless brand focused just on profits.

And with a mere 3 seconds to capture attention, you need that hook. Short-form video is incredibly powerful for grabbing attention on a crowded newsfeed and getting your audience to listen.

For example, hooks like “how I found my work-life balance” or “starting a business? Don’t make these mistakes!” get your audience curious and invested from the start.

Building Relationships

The “hard sell” of the past has all but died. People are looking for more than polished ads and a good price. They want to support relatable brands that share their values – that’s why the connection matters.

You can create that when you talk about your challenges, epic failures, barriers, small wins, big successes…basically, your path to your business. When you do it in a video, it feels like they’re listening to a story from a friend, rather than a brand looking to sell something.

Differentiating Your Brand

No matter how cheap, special, or revolutionary your product or service is, you have competitors. Some may have better prices, a newer product with bells and whistles, a more streamlined subscription service, etc. But what they don’t have is your story, and that’s memorable.

For example, everyone knows that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a garage and built the first Apple computer from scratch. Though Apple is a multibillion-dollar global leader now, that’s about as relatable a story as it gets.

Creating a Framework for Videos That Captivate

You don’t need a massive team to create content that works. You just need a framework.

Basic Story Structure

All stories have these elements:

• A plot, or what the story is actually about
• The purpose of the story, or why it’s important
• A person that the story is about, which may be you or a client
• A place where the story happens

Your story is compressed in a short-form video, but it still needs this structure to be cohesive and engaging.

Focus the Message

Staying focused on a single, clear message is always important with storytelling, but it’s even more vital when you’re trying to tell a story in under a minute. If you try to hit too many points or ramble on, you’ll lose your audience.

Keep it focused on one idea. For example, share how you fumbled a pitch but it turned into your best client, or share a customer success story you’re proud of. You’ll have more videos to make, so save all your ideas for the future.

Prepare Your Story Arc

People respond to stories that have a recognizable structure. With brand stories, that could be:

• A problem and solution, such as a business challenge and how it was solved
• Before and after, such as a customer case study and the transformation
• Question and insight, such as answering a common industry question or busting a myth

Rely on Emotions

Business does have a lot of logic and pragmatism. Emotions do come into play, however, and they need to be part of your story. Emotions are strongly tied to memory, so you’re building your brand recognition if you make your audience feel something.

Here are some ideas:

• Inspire hope: Share what finally clicked for you with your business.
• Share a frustration: Talk about the barriers you encountered and how you solved them.
• Encourage others: Tell your inspirational story of how you got started and encourage your audience to do the same.

Create Mini Stories

Fitting a story into a concise short-form video is a great way to get viewers. Not all stories are perfectly suited to the format, however. If you have a longer story to share, turn it into a mini-series that keeps the viewer coming back for more.

For example, your brand story can be divided into a 3-part series, such as the idea, the launch, and “where we are now.” Tutorials are also good for mini-series, especially for complex products with a lot of use cases.

Tell Authentic Stories

Short-form video is only growing in popularity. Don’t wait until you have professional production, a higher follower count, or “better” ideas – the time to get started is now. Think about your stories and start recording to build that connection.

Torrey Tayenaka is the co-founder and CEO at Sparkhouse, an Orange County-based commercial video production company. He is often asked to contribute expertise in publications like Entrepreneur, Single Grain, and Forbes. Sparkhouse is known for transforming video marketing and advertising into real conversations. Rather than hitting the consumer over the head with blatant ads, Sparkhouse creates interesting, entertaining, and useful videos that enrich the lives of its clients’ customers. In addition to Sparkhouse, Torrey has also founded the companies Eva Smart Shower, Litehouse & Forge54.