🔍 11 Principles To Create Effective Short Form Content

Hey, hey. It’s Alex. When I first got into marketing I started as a content creator. I started an agency called Social First. This was ~7 years ago. And we brought short-form videos to multiple businesses. The result? We helped coffee shops launch a DTC arm. We helped supplements brands run out of stock. We helped apps get thousands of users. We helped breweries fill seats. The takeaway? 7 years ago short form video was more valuable than ever. Today, short-form video is still more valuable than ever.

That’s why we launched Cut30 yesterday.

But, today is an 11-part guide to help you get started with short-form video today.

I use the same laundry detergent every time I wash my clothes.

The grip Tide has on me is unparalleled.

Why? Because my mom always used it.

61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations over brand-produced content (38%). Why? People trust people.

Upfluence isn’t just another influencer marketing platform. It’s a tool to help you find collaborators who can intro your brand to their audience in a way that really works.

Upfluence helps you:

- Find creators who already love and use your brand

- Use data to find the exact creators you need

- Easily hire influencers and affiliates

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Wanna try Upfluence? I got Marketing Examined readers hooked up with 10% off here!

The average attention span is 8.25 seconds. This means your first 3 seconds need to be great. And the following 5.25 seconds are critical to a video's success.

Two things impact this:

• Your script

• Your visuals

Use your script to continuously reel someone in.

Use your visuals to keep them engaged.

Great creators/brands are known within a specific industry, niche, or topic.

How do you do this? By establishing content pillars.

These are the parent categories your content always falls into.

For example, for my personal channel, those categories are:

• Marketing Campaigns

• Marketing Case Studies

• Marketing Playbooks

Second to content pillars are content formats. This is how I take a pillar and break it down into different subcategories that complement each pillar.

Because adding content formats helps you scale successful content pillars by reformatting the core of a content idea.

Lemme explain:

Content Pillar: Marketing Campaigns

Content idea: How Volvo Drove $170M From Its Live Tests Campaign

Content Formats:

• Breakdown: Here’s how this campaign drove $170M in revenue for Volvo

• Story: Here’s the story behind the epic Volvo campaign that looks fake

• Lessons: Here are 5 lessons from Volvo’s Live Test campaign

Creating content formats allows one content idea to be remixed into multiple pieces.

Write the headline. Then write the script.

David Ogilvy said, “On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

This same applies to video.

Your hook is your headline. It’s the core of a successful video. Write it then build around it. Don’t waste it. Without it, your script doesn’t matter.

Don’t write a long-winded script. This isn’t a movie. It’s a 30-second trailer.

Write your script in bullet points.

And think of every bullet point as an open-ended hook that's incomplete without the following bullet point.

Great editing is like great writing. The more you use your eraser the better the writing gets. With editing, the more you cut out what doesn’t support your hook, the more engaging your video gets.

Two things here.

When you’re first getting started it's good to use in-app captions. The more data the platform has on the video, the more the algorithm knows who to push it to.

Once you’ve built an audience, use quick-hitting captions. Where there are never more than three words on the screen.

Great content creates a viral loop. Where reaching one person can equal infinite reach.

You create a piece of content and someone shares it with a friend. So, now reaching one person equals reaching two people.

Or that person shares your content on their story. And now your content gets in front of a percentage of their audience.

The way to do this is to think about creating content for DMs and Slack channels.

And understanding what gets shared and why it gets shared. Then reverse engineering it.

The best creators/brands become resources of education, entertainment, and inspiration.

So, how do you become the resource within your niche?

Script what's worth highlighting. Share value that's worth coming back to. Create the content that only you can create.

Do that by asking yourself one thing: Would I save this piece of content?

If not, create it again. If yes, publish.

If you’re trying to drive business results then creating a content funnel is essential.

Where the core of your content works top down.

Top of funnel = Content that has a wide reach

Middle of funnel = Content that's valuable but includes product placements

Bottom of funnel = Content that drives a specific action

How to create great content? Imitate great content.

Imitate how your favorite creator writes their hooks. How they say it. How many words are in their script. How they use images or b-roll. How they cut their video. 

But swap out their information, for yours.

The best way to create sticky content is to replicate sticky content.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Mimic it.

Myself, Colin Landorce, Oren John launched Cut30 yesterday. The sole goal is to help creators, brands, and marketers learn and leverage short-form video.

Because if you commit to learning and publishing short-form content for 30 days, you’ll double your audience. And build a meaningful audience.

Here’s you now - you don’t know:

• How to script, edit, or create valuable content

• What tools or software to use

• How to generate content idea after content idea

• How to create a workflow to pump out content

• How to find content-market fit

Here’s you in 30 days - you now:

• Are confident on camera

• Built a meaningful audience

• Are proficient in editing tools and software

• Know how to craft an engaging story

• Found content market fit

And the best part? You only need your phone. You don’t need experience.

You only need 30 days. Or we’ll give you your money back.

You wouldn’t wait until your teeth were falling out to go to the dentist.

We’re not out here gumming our way through life.

I’m about to give you my hookup to a marketing tool that’s basically free healthcare for your website.

Ahrefs released a new free tool to improve your website’s SEO performance, monitor backlinks, and see keywords that bring you traffic – Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.

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Sign up for free now. Don’t push off your checkup.

• How to get free UGC? Influencer seeding. GoPure used product seeding to generate over 150+ video ads for free. And they used Insense.

• The content strategy Airbnb was missing out on. Think its still valid?

• The framework for the only startup metrics that matter from someone who’s worked with over 500+ startups.

• One of Paul Graham’s most recent essays on how to do great work.

• Every Mr. Beast video follows this formula

Alright, I’m off to a lake house for the weekend. Me, my fiancee', and our newborn. Our first little family vacation.

We’ll talk soon.

Alex Garcia

P.S. Only 23 more people will save $50 on Cut30 before we raise the price back to $299. Reserve your spot to learn short-form video in 30 days. Starting October 1st.