4 Best Short-Form Video Apps for Marketers in 2024

A short-form video is marketers’ favorite format, as about 31% say it offers the highest ROI.

Additionally, 57% of marketers aim to increase their investment in short-form videos for 2024.

This trend comes as no surprise, as short-form videos have continued to be addictive by telling interesting stories and capturing attention instantly.

In this article, we’ll explore the top short-form video apps and tips to leverage user-generated content like video testimonials, product reviews, and customer stories.

What is short-form content for videos?

Short-form videos are the ones that are less than 60 seconds.

They are bite-sized videos that are easier to watch through and grasp.

Popular social media apps like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts pioneered short-form social media content for younger and older generations of audiences.

Did you know you can repurpose Trust’s video testimonials and reviews for your short-form video content?

Try the free trial to explore short UGC videos!

Top 4 short-form video apps for marketing

There are four short-form video platforms marketers and business owners love. The reason? They’re a crowd-puller!

1. TikTok

TikTok videos can be as short as 3 seconds or 10 minutes long.

However, research recommends the ideal length to be between 21 to 34 seconds long.

TikTok holds the record for the most video views – 2 billion+ and counting.

The app is easy to use and has grown popular among younger audiences.

TikTok’s editing tool allows users to add custom filters, trim videos, adjust speed, add stickers, overlay videos, and other basic edits.

Why do marketing teams love TikTok?

The platform’s ability to reach wider audiences, engage them with your posts, and gain more attention to brands or products.

If you’re aiming to boost visibility, you might consider strategies like purchasing TikTok likes to enhance engagement.

Business owners can also partner with influencers to review products and drop in video testimonials.

2. Instagram Reels

Thanks to its Reels feature, Instagram is another vastly popular short-form video app that allows videos up to 90 seconds long.

On Reels, users can edit, record, and clip videos and images and post short videos to their Instagram feed.

Reels are highly engaging and cover various entertaining topics, from product recommendations to food, travel, and fashion.

Most users and brands repurpose TikToks on Reels and vice versa.

A viral Instagram Reel of a Harvard student answering a Q&A about the university:

3. YouTube Shorts

YouTube was primarily launched for long-form videos, but since short-form videos have gained popularity, YouTube was all set to explore the same.

That’s how YouTube Shorts were born.

B2B and B2C brands bank on YouTube Shorts to reach new customers.

For example, short customer video testimonials can be shared on your brand’s YouTube account.

A B2C brand displaying a mixture of text reviews and testimonials as a YouTube Short:

Check out this guide on testimonial templates for social media platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest has a largely female demographic seeking inspiration and ideas for fashion, interior design, and lifestyle.

So, if you’re a B2C brand targeting a female market, you could use Pinterest to share short-form video content.

Pinterest videos let you add a description mentioning a link to your website or landing page so interested users can click through easily.

Potential drawbacks of using short-form video apps for marketing campaigns

The short-form video apps we discussed have shown significant potential in attracting audiences.

However, using them can have some drawbacks:

Basic recording and editing features force you to use external apps. Most platforms offer very basic editing functionalities, such as trimming videos and adding font, thus forcing creators to use an external video editing and recording app.
Challenging to maintain a consistent brand image. You must ensure every individual short video, like a Reel or a YouTube Short, maintains a consistent brand image. For example, every video must use your brand colors, logo, and font style. Short-form video apps do not support auto-application of branding.
Music copyright issues. Facebook, a.k.a. Meta, often flags posts of accounts violating music copyright.

Want to overcome these challenges and get better at showcasing user-generated content? Read on to learn how.

Make high-converting short-form video content with Trust

Trust can help you bring your customers’ voices to the forefront through short-form video testimonials, customer success stories, and product or service reviews.

Trust offers a fully automated, all-in-one system for testimonials.

You can create customized testimonial requests, automate email campaigns for review collection, edit videos, and publish them from a single platform.

Here’s everything Trust does to make developing short-form video content uncomplicated:

Create video surveys for short-form videos in minutes to collect meaningful feedback

Trust’s Interactive form can frame custom text and/or video questions you want customers to answer.

Since most short-form platforms prefer videos under a minute, ensure you ask fewer but impactful open-ended questions.

Here are some examples:

What made you choose our brand over a competitor?
Why did you purchase X product and how did it solve a challenge?
What was your overall experience working with us?
What problems did you see resolved after using the X solution?

Video responses to such questions can be useful to share on platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts as they can clear potential customers’ doubts.

Edit video responses to make them publish-ready for short-form video apps

As discussed, one of the biggest drawbacks of using a short-form video app is the lack of advanced editing capability.

Trust fixes this.

Trust has a built-in video editor to edit your customers’ video responses, which can:

Trim videos in a click
Generate professional quality, upload-ready short-form videos
Add custom intros and outros to make your short-form videos more engaging
Stitch short-form testimonial videos with custom images
Add video subtitles
And more!

Set up and automate email campaigns

Trust’s Contacts & Campaigns feature lets you set up personalized testimonial request email campaigns and automate them to be sent on auto-pilot.

Add custom branding to make videos short-form ready

With a Trust Business plan, you can remove Trust branding on all your video testimonials and add your own custom branding.

This way, you don’t have to use a third-party app to align each video to your brand aesthetic.

Share video responses on short-form video apps

You can share a video testimonial recorded on Trust by downloading the high-quality video to your local system.

Just click “Download Video” under your Trust Dashboard’s Testimonials tab.

You can then upload it to your desired short-form video app.

Trust also offers a code snippet that you can use to embed the testimonial clips on your website!

Best practices and tips for marketers exploring short-form video content

Before you start making short-form videos, let’s cover some tips to keep in mind for the best results.

Show off the product in action

Multiple trending short videos in less than a minute show people trying out a new product.

Trust could help customers record themselves using your product and dropping insights.

Show behind-the-scenes

A “behind-the-scenes” video is perfect for all kinds of brands like SaaS, eCommerce, edTech, etc.

You could ask your employees to record their answers to a couple of questions, such as their experience building the product and what it’s like working with customers.

Capture attention right away

Did you know an average attention span lasts not more than 2 seconds? So that’s how much time you have to grab viewers’ attention with your short-form video.

What can you do? If you’re using Trust, re-arrange video clips to lead with a powerful statement, add a rich thumbnail, and edit text and the frame’s colors to match your brand aesthetic.