Back in January, we published our annual top automotive marketing trends for businesses in our industry to capitalise on this year. Many of them were accelerated by the Covid pandemic, including the consumption of “content on the go”. One of the biggest trends in this space is that of short-form video that has sky-rocketed with the rise of TikTok and now Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight and YouTube Shorts.

In this article, we’re going to delve into short-form video in a little more detail and discuss how your automotive brand can take advantage of it to drive more business.

Let’s set the record straight…

Before your automotive business delves into the world of short-form video content, we need to set the record straight. The common misconception is that it’s not relevant for business and that it’s purely for trending dances etc. While a lot of the content on TikTok, Reels and similar apps is based around viral trends, there’s still a place for business – with many mentors, thought leaders and businesses enjoying excellent levels of awareness, engagement and traction.

With that being said, you don’t have to use TikTok or Reels to take advantage of short-form video. You could, for example, post regular 30 – 60 second industry insights/tips/news clips to LinkedIn.

The numbers

Short-form video is on the rise as we know. That’s no secret.

Let’s take a look at the key player in the space (TikTok) in terms of numbers:

TikTok has been downloaded more than 2 billion times on both Google Play and the Apple App Store.

App Annie reports that time spent on TikTok is up 325% year-over-year, which means it’s now beating Facebook in terms of hours spent per user per month.

According to HypeAuditor, the average engagement rate on TikTok is 17.5%.

The hashtag #automotive has over 590 million views!

The largest share of users (26%) in the UK is aged 18-24

90% of TikTok users visit the app more than once per day.

Those stats are significant and are only set to grow more. It could be particularly effective if your automotive brand targets a younger audience. Whether this is working with an influencer or uploading your own content.

Showcasing Your Brand Personality

If you do want to start creating content for TikTok and Reels, then showcasing your brand’s personality is a must. You need to come across as authentic, fun and on-trend. Additionally, professional content still works but engagement might be lower. You have to look at these channels with a completely different mindset to your other social accounts. As discussed prior though, short-form video can be taken advantage of in many ways on your existing channels.

Quick-Fire Tips

To succeed with short-form video, you should:

• Create content based on trending hashtags or specific video trends in the industry and your specific sector if possible.
• Work with a range of nano and micro-influencers to develop engaging short-form videos that promote your brand.
• Start or take part in popular challenges.
• Be authentic.
• Get creative.
• Don’t forget to tell your audience what you want them to do with calls to action.
• Just get content out there! Don’t concern yourself too much with production values, that’s the beauty of short-form content.
• Repurpose any existing video content you’ve created into bite-sized snippets. Even podcasts can be turned into engaging short clips with apps like Headliner.

Drive More Business With WDA Automotive Marketing

If you’re looking to drive more business and grow your automotive brand in 2021, then why not consider working with WDA? We’re a specialist automotive marketing agency and are here to help you take advantage of short-form video, podcasting and all of the latest automotive marketing trends to deliver impactful results.

We also offer a 3-month Test Drive trial option for our bespoke automotive marketing packages (which can include but isn’t limited to short-form video, professionally shot video, SEO, PPC, content, complete social management and podcasting) with no commitment or obligation to take things further.

Find out more about this here or book an initial discovery call.

Finally, if you’re not yet ready to discuss your project with us then complete our 50-point automotive marketing MOT for actionable insights and recommendations for improving your existing efforts.

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