Habit-Forming Content: Real Strategies from Brands Turning Videos Into Revenue
As businesses invest in expanding their social media presence, they should be clear about their purpose. Producing and sharing social media video content, even when that content goes viral, isn’t enough to justify their efforts. Businesses that benefit from social media marketing leverage their content to attract views, gain followers, and acquire leads by creating habit-forming content that pulls consumers into their sales funnel.
Short-form video is a powerful tool for creating habit-forming social media content. It’s highly attractive to social media users because it allows them to connect with the face, voice, and values of the brand in a way that static images can’t. It helps users gauge whether or not they can trust a brand, and trust is currency in the digital age.
Short-form video content also has a massive organic reach. The algorithms on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts are interest-based, not follower-based, meaning even accounts with zero followers can rack up thousands of views (and leads) with the right format and message.
The high attraction value of short-form video, combined with its potential for organic reach, gives it a compounding value that drives long-term impact. Unlike paid ads, which die the second you quit paying for them, short-form content keeps working long after it’s posted. A single 60-second video can attract new leads for months if it resonates.
The Key Components of Effective Short-form Video Strategies
The first step to effectively using short-form video is building a social media content system that lets you consistently produce quality videos. Simply posting more videos won’t lead to more sales. The way to make money is to post better.
When building a system, invest in whatever tools you need to consistently create quality content, including bringing on employees with video production experience or utilizing content editing tools. Whatever it takes, be obsessed about building a system that lets you make content at scale while still having enough time and energy to run your business.
The next step is prioritizing strategy over aesthetics. Start with the message. You can concern yourself with the look or production value once you’ve developed a script that clearly communicates a message with market fit and conveys emotion.
Finally, the best strategies will properly position video content to usher consumers through your sales funnel. Hook-heavy videos that spark curiosity are best at the top of the funnel, while those with personal stories and case studies work best mid-funnel. Once consumers reach the bottom, they should see videos with a soft call-to-action, social proof, and direct explanations of the problem/solution.
This strategy has been employed by brands across a wide range of industries to successfully enhance the impact of their social media marketing. The following are some real-world examples of how it has worked for actual companies.
Getting Eyes on a Hard-to-Market Item
A company selling tiny houses was struggling to drum up interest due to the unique sales challenges it faced, including a high ticket price, no realtor assistance, and expensive financing for buyers. The ads it was investing in were expensive, leaving little profit in the few cases where they worked.
Social media content featuring short-form video provided a visual hook for the product, significantly increasing interest without requiring a massive investment in time and resources. The company shifted from spending tens of thousands on paid ads to creating organic videos. Consequently, they saw their leads grow from 80 to 90 per week to over 300, a 275 percent increase.
As the new strategy gained momentum, the company ended up with 1.2 million new followers across platforms, over 1,000 new leads per month, and over 20 million views per month. The investment they made in the system needed to produce the videos was recovered multiple times over.
Making a Quality Product More Competitive
A health and wellness coach was investing $25,000 per month in creating and posting social media content, but wasn’t able to gain ground in a hugely competitive industry because he hadn’t developed a solid social media strategy. When he shifted his focus from mediocre long-term content to high-quality short-form, critical metrics took off.
The new content saw engagement increase by over 200 percent and awareness by more than 3,700 percent, all while reducing the number of posts he needed to create. Implementing a full-funnel content approach to video production and deployment was one of the key elements that drove the shift in performance. Overall, the strategy added 500,000 followers, 79,000 new leads per month, and 50 million additional views per month.
Short-form video content has become more effective as buyers have become more skeptical. Gone are the days when consumers bought because of a logo or a TV ad. Today’s consumers check your name, Google your business, scroll through your reviews, and look at your socials as part of the process of determining whether you are a trustworthy brand. Companies that invest in quality short-form video and deliver it consistently provide a vast library of social media content that directly addresses the problems consumers face, making conversions much easier to achieve.
For more about video content creation and the social marketing, please join us at Street Fight LIVE 2025 on September 30th at Microsoft’s Playa Vista (Los Angeles) HQ.
