# How to create short captioned videos for marketing

> How long a short captioned marketing video should be, where it sits next to the week's posts, and how to cut one from footage you already have.

Canonical: https://www.runmeg.com/guides/short-captioned-videos-for-marketing
Last updated: 2026-10-29

Cut a short captioned video from a longer recording you already have. Keep it long enough to show one step or one result, write that result on the screen, and place it next to a post that tells the same fact in words. There is no magic length. If you are still talking after the proof, you are making a second video.

Short means the video ends when the point has landed, not when a trend chart says it should. The caption is what makes that point readable.

## Where the short video comes from

It comes from a longer thing you made for a real reason: a demo, a webinar, a sales call you can share, a screen recording sent to a customer. Short is an edit, not a separate production. Teams that wait for a 'short-form shoot' never ship the clip sitting inside last Thursday's demo.

Pick one moment. A moment has a start, a change, and a stop. The import finishes. The invoice sends. That is a video. The twenty minutes around it are context for the people who were on the call. Everyone else needs the change.

## How long short actually is

Long enough to see the change, short enough that the on-screen line is still the same line at the end. Many product proofs land between about six and twenty seconds. A tutorial step might need longer. A logo sting does not need any time at all. Do not pad a six-second proof to thirty seconds because a blog told you thirty seconds is the format.

If the honest proof takes two minutes, publish a two-minute video and also cut a short one that points at it. Pretending a two-minute procedure is a six-second miracle is how captions start lying. The short one can say 'the import is these three clicks' and show one of them. It should not say 'setup takes six seconds' unless it does.

Match the length to the job. These are editorial ranges, not platform rules.

| Job | What short means | Caption |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One result | The few seconds around the result | The result, as a fact |
| One step | The step, at the speed it really happens | The name of the step |
| One objection | The question and the answer, trimmed | The answer, not the preamble |
| A tour of the product | This is not short. Cut it into the rows above | One claim per cut |

## Marketing, not a subtitle file

A subtitle file is a service to someone who needs every word. A marketing caption is a decision about which word matters. On a short video the decision is brutal, because there is no later scene to recover the point. Put the point on screen at the start. Use the rest of the seconds to show it.

Write the line before you argue about music, fonts, or the end card. If the line is weak, the decoration will not save the video, and you will have spent the hour on the part a viewer never needed.

```
Before you open an editor

Source: 18-minute demo.
Moment: minute 11, import finishes, invoice sends.
Length of the cut: from the click to the sent state. No intro.
Line: "Invoice sent when the import finished."
Post beside it: the LinkedIn note about why Friday invoices were slipping to Monday.
If the line and the post disagree, stop and pick one fact.
```

## Use them with the week's posts

A short video without a written post is a file in a feed. A written post without the video is a claim with no picture. Put them on the same day or the same week, on purpose, so a person who sees one can find the other. The video shows. The post explains the constraint, the number, or the caveat that would not fit on the frame.

Do not make a short video for every post. Some facts are a sentence. Forcing a video onto a sentence produces a face staring while the sentence appears, which is a quote card with extra steps. Use video when there is something to see.

## What to throw away

Throw away the short video that only works if someone watches the long one first. The feed will not assign homework. Throw away the one whose caption is a label ('Product demo') instead of a fact. Throw away the one you cannot watch on mute and retell. And throw away the duplicate: three cuts of the same click with three adjectives. Keep the adjective you would say.

## Where Runmeg fits

ReelGen cuts captioned shorts from a video you upload and hands you the files. Create can turn the same clip into one marketing video after you approve a plan, so you are not stuck with only the five reels. Nothing posts itself. If you need a frame-accurate tutorial with callouts on every button, edit that one by hand. The short marketing cut is the job this is for.

## Questions

### Is a short video the same as a Reel or a TikTok?

Those are places you can post it. The video is the file: one fact, on screen, short enough to watch. The apps add buttons and a description field. Check those after the file is done.

### What aspect ratio should I export?

Vertical if it is going to a Reel, a TikTok, or a Short. Make sure the proof survives the crop. A square or a landscape file is fine for a post that is not fighting a vertical feed.

### How many shorts from one webinar?

One per distinct fact you are willing to say in public. A webinar with three real answers is three videos, not fifteen.

### Do I need music?

No. Music is optional. A readable line and a visible proof are not. Add music only if it does not fight the voice or the type.

## Related
- [A week of posts](https://www.runmeg.com/guides/one-idea-into-a-week-of-posts)
- [Turn a video into reels](https://www.runmeg.com/guides/turn-a-video-into-reels)
- [How to make captioned reels](https://www.runmeg.com/guides/how-to-make-captioned-reels)