05. The ideal video length

This guide isn't one-size-fits-all—content length widely depends on the type and purpose of your content.

For standalone videos, your content dictates the length. You basically just teach them what you intend to teach them. When you're creating a video meant to stand alone, don’t stress too much about its duration. Focus on transmitting the knowledge you want to share effectively, regardless of whether it takes 2 minutes or 20.

Social platforms

Different social media platforms come with their own content length heuristics. For instance, Understanding the unique traits of each platform can significantly improve your content's success, and we'll cover this in future videos.

Content length for online courses:

In the context of a video course series, you're aiming for a 'consumable' duration. In other words, a sweet spot likely falls between three to ten minutes. That's the duration your audience can sit down and readily consume.

Your viewers should be able to click on your next video and think, "Ah, this next video is just three, five, or ten minutes long; I can watch it right now." This strategy is far more appealing than demanding a larger chunk of their time and being overlaid with heavy commitment.

It's natural for your audience to jitter at having to reserve an hour for one of your videos. Hence, short videos work excellently, making them approachable and thus promoting consistency in learning.

The Power of stair-stepping:

You might ask, "But in shorter videos, how will I cover all I intend to teach?" That's where "stair-stepping" comes into play again! Stair-stepping is an instructional design approach where each piece of content takes the learner one or two steps further into the learning journey.

Instead of attempting to cover ten new concepts in a single video, each video should teach them one or two new aspects, gradually progressing from known information to unfamiliar topics.