You’ve got simply created the proper video. The music hits in any respect the appropriate moments, your voiceover is crisp, and that trending sound chew? Chef’s kiss. However here is the plot twist – most of your viewers won’t ever hear any of it.
Welcome to the truth of recent content material consumption, the place your masterpiece is extra prone to be watched throughout a quiet morning commute, in a crowded workplace, or whereas scrolling in mattress subsequent to a sleeping companion – all with the sound firmly off.
On this article, I am going to present you learn how to create scroll-stopping silent movies that drive engagement, even when viewers do not hear it. We’ll cowl greatest practices and real-world examples that will help you grasp the artwork of soundless video advertising and marketing.
Desk of Contents
- Why Movies With out Sound Matter Extra Than Ever
- Key Components of Profitable Silent Movies
- Greatest Practices for Creating Silent Movies
- Scroll-Stopping Silent Video Examples I Love
Why Movies With out Sound Matter Extra Than Ever
The panorama of social media video has developed dramatically, and the numbers inform the story. In line with our newest State of Advertising Report:
- Quick-form video leads advertising and marketing codecs with 29.2% adoption fee
- Visible content material (together with photos at 29%) dominates advertising and marketing methods
- 17% of entrepreneurs plan to extend their short-form video funding in 2025
This shift is not nearly following traits — it is about going the place the ROI is. Our knowledge reveals that short-form video, photos, and dwell streaming constantly ship the very best returns amongst all content material codecs.
Key Components of Profitable Silent Movies
1. Having a platform-specific technique.
Let’s dive into the platforms the place entrepreneurs are putting their bets in 2025. In line with our newest analysis, here is the place the funding is flowing:
- YouTube (29.6% rising funding): Customers usually watch with sound, however create for each experiences
- Instagram (28.8% rising funding): Fast, visually putting content material dominates
- TikTok (27.6% rising funding): Quick-paced, trend-driven content material wins
I’ve discovered that understanding these platform-specific traits is essential for fulfillment. For example, whereas YouTube may get the very best funding, every platform requires a novel strategy to silent video technique.
2. Abiding by the “Three-Second Rule”.
When you’re unfamiliar with this rule, you’ve got three seconds to seize consideration earlier than your viewer decides to scroll away or click on on one thing else. This is learn how to nail it:
- Use daring, eye-catching visuals proper out of the gate.
- Begin together with your most compelling knowledge level or perception.
- Create a “cliffhanger” second that makes viewers need to see extra.
- Use brilliant colours or surprising imagery to cease the scroll.
3. Specializing in clear visible storytelling.
Your video ought to talk successfully with out solely counting on its audio:
- Concentrate on motion and motion.
- Use facial expressions and physique language to convey emotion.
- Create a transparent visible development of concepts.
- Preserve excessive distinction for cell viewing.
This is not to discourage you from nonetheless including audio to your video. Go forward and select an audio or voice-over that enhances your work, however guarantee viewers can obtain the message with or with out it.
4. Utilizing strategic textual content overlay.
On the subject of silent movies, the textual content on display will carry the message. You want to embody skilled captions that complement your visuals and convey clear calls to motion at strategic moments.
And in case you’re searching for a simple strategy to fold in that worthwhile textual content overlay, on the proper moments and for the correct amount of time, try HubSpot’s Clip Creator, the place you possibly can simply add:
- Skilled captions that complement your visuals
- Key statistics or knowledge factors as textual content overlays
- Clear calls-to-action at strategic moments
- Branded decrease thirds for speaker identification
5. Together with partaking movement graphics.
Whereas I am not essentially the most savvy video editor myself, most video editors make it straightforward for including easy transitions between scenes. Preserve viewers with:
- Animated icons and illustrations
- Progress bars or timelines
- Dynamic textual content animations
Now that we have gone over key parts, be mindful some greatest practices earlier than you publish your subsequent video.
Greatest Practices for Creating Silent Movies
- Entrance-load Essential Data: Place the important thing message within the hook or first 3-5 seconds.
- Preserve Visible Hierarchy: Use constant fonts and preserve textual content scannable.
- Design for Cell-First Viewing: Check readability on smaller screens.
- Incorporate Manufacturers Components Naturally: Strategically embody model colours and delicate brand placement.
Scroll-Stopping Silent Video Examples I Love
1. Tasty on BuzzFeed
Tasty on BuzzFeed shares recipe movies that do not require quantity — or plenty of time — to get pleasure from. Whereas this channel’s premise appears so easy, Tasty movies attain hundreds of thousands of individuals monthly.
Tasty’s social media virality has one thing to do with the truth that the movies will be watched with out sound, and some key issues make them so profitable.
What I like:
- Hyperlapse-style filming creates on the spot visible curiosity
- Downside-solving strategy with “5 Components or Much less” format
- Daring captions complement moderately than dominate the visuals
- Cooking demonstrations take heart stage
Professional tip: Let your viewers’s search habits information your content material technique – Tasty particularly creates movies primarily based on fashionable recipe searches and trending meals subjects.
2. Glam, Inc.
Glam, Inc. shares way of life movies on Fb and YouTube, and their hottest movies are their “100 Years of” retrospectives that have a look at a century of modifications to a well-liked pattern.
And whereas the decade-specific background music on this video is enjoyable, you possibly can press mute and nonetheless be taught concerning the historical past of girls’s exercise put on.
- Clear give attention to a single topic in opposition to easy backdrop
- Time-based storytelling format (“100 Years of” sequence)
- Strategic timing with New 12 months’s decision season
Professional tip: Time your content material releases to align with pure peaks in viewers curiosity (like New 12 months’s resolutions for health content material).
3. Tech Insider
Tech Insider is Enterprise Insider’s know-how information division, and so they publish distinctive science and tech explainer movies that do not require sound. This one makes use of cool visuals to interrupt down an advanced idea.
The animations used on this video draw consideration in busy social media feeds and work with the captions illustrate the story, step-by-step.
What I like:
- Makes use of animations to simplify complicated ideas
- Solutions widespread questions
- Step-by-step visible storytelling
- Consideration-grabbing visuals
Professional tip: Begin with a typical query your viewers has, then break down the reply into clear visible steps.
4. Refinery29
Refinery29 publishes inventive way of life inspiration movies, such because the coiffure demonstration video right here. It makes use of brilliant colours to draw consideration. Brilliant colours assist this video come out to viewers in opposition to the lighter-colored Fb Information Feed, YouTube homepage, and different socials with out sound to depend on.
What I like:
- Daring, brilliant colours that pop in social feeds
- Professional ideas format builds authority and belief
- Beneath 15-second format for optimum engagement
Professional tip: Use shade strategically to face out in predominantly white/gentle social media feeds, and leverage recognizable names in titles for fast context.
5. BuzzFeed Video
BuzzFeed publishes movies on quite a lot of totally different subjects. This one is fashionable at for a few causes.
At the beginning, it is humorous.
Emotion is a useful gizmo in promoting, and content material that incites optimistic reactions, equivalent to laughter, drives engagement. To speak humor with out sound, the content material must be extremely visible, and Buzzfeed retains content material simply skimmable — even if you cannot hear what they’re saying.
What I like:
- Humor-first strategy
- Easy, clear idea
- Simply digestible format
Professional tip: Preserve ideas easy – if you cannot clarify your video’s premise in a single sentence, it could be too complicated for silent viewing.
6. NowThis
NowThis Information, a social media outlet, solely produces video content material —a neat strategy to get the information, in case you ask me. NowThis publishes video information segments that work with or with out sound, and the captions and video content material work collectively to point out and inform viewers what the story is all about.
What I like:
- Headlines that create emotional impression
- Captions and visuals work collectively seamlessly
- Strategic use of shock worth for engagement
Professional tip: Select angles that set off emotional responses (shock, concern, curiosity) in your headlines – NowThis discovered that destructive headlines usually outperform optimistic ones.
Get Your Message Throughout — Even If It is Silent
Whether or not you’re employed for a B2B software program firm or a information group, you should use video to inform your model’s story in a extra partaking method. In case your video would not require sound, a lot the higher for sharing it on social media.
Editors’ be aware: This text was initially printed in January 2017 and has since been up to date for comprehensiveness.
