You’ve got simply created the right video. The music hits in any respect the precise moments, your voiceover is crisp, and that trending sound chew? Chef’s kiss. However this is the plot twist – most of your viewers won’t ever hear any of it.
Welcome to the fact of contemporary 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 will present you 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 can assist you grasp the artwork of soundless video advertising.
Desk of Contents
Why Movies With out Sound Matter Extra Than Ever
Key Parts of Profitable Silent Movies
Finest 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 advanced dramatically, and the numbers inform the story. In line with our newest State of Advertising and marketing Report:
Quick-form video leads advertising codecs with 29.2% adoption fee
Visible content material (together with photos at 29%) dominates advertising methods
17% of entrepreneurs plan to extend their short-form video funding in 2025
This shift is not nearly following developments — it is about going the place the ROI is. Our information reveals that short-form video, photos, and stay streaming persistently ship the very best returns amongst all content material codecs.
Key Parts 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, this is the place the funding is flowing:
YouTube (29.6% rising funding): Customers typically watch with sound, however create for each experiences
Instagram (28.8% rising funding): Fast, visually hanging content material dominates
TikTok (27.6% rising funding): Quick-paced, trend-driven content material wins
I’ve discovered that understanding these platform-specific developments is essential for achievement. As an example, whereas YouTube would possibly get the very best funding, every platform requires a singular method to silent video technique.
2. Abiding by the “Three-Second Rule”.
Should you’re unfamiliar with this rule, you might have three seconds to seize consideration earlier than your viewer decides to scroll away or click on on one thing else. Here is nail it:
Use daring, eye-catching visuals proper out of the gate.
Begin together with your most compelling information level or perception.
Create a “cliffhanger” second that makes viewers need to see extra.
Use shiny colours or sudden imagery to cease the scroll.
3. Specializing in clear visible storytelling.
Your video ought to talk successfully with out solely counting on its audio:
Deal with 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.
With regards to silent movies, the textual content on display screen will carry the message. That you must embrace skilled captions that complement your visuals and convey clear calls to motion at strategic moments.
And for those who’re on the lookout for a straightforward method to fold in that beneficial textual content overlay, on the proper moments and for the correct quantity of time, try HubSpot’s Clip Creator, the place you’ll be able to simply add:
Skilled captions that complement your visuals
Key statistics or information factors as textual content overlays
Clear calls-to-action at strategic moments
Branded decrease thirds for speaker identification
5. Together with participating movement graphics.
Whereas I am not essentially the most savvy video editor myself, most video editors make it simple for including clean 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, remember some greatest practices earlier than you publish your subsequent video.
Finest Practices for Creating Silent Movies
Entrance-load Necessary Info: Place the important thing message within the hook or first 3-5 seconds.
Preserve Visible Hierarchy: Use constant fonts and hold textual content scannable.
Design for Cell-First Viewing: Check readability on smaller screens.
Incorporate Manufacturers Parts Naturally: Strategically embrace model colours and refined 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 loads of time — to take pleasure in. Whereas this channel’s premise appears so easy, Tasty movies attain tens of millions of individuals monthly.
Tasty’s social media virality has one thing to do with the truth that the movies may be watched with out sound, and some key issues make them so profitable.
What I like:
Hyperlapse-style filming creates prompt visible curiosity
Downside-solving method with “5 Substances or Much less” format
Daring captions complement relatively 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 widespread 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 preferred pattern.
And whereas the decade-specific background music on this video is enjoyable, you’ll be able to press mute and nonetheless be taught concerning the historical past of ladies’s exercise put on.
Clear deal with a single topic in opposition to easy backdrop
Time-based storytelling format (“100 Years of” collection)
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 expertise information division, they usually publish distinctive science and tech explainer movies that do not require sound. This one makes use of cool visuals to interrupt down a sophisticated 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 advanced 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 shiny colours to draw consideration. Vibrant 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, shiny colours that pop in social feeds
Professional suggestions format builds authority and belief
Beneath 15-second format for max engagement
Professional tip: Use colour strategically to face out in predominantly white/mild social media feeds, and leverage recognizable names in titles for quick context.
5. BuzzFeed Video
BuzzFeed publishes movies on quite a lot of totally different subjects. This one is widespread at for a few causes.
Before everything, it is humorous.
Emotion is a great tool in promoting, and content material that incites optimistic reactions, comparable to laughter, drives engagement. To speak humor with out sound, the content material needs to be extremely visible, and Buzzfeed retains content material simply skimmable — even if you cannot hear what they’re saying.
What I like:
Humor-first method
Easy, clear idea
Simply digestible format
Professional tip: Preserve ideas easy – if you cannot clarify your video’s premise in a single sentence, it may be too advanced for silent viewing.
6. NowThis
NowThis Information, a social media outlet, solely produces video content material —a neat method to get the information, for those who ask me. NowThis publishes video information segments that work with or with out sound, and the captions and video content material work collectively to indicate and inform viewers what the story is all about.
What I like:
Headlines that create emotional influence
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 typically 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 need to use video to inform your model’s story in a extra participating method. In case your video would not require sound, a lot the higher for sharing it on social media.
Editors’ notice: This text was initially printed in January 2017 and has since been up to date for comprehensiveness.