With the launch of YouTube shorts, it looks like short-form videos will stay with us for a long time. Why have concise video formats become this popular lately? Brandon Saunders, Hubspot Academy's digital marketer, says people's attention spans have been reduced because of social media. Therefore, they are more attracted to short-form videos.
YouTube shorts are like regular YouTube videos, but their length is no longer than 60 seconds. Since its initial release in 2020, YouTube shorts has collected over five trillion views. The popularity of YouTube shorts means another strategy to market your business and boost sales.
You can use YouTube shorts for business to educate your target market about your brand and expect to reach a broader audience because of its popularity. Moreover, keeping up with digital evolutions has become necessary for brands.
If you're uncomfortable using this latest feature, follow our comprehensive YouTube shorts guide to learn how to use them and some tips to get your YouTube shorts to perform better.
Getting Started with YouTube Shorts
The first thing you will learn is how to make YouTube shorts. It's a matter of a few simple steps:
1. Open the YouTube application and tap the "+" button at the bottom of the page.
2. Tap "Create a short."
3. If you want your video to be 15 seconds long, hold the red record button and start recording.
Otherwise, you can change the length by tapping "15" above the recording button.
4. To add effects to your video, you can browse the right side of your screen.
5. You can add an audio track to your video before you start recording or in your editing process. To add the audio, tap "Add sound" at the top.
If you make any editing mistakes, you can undo them by tapping the reverse arrow beside the record button.
How do YouTube Shorts Benefit Your Business?
People love YouTube shorts. They're a great way to engage with your audience spontaneously without having them commit to watching a long-form video. This is one of the reasons YouTube shorts have become popular.
With more people engaging with YouTube shorts daily, your shorts will also have a higher chance of meeting your target audience. The more people your videos are exposed to, the more chances of sale conversions and extending your customer base.
YouTube Shorts Ideas
Image taken from YouTube
Here are some ideas to make a YouTube shorts for business and engage with your potential consumers. Before you get started, be sure to research your target audience. What kind of content you should share through YouTube shorts depends upon your target audience's demand.
1. Unbox your Product
You can create a YouTube shorts of unboxing your product to tell your prospective consumers what they should expect to receive when they purchase from you. Who knows how many people might stumble into your product unboxing video and like it?
2. Share Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials are essential to get people to trust your brand. When people see that other customers, who were in their place before buying the product, are satisfied with your brand, they may get encouraged to purchase from you.
User testimonials speed up prospective consumers' decision-making process.
3. Mini Tutorial
You can create a YouTube shorts showing people how to use your product or service. This will tell your consumers if your products or services are suited for them, helping them decide quickly whether to buy your product or not.
4. Long-form to Short-form
If you've previously created long-form content on YouTube, you can repurpose it and make it into YouTube shorts. This will provide the idea behind long-form content to users who only prefer watching short videos.
5. Show Your Viewers Your Office
Image taken from YouTube
Showing your office to prospects creates a sense of credibility that you are serious about your business and wouldn't pull any scams or deliver low-quality products.
Before filming, pick out a few exciting things about your workplace that your target audience will love to see.
6. Educate About Sales and Other Things
If you're hosting an event, launching a new product, or have discounts on your products, you can tell people about them through YouTube shorts.
7. Helpful Content in Your Niche
You need to share valuable content through YouTube shorts to gain loyal subscribers. Not every video has to be about your products or services. You can use YouTube shorts to educate people about your business's niche topics. For instance, you sell skincare products. You can inform your consumers about several skin conditions, how to prevent them, their symptoms, and if they can use any home remedies for treatment.
8. Do a Challenge
Every day on social media, there's a new challenge everyone's on to. Research social media and see what's trending. Do it if you can incorporate your products or anything about your business in that challenge. You can also take your spin on the trend, which can go viral. It's easy for unique content to go viral.
9. Give What Your Viewers Want
If you're out of YouTube shorts ideas, it's a sign you need to ask your users what they want to see. You can ask a question on YouTube at the end of a video or any other social media app. Keep an eye on the comments because that's where most people may give their suggestions.
Tips to Gain More YouTube Shorts Views
The key to gaining loyal subscribers from YouTube shorts is creating valuable content that tells your viewers that you care about what they want to see.
When you've thought of the best content ideas, here are some tips you can implement to ensure your YouTube shorts reach a wider audience.
1. Get Straight to the Point
Once the viewer has landed on your video, you have only a few seconds to convince them to watch till the end. The essential thing is to keep the time frame short. If you can explain your point in 30 seconds, don't stretch your shorts to 60 seconds.
Ensure that you start your video with an attention-grabbing line and transition smoothly to your point to keep the viewer interested throughout the video.
Steer clear of the screen clutter. Avoid putting too many stickers, effects, or even too many things in the video's background. Too many things on the screen distract the user, resulting in them leaving your video in the middle.
2. Create Interesting Thumbnails
Thumbnails are essential if you want your YouTube shorts views to skyrocket. Ensure you create an attention-grabbing thumbnail but at the same time, avoid making them clickbait-y. Numerous people do that, and it doesn't form a good impression in the viewer's mind.
3. Optimize Your Headlines
Your titles help users find your videos through YouTube's search engine. Like the thumbnail, you don't want to make your headlines clickbait-y. Overpromising titles may get the viewer's attention. But as soon as they discover nothing in the video your title promised, they will leave a bad impression on your channel and business.
Here are some tips to create a YouTube shorts title that gains your views.
- Include relevant keywords. You can use tools like Ubbersuggest or Semrush to find your niche-related keywords. Ensure you don't stuff keywords and incorporate them where they fit right.
- Incorporate video-related hashtags. Ensure you don't add too many hashtags. YouTube says that overuse of hashtags may result in your video getting removed. And if you use more than 60 hashtags, YouTube will ignore every hashtag you've used.
- YouTube recommends using #shorts for your YouTube shorts. It helps the search engine to suggest your shorts to the audience who watch them often.
4. Embed Your Videos on Your Website
Image taken from Strikingly
Some people in your audience might only know about your business's website, not your YouTube channel. To tell them that you also publish content on YouTube, you must embed your videos on your website.
Strikingly encourages cross-platform marketing by providing multiple features to make it viable. You can embed YouTube videos in your Strikingly website to create educating your audience easier. Or you can set your YouTube videos as your website's background to welcome your audience nicely.
Another way to drive your website traffic to your YouTube channel is by integrating your channel into your site's footer. Here are a few simple steps to integrate your YouTube channel in your Strikingly website's footer:
a. Go to your website editor and tap "Settings" in the top-left corner.
b. Go to "Header & Footers," and check the box that says, "Display a footer at the bottom of the page?"
Image taken from Strikingly
c. Now scroll down to the bottom of your site and click the edit button you will see when you hover your cursor over the footer.
Image taken from Strikingly
d. Click "links," then check the box beside YouTube's icon.
Image taken from Strikingly
e. Enter your YouTube channel's link in the URL bar and click "Save."
Strikingly aims to make the website-building process easy for its customers. We value our users' time and effort. We offer 24/7 support through live chat, email, and our robust Knowledge Base.
Lastly, know that growing a YouTube channel takes time and effort as implementing different strategies and using multiple features such as YouTube shorts. Be patient and consistent, and share content you know your target audience will love.
