The Power of YouTube Shorts and Repurposing Video Content for Your Business
With the rise of short-form video content, businesses of all sizes are recognising the importance of platforms like YouTube Shorts. Whether you're a startup, a small business, or an established brand, incorporating short videos into your strategy is an effective way to boost engagement, expand your reach, and maximise your content’s impact.
The Boom of YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts rolled out globally in June 2021 and has quickly become a key part of YouTube’s ecosystem, now racking up over 50 billion daily views. It’s an ideal platform for businesses to produce quick, engaging content that captures attention. Since short videos are easily consumed on mobile, this format fits perfectly with changing consumer behaviours.
The audience for YouTube Shorts spans a wide range of demographics, but the largest age group is 25 to 34-year-olds, making up 21.3% of viewers. Meanwhile, those aged 35 to 44 make up 17.5%, and 18 to 24-year-olds account for 15.5% of the total audience. This broad reach means YouTube Shorts is an effective way to engage a wide array of potential customers.
What Content Works Best for YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts is highly flexible, and various types of content perform exceptionally well. These short videos are perfect for grabbing attention, and some of the best-performing types include:
Cutdowns of Interviews: Snippets from interviews, highlighting key insights or memorable moments.
Quick Product Demos: Showcasing how a product works in under 60 seconds is an ideal way to engage viewers quickly.
How-To Tutorials: Offering short, actionable tips or step-by-step guides works well, especially for audiences seeking to solve specific problems.
Behind-the-Scenes Content: Providing a peek behind the curtain into your business can build a personal connection with your audience.
Teasers for Upcoming Products or Events: These quick previews build excitement and anticipation, encouraging viewers to engage with future releases.
These types of content work because they are relatable, informative, and visually appealing, ensuring you can capture and hold your audience’s attention. Make sure the content resonates with your audience and delivers value even in short formats.
How to Repurpose Existing Video Content for YouTube Shorts
Repurposing is not just about trimming down longer videos; it’s about strategically reshaping your content to match the fast-paced consumption of YouTube Shorts while maintaining consistency. Here’s how to approach it:
Identify Core Moments: Instead of cutting down any section, focus on key moments that have a high impact. This could be a moment of insight from a webinar, a powerful statement from an interview, or an impressive product feature from a longer demo. These highlight-worthy moments can become stand-alone Shorts that tease the full content.
Reframe for Engagement: Adapt your messaging to fit the short-form format. While longer videos offer time to explain in-depth, Shorts need to hook the viewer within seconds. Think of it as a way to tease or amplify a single point rather than compress everything.
Create Thematic Series: Consider breaking down long-form content into multiple themed Shorts. For example, if you have a long webinar, you can create a series of Shorts that focus on different topics or questions discussed, encouraging viewers to explore more content within that theme.
Repurposing allows you to get extra mileage out of your existing content, but it requires a thoughtful approach to ensure that the shortened clips offer independent value and drive traffic to the full content.
Considerations for Your YouTube Shorts
When creating customised YouTube Shorts, treat them as stand-alone brand pieces that communicate your message clearly and concisely. Ensure the following:
Captions: Since many viewers watch videos without sound, captions are crucial for communicating your message effectively. Captions not only improve accessibility but also help retain viewers who may not have audio enabled
Graphics and Animations: Decide early if you want to keep the video simple and clean, focused on the content itself, or if you prefer to add animations or graphics for visual flair. While animations can enhance the visual experience, they should not detract from the core message
Call to Action (CTA): Don’t forget to include a strong CTA at the end of your Shorts. Whether you want viewers to visit your website, watch a longer video, or subscribe to your channel, a clear next step is essential to drive engagement
Hooking Viewers: The Key to Retention
When creating YouTube Shorts, the hook is everything. Within the first 2-3 seconds, your video must captivate viewers and prevent them from scrolling away. Whether you're introducing a bold statement, asking an engaging question, or showcasing a visually striking scene, the opening frames should pull viewers in immediately.
However, the hook works differently depending on the type of content. For example:
Cutdowns of interviews might not need a flashy hook, but instead a powerful or intriguing statement from the person speaking can serve as the hook.
Product demos might use a visually appealing action, such as showing the product in action immediately, to grab attention.
For more complex content like tutorials or teasers, you may want to create a clear entry point with a problem or solution to keep the viewer interested. This approach is key, but we’ll dive deeper into this topic in a future blog post on crafting the perfect hook.
YouTube Shorts as Part of Your Marketing Strategy
YouTube Shorts is an excellent tool for attracting and engaging new audiences at the top of your marketing funnel. It’s perfect for creating quick, engaging content that drives awareness and piques curiosity. By using short-form videos to capture attention and strategically repurposing longer content, you can funnel viewers into deeper brand interactions, whether through longer videos, product pages, or direct calls to action. When integrated into a wider video marketing strategy, YouTube Shorts can boost engagement and help move consumers further down the funnel toward conversion.
