6 Reasons to Add YouTube Shorts to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

The popularity of short-form content is rising, and along with it, so is the number of content creation platforms. After TikTok and Instagram, another content behemoth YouTube created YouTube Shorts.

After its first beta release in September 2020, the Shorts feature received a collective 3.5 billion daily views. Seeing its massive success, it was soon launched in 100+ countries.

This new feature may bring many challenges and doubts for marketers, businesses, and creators on how to use shorts properly. You might question if it will be worth it or not. But with YouTube being a massive content giant and having billions of users, Shorts are definitely worth a try.

Shorts are quickly becoming popular, and if you do not include them in your video marketing strategy, you might lose an edge over your competitor.

If you're still not convinced, here are 6 reasons why you should include YouTube Shorts in your marketing strategy and use this opportunity to boost your business.

1. Increased Visibility and Brand Awareness

YouTube already has tons of users; this gives creators an extra edge over any other platform. Specifically, with more than 2 billion active users, your brand can get more visibility and a chance to reach more potential customers.

After TikTok's massive success, people have gotten used to short-form content. But after TikTok faced serious sanctions and was banned in certain countries, users started shifting to other mediums such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, making these ideal platforms to find and reach a new audience.

You'll definitely see a sudden surge in traffic to your business website if you use YouTube shorts effectively in your marketing strategy.

In addition, more than 60% of marketers and businesses are shifting their focus to using video content in their marketing strategy. Be an early adapter and use this new feature to your advantage by crafting some highly engaging content.

2. Quick to Create

YouTube shorts are, well, very easy to create. You don't need high-end camera setups, lighting, and other equipment.

Just pull out your phone and start recording. You can go to YouTube and start recording from there or upload a prerecorded video clip; make sure it's 15 to 60 seconds long.

You can either use a timer or hold the red button until the recording is done. After that, add effects, music, title, and a description, and you're good to go.

Hook your audience with the first few seconds of the YouTube Short so they are enticed to continue to see the rest of the video. The more views your video gets, the more it will be visible in the endless list of YouTube Shorts.

3. Ability to Repurpose Your Content

If you're already creating content on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, you don't have to create extra/separate content for YouTube shorts.

You can just use your other videos and post them. Suppose you created a 10-minute video on YouTube. Simply take 15-second long clips out of it and tweak it a little bit to match the format and aesthetics of YouTube Shorts. You can tell your audience to check out your full video at the end of the Short.

This way, you can promote your other content and still be able to use shorts. Another great way to use shorts is for businesses to showcase the use of their products. This helps people better understand the product.

These are not the only ways to repurpose or create shorts; you can try myriads of YouTube Shorts ideas to present your brand in a new light, making it easier for your audience to relate to and understand your brand.

4. Can Help Build Trust

Trust is the basis of sales and conversion. 57% of consumers are more confident in buying products after seeing videos about said products.

Creating a long-term relationship and building trust may be hard. But if you're consistent with your informative content without being promotional, it will help you build a loyal audience.

With efficient video marketing, you can deliver YouTube Shorts in a conversational form. And since short videos are easier to understand, they can even be understood by the laziest of the audience, fostering trust and leading to more conversions.

Brainstorm ideas to creatively show your product through Shorts without directly addressing customers to buy them.

5. Appeal to Mobile Users

This is a no-brainer: most people use smartphones as their primary means to consume content. 75% of users use mobile as a way to consume video content. And since YouTube Shorts have a portrait orientation by default, it makes it even easier for people to consume them on the go.

As the size of smartphone users keeps growing, so will be the demand for short-form video content. YouTube says that video consumption is rising by 100% every year.

In order to move your potential customers from your Shorts to your website, you will need to provide helpful, engaging, and informative content while getting straight to the point.

In a YouTube Short of fewer than 60 seconds, you'll have to grab their attention, and as users are getting smarter with every content they consume, don't try to be sales-y and promotional. Instead, keep it informative and fun.

6. Provide Marketing and Advertising Opportunities

Everyone loves videos: users, businesses, and even Google. Plus, short videos tend to evoke emotions more effectively, making them worth sharing.

92% of users say they would share videos that are engaging, entertaining, and fun. This gives businesses and marketers an opportunity to create share-worthy content.

Businesses also agree that short-form content is more likely to be watched till the end compared to long videos, which corresponds to an indirect better ROI.

YouTube Shorts can drive more traffic to your website, with a chance of a higher conversion rate, giving your business an edge over competitors who are not using Shorts.

Additionally, video advertisements tend to perform better than image or text-based advertisements by 52%. You can leverage this opportunity to get more sales by creating product-specific short ads.

Conclusion

To sum it up, short videos are highly interactive, engaging, and serve as easy explainers. So, whether you're a business that wants to promote your product or services or a creator who wants to engage with your audience on a day-to-day basis, short-form content like YouTube Shorts is the way to go.

The benefits are endless: they're short, no high-tech equipment required, they're easily consumable, shareable, adaptive, bring good ROI, and much more.

If created properly, YouTube Shorts can generate a good amount of traffic to your site. Even if you're new and want to build your audience, Shorts are quick to grab attention, and you can slowly and steadily amass an audience through them.

The inclusion of YouTube Shorts into your digital marketing efforts can pay great dividends with their reach and affordability.