Digital marketers must contend with an all-new, promising marketing platform being released every few months. It often seems as though marketers don’t even get sufficient time to evaluate the various merits and tradeoffs associated with one new platform before something else comes along to supplant it.
The ability to pivot at a moment’s notice is an increasingly important qualification for today’s marketers. This ability can also breed a level of silent antagonism toward making an effort to try something new. This is especially true when that new platform requires marketers to shift all of their existing videos from landscape orientation to portrait.
So, while remaining sympathetic to the frustrations that come bundled with modifying an approved marketing campaign to meet the specific demands of a new platform, I’m strongly suggesting that companies dive headlong into YouTube Shorts.
Reasons Why YouTube Shorts Need to be in Your Marketing Plan List
1. Your target audience shifted to watching your videos on their smartphones long ago.
The days of creating customized widescreen digital video content for viewers sitting at home on a computer are over. There will always be a place for long-form and widescreen video. However, there is no doubt that most people use their smartphones as their primary means to access video content.
Potential customers will need to provide useful, engaging information while getting them straight to the point of taking them from your short-form video to your website. Start wooing your customers with instant, engaging videos that are branded enough without overwhelming pressure.
Viewers are quick to scroll away from anything deemed too hype or sales-y. Today's audience is quick to make quick decisions.
2. YouTube Shorts represents a unique, grassroots opportunity.
Whenever a new social media platform or service is launched, there is a "break-in period" that early adopters quickly take advantage of to build out the platform or service.
The investment that YouTube plans to make in its Shorts service should be incentive enough for most marketers. It's pretty clear that YouTube's giant search engine parent company, Google, is hoping to capitalize on the success of the popular TikTok format and -- assuming that past Google corporate history is any indication of future behavior -- both reach and revenue. It gets ahead of its competitors.
Digital marketers who are quick to play with YouTube shorts are almost certainly going to reap the benefits of Google's market grab. Marketers at companies of all sizes expect to find new eyeballs as this new service is refined and tweaked. The future of YouTube Shorts is nobody's guess.
However, for now, everyone is welcome. Early adopters are finding that their video content is being warmly welcomed…and indexed.
3. Google's search engine provides increased visibility and reach.
There are other search engines besides Google. Every digital marketer needs to take at least one look at this reality when optimizing their content for YouTube Shorts.
That said, just the fact that a brand name has proven to be so successful that it has become a verb in common parlance - "Google for me, will you?" Google-owned YouTube Shorts tells you a lot in terms of how it's going to scan video content for its search engine result pages (SERPs).
Assuming that you're optimizing past video content with relevant keywords, precise written descriptions, and visual punch, moving to YouTube Shorts shouldn't be a big deal. Assuming that your company is steadily increasing its domain authority, your YouTube shorts are likely to shoot fine for niche-specific search strings.
4. Optimized video content has the potential to quickly create bad paths for your products and services.
No one can predict with certainty about the long-term success and availability of YouTube Shorts. The list of discontinued Google products has become the stuff of legend.
Despite that slight uncertainty, end users are unlikely to modify their long-established video viewing preferences. People naturally hold their smartphones in portrait (not landscape) orientation. People love to search and watch videos online using their phones. Such patterns are unlikely to change regardless of what Google does in the future.
Let's say you've customized your video content according to Google's preferences. If so, you can expect a burst of extra traffic when you publish your YouTube shorts.
Hope you'll be able to build and maintain that library over time. However, in the near term, you can expect a sudden surge in traffic. You can easily move content elsewhere in case something happens with the new service.
5. YouTube Shorts provides an opportunity to build your digital marketing library and reuse it over time.
Too much production time is often spent creating and optimizing video content for viewing only helplessly because those projects tend to die (statistically speaking) after only a few days. Short video platforms that "faded" content are hardly a smart choice.
They can't help but build your brand's reputation over time. Great content becomes "more" when viewers, captivated by a short video, find that there is more where it came from.
Unlike YouTube stories, YouTube shorts don't disappear after seven days. Digital marketers have the opportunity to use short videos to promote their business and build an overall narrative of quality and credibility.
They also have the platform stability needed to breathe new life into the high-quality videos already produced. Videos published a few months ago can easily have ongoing value.
Beware that the ground beneath YouTube shorts may shift
Lest you think it's a good idea to drop all your other marketing efforts to go entirely to YouTube Shorts, keep in mind that not everyone on a smartphone is watching your videos. Different mediums require different approaches and you want to be careful not to leave existing customers behind.
You may need to prepare long-form content. You may need to make videos in landscape mode. And you're not able to have full control over the thumbnail of the video that highlights your content. However, digital marketers frustrated by the limitations of TikTok and other short-form platforms owe it to their companies to take a look in the near term.
The point is not that YouTube shorts is the digital marketing silver bullet we've all been waiting for. far from it. Instead, it represents a unique opportunity to skewer your video digital marketing efforts to a new customer base. This customer base is generally young, tech-savvy and accustomed to using video content.
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