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It’s well known that YouTube is one of the most-visited websites in the world. This makes it critical to identify the latest YouTube marketing trends to get an edge above the rest and make your presence felt on it. But why should you leverage YouTube for marketing in the first place?
One of the major reasons for this is that you get access to a diverse audience across age groups, unlike other social platforms. In fact, YouTube is one of the few platforms which is used by a majority of all age groups.
What’s more? YouTube enjoys unparalleled engagement with adults spending an average of 41.9 minutes daily on the platform.
To tap into this audience, it’s important that you keep changing your strategies to match their preferences. And that’s where marketing trends come into the picture—here are the most important ones you should know.
Short-form content will rule the roost
YouTube is known for its long-form videos. However, short-form videos have started gaining traction on every social media platform. In response to the trend, YouTube Shorts were launched last year and they have begun to gain immense popularity on the platform.
In fact, YouTube Shorts surpassed 15 billion daily views and this number is only expected to grow further. They even crossed 5 trillion combined views recently. To make the most out of this trend, consider creating short-form portrait videos.
Live videos will continue to gain popularity
Live videos have the potential to drive a lot of engagement for brands. In fact, about 24% of all internet users say that the prime reason they use social media is to watch livestreams. This number rises to 27% in the case of Gen Z.
Given the fact that global internet speeds are increasing dramatically, the livestreaming feature on YouTube can thus prove to be a valuable asset for brands. In turn, this increase in speed gives users the ability to stream live videos with ease even when they’re on the move.
Consider tapping into the world of influencer marketing for talent options in your live videos as well.
Well-structured videos will win
The introduction of Video Chapters in 2020 was one of the biggest changes to YouTube.
The reason? With Video Chapters, creators can easily tell their viewers what’s the content of a particular snippet of their video. This is especially helpful when it comes to long videos as the viewers would be able to navigate quickly to the point that they want to see in a video, leading to a better user experience.
What’s more? SEO benefits. Google has started to show video chapters in search results as “Key moments in this video.”
This increased SERP real estate, along with the added information shown in the chapters, can play a major role in driving click-throughs.
For instance, note how the videos with chapters get far more screen space than a video that doesn’t have chapters.
Shopping on YouTube is a reality
The live shopping feature, introduced at the end of 2021, might perhaps be one of the biggest YouTube marketing trends for this year.
About 89% of viewers say that they can trust the recommendations given by YouTube creators. This can play a major role in their shopping preferences and that’s exactly what you can tap into with YouTube Live Shopping.
The authenticity of the content creators, combined with the ease of purchasing products, gives immense potential to YouTube Live Shopping to become a popular trend this year. However, it’s important to find the right content creators for this. And for that, you could leverage agencies like GetHyped, Chtrbox, etc.
Lastly, YouTube already accounts for a large portion of online shopping through social media at 30.2%, ahead of both Facebook and Instagram Live. This number could only increase this year as the audience would be able to shop directly from the platform now.
Community relationships will matter more
Direct communication with your audience plays a major role in helping brands drive conversations and growing engagement. The incorporation of the “Community” tab on YouTube is just the way through which creators can get in touch with their community on the platform.
Through this tab, creators can easily share community posts that include rich media. The community tab’s coverage was expanded in 2021 and more businesses can be expected to start leveraging it this year, making it one of the biggest YouTube marketing trends for the year.
YouTube is one of the finest social media platforms for marketing and this year has already been an exciting year for marketers leveraging the platform. Short-form and live videos will gain popularity while the addition of chapters to the videos will help gain better views. And the introduction of live shopping and the community tab will also be one of the major YouTube marketing trends this year.
Leveraging these trends will leave brands with endless possibilities for growth.