How Healthcare Marketers Can Leverage YouTube Shorts and Clips

YouTube Shorts and Clips are dynamic tools that can significantly expand your audience, boost engagement, and drive views across your entire channel. While long-form videos provide depth and detail, relying solely on them can limit your reach and strain your budget. Short-form videos, like Shorts and Clips, offer a cost-effective way to create engaging content and tap into new audiences.

Here’s why short-form content should be a cornerstone of your YouTube strategy:

• Cost-Effective Patient Education: Producing high-quality long-form videos can be resource-intensive. Shorts and Clips offer a more affordable way to create educational content, repurpose existing materials, and maximize your budget.
• Reach a Wider Audience: Short-form videos are easily discoverable, appearing in YouTube’s Shorts feed, suggested videos, and even on users’ homepages. This allows you to reach potential patients who might not otherwise encounter your content.
• Drive Engagement with Longer Content: Think of Shorts and Clips as entry points to your more detailed videos. By creating engaging short-form content that highlights key health tips, addresses common concerns, or offers a glimpse into your services, you can pique viewers’ interest and guide them to your long-form videos.
• Stay Ahead of the Curve: YouTube’s algorithm favors short-form content. Incorporating Shorts and Clips into your strategy ensures you’re aligned with the platform’s trends and increases your visibility.

The Evolving YouTube Algorithm: Connecting Short-Form and Long-Form Content

YouTube’s algorithm has undergone significant changes since the introduction of Shorts in 2021. In August 2022, YouTube updated its algorithm to connect Shorts and long-form content. Previously, separate algorithms meant limited crossover between the audiences of these formats. Now, a unified algorithm ensures Shorts viewers are also exposed to your long-form videos, and vice versa.

How This Change Benefits You

• Enhanced Discoverability: Viewers who engage with your Shorts can be recommended your long-form videos, increasing your content’s exposure.
• Build Trust and Authority: Engaging Shorts can attract new viewers who might then be directed to your long-form content, where you can provide more in-depth information about your services, expertise, and patient care philosophy.
• Content Synergy: Shorts and long-form videos work together to create a comprehensive content ecosystem. Use Shorts to promote longer videos, answer FAQs, or share quick health tips.

This shift emphasizes the importance of a holistic YouTube strategy that incorporates both short-form and long-form content to maximize your reach and engagement.

YouTube Clips: Creating and Sharing Engaging Snippets

Clips are shareable, short segments (5–60 seconds) you can create from your longer videos, showcasing key moments or highlights.

How to Create a Clip

1. Open a YouTube video (desktop or mobile).
2. Below the video player, click or tap the “Clip” button.
3. A pop-up window will appear, allowing you to select the start and end time for your clip (between 5 and 60 seconds).
4. Give your clip a title, and you’re done!

Tips for Promotion

• Cross-Platform Sharing: Post Clips on social media to drive traffic back to your channel.
• Foster Community Engagement: Encourage viewers to create and share Clips from your videos, boosting interaction.
• Use Clips as Conversation Starters: Pair them with questions or calls to action to spark discussion in your comments.

Expanding Reach Beyond YouTube

While you can’t share Clips directly within YouTube, they are incredibly versatile for cross-platform promotion.

Here’s how you can share your YouTube Clips

• Social Media: Share Clips and Shorts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
• Websites & Blogs: Embed Clips in posts to enrich your content and drive traffic to your channel.
• Email Marketing: Include Clips in newsletters to add engaging visuals and boost click-through rates.

Repurposing Long-Form Content into Shorts

YouTube Shorts offer a fantastic opportunity to repurpose your long-form content and reach a wider audience.

Creating Shorts from Existing Videos

• Use a Video Editing App: Edit your long-form video into a vertical, full-screen format (up to 60 seconds). Enhance it with filters, effects, and text overlays. Upload via YouTube Studio and include a link to the original video in the description.
• Create Shorts Directly on YouTube: Open the long-form video in the YouTube app, tap the “Remix” button, and select “Edit into a Short.” Choose your clip (up to 60 seconds), enhance it with music, text, and effects, and publish it. YouTube automatically adds a link to the original video.

Tips for Creating Effective Shorts

• Hook Quickly: Grab attention within the first few seconds.
• Optimize Aspect Ratio: Ensure content fits the vertical format.
• Include CTAs: Add verbal and visual cues directing viewers to your long-form videos.
• Boost Discoverability: Use relevant keywords, hashtags, and engaging thumbnails.

Driving Long-Form Views with Shorts.

• Include Clear CTAs: Guide viewers to your long-form videos with verbal and visual cues.
• Create Compelling Content: Hook viewers with engaging snippets that leave them wanting more.
• Optimize for Discoverability: Use relevant keywords and hashtags in your Short’s description.

---

By strategically creating and promoting Shorts and Clips, you can effectively leverage these formats to drive patient engagement, expand your reach, and establish a stronger online presence.