What will be the most popular YouTube videos in 2021?
Although I don’t often talk about it, in the early 2000s I created a vibrant online community of thousands of members.
It had a website and a forum. There was also a large photo gallery. Later, it became a YouTube channel with lots of original and exclusive content. Before you get too impressed, it was a community made up of teenage fangirls of now-renowned Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor — but that’s beside the point!
YouTube was my first platform for attracting and maintaining an audience at the tender age 15 – even though many brands and businesses have far greater resources than the Compaq computer in their brother’s bedroom.
With over two billion Get Fans logging onto YouTube every month, brands would be remiss to ignore the platform in their marketing strategy. Like any other marketing initiative, uploading a YouTube video is not going to guarantee views or shares, likes, success, or even success. The rightcontent is the key to success.
Understanding the content that has performed well historically on YouTube is a big part of this. In this instance, YouTube videos of different types are viewed the most by your audience.
Mediakix, an influencer marketing agency, broke down the top 16 most popular types of videos on YouTube in a handy infographic below, but is this the right content for marketing your business?
What YouTube videos should you make?
Video can and shouldbe used in all stages of the marketing funnel.
Here at IMPACT, we often stress that clients and businesses in general start with a series of videos we call The Selling 7, but the fact is, these videos are extremely bottom-of-the-funnel. These videos are intended for prospects who already know or have been in contact with you. In other words, many make the most sense on your website or to be used in assignment selling, not really YouTube.
Video is not something you should forget.
As the second-largest search engine in the world (behind only its parent company Google), the biggest opportunity for most businesses on YouTube is getting found or pulling people into the top of the funnel. It’s about building awareness. As they explain in They Ask, you Answer, education is the best way for your business to be found by qualified audiences.
Your team should have everything they need for inbound marketing success.
Digital Sales & Marketing Mastery teaches companies how to sell and market the most important functions. It is a 12–24 month intensive program that includes coaching, strategy, training and strategy. This results in more leads and closed sales.
A study by Pew Research found that 51% of people turn to YouTube looking to learn, while 28% say they visit to pass time. This is why YouTube video can be used to address five main categories that buyers look at when making purchases, regardless of whether they are looking for information about a product or service. We call these The Big 5:
- Pricing and cost
- Probleme (theirs, yours)
- Comparisons and versus
- Lists of the best (best practices, best in class)
- Review
Several of the most popular types of YouTube videos fall right in line with these categories and the goal of building trust. More on this later.
The bottom line is to make the best video for your audience. YouTube videos should address their concerns, questions, and interests in a way that is honest and transparent. People will be able to see you as the expert they trust.
These are the 16 most-watched YouTube videos
1. Commentary videos are where people express their opinions or thoughts on a subject.
This type of YouTube video can be used by businesses to reflect on recent events in your industry, or to discuss your business. HubSpot might make a controversial update to its platform that has a major impact on clients. Someone from our team could respond by sharing the effects of this update on our clients.
2. Product review
A product review is just what it sounds like: a thorough assessment of the product’s quality and/or performance.
These videos feature people discussing a product or service that they have used, their experiences with it, and whether or not they would recommend it to others. YouTubers often combine this with the “unboxing,” which captures their initial reactions to a product. This is extremely valuable in today’s experience-driven economy.
Unboxing is not a good idea for all brands, especially B2B. However, reviews are one of The Big 5 things that buyers look for. They can be about your competitors, you, or the product you are selling.
If you are honest about a product and discuss both the positives and the negatives, especially if you sell it, viewers will trust you and realize that you don’t just want to make a sale. They can see that you are trying to help them make the right decision for their needs.
This is the Yale Appliance example, an IMPACT client
3. How-to (Tutorial)
How-to videos provide a step-by-step visual guide for completing a task. It could include how to make your favourite Indian dish or how to recreate a celebrity’s makeup look.
Another video type that fits in with They ask, you answer is this. Create videos that are based on the needs of your clients.
This instructional video by Guitar Center, “How to Use a Guitar Pick”, is a great one.
Purple continues to do a great job creating bottom-of the-funnel, product-focused how-tos such as this one on “How to Unroll your Purple Mattress”.
4. Similar to The Big 5’s “Bests” category
Top lists feature videos in which YouTubers discuss or rank their favorite videos in a specific category or the best examples within that category.
This video is a great example from IMPACT’s YouTube channel. Alex Winter, my teammate, shares five of the best digital marketing tools and apps.
5. Comedy
You won’t lie now, you have probably turned to YouTube at one point or another for a laugh at a video shared by someone on the platform. This is not surprising considering the popularity of YouTubers such as Liza Koshy (17.7 millions subscribers) or channels like Bad Lip Reading (8.02million subscribers).
It is true that laughter is universal language. Your brand can be humanized by incorporating relevant humor and comedy into your content, but only if it is right for your audience. Are you unsure if this is right for your brand? Try a fun holiday video to test the waters and see how buyers react, just like The Weidert Group.
