YouTube offers data on video openers

Sahail Ashraf posted on 2 June 2021

YouTube has just released a report that lifts the lid on how successful videos are structured, specifically on the opening words.

While YouTube has been around for a very long time, it has only relatively recently become a true search engine. Users regularly navigate and find new content, often spending many hours surfing the video engine. So it made sense for creators to set up their own channels and to have their own brands. YouTube has even been called the new TV.

It’s complex stuff though, and whenever you see an Influencer on YouTube you’ll notice that they offer well-planned and well-produced pieces of content. And the planning part is what is most interesting.

YouTube has just released a research report into how creators open their videos, more specifically the greeting they offer the audience. The most popular greeting by far is ‘Hey Guys’, which makes up 36% of greetings on YouTube videos. 

There were five ‘most popular’ greetings in total, with ‘Hey Guys’ being the ‘best’ and ‘All Right’ being the least popular out of the five. 

Here’s what YouTube had to say about the research:

“You might not think about it much, but the first words a creator uses to greet their audience are pretty important. And the more popular the creator, the more likely that opening will become a signature sign-on. But of late, we (and a lot of other people) have noticed that one greeting in particular seems to have become fairly ubiquitous: “Hey guys.” Which got us wondering about where it might rank among all the other ways creators start their shows.”

YouTube, Culture and Trends

An interesting concept, looking at the frequency and popularity of certain greetings, but how does that help marketers?

How it helps marketers

Having a strategy on YouTube is essential for brands that sell products, first and foremost. Using YouTube to market products has been around since the platform started, and it is a great way to show off features as well as connect with a buying audience. But the good news about the report is that it not only tells you what the most popular opener is, but also how it changes across some key industries.

In the fitness industry (and there are a lot of fitness videos on YouTube) ‘Hey Guys’ and ‘What’s Up’ are both at the same level of popularity, which is interesting for those working in that particular field.

YouTube, Culture and Trends

Travel, intriguingly, has ‘Good Morning’ as the most popular greeting among YouTube creators in that area. And when you think about it, if you’re in a setting with beautiful sunshine and amazing landscapes, that kind of makes perfect sense.

The report also goes into detail on a geographical level, which means you get to see the greetings from creators in other countries (and their English translations).

For marketers, it’s important to remember that this is a small part of a big process. Creating high-quality and effective videos that resonate and delight fans is a large undertaking. However, what it demonstrates is that the best creators are sticking to the script.

By having uniform language at the start of every video, and then a set order of events throughout the videos they produce, the best creators are giving their audiences what they expect, every time. This builds familiarity, trust and a warmth that ensures their content receives subscribers and engagement.

From a marketing point of view, this means ensuring your content has very carefully planned processes and running orders. This way, you can stand out in the crowd.

Test it. Hop on YouTube and check out a few videos from some real Influencers. Chances are each video is fundamentally the same.

And they will probably start the video with the words ‘Hey guys’.

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