If you’re looking for new ways to capture, engage, and convert your customers, a YouTube marketing strategy could be just what you need. After all, demand for video content is increasing on a consistent basis. In 2022, studies found that consumers watch around 19 hours of online video per week!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, YouTube is the go-to source for engaging videos for most consumers. Not only is it the second-most visited website on the internet, but it has around 2.5 billion users.
Investing in YouTube video marketing is one of the best ways to ensure you can expand your brand reach, showcase your unique brand identity, and drive more sales opportunities.
However, creating a compelling YouTube marketing strategy isn’t always as simple as it seems. As more companies make their way onto the platform, it’s becoming much harder to stand out.
Today, we’re going to share our top tips for producing the most compelling YouTube marketing strategy with the best possible ROI.
Tips for a Successful YouTube Marketing Strategy
While there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for creating an effective YouTube marketing strategy, there are techniques that can deliver success for virtually every brand. The whole purpose of YouTube marketing is to engage with your audience through educational and entertaining content.
The better your content is, the more likely you are to boost your brand reach. Research shows that people are two times more likely to share videos with friends and family than other content types. Plus, since YouTube has a huge target audience, your opportunities to reach new customers are amazing.
If you can produce a fantastic YouTube video strategy, then your chances of success as a business skyrocket. According to some studies, around 70% of customers say they’ve bought a product after seeing it on YouTube. Here are some of our top tips for creating a successful YouTube marketing strategy in 2023 and beyond.
1. Create a Compelling Channel
It almost goes without saying, but the first thing you need for a successful YouTube marketing strategy is an attractive channel. The good news is it isn’t difficult to get started. All you need is a Google account, and you can set up your own YouTube channel in seconds.
The tough part is making sure you champion your brand successfully. Creating a basic channel isn’t enough. You also need to draw attention to what makes your company unique.
A complete and comprehensive YouTube channel will make you look more credible when customers search for videos and help boost your visibility. Make sure you:
- Fill out your “About” information: Provide customers with an insight into what your business and channel are all about in the “About” section. Using keywords relevant to your company can help improve your visibility.
- Get the imagery right: Alongside videos, you’ll need some other visual assets for your YouTube channel. This includes your profile picture and the banner image at the top of your page. You can even create a channel trailer to get consumers excited.
- Insert links: Include links on your bio to your business website, your social media channels, and any other resources your customers might need. If you have multiple links to share, you can also make a QR code that links to all of your resources and share the code in your bio.
Take a look at the HubSpot YouTube channel for inspiration; it’s packed with useful information and an engaging banner, and every video thumbnail shares the same color palette and brand elements:
2. Define Your Target Audience
Perhaps the best way to get the most out of any marketing strategy is to ensure you’re creating campaigns that resonate with your target audience. Before you start researching topics for YouTube videos or creating campaigns, research your customers.
You can start by examining basic YouTube demographics. For instance, 77% of the people on YouTube are aged between 15 and 35. However, the best results will come from creating specific customer personas for your target audience.
Find out as much as you can about their demographic information (age, gender, and location), their behaviors, and their preferences. Consider what kind of channels they usually subscribe to and what they’re likely to be looking for on YouTube (education or entertainment?).
A great example of a company that clearly understands its target audience is Old Spice. It creates videos that appeal to both young women and men. Plus, it ensures it stays up-to-date with market trends. For instance, the company recently released a new ad connected to the “Witcher” series:
3. Examine Your Competition
Researching your market for an effective YouTube marketing strategy goes beyond simply understanding your audience. If you want your YouTube content strategy to stand out, you also need to evaluate your competition.
Probably the best way to get ahead on YouTube is to find out what’s working for the competitors in your space and improve on their strategies. Keeping tabs on your competitors ensures you can see what’s working and not working for them in real time, guiding your own campaigns.
Perform a comprehensive competitor analysis, looking at:
- Subscribers (number, type, demographics)
- Average views per video
- Frequency or cadence of posting
- Quality and style of videos
- What people say in the comments
- Which topics do they cover in their posts
You can even use your competitor analysis to find ways to differentiate yourself from your competition. For instance, we’re all familiar with the Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola ads, designed to draw attention to the fact that many people actually prefer the taste of Pepsi:
4. Create a YouTube Content Strategy
Once you’ve examined the competition and you have a clear view of your target audience, the next step is building a comprehensive content strategy. A clear strategy can improve your chances of success on any marketing channel, giving you focus and direction when you need it most.
Decide what you’re trying to accomplish with your campaigns. Are you focusing on educating your audience, supporting existing customers, or raising brand awareness? Are you going to create different playlists for specific segments of your target audience?
Which topics should you be covering, based on your insights into your customer’s needs, pain points, and goals? For instance, Dove’s YouTube strategy revolves around positioning the company as a brand that cares about its customers.
It has a range of playlists dedicated to “self-esteem” and similar concepts:
However, the company also recognizes that there are different segments in its target audience. It produces how-to content and tip-based videos, as well as community videos designed for mothers, children, and specific sub-groups.
5. Create the Best Possible Content
This might seem like an obvious tip for creating the best YouTube marketing strategy, but it’s still essential. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, where anyone can post relatively “raw” videos and still earn a lot of views, YouTube viewers expect to see high-quality content.
To stand out on the platform, you need to ensure you’re consistently creating amazing videos that people actually love watching.
Start by looking at your audience segments and asking yourself what kind of content they might be interested in based on their pain points and goals. Conduct research into trending keywords and phrases, and ask yourself what sort of content your customers usually consume on your website. For those wanting to enhance their YouTube content with professionally sounding narrations, exploring an advanced voice over generator could uplift your video quality.
Once you have ideas for the kind of content you’re going to create, arrange them into playlists to make it easier for customers to find what they need. Here’s a great example from Mailchimp.
Crucially, you also need to ensure your content looks incredible. This means not only using a high-quality camera to shoot your videos, but also understanding what do YouTubers use to record to ensure the best possible quality. It also means editing videos to make them look and sound more impressive. Although it’s not an easy task, platforms like Envato Elements can greatly optimize your video creation workflow. Creating your own branded title cards for content can also help your videos look more professional and well-made.
6. Get the Timing Right
Though older videos can still get a lot of views on YouTube, choosing the right schedule for your content can be an excellent way to improve the results of your campaigns. The right timing can ensure you can take advantage of trends and relevant concepts in your industry.
For instance, during Glastonbury 2023, Domino’s created a YouTube campaign showcasing “jetpack deliveries” to consumers on the festival field.
While you can upload finished videos directly to YouTube Studio and choose to publish them whenever you like, it’s much easier to use a scheduling tool. Social media scheduling apps like HootSuite allow users to schedule all of their content to appear at just the right time.
This means you can ensure your videos go live at the same time as your social media campaigns or when you publish a new blog on your website.
7. Experiment with Different YouTube Features
Like most search engines and social media platforms, YouTube is constantly evolving to introduce new features and experiences to its target audience. Taking advantage of these new solutions as they arrive is an excellent way to grab more attention from your customers.
For instance, the Community tab on YouTube makes it easier for businesses to connect with their tribe of followers, collect insights, and build engagement. The Community tab can include text, gifs, polls, images, and more, keeping fans excited between videos.
YouTube Shorts, on the other hand, gives companies an opportunity to take advantage of the rising popularity of TikTok-style videos. Just like Instagram and Facebook have their own “Stories” and “Reels,” YouTube has its “Shorts” section dedicated to fast-paced videos.
Shorts allow companies to post smaller videos intended for mobile watching, earning thousands or millions of views in seconds. For instance, Coca-Cola constantly rolls out shorts related to new product releases and marketing campaigns:
You can also take advantage of things like 360 videos, live streams, and premiers to show your customers you’re on the cutting edge of the YouTube video marketing world. Pay attention to the results you get from each campaign to help drive future marketing decisions.
8. SEO Optimize Your YouTube Channel
Search Engine Optimization is something many companies overlook when creating a YouTube marketing strategy. However, it’s important to remember that YouTube belongs to Google, and it uses its own algorithms to determine how content is positioned on the channel.
YouTube’s algorithms look at everything from the keywords a customer searches for to the popularity of a video and its customers’ watch histories. To boost your chances of success on this channel, make sure you:
- Conduct keyword research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or type search phrases into YouTube itself to find out what your customers are searching for.
- Add keywords to your videos: Make sure your keywords appear in your video title, video description, and tags.
- Use timestamps: Timestamps help you break your video into chapters, making it easier for customers to skip to the sections they’re most interested in.
- Create detailed descriptions: Ensure your YouTube content strategy includes keyword-rich descriptions that tell your customers what to expect from the video.
- Design an engaging thumbnail: An attractive thumbnail will help to ensure you capture the attention of your customers and boost your chances of views. A YouTube thumbnail maker can help enhance your thumbnail’s appeal and effectiveness.
- Utilize hashtags: Add relevant hashtags to your video description to improve visibility by using a free YouTube hashtag generator to find trending and suitable hashtags that can enhance your video’s reach.
For inspiration, take a look at the HootSuite Labs YouTube channel. Every video is optimized for keywords, customer intent, and visual appeal.
9. Engage Your Audience
One of the most important things you can remember when creating a YouTube marketing strategy is that YouTube is all about community. The more you connect with your followers and fans, the more your presence will grow. After all, your audience doesn’t just add to your view count.
Engaged customers will interact with your live videos, comment on your posts, share valuable information, and even share your links on other social media channels.
There are plenty of ways to engage your audience on YouTube. Start by trying to respond to comments as frequently as possible with helpful insights. Answer questions your customers have, and consider hosting live Q&A sessions to address common concerns.
Groups like @Qanda have earned up to 13 million views and countless engagements just from their live-streamed question-and-answer sessions:
When it comes to engaging your audience, don’t forget to ask them to actively connect with your brand regularly, too. Simply requesting your customers “like and subscribe” to your videos at the end of each post is a great way to improve your chances of engagement.
The “Sticky” YouTube channel does this on every video, and they’ve amassed a following of 3.61 million subscribers as a result.
10. Work with Influencers
As celebrity endorsements continue to lose their appeal in the modern world, influencer marketing remains one of the best ways to improve the credibility and reach of your brand. The number of influencers or “creators” on YouTube has grown 50% year over year.
This means it’s becoming a lot easier for companies to find influencers who represent their brand values and help them reach their target audience. The key to success with influencer marketing on YouTube is simply knowing your audience.
Make sure you understand what kind of influencers your customers follow and what sort of content they’re looking for before you dive into a campaign.
For instance, PayPal Honey partnered with MrBeast to create one of the most-watched videos of 2022. The video showcases MrBeast in a “Willy Wonka” style chocolate factory, where he challenges contestants to complete a variety of tasks.
The sponsored video earned more than 5.9 million engagements and 226 million views. It worked because the Honey sponsorship was subtle, and the content was fast-paced and entertaining. It also helped that Honey chose an influencer with a huge impact on their intended audience, the younger generation.
11. Consider Paid Advertising
Sometimes, the easiest way to give any marketing campaign a much-needed boost is to invest in a little extra promotion. YouTube’s paid advertising options include video ads, sponsored content, and more, giving businesses a variety of ways to drive engagement and views.
While it’s important to ensure you’re producing plenty of organic content to educate and entertain your audience, paying for ads can significantly improve your visibility. The right ads will augment your organic strategy and help you capture more attention from a wider audience.
For an insight into the impact of excellent advertising on YouTube, you just need to check out the YouTube Ads Leaderboard. For instance, Netflix’s sponsored video ad for the series “Netflix” was a roaring success in 2023. The ad earned 23 million views thanks to some clever promotion.
It also encouraged nearly 1 million people to interact with Netflix, and countless consumers shared the video with their friends across social media. If you’re looking for a quick boost in visibility, a YouTube ad could be the perfect way to achieve your goals.
12. Measure Your Results
Last but not least, the only way to consistently improve and optimize your YouTube marketing strategy is to learn from your results. Tracking YouTube analytics is the easiest way to identify which of your videos are driving the most attention to your brand and delivering the best opportunities.
You can use your insights to understand what kind of content resonates with your audience and track engagement levels in each campaign. YouTube has its own built-in analytics available within YouTube Studio. Here, you can see things like views, subscribers, watch time, and audience retention. You can also get an insight into your traffic sources and which devices customers use.
If you’re looking for more advanced insights, there are plenty of tools like HootSuite and Sprout Social that can help you dive deeper into your analytics.
For an insight into just how valuable analysis really is, check out the “A Winter Through My Eyes” campaign. The company found that after tracking its analytics on YouTube, it had been able to increase hotel revenue by 1.5 billion and increase tourists by 36%.
Crafting the Ultimate YouTube Marketing Strategy
YouTube remains one of the most popular websites in the world, driving attention from billions of viewers every year. The right YouTube video marketing strategy can boost your chances of everything from better brand awareness to increased sales.
However, just like any marketing strategy, it’s important to ensure you’re heading into your campaigns with the right plan in place. Following the tips above, you should be able to create a YouTube marketing strategy that delivers incredible engagement and new opportunities.
However, if you need a little extra help optimizing and creating your YouTube content, you can always reach out to a professional. Contact Toptal today to find a YouTube expert capable of taking your campaigns to the next level.
YouTube Marketing Strategy FAQ
How do I promote my YouTube channel?
There are various ways to promote a YouTube channel successfully. Start by creating compelling content and posting it regularly to the platform. Ensure you’re using the right methods for YouTube SEO, such as keyword research, and customize your content for each audience. Don’t forget to track your marketing analytics and adapt over time.
Is YouTube marketing worth it?
YouTube is currently one of the biggest video platforms and most-visited websites in the world. If you’re looking to reach a wide audience with engaging content, YouTube marketing is an excellent investment. You can significantly boost your chances of connecting with new members of your community and improve your brand reputation with YouTube.
How do I get my YouTube channel noticed?
In a competitive environment, creating an eye-catching YouTube channel takes time. Make sure you use keyword research to find content your customers are interested in and commit to engaging with your audience frequently. Regular engagement will encourage your audience to share your videos with their friends, improving your brand reach.
How much does YouTube marketing cost?
If you decide to invest in paid advertising for YouTube, the price of your campaign can vary based on a number of factors. Most video ads cost between $0.10 and $0.230 per click. This means reaching 100,000 viewers could cost you up to $30,000.
Which videos attract the most subscribers?
While the right YouTube content strategy for your brand will depend on your target audience, product review videos, and how-to videos tend to get the most engagement. Think Google suggests around 50,000 years of product review videos have been watched on YouTube since 2021.
