If you intend to make video a part of your content, you need a YouTube marketing strategy.
Not just a way to make sure your videos get seen, mind you, but a way to make sure they build your brand.
Because there’s no point in creating YouTube content if it’s not going to be part of building your brand.
And, of course, the primary purpose of any marketing strategy – even a YouTube marketing strategy – is to build your brand.
So, you need to know how to.
With the right focus and direction, you can master YouTube brand building and create an excellent marketing strategy for the platform.
One that helps you grow.
But you need to know your options so you can make your YouTube marketing strategy best fit your brand.
Here are the YouTube marketing strategy options you should be looking at.
There Is No Universal YouTube Marketing Strategy
There’s something important to understand about the advice I’m about to give.
No YouTube marketing strategy can be universally used.
Therefore, I’m not going to outline “the perfect strategy” for you.
Instead, I’m going to share some insight into developing the perfect version of the strategy for your brand.
The things you need to know about creating that YouTube marketing strategy are always universal, but the way you apply it will be unique to your brand.
And that’s something important to remember.
Because many small business owners scour the internet for the answers, but sometimes those answers aren’t concrete.
You, as you develop your brand, need to understand the way different tactics will apply to your brand, work for your brand, and be deployed by your brand.
Ultimately, your marketing strategies – YouTube or otherwise – will be unique to your brand, even when they’re based on a proven foundation.
If they’re not, you’re not building your brand.
You’re building someone else’s.
Focus on your brand and the mission at the core of everything you do if you want to make sure those strategies benefit your company.
The Outline For Building Your YouTube Marketing Strategy
Every quality YouTube marketing strategy is built on a fundamental outline of success.
While the strategies themselves vary, the underlying factors that help build it are universal.
They give the strategy a sense of direction and uniformity.
Today, as you learn to build yours, focus on those factors, making sure you apply them all strategically to your brand.
Keep your brand at the center of every marketing strategy. YouTube or otherwise. Share on XThink about your mission – the reason you’re in business – and assure that every part of your new YouTube marketing strategy helps further that.
If your strategy doesn’t, you and your audience will lose sight of your brand, confusing the messages your marketing should be sending.
However, if you can keep your YouTube marketing strategy focused on your mission, your brand will grow strong.
It’s time to plan your YouTube marketing strategy with these foundational elements.
Learn Your Target Audience
Like any other marketing strategy, you need to start with your target audience in mind.
Who are they?
What content do they consume on YouTube?
Are there specific things about your industry they might seek information about through video?
There are several ways to go about finding information to help you understand your audience.
Choosing the one that most resonates with the way you do things makes the most sense.
One option is to check out your social media.
Most social platforms provide you a ton of information about who your target audience is and what content they might like from you.
Examine who the makeup of your audience is and what content you create that’s most successful among them.
Take note of what feedback they’ve given and what questions they’ve asked.
This information should lead you to a thorough understanding of who your audience consists of.
If that’s not enough information, use additional analytics tools to boost what you get.
Another option is through surveys.
Ask your existing customers about the needs, interests, and questions they have about your industry.
Learn what information was most helpful in the decision-making process.
By learning the things about your customers that made them your customers, you learn the content that belongs in your YouTube marketing strategy.
You learn what will bring in more customers.
Build Your Channel With A Uniform Look
Branding is primarily expressed through the look of your online presence.
As a cornerstone of your YouTube marketing strategy, your YouTube channel can’t be an exception.
You need to decide on an overall look for your channel, which includes the look of your profile picture, your header image, and your video graphics.
Think about the ways these items play into the overall appearance of your other online presences.
How can you adapt what you’re already doing elsewhere to fit the format of YouTube?
Sometimes it’s better to adapt, and sometimes it’s better to reconvey. It depends on what makes the most sense for your brand. Share on XConsider the look and feel of your other outlets as a foundation for the appearance of your channel.
Keep them as uniform as possible, adapting graphic styles and colors to match.
Remember that, while each platform needs its unique style, your overall brand needs to remain uniform.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean exact duplication.
Perhaps your brand’s look and feel are more about conveying an attitude than a style.
That attitude may need a new angle to come across correctly through your YouTube marketing strategy.
Be aware of the ways you can communicate your brand persona other than uniform graphics, then do what’s smartest for your brand and mission.
Plan Content That’s In Line With Your Mission
What exactly is your brand in business for?
Your mission is the entire point of what you do, and your content should always further it.
For your YouTube marketing strategy to be successful, you need to make sure your mission is at the center of it.
So, thinking about that mission, decide how your content can convey it.
Try not to put too much emphasis on selling through your content.
The focus should be on delivering value to your target audience.
Each video your brand publishes to YouTube should offer something that your audience can use.
It’s no different from any of the other content you create.
How can you help your audience in the same arenas your products or services can?
Start with the core of your content.
Problems that your products or services directly impact are what make up your content topic.
But the core of your content comes from the slightly expanded idea pool that encompasses what about that topic your audience cares about.
By starting from this perspective, you can convey your mission through many different videos surrounding the topics your brand deals with.
That creates a solid foundation for your YouTube marketing strategy.
Clarify Your Brand’s Tone And Personality
This next YouTube marketing strategy step should sound familiar if you’ve listened to anything else I’ve said about content planning and brand building.
It’s central to communicating your brand persona to your audience anywhere and on any platform.
You’ve got to decide what tone and personality your brand’s videos will reflect.
All your content needs to come across the same way to your audience.
Videos should feel the same, even if you have different team members in front of the camera.
Viewers need to see the way your brand behaves is the same everywhere, be it on video or in person.
To do that well, you need to know what that sounds like, what that looks like, and the feeling it communicates.
In most cases, a friendly and conversational tone works well, along with an upbeat personality.
However, when that’s not the audience you serve or the brand you reflect, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
The tone of your brand should help set it apart in any of your marketing.
Your YouTube marketing strategy is no exception.
Tone and personality will not only assure your brand becomes recognizable, but it will also determine how much of each video your audience decides to watch.
Tell Stories Your Audience Can Connect With
Everything in content is about storytelling.
Even when you’re filming a product demonstration video, you’re telling a story.
The main characters are your potential customers and your brand.
Or, that’s what it should look like if you keep your content focused on building your brand.
Your YouTube marketing strategy needs to include stories that connect your brand and your clients.
These stories are far more relatable than generic content or a sales pitch.
Without a plan to connect to your audience on an emotional level, your videos won’t get you anywhere.
That’s what makes good storytelling so important to your YouTube marketing strategy.
Craft stories that show your audience exactly who your brand is and what it stands for.
Communicate what matters and why you do what you do.
Offer a deep understanding through videos that demonstrate, educate, and entertain your audience about your industry.
Stories are more about the way you share your information than they are about a literal story.
However, like fables and parables, they use similies to articulate the point in a way the audience will understand.
It’s the stories you create that tell your audience everything about your brand.
But make sure you aren’t leaving your audience out of the loop.
They’ve got to identify with the story just as much as your brand does, if not more.
Forgetting that will cost your YouTube marketing strategy its potency.
Set Up An Editing Template That Suits Your Brand
It seems we’ve come back around to appearance.
A major part of any YouTube marketing strategy, your video’s appearance needs uniformity.
Unlike the channel’s uniformity to your other presences, each video you produce needs elements to it that are nearly identical.
Some of them even need to be completely identical.
Most videos have a basic format.
There is an intro, a title element, the main content, and a “signoff”.
Consider how your video format will go.
If you aren’t thinking about how to make your YouTube videos unique to your brand, you’re missing the point. Share on XThink about the way you’ll utilize the intro, what your title element will look like, and how you’ll sign off.
From there move to creating an editing template.
If you’re using a title animation, consider how much intro you’ll typically include before that.
Will you use consistent text popups to introduce the speaker?
Gather your video assets and insert them into your template.
That’s going to speed up your editing time as well as help guarantee the uniform appearance of your video.
The uniform appearance needs to spread further than just your assets, however.
Transitions, visual effects, on-screen-text, and even your video captions need to feel like your brand.
Uniformity like this helps keep your content connected for your audience.
Your message becomes clearer and your story more familiar.
Clarity and familiarity are what earn clients through your videos.
Promote, Promote, Promote
What would you do if your video never got watched?
YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, so it’s unlikely your content won’t be seen on the platform.
However, how many videos would you produce if you had no audience?
Getting discouraged can come easily from a situation like that.
As you develop your YouTube marketing strategy, you’ve got to account for this.
The best way to do that is to have a plan in place to promote your YouTube content.
After you publish a video, start producing micro-content to share across other platforms.
Through those other platforms, you can drive traffic back to your video.
Done correctly you should see consistent traffic growth alongside higher engagement on those other platforms.
Which should all work out well.
But that’s only going to matter if you’re using those other platforms correctly.
It also wouldn’t hurt to make sure you’ve got your videos optimized to be found in YouTube’s search.
Keeping video promotion in mind is an essential step to your YouTube marketing strategy.
Without it, you miss the benefits of having one altogether.
Your YouTube Marketing Strategy Will Help You Grow
Taking to heart the elements we’ve just gone over you should be able to develop a custom YouTube marketing strategy for your brand.
It should elevate awareness about your brand and help cement its personality with your audience.
But none of that will matter if you don’t make it personal.
Focus on the ways these ideas apply uniquely to your brand and how you’ll execute them.
Keep your mission at the core of your business.
In the end, your audience should develop a deeper understanding of and a stronger connection to your brand.
