Email marketing: what it is and how to implement it

YouTube Marketing Strategy

 YouTube is the second largest social network in the world, the most popular video platform, and a widely used search engine. These are three good reasons to give it a lot of attention in social media marketing.  

In reality, however, the opposite often happens: Many companies use YouTube at best casually to upload an image video, or not at all. 

In our large YouTube Marketing Guide 2023, beginners and advanced learners how to set up a professional YouTube marketing strategy.

Step 1: Create and customize a YouTube channel

The first step on YouTube is the same as on Facebook or Instagram: you have to create a profile, more precisely a channel for your business. 

To do this, proceed as follows: 

• First, create a Google account if you don't already have one. This will automatically give you a YouTube account.

• To create a channel for your business, go to your account page and select "Add or manage channels" and "Create channel". 

• Enter a name for the channel.

• Finished.

YouTube Marketing Strategy

Now your business has a YouTube channel. All you have to do is give it a customized look. This is also uncomplicated: 

• Go to “Customization” in your dashboard. 

• There are three tabs available:

• Layout: Among other things, you can select a video (as soon as you have one online) that will be played automatically when someone comes to your channel. A kind of trailer is ideal for this, which is a short, crisp form that makes you want to subscribe to your channel. Companies can also present an image film. 

Finally, as in the following example, you can move one current video to the front at a time.

YouTube Marketing Strategy

• Branding: Include a profile picture and a banner. Additionally, you can upload a logo that will be displayed in the video player on the right when someone plays your videos. 

• Basic Info: The information visible to visitors includes a channel description. Use important keywords in the channel description to boost your channel's visibility. We'll come back to that.

Access rights for your channel can be granted or removed under "Settings" - "Permissions". In this overview of access rights, you can see which roles are available.

In theory, you can start uploading videos right now. However, we recommend doing a few other things first. 

2nd step: Important preparatory work

To ensure your YouTube marketing strategy is in place from the start, analyze it before you publish:

• Own target group: What does your target group look like and which part of this target group do you reach via YouTube? Statistics for the US show that most American YouTube users are between the ages of 15 and 35. However, the difference in the number of over 56-year-olds is not large. 

Figures for other countries also indicate that you can reach people of all ages with YouTube. However, who watches your videos depends crucially on their content, format, and length. The better you know who you want to address, the higher your chances of success.   

• Competitor Analysis: Take a look at your key competitors. Which of you is active on YouTube? What content gets you the most views, likes, and comments? What does not work? 

• Favorites: Research channels you like. What could you use as an example?

• General Trends and Statistics: What content is trending on YouTube? What do current statistics tell you about tops and flops and the interests of YouTube users? A good source is YouTube's own Culture and Trends page. 

Carry out these measures again and again later. In addition, it is important to regularly take a look at YouTube analytics to analyze the success of your actions and optimize your YouTube marketing strategy. We'll come back to that.

3rd step: create videos

Ready to publish your first video? Wait a moment. Because like on other channels, a YouTube marketing strategy is only successful if you publish content regularly. 

Therefore, set a realistic (!) publication frequency and plan videos over a longer period in your editorial plan. With a social media management tool like Swat.io, you have a clear calendar where you can plan content across all platforms.

When choosing the content for your videos, base your choice on the interests of your audience, your goals, and your resources.

Popular formats on YouTube include:

• Tutorials: Guide viewers on how to solve a common problem and present your company as an expert. Depending on the topic, how-to videos can be created with a minimum of technical effort, for example as screen capture videos for software instructions.

• Q&A videos: Collect questions from users and answer them in a YouTube video. It is best to ask followers on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to send you questions beforehand. 

• Product presentations: Product presentations are also a classic. They are particularly useful if you have developed a new product. Here it is advantageous if your video is filmed professionally and looks good. After all, your product should encourage orders.

• Live Broadcasting: Live video is so appealing because it is associated with something unique. Use this advantage and, for example, report on an event or organize a live Q&A in which viewers can ask questions. Be sure to advertise your live video extensively beforehand. Depending on what and where you are filming, a cell phone camera may also be used for live broadcasts. Because in this case, authenticity is what matters most. However, pictures and sound should still be good enough for viewing to be fun. 

• Interviews: Interview industry experts or other interesting personalities. 

• Explainer Videos: Explainer videos are closely related to tutorials. However, they are not so many instructions as explanations. Animated videos are very suitable for explainer videos. The format is also ideal for explaining your business idea:

There are many other formats besides these, and new ones are constantly being added, such as the YouTube trend of “unboxing videos” where people unbox a product in front of the camera and comment on the process or through vlogs. Elaborate storytelling videos that arouse emotions can go viral and become hits with the public. 

It will probably take a while until you have found the perfect mix of formats for your YouTube marketing strategy. 

Either way, keep the following tips in mind:

• YouTube videos can be longer than videos on other platforms. But avoid unnecessary lengths. Younger people usually prefer it shorter. 

• Promote your videos on other platforms to get more attention. 

• Make sure you have a good thumbnail. 

• Cooperation with influencers or other companies gives your videos more reach. 

• Subtitles ensure that your videos are understandable in any environment. This is even more important given that most people watch YouTube videos on mobile devices.  

• If possible, use background music to set the mood.

Videos are the most successful format in social media marketing across all platforms. But every network has different requirements. You can get an overview of the specifications of different platforms in our blog post “Social Media Video Formats – The Big Overview 2021”.

4th step: SEO optimization on YouTube 

More than 500 million hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every hour.

For your videos to still be visible, you have to optimize them. 

YouTube SEO is a broad topic. Like search engine optimization for Google, it starts with keyword research. However, there is no official keyword tool for YouTube. Instead, it is best to use the suggest function on YouTube and the image search on Google. External tools can also help you with your research.

Central places to accommodate keywords are, for example, the video description and the video title. 

However, keywords alone do not guarantee visibility. Because other ranking factors also play a central role  on YouTube :

• interactions

• Watch time for specific videos and your entire channel based on average watch time versus views

• The popularity of your channel

That means: To make sure that your videos are at the top, you have to drive interactions and generate clicks. You can do this, for example, by

• generate attention-grabbing thumbnails,

• create playlists,

• pay attention to a strong start in your videos,

• interact with viewers in the comments. 

Above all, the content must appeal to your target group.

You can get even more tips for more visibility on YouTube in our blog article “YouTube SEO: With these tips, your videos will rank better”.

Step 5: Analysis

Like other social networks, YouTube comes with its analytics. You can analyze key figures for your channel and individual videos on the platform. 

You can find YouTube Analytics as follows:

• Sign in to your Google account. 

• Visit YouTube Studio

• Select “YouTube Analytics” on the left.

Below you have access to key figures for your videos and your channel. It's best to pay attention to both. 

Important indicators are for example

• click rate and impressions,

• average viewing time of videos,

• interactions,

• Subscribers to your channel

• Demographic information about your subscribers.

Because YouTube gives you precise insights into the performance of your videos, you can derive targeted measures for your YouTube marketing strategy. If you notice, for example, that your clips are often clicked on, but most viewers abandon them immediately, this is a clue to make the introduction more captivating.

You can find out more about how to use the right analysis to optimize your YouTube strategy in our guide “ YouTube Analytics – the most important key figures and what they tell you ”.

Advertising can support your YouTube marketing strategy

YouTube isn't just for organic video marketing. You can also use the popularity of the video platform to place high-reach ads. The network offers you a selection of different ad formats. 

When creating ad clips, the same tips apply to traditional YouTube videos. Here, too, you need a strong start, for example, and benefit from good storytelling as well as subtitles. 

Use the potential of videos in social media marketing

Videos are the most successful format on social media. They get the most views and generate the most interactions. So don't just create videos for Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, but also use the number one video platform. 

While starting a YouTube Marketing business does take some effort, if you do it right, it pays off. Then your channel becomes a driver for higher sales. 

Whether YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, with Swat.io you get a center for social media marketing on all your channels. Start a free trial now and get to know valuable functions such as our clear content calendar, the central ticket inbox, or exciting automation.