YouTube is a powerful marketing channel. Not only does the average user spend 16 minutes and 44 seconds on the platform each day, but a quarter say they discover new brands or products via YouTube ads. 

It’s no surprise that over half of marketers include YouTube as a part of their marketing plans. If you’re one of them, you need a YouTube marketing strategy to help your brand stand out from the competition. 

To be successful at YouTube marketing, you need direction on where you’re going. This guide shares how to create your video content, use the right tools, and grow an audience on YouTube—even if you’re starting with zero subscribers.

What is YouTube marketing?

A YouTube marketing campaign is the practice of creating a YouTube channel and producing different types of video content to market your brand. 

Components of a YouTube marketing strategy can also include:

• Customizing and branding your YouTube channel 
• Creating video content
• Working with YouTube creators and influencers
• Running video advertisements 
• Optimizing videos for YouTube’s search algorithm

You don’t need a huge production to create a YouTube marketing strategy, either. A video camera, video editing tools (like Descript), and some creative ideas make for the perfect starting point.

Benefits of YouTube marketing

Now we know what a YouTube marketing strategy is, let’s look at the benefits of having one for your creator business. 

Brand awareness

YouTube is one of the top seven channels for consumers to discover new products. When your YouTube marketing strategy includes video ads and YouTube Shorts, you’ll improve overall brand awareness and help more people find your brand.

Vast reach and audience engagement

The latest YouTube stats report that there are over two billion YouTube users, making it the second most-used website in the world. With this many visitors in one place, you can reach thousands of people within your target audience all across the globe. 

Enhanced SEO and search visibility

YouTube, the second-largest search engine in the world, has its own algorithm that matches your videos with people actively searching for them. But creating popular YouTube videos can help your Google ranking, too (since Google owns both platforms). 

YouTube videos are shown in the results for certain keywords, boosting your search visibility even more—like this Google search for “how to make money.” Videos from YouTubers like Make Money Matt and Ali Abdaal appear in the search results. 

Visual storytelling and product showcase

On YouTube, you can create promotional product videos and share them with your target audience. This type of video is the perfect medium to tell a story—especially considering 73% of people would rather watch a video than read text when learning about a new product. 

Monetization opportunities

YouTube helps creators make money on the platform through the Partner Program. Once you reach 1,000 subscribers and have 4,000 hours of video watch time in the last 12 months (or 10 million views on Shorts in the last 90 days), you can turn on monetization and allow brands to use your channel for YouTube advertising. You’ll earn a flat rate for every 1,000 ad views your content gets. 

YouTube marketing opens up other avenues for monetization, too. Brands that lean on influencer marketing help YouTubers make money through:

• Joining an affiliate program 
• Channel sponsorships
• Sponsored videos  

Actionable insights and data-driven decisions

Measurement is the key to any marketing strategy—YouTube included. It’s the only way to determine whether the techniques you use to promote your business on the platform are paying off.

YouTube analytics is the platform’s native reporting tool. Use it to get insights on your top videos so you can create similar content. You can also use it to get other key metrics like:

• Revenue
• Ad performance
• Subscriber growth
• Video click-through rate

How to create a YouTube marketing strategy in 10 steps

1. Set clear goals
2. Know your target audience
3. Conduct competitor analysis
4. Create a content plan
5. Do keyword research
6. Master video production
7. Optimize video metadata
8. Engage with your audience
9. Test different YouTube marketing tactics
10. Analyze and iterate 

1. Set clear goals

Creating a YouTube marketing strategy is easier when you know exactly what you're working towards. Before we go any further, why are you looking to incorporate YouTube into your marketing plan in the first place? What are you hoping it'll do for your business?

Some common YouTube marketing goals are:

• Brand awareness
• Audience engagement
• Subscriber/channel growth
• Website clicks
• Sales and revenue

You don’t have to limit your ambitions to just one objective. It’s possible to create a YouTube marketing funnel with your video content that hits different goals with different videos. For example, your video on “how to find running shoes” could be for brand awareness, whereas your “Hoka trainer comparison” video could point people toward your product pages.

Either way, outlining your goals—and making sure you list them clearly in your strategy—can keep you on track to reach your YouTube marketing objectives each time you create a new video.

2. Know your target audience

Before you create video content, it’s important to know who you're trying to target. Understand YouTube's demographics and which segment(s) of your target customer base are using the platform.

Similarly, find out what your target audience cares about. Do they watch YouTube videos to learn basics, be educated about different options, or search for ways to use your products? Customer feedback surveys can highlight the answer, so you can create YouTube videos that make an impact from day one. 

3. Conduct a competitor analysis

Before diving head first into creating new YouTube videos, take stock of your competition and look at what your competitors already do on the platform. 

Create a document and take notes of things like:

• Which competitors have a presence on YouTube
• How many subscribers they have
• How many videos they’ve published (and how often)
• The average number of views their videos get
• What types of video content they publish
• Their most popular videos

Use these notes to help craft your YouTube strategy, focusing on similar content types that work well for your competitors—of course, with your unique spin.

4. Create a content plan

The next step in any YouTube marketing strategy is creating your content plan. List out the different ideas you have for your YouTube account. Remember: your goal is to create content that will help you reach your goals and that your target audience will find entertaining, educational, or inspiring.

Some YouTube video ideas include:

• Product videos
• Tutorials
• Answers to FAQs  
• Educational content
• Live streams

ConvertKit, for example, is an email marketing software that caters to content creators' offerings. To further appeal to its target audience, the brand has put together an educational video series where its team interviews well-known creators to share their success stories—like this one with founder Nathan Barry:

5. Do keyword research

YouTube is essentially a video search engine with its own algorithm, so keyword research is just as important here as it is when creating new content for your website.

Put together a list of keywords or video ideas to kick off your research. There are a number of tools you can use (such as TubeRanker or Keywords Everywhere), but the YouTube search feature is the perfect starting point.

If you're considering creating a video sharing tips and best practices for podcast interviews, type the keyword "podcast interview" into YouTube's search bar. You'll see what people want to know about that topic and the way they phrase their searches.

Not every keyword needs to have its own individual video. Group YouTube keywords by search intent—the desire of the person searching for it. Someone searching for “podcast interview tips” would want the same information as someone searching for “podcast interview techniques.” 

6. Master video production

The first six steps are the basics of setting up your strategy, but now it’s time to get into the meat of it all—video production. After all, you can’t do YouTube marketing without video.

Video production is typically cut into three phases:

1. Pre-production or planning
2. Production or execution
3. Post-production or editing and publishing

Everything we’ve done up to this point is part of the planning phase. But you'll need the right video equipment, a place to film, and your video talent or host to jump to production. 

The simplest way to film is to use: 

• A video camera (or a smartphone with a good camera)
• A tripod
• A microphone
• Lighting (or natural light from a window)
• A host

You can have your host stand in front of a background and face the camera as they run through the video topic. Bear in mind the background doesn’t have to be the final shot. Tools like Descript can act as a virtual green screen and change the background of your video throughout the editing process.

Production can get more complicated as you plan to create product tutorials, interview experts, and create product videos. Start with the basics to build out a process you can replicate for each new video you create. Descript’s YouTube video editor makes it easy to upload, organize, and edit your footage into a succinct, high-quality video you’ll be proud to upload to YouTube.

7. Optimize video metadata

Once you’ve uploaded your YouTube video, it’s time for search engine optimization (SEO).

YouTube video metadata refers to three main things: your video title, video description, and video tags. Incorporating keywords and phrases into your metadata helps YouTube properly index your online video content.

Treat your YouTube video title as a way to let both YouTube and your viewers know exactly what they can expect in your video. You get 100 characters to play with here. Create a title that’s all-encompassing and straight to the point. 

A few great examples are:

• How I'd Become a Social Media Manager in 2023 by Latasha James
• This is How I Make a Living by James Smith
• What Happens To Your Body When You Run 30 Minutes Every Day by Big Muscles

Next, write up to 5,000 characters in your video description. Summarize your video, insert keywords and phrases, and include a call-to-action with links back to your website. Here’s an example from podcaster Chris Willamson that includes related hashtags, keywords, and links to engage with the podcast on other channels:

Finally, pay attention to video tags. Start by adding your keyword first, then add additional versions of that keyword or phrase. You can add up to 400 characters of tags that aren't publicly visible, but still help YouTube's algorithm get a clear idea of what your video is about to rank it accordingly.

8. Engage with your audience

The YouTube algorithm wants to push content that other viewers have found interesting. One way it does this is by looking at the comments section. Videos with lots of likes and comments appear higher in search results. 

Encourage viewers to leave comments beneath your YouTube videos by asking questions throughout the video. For example, if you’re talking about learning how to run, ask people to comment how far they can run before becoming breathless. 

Engage with these people and double the comment count on your video—a tactic that could encourage new viewers to engage, too. People might be more inclined to comment if they know they’ll get a response from their favorite YouTuber. 

9. Test different YouTube marketing tactics

You’ve done what you can to get your videos found in YouTube searches. Now, expand your horizons and share your YouTube with content off the platform. This is where having an existing audience is a huge advantage.

Drive people towards your YouTube videos by:

• Sharing new videos on social media
• Embedding them on your website or blog
• Linking to your channel in your podcast show notes
• Mentioning the video in your email newsletter
• Asking influencers to reshare your video (this has a much higher success rate if you’ve mentioned them in the video) 

10. Analyze and iterate

YouTube analytics is the platform’s reporting tool. Monitor your analytics regularly and pay attention to your best-performing content—it’s the best way to recreate similar success and find out what your audience engages the most with.

Pay special attention to metrics like:

• Top videos: Your top-viewed videos during a reporting period
• Traffic sources: When and how people discover your videos 
• Impressions click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who saw your thumbnail and clicked it 
• Average view duration: How long people watch your videos before exiting
• Card and end screen reports: How people engage with these slides

Regardless of what you find, adjust your YouTube marketing strategy based on what is (and isn’t) working. If you’ve created a few videos that aren’t performing well, even if you had more planned, pause that idea and move on to something else. You can always return to it once you have a bigger subscriber base to retest the idea. 

How to create videos for your YouTube marketing strategy

1. Craft a compelling script
2. Plan your visuals
3. Shoot and edit your video
4. Create a captivating thumbnail
5. Schedule video releases
6. Implement a call to action 

1. Craft a compelling script

Even the best video hosts don’t go off the cuff unless they’re shooting a live broadcast. A script briefly summarizes the points you want to cover in your video in logical order.

To start writing a compelling script, think about the type of video you're creating and your goal(s) for it. What would viewers want to learn? How can you take them on a journey throughout your video? 

2. Plan your visuals

What do you want to record for your video? Plan out your visuals by creating a storyboard—a visual representation of each scene in your YouTube video.

Let’s say you’re creating a YouTube video that shows people how to restart their Macbook. The opening sequence could set the scene and tell people what to expect. Next, you might cover why someone would need to restart their Macbook. You’d then follow it with a tutorial and a series of tips to prevent the same issues from occurring. 

3. Shoot and edit your video

You’ve got your script ready to go and your visuals planned. Get your video talent or actors in place, set up your tripod, and start recording. Film more footage than you think you need—you can always cut and trim and choose your better options later, or use any extra scenes as B-roll.

Speaking of which, find the best video editing software and import your video footage to splice it together. Descript’s YouTube video editor allows you to: 

• Edit your video from the automatically generated transcription
• Fix audio mistakes with an AI clone of your voice
• Create seamless transitions to segue viewers from one scene to another 
• Incorporate sound effects and royalty-free background music
• Remove filler words in one click 

4. Create a captivating thumbnail

Once the video editing is done, it’s time to get it ready to upload to YouTube. We've already talked about optimizing your video's metadata, but you also need a good video thumbnail to help draw attention to your video in search results.

Look at Later’s video thumbnails, which are all brightly colored, easy-to-read, and eye-catching. They also perfectly match the company’s colorful branding.

Consider how you can create visually appealing thumbnails that will still generate brand recognition in your viewers. If your brand uses emojis, slang, or cartoon characters, your YouTube thumbnail is a great place to continue the same themes. 

5. Schedule video releases

It’s a good idea to create a batch of video content at one time, fully optimize it, and then schedule it for release. That way, you can batch similar tasks without context switching—a multitasking practice proven to reduce focus and make us more stressed. 

Go back to the YouTube content calendar you created in the first portion of this guide. Whether you decide to publish new videos once a week or twice a month, having YouTube videos scheduled beforehand can ensure that you stick to your planned cadence. You'll also have more wiggle room if last minute things crop up and throw your plans off course. 

6. Implement a call to action

A call to action tells people what to do after watching your YouTube video. Popular calls to action include:

• Subscribing to your channel 
• Leaving a comment beneath the video 
• Watching another video (or starting a playlist)
• Visiting your website 
• Purchasing a product or service

YouTube’s end screen feature helps with this. The slide appears at the end of your video and is a place to mention relevant videos, making it easy for viewers to continue watching your content. YouTuber Ryan Stewart, for example, uses the end card to divert people toward a related video: 

3 YouTube marketing tips for success

Now you’ve got a YouTube marketing strategy in place, let’s round up three simple tips to maximize the value you get from each video.

Focus on audience-centric content

Keep your target audience at the forefront of your YouTube content plan. Create content your audience would be interested in—not what you think they would or should be interested in.

Use surveys, comments, and YouTube analytics to get to know your target customers and the types of content they enjoy. Figure out how to relate that content to your business and your product/service, then create it.

Optimize your YouTube channel

You’ve done the hard part of optimizing your videos to get found in YouTube searches. To get people to subscribe to your channel once they visit it to learn more, optimize the following elements of your YouTube channel: 

• Profile picture: An 800x800px high-quality logo
• Channel art: Your YouTube banner using the same visual style as your thumbnails
• Channel description: A description of your brand and the types of content you’ll be sharing
• Channel trailer: A short explainer video that introduces new people to your channel 

Adam Enfroy is the perfect example of how to put this into practice. His YouTube channel, Blog Growth Engine, has an optimized banner that tells people to subscribe. A channel trailer also tells people what to expect after subscribing. 

Pay attention to consistency and scheduling

Consistency is always key when building up your presence on any social media platform. YouTube is no different. Decide which days of the month or week you plan to publish new videos and stick with it.

This is where batching your YouTube content helps—you can schedule new videos to go live ahead of time. You might create a month's worth of videos each time so you can easily plan, record, edit, and schedule all at once, creating a streamlined process for your YouTube marketing strategy. 

4 YouTube marketing tools you’re missing

No YouTube marketing strategy is complete without an arsenal of helpful tools. Keep these four tools in your wheelhouse to maximize your strategy’s potential.

Descript

Descript is an all-in-one editing tool that allows you to fine-tune both video and audio. YouTubers love Descript because it speeds up the editing process and helps them create professional quality videos—without investing thousands into filming equipment.

Standout features of Descript include:

• Special effects and animations
• Video timeline to spot any holes or gaps in your story
• Studio Sound, which gives any video professional-grade sound 
• Video templates to share snippets of your YouTube videos across social media 

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media scheduling tool that also integrates with YouTube. You can use Hootsuite to schedule your YouTube videos ahead of time, helping keep a consistent publishing cadence. It also offers Social Inbox, a tool that helps teams keep up with comments and conversations held online so you can stay aware of everything your audience is saying.

Channelview Insights

Channelview Insights is a Hootsuite integration by Synaptive that helps teams access in-depth analytics and insights—better than what already comes in the YouTube Studio. You'll get core analytics and audience insights to publish and download in real-time reports. 

TubeRanker

TubeRanker is a YouTube SEO tool that helps you discover the best keywords for your content, generate the right titles and descriptions, and find the best tags for your video. It can also help you conduct a channel audit to make sure you’re starting from the best possible spot in order to rank your videos as high in search results as possible.

Descript: Your YouTube video marketing partner

Descript makes it easier for YouTubers to edit their videos, so you have more time to get creative and engage with your subscribers.

Use the YouTube video editor to:

• Edit your video by editing the transcript (just like a Google Doc)
• Add Fancy Captions to your YouTube videos to make videos more accessible 
• Fix scenes where you don’t address the camera using Eye Contact
• Export your videos in YouTube’s preferred file format 
• Create social media teasers to promote your YouTube videos elsewhere 

Take a tour today and see why thousands of creators love Descript.

YouTube marketing FAQs

What type of marketing is YouTube marketing?

YouTube marketing is a type of video marketing. Video marketing is a facet of digital marketing. It involves using video content to promote and market a brand and its products or services.

How much does a 15-second YouTube ad cost?

YouTube ad costs are typically measured by the number of views the ad receives. The cost-per-view usually sits between $0.10 and $0.30 per view.

Is YouTube marketing worth it?

YouTube marketing is absolutely worth it. YouTube is a great place for people to discover your brand, become fans, and turn into loyal customers.