Does your marketing plan include a YouTube strategy? Did you know more than two billion people view video on YouTube every day? That's more than all three major United States cable networks combined.

1. YouTube Strategy: Top Five Tips to
Creating YouTube video as Part of Your
Marketing Strategy
By: Dale Lorence
Does your marketing plan include a YouTube
strategy? Did you know more than two billion
people view video on YouTube every day? That's
more than all three major United States cable
networks combined. If you are not including a
YouTube strategy in your overall social media
marketing plan, you are missing a huge sector of
your target audience. Consider the following tips for
your YouTube strategy.
Create evolving content.
Don't just post a video and leave it to grab viewers. An effective YouTube strategy should create content
that engages your audience and encourages interaction. This approach will ensure that your video gets
forwarded, tweeted, “liked” on Facebook or circulated through any other social media platform.
Here's a great example of engaging content. Remember the Old Spice ad where former NFL player Isaiah
Mustafa commands, “Look at your man, now back at me.” Although this television ad was successful,
Old Spice yielded an additional 12 million views via a YouTube video. The company followed-up with 186
videos featuring Mustafa's personalized response to people who commented about the original ad.
Bloggers and celebrities included in the personalized messages tweeted their videos to their millions of
Twitter followers. The result for Old Spice was a new perception of their product and a sales jump of
more than 100 percent in 2010.
Keep it relevant.
A YouTube Channel should be devoted to one niche. If you cover different sectors, divide the topics
among different channels. Don't cheapen your message by posting videos just because they are
interesting. Post video relevant to your business and the service or products you provide.

2. The first step is to understand your brand and message. Your overall marketing goals should shape your
YouTube strategy and determine how you interact in this form of social media marketing.
For example, is your goal to become a “go-to” guy, offering expert how-to videos and advice? Are you
aiming to entertain, while shaping the perception of your product, as was the case with Old Spice?
Determine your objective and keep your content in line with it.
Mark your content.
Don't loose credit for a great video. Your goal is to have your video passed around. Be sure your content
is marked with your branding, including your name, logo and a link to your website. An effective
YouTube strategy will build your brand while establishing your credibility.
Take advantage of YouTube's new layout to brand your content. Previously, only YouTube partners
could display their website in the top right corner. The design rolled out earlier this year allows you to
display your URL and channel description in this premium spot to the right of your video. Previously, you
could only display these links in the bottom left and viewers had to scroll down to see it.
Don't forget other simple forms of formatting that will brand your video. Include a constant background
and color scheme that match your branding. Be sure to set your videos to play in “Player View.” This
feature will autoplay, which will impact your total views. Additionally, consider setting up a playlist of
your best videos to increase the chances of viewers watching more than one. The more views you have,
the more credibility you achieve.
Utilize the “Post Bulletin” tab to create a message that links your video to your subscribers' homepages.
This is a great way to create attention for a new video and more traffic for existing ones.
Integrate with other forms of social media.
Your YouTube strategy should be part of your overall social media plan. Cross-promote on Facebook,
Twitter or any other effective platform. For example, join conversations on Facebook relevant to your
topic and post your video. Give specific details about your video to encourage viewers. Something along
the lines of, “Five thousand fans in ABC Company's YouTube community “liked” my newest how-to
video. We want to hear from you. Join our conversation.”
Don't forget to include your blog in your YouTube strategy. Link to your videos from related blog articles.
Include a “like” button on your blog page that will post your article to the reader's Facebook page or
Twitter account. In turn, all their “friends” will view your video when they link back to your blog.
Remember to display all your social media links in your channel description area, so your social media
platforms are fully integrated.

3. Be findable.
Your videos should be easy to find within YouTube's search feature and by outside search engines.
Videos usually appear on the first page of search results. So, it's a great way to jump ahead of your
competitors. Consider the following tips in your search strategy.
Keywords should start the title of your video. For an added boost, state your keyword, followed by a
colon, then rephrase your title. For example, a video about YouTube strategies might be titled “YouTube
Strategies: Maximize your Social Media Marketing Plan by Including Video.”
Give a detailed description. Be sure to begin your description with a complete URL. Follow it with a
detailed, keyword rich description. This is one area where less is not more. The more detailed your
description, the more likely people searching for your kind of content will find you. If appropriate, you
can also include more URLs in the description.
Include all applicable tags. All related keywords should be included in the tags field. Again, less is not
more.
Creating a YouTube strategy is an effective addition to your overall marketing plan. However, it involves
more than just throwing a video up. Thirty-five hours of video are added to YouTube each minute. That's
a lot of competition. Think strategically about how best to reach your audience. Monitor the results
regularly to see what methods are working and make needed adjustments.