YouTube Strategy: How to Plan Your YouTube Marketing Success

By Michael Stelzner
Published October 23, 2015

Do you create videos for your audience?

Are you curious about what works on YouTube?

To discover more about YouTube video strategy, I interview Owen Hemsath.

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Owen Hemsath, a YouTube consultant and president of Videospot, a YouTube consultancy that helps authors and brands succeed on YouTube. Owen also writes on YouTube strategy for ReelSEO.

Owen will explore how to put together a smart YouTube plan and how to monetize your YouTube videos.

You'll discover the importance of video today, as well as the biggest mistakes marketers make with YouTube.

Listen as Owen Hemsath shares what marketers need to know about planning YouTube marketing success.

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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:

Owen's story

Owen explains how he decided to pursue his dream of doing video.

When Owen began making videos for his ecommerce website and started making money, he realized he could be more successful helping other business owners leverage YouTube than he could doing his own product demos.

Owen is now a YouTube specialist and has a YouTube course that teaches the process of building a YouTube channel for business.

He currently spends 60% of his time working with clients in a group setting and 40% of his time acting as manager for bigger channels that are looking to connect with brands and monetize.

Listen to the show to learn about Owen's early experience making videos.

The importance of video today

Owen believes that because relationships can be formed through digital communication and social media these days, the value we place on face-to-face interaction has been minimized. Video brings that face-to-face interaction to everyone, since people can use video to develop a one-way relationship with their viewers.

He shares that this type of interaction can take place on YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook video, the live-streaming apps (Meerkat, Periscope and Blab), Twitter and Instagram video.

Owen explains the relationship between Google and YouTube, and why you're more likely to be found on search if you're leveraging a video content strategy in your overall marketing plan.

YouTube can help you show up in search queries. Image: Shutterstock.

Listen to the show to hear Owen's thoughts on why people are turning to video, movie comparisons to YouTube and predictions for the future.

Mistakes marketers make with YouTube

The first thing Owen cautions against is using YouTube as a compilation channel, a holding ground for every video you've ever made. For instance, you may have a couple of Q&A videos with your staff, an old commercial and some home video of the company picnic. All of these videos have low views, and there's no real cohesive strategy.

The second thing Owen calls out is violations of what he refers to as the 3 Ps: Platform, Purpose and People.

Marketers often violate the Platform when they repurpose their non-YouTube video content (Google hangouts, Meerkat videos or portrait videos) for YouTube.

Repurposing leads to a violation against People. YouTubers want to engage with your content, comment and be a part of your community. He says that when marketers repurpose, such as putting their Meerkat videos on YouTube, they're telling their audience they don't care enough to create content for them.

Find out which mistakes you should avoid on YouTube. Image: Shutterstock.

The third violation involves Purpose. Marketers need to have a purpose for their videos. They must figure out what they're trying to communicate with their video and the business objective of that video, whether it's to build subscribers, get more shares, grow a list or sell a product. Marketers who don't consider purpose when developing their content strategy are less likely to succeed on the platform.

Listen to the show to discover why the level of polish of a video is different for everybody.

YouTube strategy

Owen says the first thing marketers need to consider is what they're going to do on YouTube: what they will talk about and the brand's message. To figure out the content strategy, Owen has his clients come up with potential video titles, using the 5 Ws: who, what, why, where, when and how.

Start with "who" and make a list of the big names in your industry. Then, go over to "what." What is the best way to do something, as it pertains to your business? Work your way down the rest of the list to get a full range of ideas for your videos. Come up with the biggest questions asked by your audience and answer them in video. Owen has his clients come up with 100 titles before the even buy a video camera.

The types of videos you make should be specific to your company. If there's someone who's comfortable on camera as your spokesperson, that's great, since communicating eyeball to eyeball is the best way to build a relationship with your audience. If there's no one to participate on camera, just use audio and graphics.

Owen shares how TubeBuddy publishes tutorial videos without a single face in them. Instead they use screen captures, PowerPoint and typography to answer questions from TubeBuddy software users.

Listen to the show to hear how long a YouTube video should be, as well as Owen's summary of a high-level strategy.

Monetization of YouTube

Owen believes that the point of being on YouTube is to carve out a very specific audience that you can serve through the video medium.

He says that rather than trying to build a huge channel with millions of views and subscribers, marketers should create a funnel that takes viewers from their video to a clickable link that leads to an opt-in or product for sale.

Owen stresses that you should know the purpose of the video from the beginning. Do you want people to subscribe? To share? Focus on one call to action per video. You might make 10 videos that are all designed to build a list, and then 20 videos that are designed to get new subscribers.

Is your purpose to drive sales? Owen shares that a lot of YouTubers sell to their subscribers or a non-subscriber base through both in-display ads and pre-roll ads. Both options are 10-second ads that appear in front of the video that's queued for viewing.

Owen talks about partnering with YouTube ads pro Jake Larsen when he runs YouTube ads for clients. He says that if you use YouTube ads, you need to remember to focus on selling one product. Then target the ad's delivery through the ad system to push your video out to a prequalified audience.

Listen to the show to learn what the "ah video" syndrome is and why a 10-video system is better than a single catch-all video.

The iOS9 has a brand-new News app.

To get started, open the app and indicate your interests (such as business), and then add any publication you want. For example, you can search "social media" and you'll find Social Media Examiner. After you add a publication, you can read the articles from the app just like you would with Flipboard or an RSS reader.

Check out the new News interface on the iOS9 update.

The really cool part is that once the News app is activated, when you're on the home screen of your iPhone and push your thumb to the right, a bunch of top news stories will show up. It's a great way to keep in touch with what's going on in the world.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how the new iOS9 News feature works for you.

Today's show is sponsored by Social Media Marketing World 2016.

We are super-excited about Social Media Marketing World 2016. It's the world's largest social media marketing conference. By attending, you'll make connections with 100+ of the world's top social media pros (plus 3,000 of your peers) and you'll discover amazing ideas that'll transform your social media marketing. Pick from more than 100 expert-led sessions and workshops, and meet industry leaders including Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith, Michael Hyatt, Chris Brogan, Jay Baer and Michael Stelzner.

See what attendees experienced at our 2015 conference.

The event takes place in San Diego, California on April 17, 18 and 19, 2016.

We already have well over 400 people registered for the conference, and we're expecting to sell out at 3,000.

It's the most communal, social conference you're ever going to find. You're completely surrounded by people who are just like you: social media marketers who want to help and learn and take their business to the next level. It's an incredible experience.

The networking is going to be off the hook. We have our opening-night party on an aircraft carrier, the USS Midway.

We have the best pricing you'll ever find going on right now. Click here to check out the speakers and the agenda and grab your early bird discount.

Listen to the show!

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on YouTube for business? Please leave your comments below.

Owen Hemsath talks with Michael Stelzner about how to plan your YouTube marketing success.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.4&appId=159389674132284"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));About the Author, Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner is the founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner, and host of the Social Media Marketing podcast. He also authored the books Launch and Writing White Papers. Other posts by Michael Stelzner »

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Original source: YouTube Strategy: How to Plan Your YouTube Marketing Success.
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