The document provides a 10-step guide to creating a successful YouTube marketing strategy. The steps include: creating a YouTube channel; learning about the target audience; researching competitors; learning from popular channels; optimizing videos; uploading and scheduling videos; optimizing the channel; trying YouTube ads; influencer marketing; and analyzing results. The goal is to understand the audience, create engaging content, and use YouTube's tools and features to promote videos and grow a channel. Regular analysis of metrics is also recommended to measure success and identify areas for improvement.

1. Strategy
The Complete Guide to YouTube Marketing in 2022
Follow this 10-step guide to create a winning
YouTube marketing strategy and take your YouTube
presence to new heights in 2022.
Michelle MartinDecember 7, 2021
Everyone watches YouTube. Over 75% of Americans age 15
and up are on YouTube, part of over 2 billion monthly
active users, making it the most popular website in the
world after Google.
The potential of a huge audience is a great reason to
market your business on YouTube. But shouting from the
rooftops about your products without a plan won’t get
you anywhere.
You need a strategy to succeed and that’s exactly what
you’ll find here: the 10 steps to crush YouTube
marketing in 2022.
Create a YouTube marketing strategy in 10 steps
Step 1: Create a YouTube channel for your business
Step 2: Learn about your audience
Step 3: Research your competition
Step 4: Learn from your favorite channels
Step 5: Optimize your videos to get views
Step 6: Upload and schedule your videos
Step 7: Optimize your channel to attract followers
Step 8: Try YouTube advertising
Step 9: Try influencer marketing
Step 10: Analyze and adapt

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What is YouTube marketing?
YouTube marketing is the practice of promoting a brand,
product, or service on YouTube. It can involve a mix of
tactics, including (but not limited to):
 Creating organic promotional videos
 Working with influencers
 Advertising on the platform
To market your business on YouTube — whether you’re an
entrepreneur or an enterprise corporation — you need to
produce what your target customers want. Sounds simple,
right? It is, as long as you know what your
customers really want and it’s not just what
you think they want, which is a trap far too many
businesses fall into.
Plus, you need to make sure the right people find your
videos. YouTube is a search engine so you’ll need to
optimize your content for the YouTube algorithm, just
like you do for Google SEO.
Without further ado, here is your complete, step-by-
step checklist for how to successfully promote your
business on YouTube.
Your 10-step YouTube marketing
strategy
Step 1: Create a YouTube channel for your
business
First things first, you have to set up a YouTube
channel.

3. Since YouTube is part of Google, you’ll need to create
a Google account first to sign up for a YouTube
channel. You can use an existing account or create one
especially for managing your business.
Here’s how to get up and running:
1. Create a Google account.
2. Use that to create your YouTube account.
3. Log in to YouTube and create a Brand
Account and channel.
Managing your YouTube channel with a Brand Account is a
best practice, as opposed to running it with your
personal Google account. For one thing, a Brand Account

4. lets multiple people in your company manage and update
your YouTube channel.
For another, no one at work needs to know your personal
email is sk8rboi2000@gmail.com. (Your secret’s safe
with me.)
More importantly, it also allows you to expand your
business later with additional YouTube channels.
OK, you’ve got the account. Next up: pretty it up.
Add your:
 “About” information.
 Channel art (the “header” image and profile
picture).
 Social media and website links.
Check out our step-by-step walkthrough to create a
YouTube account for more details.
Now we’re ready to tackle your YouTube video marketing
strategy.
Step 2: Learn about your audience
Alright, now for the tough stuff. What does your
audience really want?
To figure this out, you need to answer two questions:
1. Who are you making videos for?
2. What are they already watching on YouTube?
To start, it’s helpful to know some basic YouTube
demographics. YouTube has over 2 billion users and 72%
of American internet users regularly browse
YouTube. 77% of people aged 15-35 use YouTube and
unlike other social platforms, there isn’t a large
dropoff in that rate for older users.

5. Source: Statista
YouTube isn’t only popular in the USA. There are
over 100 localized versions of YouTube for countries
around the world.
Spend some time researching who your target audience is
already following on YouTube. What types of videos do
they watch? (If you don’t have your target audience
figured out yet, we have a free buyer persona
template to help out.)
There are a couple ways to do this:
If you already have your YouTube channel set up,
check out your Analytics tab.
This will give you valuable insights into your
audience’s demographics and interests. You can see how
many people are finding your videos through search,
seeing it in their suggested feed or from other
sources.

6. Use social listening to find your audience.
What’s the best way to form lasting connections with
other people? By spying on them from a distance, of
course.
No, seriously, social listening allows you to
continuously search social platforms, including
YouTube, for mentions of your brand or specific
keywords.
By seeing what people are saying about you or your
industry, you can find out what people want to know and
use that for video content ideas.
Step 3: Research your competition
The fastest way to grow on YouTube is to figure out
what’s working for your competition and then do that…
but better.
You can start by looking up channels from the
competitors you already know. Perform a competitor
analysis for the following:
 Subscriber count
 Average views per video

7.  Frequency of posting
 Overall video quality
 What people are saying in the comments
 The main topics they post about
And then ask yourself:
 What are their most popular videos?
 How are they presenting themselves?
 What is their brand voice?
 How can I differentiate my company from
them?
 What ideas can I get for new content from
this channel?
Put all your notes into a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands
for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
(and always makes me feel like a Secret Service agent
when I casually mention I’m gonna go do a SWOT to my
coworkers by the coffee machine).
We’ve got a free SWOT template to get you goin’ right
away.

8. At first, your goal is probably to grow your
subscribers and audience as fast as possible. So write
down your competitors’ subscriber counts and views.
Track your own progress against theirs monthly.
Plus, if you’re competitive like me, the desire to
crush their numbers will motivate you to keep going
with your channel, even if growth is slow at first.
Step 4: Learn from your favorite channels
Besides learning from your competitors, you should also
be learning from your favorite YouTube channels. These
don’t have to be channels related to your industry.
By consuming YouTube content, you will learn a lot
about what’s working, especially since it’s always
changing.
For example, did you know it’s more important to have
good audio quality than video quality? It’s true: Bad
audio can turn people off from watching your video or
subscribing.
A lot goes into making YouTube videos people want to
watch. When you watch others, pay attention to things
like:
 Video thumbnails
 Channel art
 How other creators are linking to posts or
products
 How other creators edit their videos,
including text popups and other special
effects
There are even entire channels devoted to video editing
and YouTube growth. You can track them, or keywords
relating to YouTube growth, in your Hootsuite
dashboard.

9. Step 5: Optimize your videos to get views
OK, let’s get specific about making you famous.
YouTube’s 2 billion users watch about 1 billion hours
of video content every single day. So how do you rise
above the noise and get YouTube’s algorithm to show
your videos?
If you’re familiar with SEO and Google’s algorithm,
YouTube works in a similar way with 1 key difference:
Personalization.
When you search a phrase on Google, you’re served
roughly the same website results as other people. I say
“roughly,” because some results change based on
location.
But if you and a buddy sat next to each other in the
same room, on the same Wi-Fi and searched for the same
keyword, you’d see the same results.
Not the case on YouTube.
When YouTube shows you search results, they take into
account the keyword and similar things Google looks
for: How popular a video already is, keywords in the
title, etc. But YouTube also factors in your watch
history and the types of videos it knows you like to
watch.
That’s why no two users’ YouTube homepage or search
results will be 100% alike.
Personalization plays a role, but it’s still important
to do all those other YouTube SEO things to get your
videos found in search.
Here are the 6 ways you need to optimize your videos
to get more views:

10. Do keyword research
Before you can optimize your video, you need to know
what you’re optimizing for. Keyword research gives you
the phrases people are using to find content so you can
add it to yours, too. (More on this in a sec.)
You can use Google Keyword Planner for keyword
research. Additionally, type your topic into the
YouTube search bar and see what comes up. These are all
things real people have searched for. This can give you
ideas for new keywords.
Add your keywords to your video
You should have one main keyword and a few additional
ones for each video. Here’s where to add them:

11.  The video title (main keyword)
 The video description (main keyword + 1-2
related keywords)
 Use the main keyword within the first
3 sentences
 The video’s tags
 According to YouTube, this has minimal
impact, but use your keywords as
tags anyway. It only takes a second.
Use timestamps
YouTube timestamps are like breaking your video into
chapters. It allows viewers to skip around to the
sections they’re most interested in. This increases the
chance they’ll watch more of your video.
Take a look at how the Hootsuite team uses timestamps
to help their audience navigate longer videos.

12. Create a detailed video description
Each video’s description should have a unique section
of a few sentences describing what it’s about. But, you
can create default descriptions to save time for the
parts you want in every video.
Here’s what you want to include in your description:

13.  Website link
 Links to your other social media accounts
 Links to your products or services mentioned
in the video
 A call to action
Create an engaging video thumbnail
Custom thumbnails are so important for views. Besides
your title, it’s the only other thing users have to
decide if they want to watch your video or not.
What counts as a good YouTube thumbnail will vary
depending on your audience. As a minimum, make sure it
isn’t just a screenshot from your video. Use a photo or
your brand elements and add some text to lure viewers
in — like Hootsuite does on the Hootsuite Labs channel:
Current specs are a 16:9 format with a minimum size of
1280 x 720 pixels.
Respond to comments
YouTube is a social network, right? So act like it.
Responding to viewer comments shows you’re there to
build a community, not to push out self-promotional
content.
It also boosts your video’s status to the algorithm
because more comments = more popular-seeming video.
Step 6: Upload and schedule your videos
This is it, you’re ready to go.

14. You can upload your finished video directly into
YouTube Studio and either publish it right away or
schedule it for later. You can also schedule videos
with Hootsuite the same way you schedule all your other
social content.
For scheduling, a few things to keep in mind:
 How often are you going to post? Pick a
schedule — daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly,
etc — and stick to it.
 Think about the best day to post on for your
audience. When are they most likely to watch
your content?
Step 7: Optimize your channel to attract
followers
We’ve talked about optimizing individual videos but you
also need to optimize your entire channel. Make sure
your channel art and profile photo reflect your
branding.
In addition to visual branding, YouTube has some built-
in features that make it easier to get more
subscribers:

15.  Group your videos into playlists organized
by topic.
 Create a channel trailer, which is like a
commercial representing what your channel is
about.
You know when you’re watching a video and the creator
always tells people to “like and subscribe?” There’s a
reason: It works.
In your videos, be sure to:
 Ask people to subscribe to your channel and
like, comment and/or share your video.
 Have a clear call to action.
 Engage with your audience.
 For example, mention how audience
questions inspired the current video.
 Use a custom end screen to direct viewers to
other videos of yours to keep them on your
channel longer.
 Add closed captioning. You should prioritize
accessibility in all your content, and
captions include Deaf and/or hard-of-hearing
people in your potential audience.
 Uploading your own captions will
ensure accuracy and is something you
can easily outsource.
 YouTube also offers free, automatic
captioning but it often gets words
wrong.
 You can even add translated versions
of your captions to better serve a
multilingual audience or earn more
international views.

16. Step 8: Try YouTube advertising
Not growing fast enough? Try YouTube ads.
Most YouTube ads are videos but you can also place
banner ads, either in videos or on the website. You can
also make your video ads either skippable after 5
seconds, or unskippable.
As a Google company, YouTube ads operate through the
Google Ads platform. Running successful ads requires a
strategy of its own, which we detail in our guide to
Google Ads.
Besides the campaign strategy, before you try out paid
ads, make sure you have:
 A rock-solid understanding of who your
audience is.
 Optimized your YouTube channel’s visual
branding and description.
 Uploaded at least 5-10 videos so your new
visitors can get a sense for what you’re all
about.
Step 9: Try influencer marketing
YouTube influencers — called “creators” — are growing
every year. YouTube reported a 50% year over year

17. growth in the number of creators earning over $10,000
per year, and a 40% increase in those earning over
$100,000.
While new social platforms pop up all the time and
become the “hot” place to advertise, like TikTok in
2021, YouTube is a high-performing channel for brands.
Almost half of all brands who plan to use influencer
marketing will use YouTube.
Source: eMarketer
YouTube is a classic sponsorship channel for a
reason: 70% of viewers have bought a product they saw
featured on YouTube.
As with any form of paid advertising or marketing
campaign, you can’t jump straight into an influencer
partnership without some prep work:
 Know your audience, know your goals… you
know this part already.
 Play by the rules — and not just YouTube’s
rules. Follow FTC rules for disclosing paid
or sponsored content. Ensure your creator

18. partner uses the hashtags #ad or #sponsored,
as a minimum.
 Choose an influencer who aligns with your
brand and who you trust to produce high-
quality content.
 Analyze your results after the campaign and
learn what to do differently next time.
Nike’s campaign with “What’s Inside?” shows what’s
possible when you let your creator take the lead.
Famous for cutting everyday items in half to see what’s
inside, the aptly-named channel created a series of
videos for Nike to promote a new shoe.
The most popular video of the series is where they cut
the new shoe in half, which earned over 7.1 million
views.
Step 10: Analyze and adapt
As with all marketing, you need to track your YouTube
analytics at least monthly. Use YouTube’s built-in
reports to see what your audience is watching, what
they like the most, where your traffic is coming from
and more.
Use analytics to track your channel growth, too. Write
down your numbers monthly for:
 Subscribers
 Views
 View duration
 Top videos
 Watch time
 Impressions
 Your click-through rate (CTR)

19. This becomes your benchmark to measure your channel by
each month. Not growing? Then it’s time to adjust your
YouTube marketing strategy.
4 YouTube marketing tools for business
Boost your YouTube marketing results with these useful
tools:
Mentionlytics for social listening
With Mentionlytics, you can monitor all your social
platforms for mentions of your company name or specific
keywords. You can track positive and negative mentions
so you can swoop in with responsive replies to both
situations, and the app also gives you an overall
Sentiment Analysis based on what people are saying.
Hootsuite for everything
You can schedule videos in YouTube Studio, but why step
out of your (work)flow? Hootsuite can schedule all your
social media posts, including YouTube videos.
More than a scheduler, Hootsuite’s dashboard allows you
to monitor brand and keyword mentions across all your
channels. You can do everything you need to for social

20. media directly from Hootsuite. That includes post
creation, advertising, analytics reporting and you can
save a ton of time by responding to comments directly
from your dashboard.
Your entire team can have access to collaboration tools
that allow you to effectively manage social accounts at
scale, all in one place.
The only thing Hootsuite can’t do is call your mom on
her birthday. But it can be used to set up a birthday
Tweet in advance. Just sayin’.
Channelview Insights for in-depth
analytics
YouTube has built-in analytics but if you’re looking
for a truly in-depth look at your stats, Channelview
Insights is for you.
Channelview brings a Google Analytics-ish vibe to
YouTube with its familiar layout for tracking
everything from demographic data to traffic sources and
subscriptions. It supports multiple YouTube channels
and can export reports as PDFs or CSVs for the ultimate
Excel party experience.

21. TubeRanker for keyword research
This free website is a good starting point for basic
keyword research. You enter a keyword on TubeRanker and
it tells you the YouTube search volume for that
keyword, plus ideas for other keywords.

22. Let Hootsuite make growing your YouTube channel easier.
Get scheduling, promotion and marketing tools all in
one place for your entire team. Sign up free today.
Get Started
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By Michelle Martin
As an ex-agency strategist turned freelance WFH fashion icon,
Michelle is passionate about putting the sass in SaaS content.
She's known for quickly understanding and distilling
complicated technical topics into conversational copy that
gets results. She has written for Fortune 500 companies and
startups, and her clients have earned features in Forbes,
Strategy Magazine and Entrepreneur.
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