Different Types of YouTube Marketing: What’s The Best Content Strategy for You?

man holding mobile phone with youtube marketing on it

Youtube is the second-most visited social media website in the world. If you’re wondering how many people use Youtube, exactly, the site draws in around 14.3 billion hits every month. That’s more than Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit.

Youtube’s sheer wealth of monthly users makes it impossible to ignore as a content marketing tool, and there are countless different ways you can leverage YouTube to build your brand. So, if you’re ready to dive in, read on to learn about YouTube marketing strategies and discover how to build your own.

What is YouTube marketing? Youtube marketing examples

As the name suggests, YouTube marketing is the art of promoting your company through video content and advertising. There are a few different subtypes of YouTube marketing, which include the following.

  • Organic YouTube Marketing: This involves uploading video content to YouTube and building traffic like any other YouTuber. You won’t generally pay to promote your videos. Instead, you’ll rely on SEO-optimized titles, descriptions, and cross-promotion on your website and other social media platforms to build your audience naturally.
  • YouTube Ads: With video ads, you’ll create content that will play before, or in the middle of another creator’s videos. You can also advertise in other ways on YouTube, such as with banner overlays or images that appear when users search for videos.
  • Behind The Scenes Videos: Give your audience a sneak peek into the daily activities of the people behind your company, which could help you build authenticity and establish a connection between you and your audience.
  • YouTube Influencer Marketing: With this type of marketing, you’ll enlist the help of an existing content creator to promote your business in their videos. This could be in the form of a sponsored message during the video. Or, you might give away products for a YouTuber to offer their honest opinions in a review.

Which is the best type of YouTube marketing?

Each type of YouTube content marketing has a different set of potential benefits and drawbacks. So, one isn’t necessarily better or worse than the others. But the following pros and cons could help you understand which one is right for you.

Paid Advertising Pros And Cons

With paid advertising, you don’t need to build your audience completely from the ground up. Instead, you can rely on the traffic and popularity of other YouTubers to spread awareness of your brand.

However, some people may find paid ads less authentic or trustworthy when compared to other types of content marketing. And if your ad plays too many times for the same users, you can risk giving them "ad fatigue".

Organic Content Marketing Pros And Cons

On the other hand, making and uploading your own video content presents the opportunity to build your audience organically. Potential consumers will likely find your videos through search results. When they “discover” you on their own, they may inherently have more trust in your brand and your content.

But, it may take longer to build an audience by making and uploading your own video content to YouTube, especially if you’re starting from scratch. You’ll also need to optimize your Youtube videos for search results, which is an art all its own.

Influencer Marketing Pros And Cons

Like paid ads, influencer marketing allows you to bring your product to a pre-existing audience. However, the influencer will make content for you — you don’t even need to film or edit a video yourself. Additionally, consumers may be more likely to choose a product when an influencer they trust recommends it.

But, this type of marketing can be more expensive than other options, depending on an influencer’s rates. Plus, there’s no guarantee that a content creator will leave a positive review of their experience.

How do you build a Youtube marketing strategy?

If you’re still having trouble deciding what to do, here’s the good news: You don’t necessarily need pick between one marketing method or another. Many brands use a combination of both paid and organic video content in their YouTube strategies. It all depends on the specifics of your overall marketing goals.

So, when you begin building your content strategy, try keeping the following factors in mind.

Assess Your Resources

First, it’s important to understand what type of content you can create with your resources — including your budget, equipment, available time, and team capacity.

Of course, if it’s not practical to create your own content in-house, outsourcing to a professional videographer could help you create videos for your channel and expand your horizons.

Understand Your YouTube Demographics

When planning your content strategy, consider who your target audience is, and what content they consume on YouTube. For example, baby boomers may be more likely to enjoy research-based reviews, while millennials may prefer influencer opinions and unboxing videos.

Check Out The Competition

Beyond looking into your target audience’s content preferences, take a look at what other competitors in your field are up to on YouTube. Do they focus on uploading their own video content to the site, or does their focus mainly lie in advertising? Try to identify any gaps in your competitor’s content strategy, and step up to fill the niche for consumers.

Test Your Content

Sometimes, the best path to success involves a little trial and error. So, it could help to try a few different methods to see which one yields the best results. Then, you can update your overall video strategy accordingly.

Of course, keep in mind that it may take longer to see a return with organic content marketing than other methods. But you could also experiment with different types of videos — like how-to guides and behind-the-scenes process videos, to see what gets the most engagement.

Need help building your video content marketing strategy?

Building a YouTube marketing strategy can be complicated — especially if you’re a total newcomer to the platform. But if you want a professional videographer who can take the stress out of video content marketing for you, McVeigh Media is here to help.

As Rhode Island videographers and video production specialists, we can help you create your Youtube video content, upload it, and promote it to your target audience. You don’t need any previous experience with creating videos or content marketing. We’ll take the hard part off your plate, so you can concentrate on running your business. Contact us today and learn more about how we can revolutionize your YouTube advertising strategy.

Posted by Sean McVeigh
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Sean McVeigh is an award-winning filmmaker and producer with over 25 years of experience. Sean’s work as a cinematographer and editor has been viewed on many of the major TV networks including NBC, ESPN, and the BBC. He has also worked with iconic brands like Apple, GE, Jaguar, Amtrak, US National Parks Services, and AAA.