The age of video marketing is here. In 2022, Hubspot found that 79% of marketers who don’t have a video strategy intend to create one, and 99% of marketers who do have a video strategy plan to grow it. YouTube for B2C marketing is the number one video marketing platform.  

Central to any video marketing strategy is Youtube, the original online video platform. Youtube provides a rich opportunity for B2C marketing. Why? Your customers are already there: In 2021, 81% of Americans used Youtube.

If you’re ready to build your Youtube marketing strategy and connect with consumers, keep reading to learn more about both paid and organic strategies you can employ.

Paid Youtube Marketing Strategies

To utilize paid marketing strategies, you’ll first need to create a Youtube channel for your business and add video content to it. Youtube Ads can promote this content through two different types of ads:

  1. In-stream – From a user point of view, you might be the most familiar with in-stream Youtube ads. These are the ads that play during or before videos. In-stream ads are curated to reach as many potential customers as possible.
  2. Video discovery – When you search for a specific type of video, Youtube lists video discovery ads first as promoted videos. Video discovery ads are utilized to engage an audience, build brand awareness, and gain customers or subscribers.

Once you decide which ad type meets your goals, you will also need a Google Adwords account to create your campaign. You can customize your campaign based on:

  • Goal – You can choose from five different goals: Brand awareness/reach, Leads, Product/brand consideration, Sales, and Website traffic.
  • Cost – Youtube has a cost-per-view (CPV) model so if someone doesn’t engage with your ad, you don’t pay. Cost varies significantly based on the reach of your campaign, but the average is $0.06 per click.
  • Timeline – You can specify the duration of your campaign.
  • Audience – You can target specific demographics, such as gender or age, or specific audience segments based on interests.
  • Content – You can pick keywords and topics as well as content exclusions to further define your campaign’s reach.

Although Youtube Ads streamlines the campaign creation process, it can still be difficult for companies to create ads that provide a return on their investment. If you’re not experienced with paid social campaigns, especially those that use the pay-per-click (PPC) model, consider a PPC marketing agency. An expert will ensure your campaigns are effective.

Organic Youtube Marketing Strategies

Youtube has a wealth of organic marketing options if you’re not ready to commit to paid strategies. To start, you will still need to create a Youtube account for your business and upload videos. 

Your content can come in many different forms, from customer testimonials to industry interviews. Once you’ve created your video content, there are two key approaches to ensure you reach your customers:

  1. SEO
  2. Cross-Promotion

SEO

After you’ve started creating content for your Youtube channel, you can ensure potential customers actually find it by improving its SEO. Within your video, there are four simple opportunities to boost your videos’ SEO rankings:

  • Thumbnail – The thumbnail image is the first thing users see when they’re deciding which video to click on. Creating custom thumbnails for each video is your best opportunity to ensure your video performs well.
  • Title – The next thing that catches a user’s eye is your title. Effective titles are descriptive and approximately 60 characters—any longer and the full title will be cut off. Adding keywords to your title can also improve its searchability.
  • Category and tags – When you upload your video, you can choose its category and add your keywords as tags. Both of these strategies help Youtube classify and promote your videos.
  • Subtitles – Most Youtube videos use auto-generated subtitles. However, adding a custom transcription where you emphasize your keywords can help the video perform better. Your videos will also be more accessible to your customers.

Cross-Promotion

Undoubtedly, Youtube is only one of your many B2C marketing channels. To ensure your account’s success, you can cross-promote it across other digital platforms, such as:

  • Your website  – You can start by adding a Youtube icon to the footer of your website next to the other icons for your social media accounts. Then, embed or link your Youtube videos on relevant pages of your website to encourage users to visit your channel.
  • External websites  – You can externally link to your Youtube by collaborating with other companies in your industry and by engaging with online forums like Quora and Reddit.
  • Emails – You can embed or link your Youtube videos in your marketing emails. This provides a more engaging call to action (CTA) than the standard linking to a product page or blog.
  • Social media – You can directly share your Youtube videos to platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. For other video-driven social platforms like Instagram or TikTok, you can edit and resize short clips from your videos.

Reimagine Your B2C Marketing Campaigns With Semgeeks

Whether you utilize a paid or organic social strategy, Youtube connects you directly with your customers and drives traffic to your website and other social media profiles. 

And you don’t have to choose between paid and organic opportunities! Start by creating high-quality, optimized video content and share it online to build engagement. When you’re ready, you can use that same content to create ads.

Whichever strategy you use, video marketing is the way of the future. A paid social agency like Semgeeks won’t let you be left behind. We’ll work with you to help you reach both your current and future marketing goals—let’s talk strategy today.

Sources: 

Hubspot. The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing 

Hubspot. Youtube Marketing. https://www.hubspot.com/youtube-marketing 

Seanna Nelson
Inbound Marketing Specialist