Love video, but wish there was an easier way to put together a client-attracting YouTube video marketing plan for the month? You got it!
Ensuring your videos get seen–and get you paid–can be broken down into two steps:
- Planning high-quality video content
- Marketing/promoting your videos once they go live
Both ingredients are necessary to ensure YouTube actually works for you (aka helps you get in front of more ideal clients and nurtures the loyal viewers you already have).
Want to make sure you’re hitting all the right notes with your YouTube video marketing?
Below, you’ll find tried-and-tested tips for creating a monthly marketing plan for your YouTube channel so the entire process from idea to final video runs smoothly:
1) Start with a broad monthly overview. You’ll want to take a look at your overall business goals, promotions and other time-sensitive information, like holidays, seasonal changes, trends and current events and more. What’s going on in the world–or your world–this month?
2) Do keyword and/or topic research (and choose your keywords!) Next up, since SEO is everything on YouTube, it’s important to find trending keywords. Fortunately, tools like vidIQ make this easy as gluten-free apple pie. If you have an idea in mind, you can simply type it into the vidIQ Keyword Explorer and get a rating for how useful it would be to include in your video description.
3) Outline your video. You can do this at a high-level by writing down your title, keyword and a few talking points. That said, it can be really helpful to get even more specific. Do you need a screencast? A voiceover? Will you need different shots (typically called a-roll and b-roll)? How about images or sounds that you need to include in the editing process? Feel free to jot down all your ideas so you don’t lose them.
4) Plan your video elements – like titles, descriptions, etc. There are also a lot of other little elements that go into crafting a successful YouTube video marketing plan that gets seen. You’ll also want to brainstorm title ideas and write out your video description. And don’t forget to include any relevant links and calls-to-action. (You might need to update this after you record as well, since you might mention a product or related video that you weren’t planning on while recording and need to tell your viewers here to find it.)
5) Develop your posting schedule/frequency. Maybe you already have a rock-solid posting schedule–and that’s great! Either way, the top of each month is a great time to re-evaluate it all, including how often you want to create and upload videos to YouTube. Be sure you’re realistic with the time it takes to outline, record, edit and upload your videos. Most creators suggest having your edited video ready-to-roll at least a day before you need it to go Live. It’s super important to remain consistent on YouTube if you want a successful channel, so once a week is a fabulous goalpost–but you can always record more.
6) Then, put your promotional hat on because it’s time to think about what will happen after your video goes live. Where will you promote your YouTube videos? Will you send an email to your list, publish a new video to your IG story, etc.? Is it tied to any other content–like a blog post that will need to be created?
7) In that same vein, you can also write out how you plan to repurpose the content. Does your YouTube video description turn into an Instagram caption, too–or can your VA help you turn a piece of your video into an Instagram Story, Reel or TikTok?
8) Be clear on responsibilities. Get clear on who will do what and by when for each video. You might have different milestones, deadlines and team members handling different tasks. Be sure it’s all mapped out.
9) Repeat for each video you plan to create for the month–and add it to your content calendar. If you already have a content calendar on an app like AirTable, ClickUp or even just Google Sheets–go ahead and add this information. Or create a new one, if you’re brand new.
Whether you’re a YouTube pro looking for a systematized way to map out your videos or you’re still in the “planning your channel” stages, following these quick tips every month as you map out your video marketing plan can help save you time, energy and that other thing we all care about: money.
