10 Outdated YouTube Marketing Tactics to Drop, According to HubSpot Video Managers

When YouTube first launched I was in 6th grade and all of my friends were making funny videos to upload.

In the past, YouTube was mainly used for teenagers to upload funny, entertaining videos. Does anyone remember Smosh and Fred?

I age myself, but I digress.

Using YouTube for business and marketing was a new concept back then. Now, more than 15 years later, it’s very different. Brands and companies use Youtube to connect with their audience.

For marketers, this means your YouTube strategy must have evolved since the social platform began. If you haven’t used old YouTube strategies and are still using them, you are not benefiting from a channel.

Let’s look at the outdated YouTube strategies you need to give up and what you should be doing instead.

1. Focus on selling products rather than helping your audience.

While YouTube may have been a place of entertainment in the past, it’s now also a place for people to learn new skills and do research.

Nelson Chacon, YouTube’s chief marketing manager at HubSpot, says, “Don’t sell, help. Users on YouTube want to be informed, not to be sold.”

When companies started using social media websites, one of the older marketing tactics was to sell, sell, sell.

But users don’t want to be sold. They want help. If they go to your company’s YouTube, they’ll likely want information too.

The best way to ditch this strategy is to know what your audience needs help with. Think of yourself “What does my audience want to learn from me?”

Then create content that adds value.

Chacon explains, “An education, empowerment, and support strategy can go a long way.”

2. Be a robot instead of a human.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen a lot of companies publish content that sounds robotic. It doesn’t sound human and it’s hard to pay attention to. In fact, I’d even say it’s not interesting and it’s not obvious why it’s useful to me.

That’s why Chacon recommends being human in your videos instead. He says, “YouTube is a very organic platform where people like and trust creators even more than companies. This can be reflected in the content you create and the interactions with your audience.”

Any content you create for your marketing team should be helpful, human, and add value to your audience.

3. Neglect your audience.

Another outdated YouTube strategy is neglecting your audience. Some companies have a bad habit of only posting video content and not responding to comments or engaging with their viewers.

Additionally, many companies don’t use social listening to understand what content their target audience wants to see or what they’re looking for.

This is not going to help marketers.

Instead, Chacon recommends engaging and interacting with your audience. He says, “Users on YouTube enjoy interacting with developers. Keeping up with your social listening and monitoring is critical to success.”

4. Don’t optimize your videos.

When YouTube was created, SEO and optimization were fairly new concepts. In addition, the industry (as it is today) has continued to develop.

Because of this, many developers and companies didn’t know they should optimize their videos. Nowadays, to optimize your videos, you should pay attention to what your audience is looking for and include those keywords in your title and description.

Additionally, mentioning keywords in the video and adding CTAs are two great ways to keep your audience engaged with your content.

To improve your YouTube channel, you should dive in and understand how to optimize your videos for success on YouTube.

5. Do not use influencers.

Am I the only one who remembers a time before influencers?

While the job of social media content creator was new back then, it no longer goes or goes nowhere.

For this reason, companies should lean on it and use influencers with a similar audience. A great way to use influencers on YouTube is to find other content creators, collaborate on videos, and connect with them on their channels.

6. Don’t be consistent.

Good general advice for life is to be consistent. It’s no different with marketing and YouTube strategy.

Being consistent is how your audience builds a relationship with your brand. Without consistency, the relationship becomes stilted and feels neither organic nor natural.

Posting consistent content and engaging with your audience is the best way to succeed on YouTube.

7. Rely on organic rather than advertising.

Of course, organic traffic and views are very important to your YouTube strategy. However, it is important to use multiple channels to direct traffic onto your channel.

A great way to do this is to promote content to each other so your audience can find your videos. However, this doesn’t mean that you should just post a link on your Facebook or Instagram page.

Users don’t like it when they see a social media page whose sole purpose is to promote other content. Also, this content gets little engaged.

Of course, what you should be doing is finding ways to promote each other’s content. For example, you can take a survey on your Instagram stories and then add a swipe-up link to your YouTube video.

8. Do not use analysis.

Not using analytics is one of the biggest stale strategies that you need to drop. It’s important to keep track of your success and measure which videos work well and which don’t.

Analytics can help you find out when your target audience is online, what they’re interested in, how long they’ve been watching your videos, etc.

Finding the “best time” to post should no longer be the goal. The goal now is to find the best time for your audience special.

9. Fake likes and comments.

I’m not sure if people still do this, but I remember this was a great strategy companies used when I was younger.

So much so that most of the people in my generation don’t trust likes, comments, or even follower / subscriber numbers.

Any younger generation who grew up on social media, like Millennials and Gen Z, will notice these strategies and will quickly pick up or unsubscribe if they notice these strategies.

Because of this, you shouldn’t use auto-engaged bots, bulk tracking accounts to stop following the next day, or bulk commenting on videos asking you to be tracked.

Doing so damages your reputation, can lead to you being banned from social media websites, and your analytics will not be trustworthy.

Plus, you won’t be building a relationship with your audience, which is what it’s about. These sites are all about building a relationship so that people are encouraged to shop from you. Unless you are building a relationship with your audience, your vanity data doesn’t matter.

Instead, you should only follow legitimate accounts that are relevant to your brand. This can help you increase brand awareness, build trust with your audience, and ultimately generate revenue.

10. Use the wrong social media websites to promote your videos.

While promoting your content to one another is important, promoting on a social media site that your audience isn’t on doesn’t help.

For example, if your primary audience isn’t on Snapchat or Instagram, cross-promoting there won’t help drive your traffic.

Because of this, your social media strategy and YouTube strategy need to be reviewed every year. It is important that you align your strategy with the websites that your target audience is active on.

While Gen Z and Millennials are turning to Instagram, only Millennials or older generations use Facebook as their main social media site. Older generations tend not to be on other sites like Snapchat.

Ultimately, YouTube is an amazing platform to connect with your audience. And it’s getting more and more popular. This is why it is important to update your YouTube strategies and delete the above outdated techniques.