A video marketing strategy is a written plan for how video will move one business goal: who you are making it for, what each video is meant to do, where it will live, how often it goes out, what it costs and how you will know it worked. Without one, brands end up with a folder of nice films and no idea which of them earned their keep.
The good news is that the strategy itself does not need to be long. This guide gives you a seven step process, two frameworks that make the planning simpler, a one page video marketing plan template and the numbers that matter in 2026.
The short version
- Start with one goal. A video marketing strategy that tries to do everything at once usually measures nothing.
- Plan by intent, not by platform. Map your videos to See, Think, Do and Care so each one has a single job.
- Use Hero, Hub, Help to balance the mix. Most of the value comes from a steady library of Help and Hub content, not from one big launch film.
- Budget for distribution as well as production. More than half of video teams still spend more time making videos than promoting them.
- Measure each stage differently. Reach and recall for awareness, retention for attention, conversions for action, returning viewers for loyalty.
What is a video marketing strategy?
A video marketing strategy is the set of choices that sit above individual videos. It answers six questions: what business outcome video is responsible for, which audience you are serving, what job each piece of content does, which platforms and formats you will use, what resources you will commit, and which metrics prove progress.
It is different from a content calendar, which schedules the work, and from a creative brief, which describes a single video. If you already have a wider plan, our social media strategy template covers the channel level decisions, and this guide goes deeper on video.
Why does a brand need a video marketing strategy in 2026?
Because almost everyone is making video, and the gap now is between brands that make it on purpose and brands that make it out of habit. Wyzowl's 2026 survey found that 91% of businesses use video, but the share of video marketers reporting a good return fell to 82% from an all time high of 93% the year before (Wyzowl 2026). More video is going out; less of it is clearly paying back.
The audience is there. Ofcom reports that 94% of UK adults use YouTube, for an average of 51 minutes a day before you count the TV set (Ofcom Online Nation 2025), and Google puts YouTube's monthly UK adult audience at 47.9 million (Think with Google UK). Wyzowl also found that 85% of people say a video has convinced them to buy something, and 84% want to see more video from brands.
What video marketers say video has done for them (%)
Those outcomes are self reported by people who already use video, so treat them as a sign of where video tends to help rather than proof that it will help you. That is exactly why the strategy has to start with your own goal and your own measurement.
How to create a video marketing strategy in 7 steps
Step 1. Pick one business goal and one number
Write down the single outcome video is responsible for this year, the metric that proves it and the date. "Grow consideration among first time buyers" is a goal. "Do more video" is not. If you have two very different goals, such as brand awareness and lead generation, give each its own plan and budget line.
Step 2. Map your audience with See, Think, Do, Care
Google's Avinash Kaushik built the See, Think, Do, Care framework to group audiences by intent rather than by demographics (Occam’s Razor). See is the largest audience with no commercial intent yet. Think shows weak commercial intent. Do is close to buying. Care is existing customers who have bought more than once.
“This audience, and this is critical, has no commercial intent.” Avinash Kaushik on the See stage, the biggest audience a brand can reach.
Video earns its place at every stage. In Google and BCG research with more than 10,000 US shoppers, video made half of them aware of a product or brand and helped 45% choose what to buy (Think with Google).
What video did for shoppers on the path to purchase (%)
Step 3. Plan the mix with Hero, Hub, Help
Once you know the stages, decide the shape of your content. Hero, Hub, Help (originally Hero, Hub, Hygiene) splits video into big moments, recurring series and useful answers (WARC; Practical Ecommerce). Most brands overinvest in Hero and underinvest in Help, which is the content people actually search for.
| Layer | Job in the strategy | Typical formats | Rhythm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Help | Answers the questions people already search for, so you are found at the Think and Do stages | How to videos, explainers, product demos, FAQs, Shorts that answer one question | Always on, built up as a library |
| Hub | Gives people a reason to come back and subscribe | Episodic series, recurring formats, creator collaborations, podcasts filmed for YouTube | Weekly or fortnightly, on a fixed slot |
| Hero | Reaches the widest audience at a moment that matters | Launch films, campaign moments, live events, big creator partnerships | Two to four times a year, with paid support |
Hero, Hub, Help is a planning framework YouTube promoted to brands in the mid 2010s (described by WARC and Practical Ecommerce). Formats and rhythm are Advertain guidance.
Hub content is where channels compound. If a recurring series fits your brand, our guide to planning a branded content series walks through formats and seasons.
Step 4. Choose platforms and formats
Choose one lead platform where your full length content lives, then decide how it travels. For most consumer brands that lead platform is YouTube, because long form, Shorts, podcasts and the TV screen all sit in one place. B2B teams lean on LinkedIn as well: Wistia's 2026 report found 81% of teams share video on LinkedIn and 76% on YouTube, and 76% adjust aspect ratios by platform (Wistia State of Video 2026).
Formats do different jobs. Among the top UK Christmas advertisers on YouTube in 2025, Shorts were 16% of views but drove 92% of likes, while long form drew 14 times more comments (Think with Google UK). Shorts can now run up to three minutes in square or vertical formats (YouTube Help). Plan long form for depth and Shorts for reach, then repurpose long form video rather than making everything from scratch.
Step 5. Set the budget and decide who makes it
Budget for three things: production, distribution and testing. Wistia found 57% of teams spend more time creating video than promoting it (Wistia), which is how good videos end up with tiny audiences. Wyzowl reports that 92% of marketers plan to spend the same or more on video in 2026, and 41% spent on video ads, up from 36% (Wyzowl).
For the balance between brand and sales activity, Binet and Field's widely used starting point is around 60% brand and 40% activation for consumer brands, and 46% brand to 54% activation for B2B (The Drum); our brand vs performance marketing report covers the nuances. For costs, see our breakdown of video production cost in the UK, and for team structure, in house vs agency marketing.
Step 6. Build a rhythm you can keep
Consistency beats bursts. Wistia found that 76% of teams publish at least one video a month. Decide a minimum you can sustain for a full year, write every video against a short creative brief, and protect the first seconds with a strong hook. Our guide on how often to post on YouTube covers cadence in detail.
Step 7. Measure each stage differently
Views alone tell you very little. Set KPIs for each stage and review them on a fixed rhythm: monthly for retention and traffic, quarterly for brand and sales impact. For the wider metrics framework, see our guide to social media KPIs, and for proving awareness on YouTube, how to run a YouTube brand lift study.
| Stage | Question to answer | Video KPIs to watch |
|---|---|---|
| See | Did the right people notice us? | Unique viewers, reach, ad recall and awareness lift |
| Think | Did they pay attention and consider us? | Average view duration, audience retention, consideration lift, branded search |
| Do | Did they act? | Clicks, leads, sales, conversion rate, cost per acquisition |
| Care | Did customers stay and come back? | Returning viewers, subscribers, repeat purchase, fewer support queries |
Advertain guidance, mapped to the See, Think, Do, Care framework.
Video marketing strategy examples
Public results for whole video strategies are rare, because brands rarely share them. Two reported in Marketing Week show what a consistent approach can do. PepsiCo's Doritos recorded a 31% year on year increase in ROI from YouTube for a 2024 campaign, and Experian's creator led campaign raised its reach among 18 to 34 year olds by 81% (Marketing Week). Both figures are reported by the brands and YouTube rather than independently audited.
The pattern behind successful strategies is usually the same: a clear audience, a recurring format people can return to, a library of useful answers, and paid support at the moments that matter. You can see the kind of work we make for brands on our work page.
Video marketing plan template
Use this one page template to turn the seven steps into a plan your team can sign off. The example is a fictional outdoor brand.
| Section | What to write | Example (fictional outdoor brand, Halden Outdoor) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Business goal | One measurable outcome and a date | Grow online sales of waterproof jackets by 20% before next autumn |
| 2. Audience | Who, what they search, where they watch | Weekend walkers aged 25 to 45 who research kit on YouTube before buying |
| 3. Stage focus | Which of See, Think, Do, Care matters most this year | Think and Do: they know the category but compare brands |
| 4. Content mix | Your Help, Hub and Hero plan | Help: 30 kit explainers. Hub: a fortnightly trail series. Hero: one autumn launch film |
| 5. Platforms and formats | Lead platform, supporting platforms, formats | YouTube long form first, cut into Shorts, Reels and TikToks |
| 6. Budget and team | Production, distribution, people, split | Production 55%, paid distribution 35%, testing 10% |
| 7. Rhythm | What goes out each week and month | One Help video and one series episode a week; three Shorts a week |
| 8. Measurement | KPIs per stage and when you review | Monthly retention and traffic review; quarterly brand lift and sales check |
Template and fictional example are Advertain guidance. Copy the left two columns into a document or sheet and fill in your own version.
Checklist before you sign it off
- One business goal, one number and one date.
- Every planned video mapped to See, Think, Do or Care.
- A Help library, at least one Hub format and no more than four Hero moments a year.
- One lead platform, with a plan for how each video is cut for others.
- A distribution budget, not just a production budget.
- A publishing rhythm you can keep for twelve months.
- KPIs for each stage and a monthly and quarterly review in the diary.
- Disclosure and usage rights agreed for any creator or paid content.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best video marketing strategy?
The best video marketing strategy is the one tied to a single measurable goal, built around what your audience searches for and watches, and kept up consistently. For most brands that means a steady base of Help videos, a recurring Hub series and a few Hero moments with paid support.
How long should a marketing video be?
As long as its job needs. Sprout Social says preferred short form length has shifted to under 60 seconds, while about half of YouTube users say they are most likely to engage with brands' long form videos (Sprout Social). Use Shorts and Reels to reach people and long form to explain, compare and build trust.
How much should a brand spend on video marketing?
There is no universal figure. Start from the goal, cost one quarter of output, and keep a real share for distribution and testing. HubSpot's 2026 research lists video marketing among the channels marketers most plan to invest more in (HubSpot).
What is the difference between a video marketing strategy and a video marketing plan?
The strategy sets the goal, audience, mix and measures. The plan turns it into budgets, owners, dates and a publishing calendar. You need both, and the template above covers the essentials of each.
If you would like help building your video marketing strategy, talk to us.
