How Do You Build a Video Marketing Strategy?
Aug 01, 2025Build it in four parts: who the video is for, what you will actually say, where it gets published, and how often. Decide those before you record anything. Then run one simple weekly plan, publish, and measure what moves. That is the difference between random videos and videos with a purpose.
You have probably posted a handful of videos already and wondered why nothing much came of them. That is rarely a problem with the videos. It is what sits underneath them, and it takes less time to fix than you would expect.
What actually goes into a video marketing strategy?
Four things, and Chris frames them as a recipe. Your ingredients are your scripts, your ideas and your platforms. Your recipe is the plan: who it is for, why you are making it, and how you will serve it. Your oven is the publishing schedule, because timing is everything.
“And without the recipe, you just end up with random ingredients and a messy kitchen, or in this case a string of videos that just never convert.” – Chris Schwager
Those four parts are the build. The wider system they sit inside is the video strategy pillar, and if you are still working out what the plan half is supposed to decide, what a video marketing plan actually is covers that first.
How simple can a video marketing strategy be?
Simpler than the word suggests. Inside the Video Confidence Collective the shift members make is dropping the twelve-month document. A strategy has three jobs: speak to the right audience, deliver value consistently, and magnetise the right opportunity so you can say yes to it.
“Video marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. It just needs to speak to the right audience.” – Chris Schwager
Simplicity wins, and it wins because a simple plan survives a busy month. Once the strategy exists, picking the next recording stops being a blank page. That decision has its own method in how to decide what your next video should be.
What changes once there is a plan?
One Ridge client had been posting whatever they felt like, whenever they felt like it, for months. A simple weekly plan tripled their engagement, and the leads started arriving. That client has closed almost $400,000 in sales.
Nothing exotic happened in between. The videos did not suddenly look better. The order they arrived in got decided in advance, which is the whole intervention.
How do you know if it is working?
By testing and measuring, not by hoping. Not every video is going to land, and it was never supposed to. The plan is what lets you read the results at all, because you decided why each video existed before you recorded it.
“And I’m not saying that every single video is a winner. It’s about testing and measuring.” – Chris Schwager
Without that, a flat video and a strong one look identical, because neither had a job. With it, you learn something every week whether the video performed or not.
Where do you start if you have never had one?
One audience, one purpose, one place to publish, one day of the week. That is a real strategy and you can write it on a single line. Add to it once the rhythm is there, not before.
“Start simple, stay consistent, and keep it fun because when you know your next move, every video feels easier and easier and easier.” – Chris Schwager
If the sticking point is fitting the recording around real work rather than deciding what to record, that is a different problem, and a video content schedule that does not burn you out is where it gets solved.
Frequently asked questions
How long should it take to build a video marketing strategy?
An afternoon for the first version. You need four decisions: the audience, the purpose, the platform and the publishing day. Everything else is detail you will get wrong from a desk anyway and correct once real videos are out. A twelve-month document written before the first video is guesswork with a deadline attached.
Do you need a different strategy for each platform?
No. One strategy, then decide where each video gets served. The plan covers who it is for and why it exists. The platform is a serving decision, and one recording usually stretches across several of them. Splitting the strategy by platform is how people end up with four half-finished plans and no rhythm at all.
How many videos does a strategy need before it works?
Fewer than you think, published more regularly than you think. One a week for a quarter beats twelve in a burst. Volume is not the point. The point is that your audience knows what to expect from you, and that familiarity is what turns into trust and then into an opportunity.
Is a video marketing strategy the same as a content calendar?
No. A calendar says when. A strategy says who it is for, why it exists, and what changes if it works. Put a calendar on top of no strategy and you get consistent videos that answer nothing. Decide the purpose first and the dates become obvious rather than arbitrary.
Transcript
Read the full transcript
[00:00:00] Chris Schwager: You know, baking a cake without a recipe, it's a disaster waiting to happen. You throw in a bit of flour, a bit of dash of sugar and hope for the best, right? And what comes out is either rock hard or raw. And that's what happens when businesses make videos without a video marketing strategy. They're post here and there and they chase trans and wonder why no one's biting.
[00:00:22] Chris Schwager: But imagine if every video had a purpose, a plan, a path to profit, suddenly your marketing doesn't feel [00:00:30] like guesswork anymore. And here's the part people miss the most. Hi, I'm Chris Schwager, video coach and founder of the Complete Video Success System, and I've spent decades helping professionals create high impact videos that build trust, generate leads, and drive business success.
[00:00:44] Chris Schwager: And if you've ever felt unsure or under-prepared. Or just playing awkward with video. This is for you. I'll give you the mindset and strategies to take control, build video confidence so that you show up like a pro. It's time to make your videos work for you. Alright, [00:01:00] good day. Welcome back. You might be thinking, oh, I've posted a couple of videos before.
[00:01:03] Chris Schwager: What's the problem? Isn't that enough? But without a clear video marketing strategy, it's like throwing darts in the dark. You might be hitting a board. Rarely does it hit the bullseye. And in this episode, I wanna show you why building a strategy is your secret weapon and how to transform video from time wasting into client magnetizing material.
[00:01:27] Chris Schwager: Think of it like a strategy. That [00:01:30] allows you to bake a cake. Your ingredients, right uh, are your scripts, your ideas and platforms. Your recipe is the plan and who it's for and why you're making it and how you'll serve it. And the oven is your publishing schedule. Because timing is everything. And without the recipe, you just end up with random ingredients and a messy kitchen, or in this case a string of videos that just never convert.
[00:01:55] Chris Schwager: And when we coach our members inside the Video Confidence Collective, the biggest shift [00:02:00] is simplicity wins, right? I this concept of. Video marketing strategy doesn't have to be complicated. It just needs to speak to the right audience. It needs to deliver value consistently, and it needs to magnetize the right opportunity so that you can say yes.
[00:02:19] Chris Schwager: To having real growth with your videos. Videos that actually work. And here's a real life example. One of our clients had been posting whatever they felt like whenever they felt like it for [00:02:30] months. And once we helped them build a simple weekly plan, their engagement tripled. And more importantly, the lead started rolling in.
[00:02:37] Chris Schwager: This particular client's closed almost $400,000 in sales. It's the difference between hoping your cake rises and knowing. It will. And I'm not saying that every single video is a winner. It's about testing and measuring. Okay, so here's the key takeaway from today's podcast. Don't post another random video without a video marketing strategy.[00:03:00]
[00:03:00] Chris Schwager: Your strategy is your recipe. It's the difference between videos that vanish into the void and videos that actually grow your business. Think about it. Don't start going down the rabbit hole of video creation without knowing what to do. Start simple, stay consistent, and keep it fun because when you know your next move, every video feels easier and easier and easier, and the results will taste sweeter.
[00:03:25] Chris Schwager: Any cake. Thanks for listening to the Video Confidence Collective Podcast. If you enjoyed this [00:03:30] episode, leave a five star review on Apple Podcast at Spotify and subscribe to us on YouTube so you never miss an episode. For more resources, check out the show notes and follow me at Chris Schwager or Ridge Films and see you on the next episode.
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