YouTube and a 121-year-old Danish shipping and logistics company.

It seems like an odd couple.

But it’s a smart marketing strategy for Maersk, which operates in over 130 countries and boasts over 100,000 employees.

And it’s far from the only B2B brand to think so. Almost 80% of B2B marketers say they use YouTube, according to CMI’s 2025 B2B research.

So, how does a B2B brand make the most of the Google-owned video platform? What should it refrain from doing? Let’s look at some lessons from the Maersk YouTube channel.

Maersk has done well in attracting committed viewers; its channel boasts over 134,000 subscribers. Since 2010, it’s posted over 1,500 videos, netting more than 30.7 million views.

1. Make the most of the channel’s description page

Maersk uses 218 of the 1,000 characters allowed in its full-length description of the channel:

“A.P. Moller - Maersk is an integrated transport and logistics company with multiple brands and is a global leader in container shipping and ports. We employ roughly 100,000 employees across operations in 130 countries. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest updates on our various activities around the world.”

The first 80 or so characters appear on the home page (highlighted in bold above).

The succinct description works well. Visitors aren’t willing to read lengthy descriptions. They want to know if the channel relates to their needs and interests. In this case, visitors can quickly understand the industry (transportation and logistics) and the company’s size (100,000 employees and operations in 130 countries).

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The description’s last sentence is a call to action. Maersk asks readers to subscribe to the channel and explains what they’ll get if they do. Making the ask and setting expectations are essential in successful B2B marketing.

Below the description, Maersk lists its digital channels — website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (it doesn’t use the X name), Instagram, TikTok, and link-in-bio page.

Increasingly, YouTube is a go-to research source, not just a space for watching videos. By including all their digital sites, Maersk smartly lets viewers know where to find them.

2. Organize content with the viewer in mind

YouTube allows a channel to post up to 12 custom categories on its page. Maersk displays eight:

That's a wide breadth of content that appeals to multiple audiences, including employees, prospective hires, customers, potential customers, and industry professionals. Most of its category labels spell out what viewers will get. Five of the categories also include helpful intro explanatory text.

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Maersk brings human faces to the forefront with categories like Life at Sea and Life at Maersk. That’s an all-important factor for B2B companies that more often than not are seen as faceless brands. This short video features the story of Capt. Beate Stelzer.

However, the design isn’t consistent. While most of the videos have the same Maersk brand colors and font, they don't always follow a standard format. The same issue exists for video titles.

You can see what I'm talking about in the road to decarbonisation category.

As reflected in the screenshot below, the titles include:

Some images include a video title in a blue box on the left, while others include full-screen images with a title.

When I saw the category name, I mistakenly assumed “road to decarbonisation” was a series title. However, the category does include a series — All The Way To Zero. It would have worked better to dedicate a category to that series. Mixing it among other videos is a disservice to the investment in sequenced storytelling.

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Also, standardizing the series title and episode names from the beginning is important to guide viewers. I like how Maersk usually starts the title with the episode number. Since YouTube controls the order of videos in a category, it’s especially helpful to include the episode number. Unfortunately, with Maersk’s series of videos, it’s hit or miss whether the episode name is included in the video title.

TIP: While YouTube automates the order of videos, channel creators can adjust the order of the categories on the home page.

3. Plan ahead for video viewing

Evidently, Maersk doesn’t do a lot of livestreaming. But when it does, it uses the YouTube channel. In the screenshot above, it published two videos of company meetings, a naming ceremony for a container vessel sailing on green methanol, and the arrival of the world’s first green methanol vessel.

Maersk seems to use livestreaming as a simulcast feature, allowing people to view in real time the big or public in-person events hosted by the company. That makes sense for a business that operates in over 130 countries and employs 100,000 people.

At most B2B companies, meetings and announcements aren’t the most visually stunning, let alone engaging, content. But that’s OK because information is a valuable commodity to deliver in itself. These four videos saw between 1,500 and 5,100 views each — viewers who most likely watched to learn the information, not to be entertained.

If Maersk wanted to up its livestream game, it could plan for a video version at the same time it plans the in-person presentation. For example, instead of showing a screen split of someone standing at a podium alongside a static presentation slide for 10 minutes, the video could intersperse relevant B-roll with the live speaker voiceover or animations that illustrate what the speaker is explaining.

4. Add the podcasts

Maersk hosts its podcast Beyond The Box — Logistics 101 on its YouTube channel. It includes 19 episodes and appears as a dedicated category on its home page. It also shows up under the podcast tab on the header.

YouTube is the most popular listening platform for podcasts and counts 1 billion monthly average users for podcasts on the platform. The title Beyond the Box is a fun name, given that the brand is in the container shipping industry. Maersk also uses consistent branding, creating thumbnails that feature the episode topic along with the speakers. Viewers (or listeners) know exactly what to expect.

The podcast also includes speakers outside of the Maersk family. That creates a more credible experience for viewers and allows the brand to further enhance its reputation as a valuable resource for industry information.

Many episodes include a static slide on the screen throughout the episode, like the one above for a recent episode on tech transformation in the global supply chain. It includes the speakers’ headshots with their names and titles.

That visual makes a good, consistent thumbnail, but it does nothing for people watching the episode. Fortunately, some episodes include videos of the podcast being recorded. That’s better than a static slide, especially given how much nonverbal communication tells a story, too.

To make it even more engaging, Maersk could incorporate other visuals into the podcast video. After the audio is recorded, someone or even an AI tool could identify potential visuals from the Maersk content library and put together a visual presentation that works well with the existing speaker recording video and audio.

5. Elevate your customer stories

Maersk dedicates a YouTube home page category to customer insights. It includes five videos (as shown above):

Every B2B channel should put customer stories front and center. If buyers are your channel’s target audience, they want to see themselves and they want to know how you have helped solve the pain points of others like them.

The first video contains the department store Macy’s in its title. That recognizable brand immediately connects with those in the retail industry, and the rest of the title identifies the problem and solution — automation for a more flexible supply chain.

Unfortunately, Maersk only showcases five videos, all of which were published over a year ago. That doesn’t instill confidence in viewers that Maersk wants to tell their customers’ stories.

Plus, other than the Macy’s video, the others aren’t about customers. They’re just potentially interesting topics for customers. For example, the video about how to make a booking on the Maersk site is valuable information for customers, but not a good fit for the category.

Interestingly, Maersk already has better customer stories. I found a playlist labeled customer stories under the logistics and supply chain category. It contains 29 videos, including one published three months ago. It would make sense to add those to the more prominently featured customer insights category.

Show and showcase stories

Maersk clearly understands the power of video in B2B content marketing. With over 134,000 subscribers and tens of millions of views, its YouTube channel stands as a testament to the potential success B2B marketers can see with videos in their marketing mix. By learning what worked for Maersk and what could be improved, you can deliver video content more effectively on YouTube for your audience and the brand.

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