When people talk about how powerful a marketing tool social media can be, they’re usually referring to websites like Facebook or Twitter. They often overlook another platform that’s every bit as formidable, perhaps more-so – YouTube. As the most popular user-driven video platform on the Internet, it brings in around 2 billion unique monthly visitors, who between them watch over two hundred and fifty million hours of video a day.
That’s only marginally fewer users than Facebook, which at the time of writing has about 2.3 billion users. The numbers here speak for themselves. If you’re willing to put in the work to design, develop, and produce high-quality video, then YouTube is the place to be.
And you should be willing.
In 2018, a survey by social media management agency HubSpot found that demand for video content is on the upturn, with 54 percent of users expressing interest in seeing more video content from the brands they support. Moreover, the fact that video is a favored content medium among consumers is well-documented. A 2018 study released by marketing agency Animoto found that 93 percent of businesses acquired at least one new customer through a video on social media.
Now that we’ve driven home the importance of YouTube as a marketing tool, let’s talk about how you can use it to increase website traffic. Mind you, it’s advisable for you to first understand a bit about YouTube search engine optimization before we continue. We published a piece on that recently – check it out before reading on.
Assuming you’ve already got a good handle on optimizing your video content, let’s go over how you can then use that content to bring in more traffic (and by association, more leads).
- Geotag your videos with your business address. Doing this associates the video with your business’s city, potentially giving the video a leg up for the slocal search. YouTube Live also features geo-tagging functionality.
- Include NAP information in your video descriptions. Every video you publish should include a link to your website and any other platforms on which you are active. It should also include contact information on your business, such as Name, Address, and Phone Number. Note that this information should be left to the end of the description so that it’s only visible to the users who click on “show more.”
- Assign relevant tags to your video. Not just industry tags, but location tags as well.
- Share and promote. Share your videos on Facebook and Twitter. Embed them somewhere on your website or blog. Do everything you can to get more eyes on those videos, and generate more traffic from them.
- Focus on value. Remember that while producing a few promotional videos here and it is perfectly acceptable, YouTube is not a sales platform. Don’t try to use it solely to push your products. Instead, use it to provide the content you know your audience needs – tutorials and how-to videos, for example.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. With YouTube, you can potentially generate a ton of traffic for your website or blog. And with that traffic comes new, loyal customers to support your brand.