How to Drive 1000 Visitors from YouTube Every Month

Source: Neil Patel

YouTube often gets overlooked for marketing, and I’m not sure why.

Only 9 percent of small businesses use it, yet it’s one of the most powerful social media platforms in existence. Every day, the site racks up millions of views from all over the world.

If I had to guess, I’d say people overlook YouTube because it seems intimidating.

It seems like you have to put in a lot of work and build a popular channel before you can get any attention.

In reality, YouTube is one of the levelest playing fields out there. It doesn’t take much to get tens of thousands of views on your videos, even if you’re not a famous YouTuber.

You don’t need millions of subscribers to get lots of views.

But you shouldn’t stop once you get all those views.

You can easily turn those views into website visits with a few additional steps.

This opens up a ton of possibilities for YouTube. You can essentially use your YouTube page as a sales funnel.

And it’s really no more difficult than setting up a Facebook Ad campaign. (Actually, it’s easier in a lot of ways.)

So if you’ve been sleeping on YouTube, it’s time to wake up and see what it can do for you.

First, get the views!

This is something I’ve written about before, but I wanted to run you through the basic concepts really quickly.

Before you drive traffic from YouTube to your site, you have to get that traffic.

It comes down to creating awesome video content, optimizing it for search, and sharing the heck out of it.

First and foremost, you have to provide valuable content.

This is by far the single most important step in this entire process.

Learn more about your target audience and what they like, then create content that they’ll love.

Second, optimize your videos.

You want people to be able to easily find your videos.

If you’re familiar with SEO, then optimizing your videos should be no big deal. You’ve done this before.

Focus on the video title, tags, description, and thumbnail.

Your title should address a problem that your users have:

In terms of tags, don’t go overboard. 10-12 is a good ballpark to aim for.

Choose keywords that are relevant to the video’s topic.

Descriptions are a bit trickier. There’s no exact formula for creating a great description.

However, you definitely shouldn’t stuff it full of exact match keywords, and you shouldn’t make it super long. (I’ll discuss this more in a minute.)

Finally, create an eye-catching thumbnail.

This will take awhile to get right, so don’t be afraid to experiment with text overlays, different types of images, and color schemes.

Remember, many people decide to watch a video based on the thumbnail alone, so put some serious effort into this step.

Now let’s talk about some methods to send traffic from your videos to your site.

Tell people to visit your site

I know it sounds simple. It’s the easiest strategy in this article.

But don’t pass this one up just because it seems obvious.

Here’s the thing: Most people aren’t using this strategy.

Why not? We often think that if something is too simple, it won’t work. But this does work.

A study by Bain & Company revealed that 87 percent of customers would give referrals if they were asked.

But only 7 percent of sales reps ask for referrals!

The same concept applies to YouTube videos. You’ll get more traffic than you think just by asking people to go to your site.

I suggest a bookend approach for each video.

At the beginning, say, “Hi, this is (your name) from (yoursite.com).”

That instantly ties you to your site and tells your viewers where they can go if they want more of your content.

Then, at the end, say something along the same lines. This time, you can go into a little more detail since you’ve given away some free, valuable content.

Try something like, “Thank you so much for watching! If you’d like to see more about (topic), head over to (yoursite.com) for more free content.”

This is a great strategy to use. Your viewers don’t have to make it through your entire video to know where to go for more content.

It also helps to put your URL on the screen in a prominent place:

If you want to put in a little extra work, add an annotation to the end of your video. Viewers can click on the annotation to go right to your site.

To add an annotation, you’ll first need to verify your site. Go to your account icon and navigate to Creator Studio > Channel > Advanced.

You’ll see a section called “Associated website.” Enter your URL there and click Add.

You’ll be redirected to Google Search Console, where you can finish the process.

Once you’ve verified your site, go to YouTube and click on your account icon. Click “Creator Studio” and then “Video Manager.”

Find the video you want to edit. Click the arrow next to the Edit button and select Cards.

Here you can add the link by going to Add Card > Link.

You can then select your site and edit your card. You can edit the text and even upload an image, and I recommend you do both to get maximum visibility.

The final product will look something like this:

Pro tip: Lots of YouTubers add an arrow pointing to the card in question as they’re telling their viewers about it. This ensures everyone will know exactly where to click.

Once again, don’t overlook this tactic. You’ll be surprised at how much referral traffic you get.

Edit your description box

The description box is somewhat of a double-edged sword.

It exists to let your viewers know more about your video and your business in general.

But after a few lines, YouTube cuts off the description with a “Show More” option:

So if you have long video descriptions, they’re probably not getting read in their entirety.

The best way to…

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