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Converting Viewers into Customers
Creating a highly-viewed video is great, but it's ultimately meaningless unless you can convert those viewers into paying customers. How, then, do you turn views into sales?
The key to marketing on YouTube is to lead viewers from your video on the YouTube site to your company's website—where you can then directly sell your products and services. Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't allow live links from a video to a third-party website. You can, however, include your website address in the body of the video—and hope that viewers will remember it or write it down for future reference.
What you need to do is put your website URL or 800 number onscreen in your video. You can use title and credits cards before and after the video or, even better, overlay your contact information during the course of the video itself. Don’t be subtle about his; make sure the URL is big and easily readable, using high contrast colors and easy-to-view type.
You should also include your website URL in the descriptive text that accompanies your video, as well as on your YouTube channel page. Don’t make potential customers hunt for it.
If you want to include a direct link from your video to your website, you first have to advertise the video on YouTube, using the site’s Promoted Videos feature. Any video you’re promoting can then include what YouTube calls a Call-to-Action Overlay, which sits on top of your video and includes a direct link to any website you like. Many marketers create small advertising campaigns just to get the opportunity to link directly to their websites.
The URL you point to from your YouTube video should be a dedicated landing page. That means that you don't point to a generic page on your site, or even to your site's home page; either approach requires unnecessary work on the part of the customer to place an order. Instead, link to a specific product page on your site, one that includes information only about the product shown in the video.
Once you have viewers on your site, how you convert them into paying customers is up to you. Obviously, these people were interested enough in what you’re offering to visit your site; your job is to keep them interested and give them the information they need to complete the sale.
KEYWORDS
YouTube, YouTube marketing, YouTube videos, educational videos, informative videos, entertaining videos, conversion, landing page, attracting customers, web marketing, Internet marketing, digital marketing, multimedia marketing
BIO
Michael Miller is a prolific and popular writer. He has written more than 100 non-fiction books over the past two decades, along with numerous articles and blog posts for a variety of websites. His most popular books include Que’s YouTube for Business, The Ultimate Web Marketing Guide, Facebook for Grown-Ups, Windows 7 Your Way, and Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics.