Youtube as a traffic channel

This is the first article of a series about marketing on Youtube. Done the right way, Youtube can turn out to be a perfect traffic channel. But there are a few things to be considered to drive people from Youtube to your website.

Link in the description text

Unfortunately, it is not possible to set direct links to external websites in Youtube videos. But it is possible to set a link in the description text. The best position for that is the beginning of the description text and if your description text is long enough it makes sense to add a link to your website at the end too.

Hint the link

Youtube allows to integrate interactive elements into a video after you’ve uploaded it. One is the speech bubble. It can – properly positioned – be used as an arrow so the user gets animated to click on the link in the description text. Of course it is crucial that it looks appropiate and appealing.

Here’s a 10 seconds sample video on youtube.

Of course this method has also a downside, if the video is embedded into a website or watched in HD on youtube, the visual hint to the link won’t work anymore:

But you get the idea.