This article is a guest post from Natalie Krul (Klever Strategies)
Drive traffic to your website with vlogging
So you might be asking yourself, “How can I generate more leads using vlogging?”. If you’re in the process of developing your marketing strategy, or even revisiting it to see where tweaks should be made, then you are probably taking a look at your content marketing plan.
The first blogs came out back in the late 90’s and, over the years, blogging has been seen as an effective way to provide your target audience with valuable resources, answers to their questions, and solutions to their challenges. Blogging can boost your website’s SEO if you pack your blog with keyword rich terms and phrases, which in turn can increase your SERP, drive more traffic to your website, generate more leads for your business, improve customer retention, and build brand recognition.
So, what is vlogging?
Vlogging is video blogging. You can take your written blog content and turn it into a video to post on social media, your website, and video platforms like YouTube.
How can you use vlogging to grow your blog and drive traffic to your website?
Let’s break it down into the pros and cons of vlogging.
Pros:
- Access new markets, like Youtube, and drive traffic to your website from them.
- You can easily create a vlog from any blog, so you are getting more ROI on your written content.
- Did you know that 1 in 2 Americans spend their time watching vlogs on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook? This is one reason why marketers are spending their time creating video in addition to their long-form written blog content.
- We are in the “amazon” age, people want to get things fast! And that includes learning too. A majority of people want to get an answer to their question within 30 seconds, versus reading a 1,000 page article, and vlogs do just that. Tip: According to various studies, Educational or “How-to” vlogs are the most popular choice.
Cons:
- If uploading your video to YouTube, it is not your website, and much of the time, a user will not click through to your website.
- Vlogs do not pack the SEO punch like blogs do. Blogs provide that vital SEO for your website by packing your website pages with highly-searched keywords, which can increase your SERP.
- Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don’t blog.
Blogging vs. vlogging
So, what should you choose? Is vlogging better than blogging? The answer: choose both mediums! Repurpose your keyword rich written content into a vlog, and access new markets on YouTube and Facebook using a few of these best practices.
Vlogging Tips
YouTube SEO Tips to Improve Your Search Rankings:
- Complete your YouTube account profile fully! Including uploading a banner image and your logo.
- Focus on grabbing your viewer’s attention and building a better connection using the “storytelling” format.
- If you’re goal is to showcase your product or service, do so using the “reviews and testimonials” format.
- Upload the highest definition video possible to Youtube.
- Create an eye-catching video thumbnail.
- Have several CTAs that entice the viewer to visit your website for additional resources, think “lead magnets”, such as a free guide that is irresistible to a viewer that is interested in the video topic they are watching. Don’t forget to ask viewers to Subscribe!
- Verify your website within your Youtube account so that you can link to it using “Cards” within your video.
- Your vlog should be created from a blog that is published on your website.
- Be sure to embed your video within that blog post. Embed it! Do not post a link to view it on Youtube, you want your website visitors to stay on your website.
- Always complete the description, tags and headings sections when adding your video to YouTube, and be sure to include a link to your website within your video description.
- Increase your video SEO by ensuring your video description and meta description match your user’s queries and is keyword rich. Include keywords in your video’s title, file name, don’t forget to say these keywords throughout your video, and use long-tail keyword tags.
- Have captions! YouTube provides automatic captions but do review them for spelling errors and if needed, write up your own custom captions.
- Include music! Music will help set the tone for your vlog and keep a viewer interested. There are plenty of royalty-free music options available.
- If you’ve published related videos to your YouTube channel, use the end screen to showcase these related videos. You can also use this method to guide viewers to your sales funnel.
- Keep it simple to start, use a user-friendly design app like Canva to create videos quickly, and then upgrade to a higher quality video editing software over time.
- Make sure you have quality gear. Don’t use your computer camera, do purchase a quality webcam like the Logitech Brio. For excellent sounding audio, get a USB Microphone like the Blue Yeti.
- Record your vlog in a space with minimal clutter and distraction. Enhance your lighting using a selfie ring light if you’re using your phone, or a larger tripod stand ring light if you’re recoding in a room.
Incorporate Vlogging Into Your Content Marketing Strategy
Now that you have a better understanding of what vlogging is and how to use vlogging to generate leads, it is time to create an actionable content marketing plan that incorporates vlogging.
Need help discovering how vlogging can be integrated into your comprehensive marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website and increase conversion rates? Get in touch with Natalie Krul of Klever Strategies today.