This post was most recently updated on July 31st, 2016

YouTube marketing drives free traffic to your blog when you use a specific strategy, and when you implement that strategy consistently.

I guess that’s not news.

Anything you do to drive traffic to your blog requires those two essential elements.

1. Use a specific strategy

2. Implement that strategy consistently

I’ll show you what I mean

You never want to just start “doing things” randomly.

I once thought a really cool “strategy” to get lots of traffic from YouTube would be to open an account, put up a few videos and wait for people to find me.

That’s not a strategy.

It’s just a chore.

• Open an account
• set up a profile
• shoot a few videos, and
• wait.

That process kept me busy for a while, and I was accomplishing something.

I now had a YouTube account and I learned how to do videos.

The problem was…

I wasn’t accomplishing anything that was part of a bigger strategy.

So, as you can imagine, nothing much happened from this half-baked approach.

Down the road a bit, I looked at my YouTube account and saw it wasn’t driving any traffic to my blog.

Go figure.

I realized it was because I had no strategy for making it work.

So, I decided to develop one, and I did.

My weird follow-through

It consisted of sending out 3 videos a week with links back to my blog.

I created 9 videos one weekend, so they’d be ready to use.

I published one every other day for the first week.

I didn’t see anybody going to them.

I didn’t know how to get views.

So, I decided I was wasting my time and gave up on YouTube.

Not a very good follow-through on implementing my strategy consistently.

Or at least, it wasn’t implemented consistently for a long enough period of time to show any real results.

Brighter days

Now, I have several YouTube channels, and I use them for different purposes.

One purpose is to drive free traffic to a specific theme or promotion I might be doing.

Here’s a basic YouTube marketing strategy I’ve found that drives free traffic to my campaigns.

1. Create Videos

Of course, you need videos to build a YouTube marketing campaign.

I like to use 1 to 3 minute videos.

I find people don’t watch long videos, especially ones that are blatantly promotional, or ones that are designed with a clear call to action, such as “click on this link to read more about this subject.”

I like to do all my videos for a campaign at one time.

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So, for instance, if I’m going to promote an affiliate launch, I might want to create 7 to 10 videos in one sitting.

Each video will highlight a different aspect of the product, or maybe just re-state the same aspect with a different angle.

The idea is to have a small group of videos promoting the same “Big” thing.

Then, you can “publish” these videos to YouTube, one at a time, day after day until they’re all published.

That way you establish a consistent pattern of delivery on a specific topic.

It looks like a progression, rather than a blast of a bunch of videos all at the same time.

2. Keywords

It’s important to remember that YouTube is one of the top 3 search engines in the world.

So you want to take advantage of that, and help people to find your videos when they search for your topic.

This is, after all, the way that YouTube marketing drives free traffic to your blog.

People search out your topic, find your video, watch it, and then click on your links to learn more about it.

They key way to do this is, to use your video title and keyword tags to attract a relevant audience.

Let’s say your video campaign is for a product or a series of blog articles you’ve written on the topic of using meditation to overcome stress.

You need to use a title and keyword tags that will point back to your central theme… using meditation to overcome stress.

So, just like with any standard SEO strategy, use your favorite tool to determine the best title and keywords that will work for you.  This might mean “using meditation to overcome stress” for a title, and would include “meditation” and “overcome stress” for keywords.

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I get a bit lazy on this, so I often just look at other videos that are ranking well for this topic or theme.

Then, I’ll use the same keywords that they used to rank high and get lots of traffic.

Just search out those videos on YouTube and you can see what their title and keywords are.

If it worked for them, why not for me?

No reason to re-invent the wheel.

Affiliates can do this, too.

If your campaign revolves around an affiliate product like “John Doe’s Facebook Course,” some of your titles and keywords should specifically reference “John Doe’s Facebook Course.”

Others could be more general for the topic, in this case “Facebook.”

So some videos might be titled things like “The Best Review of John Doe’s Facebook Course,” while others would be more topical, like “3 Facebook Strategies To Build Your Business.”

3. Backlinks

The description box that YouTube gives you for putting in additional information is very important.

This is where you want to put a hyperlink back to your blog, where people can learn more about whatever you’re promoting in any specific campaign.

It’s important to put that hyperlink right in the beginning of your description box, so people see it without having to click the “read more” tag.

I usually like to put the link back to my blog post (or sometimes a squeeze page) in the beginning of my description.

Then I add the words “click this link to get my 3 step process”.

That way, you are directing people, telling them exactly what action they need to take to get a specific benefit (ie., “my 3 step process”).

Then I like to do a quick recap of the video they just saw, followed by a second link back to my blog.

One thing that’s important to note is that YouTube no longer sends clicks directly to your links. It sends them to a “confirmation page” that essentially asks them to confirm that they really want to be taken to the page that you’re linking back to.

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For that reason, you should really explore the use of YouTube Cards (I just did a demo for you here).

It’s a new feature that allows you to link back to your blog directly on your video.

I haven’t used this feature yet (I’ll tried on the above video, though, so check it out to see if it worked), so I won’t try to describe it in detail here.

I have looked it over and it looks very simple.

• Just go to “info and settings” when you’ve download your YouTube video.
• On the top menu that appears, you’ll see an item called “Cards.”
• Click on it and you’ll get a very simple walk-through on how to use it to drive free traffic back to your blog.

4. YouTube Marketing Drives Free Traffic

So, let’s get back to the videos themselves.

In order for this strategy to work, your videos need to be interesting, of course.

They don’t have to be flashy or glitzy. They don’t have to be cute or funny, and they don’t even have to be “professional” looking.

In fact, people usually like to see videos that look amateur and home-made.

This is especially true if you’re promoting an affiliate product.

Before people buy something, they want to see a review from a “real person” who’s had experience with the product, and is now sharing their thoughts on it.

Remember, they’re not look for actors. They want to hear testimonials and review from “real people.”

So don’t stress about your hair, your shirt and your professionalism.

That’s not what they’re looking for.

That’s not the formula for driving free traffic from YouTube to your blog.

Being authentic, helpful and brief are the keys.

You don’t need to be face-to-camera, either.

You can use presentation slides, or screen capture images, or even live browser “walk though” videos where you never even appear on camera.

But face-to-camera will definitely help you build trust and “real person” authenticity with your viewers.

So I think it’s a really good idea to do some videos where people get to see you.

If I’m doing a 7 to 10 video campaign on a topic or to promote an affiliate launch, I like to have 2 or 3 of them be face-to-camera, then the rest are a mix of browsing screen capture and presentation-slide videos.

YouTube is an excellent vehicle for driving free traffic to your blog.

Just remember, you need to develop a real strategy.

You can use the one I’ve just described, but you can create your own strategy, too.

Have fun and explore.

Video is fun, and when your audience senses that you’re enjoying yourself, they’ll be much more receptive to your message, even if it’s a “pitch.”

The final piece of the puzzle is “consistent implementation.”

If you don’t stick to your plan, then it will fizzle and your results will too.

Have you used YouTube to drive free traffic to your blog?

I’d like to hear about it.

Or, maybe you have other methods you prefer for driving free traffic.

I’d love to have your comments below, and please… share this article on your social sites if you think folks can benefit from it.

-Donna

• Bio
• Blogging Magic

Donna Merrill

Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.