5 Ways to Optimize YouTube for a Customer Referral Program

Many businesses have been slow to realize the benefits of YouTube for their customer referral programs. But with over 4 billion videos streamed everyday it is a social media referral tool that can no longer be ignored.

To get you started, here are 5 ways to use YouTube to drive customer referrals and brand engagement through the roof.

1. Create content that addresses your customer’s needs.

YouTube offers the chance to connect with customers on a more personal level than other online mediums. Your business is given the opportunity to showcase what you know and establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry.

Your ultimate goal is to create videos that are compelling, valuable and helpful to clients and potential brand ambassadors. Some good options include screen casts, webinars and interviews with industry leaders. With the right content, you’ll start seeing more customer referrals in no time.

2. Make your video easy to find.

To get maximum exposure you need to make sure that your videos are findable. YouTube is owned by Google, which makes getting to the first page a little bit easier than other video uploading sites. To get your video to the first page, focus on:

Titles: Use targeted keywords in your title to improve your chances of reaching the right audience. This is a good time to keep in mind SEO, as you’ll be more likely to find the viewers most likely to participate in your customer referral program.

Descriptions: The description section is another great opportunity to utilize targeted keywords. Unlike the title, your description can be as long as you want so feel free to go keyword-heavy. Also include a URL to drive people from your video to a targeted landing page.

Tags: Include any tags that are relevant to your brand and video. Again, the heavier on the keywords the better.

3. Utilize YouTube’s Call-to-Action overlay ads.

Call-to-action overlay ads allow businesses to create customized pop-ups in their videos. Linking your call-to-action to an existing landing page gives you the best chance of collecting leads and engaging new customers with your brand. It will also catch customers right as they’re most engaged with your brand, presenting great opportunities for conversion into brand ambassadors.

For more info, here’s YouTube’s guide explaining how to get your call-to-action overlay up and running.

4. Customize your YouTube channel.

Creating a branded experience on YouTube is the best way to turn your channel into a destination for customers to learn about your company. You can create custom backgrounds that match your brand and create playlists that feature your best content at the top of your page.

Choose a custom “Player View” that sets a featured video at the top of your page to auto-play. The total views impacts visibility in search engines, so make sure your video is playing right as customers land on your page.

5. Leverage all social media platforms.

YouTube is just one component of marketing your customer referral program. Pushing your video out to all of your social media networks will extend your video’s reach and make it easier to share between friends.

Video content also tends to rank higher with Facebook’s EdgeRank so posting it reaches a much wider audience. Also create a blog post, tweet it and upload it to content curation sites like StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon surpassed Facebook in driving referral traffic back to landing pages so definitely don’t ignore it.

Optimizing YouTube for a customer referral program gives a great ROI by promoting new brand ambassadors. Creating good, useful content and building a strong presence on the site is critical to ensuring your business is accessible across all online mediums.