Curating an online course has 2 major aspects: creating and selling. So to sell more, you need to quickly figure out how to increase website traffic. Because without traffic, you will not be able to market your product or generate any sales. This has been the biggest challenge for any creator.

How to get the word out there, how to increase the website traffic organically, and get more sales. Videos are always a great form of engagement. But for some reason, in most cases, YouTube is never the first choice for promotions and marketing. If we were to take an educated guess, it’s probably because creating video content is very intimidating.

If you already create content on YouTube

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Why YouTube for an online course promotion?

YouTube has a lot in its favour. As the 2nd largest search engine with around 3 Billion monthly searches, second only to Google, YouTube makes it very lucrative. YouTube as a search engine is larger than AOL, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask combined. The reach YouTube provides is simply unmatched.

Another advantage is that you can use existing content from YouTube, embed the video within the content and deliver it to the audience. People often think that using someone else’s YouTube videos can infringe copyright. But if you embed a video on your site or in your courses, you do not infringe upon any copyright laws because YouTube legally allows you to embed the video within another website and deliver the course or the content piece without any issues. Embedding ensures the video’s rights are still with the creator of the video, plus each time the video is played, the view counts on YouTube increases. This is a great hack to rapidly create content while using YouTube to market your online course.

Components of YouTube explained:

So let’s look at some of the components that need to be utilised while you create content on YouTube to market your course.

• Be on point; video titles need to reflect what the viewer will learn There needs to be a sync between what the viewer learns and the video’s title. The video need not be clickbait, with the sole purpose of attracting viewers. There needs to be actual learning involved in the video.  If a viewer clicks on your content, he trusts you. If, by this, he only gets a sales pitch, he won’t bother to take a look at your content at a later stage. Try to be true to your viewers and do not have the sole purpose of generating views and likes.

• Your best bet is to provide a link to your course page for this description box. We will discuss the usage and optimisation for this at a later stage. While you use this to provide links to your page created by using the Knorish website builder.  The website builder consists of various pre-created beautiful themes that can fulfil the varied needs and wants of the creators. Users can create a sales page that can attract their YouTube audience. The ease website builder provides in creating a website that used to take weeks, if not months, makes Knorish the perfect platform for a creator.

• Don’t pitch early: While creators have been using YouTube for their marketing efforts, pitching their product offering quite early is a mistake. Try and refrain from introducing your course during the entire learning process. Towards the end of the video, a minute or two in the entire duration is recommended. The learning-related content should make up to 90% of the duration of the video. Another thing to keep in mind is the video length. Create short and simple videos that are to the point. If you dig deep here, there won’t be any reason for the viewer to buy your course offering.
• Add value to their learnings Give some real value while you create content. Don’t leave the viewer high and dry. Provide him with some overall information about the topic. Following this, if he wishes to learn more, recommend your online course. This way, he will build trust in you and will transition smoothly to your online course.
• Interact in the comment section Use the comment section to interact with the viewers. Answer their questions, resolve doubts, and introduce a product that may benefit them. If someone in the comment section highlights an issue, resolve it while taking feedback for the next video. Reach out to him in the comments section while providing a link to your improved content. This will enable you to create a relationship with the viewer. If repeat viewers are there, provide them with the link for your website. Elevate this further by providing discount coupons that you created while using Knorish. Knorish’s coupon creator enables you to create coupons based on the percentage of discount or even on price. You can customise them for the number of users who can use them, the time till the coupon is valid and much more.
• Use the end screen to recommend videos You might have seen videos being recommended towards the end of the video. Multiple videos appear, prompting the viewer to click on any of these. You can replicate the same for your content. With this, you can generate views while providing your viewers with some meaningful content. You can even use these end screens to recommend videos from other creators as well. This will deepen the trust of your viewers. They won’t only see you as a marketer but as a genuine person helping them out.

• ‘I’ button to suggest videos: If you have seen YouTube videos, you’ll often find an ‘i’ button on the screen. This button is used to suggest videos for the viewer. You can edit this button to recommend the next video that a viewer should take a look at. This can be a great way to retain viewers while increasing your subscriber base. You can even use this button to create polls to hear from your audience about the topic of the next video.

How To Capture Leads From YouTube Traffic

While you have got the viewer’s attention, now is the time to go all out to convert them into customers. For that, specific aspects need to be focused on. And they are:

• Create a separate landing page You need to create a separate one for your YouTube visitors. The link they use should take them to a page that is customized according to their needs and your relationship with them. For instance, if your primary learner till now was middle-aged, while your YouTube viewers are youthful, you cannot use one size fits all approach here. Create a page that is vibrant while using great themes on Knorish. Add images and texts, and embed videos that draw attention to your page content.

• Provide something free on this page For their patronage, reward your YouTube viewers with something extra. That extra should be downloadable in the form of an ebook, resource material, or even a free trial for your course. With this free trial, some trust will be generated, prompting them to take a look at your paid offering. If they find this trial useful, they will convert into customers. This freebie strategy will be great while using YouTube to promote your online course.

• Use the call to action buttonThis step follows the one above. Use call-to-action buttons to capture email addresses while providing them with free resources. To download the ebook or PDF, get them to enter their email address. Following this, if they still don’t convert, you can use this email to recapture them later. You can even use purchase-oriented call-to-action buttons. They will prompt the website viewer to take the buying decision. Showing them the discounted price for YouTube visitors and a Buy now button can initiate an impulse buying decision.

• Using captured emails to retarget With the email list filled with your YouTube visitors, now is the time to put them to use. Using Mailchimp integration on Knorish can help you in this retargeting effort. You can use Mailchimp on Knorish to schedule and select specific email addresses to send out emails. These emails include information about new courses, newsletters, free downloadables, or even bundles. Again if they find value in your email marketing efforts, they will take a look at your offering and might even initiate the purchase decision process.

Optimising the video youtube has its own SEO. Just like how things work in a standard google search, certain things need to be done well to make your video searchable and rank high on the YouTube search.

• Title So, while making the title for the video, it has to be relevant and attractive enough to generate clicks. Once the video appears in the search result, the title must be attractive enough to attract viewers’ attention. The title needs to be descriptive as well. It needs to be in sync with the main content in the video. One of the prime reasons a video receives dislikes is the lack of accuracy between the title and content. While the title is made attractive, the content turns out to be different or inaccurate. This makes the viewer lose trust and creates a similar brand personality in his mind. So if you are using YouTube to market your online course, create a truthful and informative title to meet the viewer’s needs.

• Description This is the most important aspect after the content is online and the viewer is consuming it. The description box is a great place to make the YouTube crawler begin the search engine optimisation efforts.  Using critical keywords that are in sync with your content, online course, and overall brand personality is highly recommended. With around 5000 characters limit, the description box is perfect for enabling keywords for YouTube crawlers. You can even use call-to-action statements that can take the viewer to the sales page. 
• Don’t be too obvious; water down this by using a statement before you get to the link. Adding to this, you can even give some reasons as to why they should visit your website. For instance, ‘want to learn more about American muscle cars drop by our website link’. This makes the sales pitch and the transition a bit easier to digest.
  
  
• You can even use call-to-action statements that can take the viewer to the sales page. Don’t be too obvious; water down this by using a statement before you get to the link. Adding to this, you can even give some reasons as to why they should visit your website. For instance, ‘want to learn more about American muscle cars drop by our website link’. This makes the sales pitch and the transition a bit easier to digest.

• Use subtitles This is hands down the least used feature on YouTube as a platform. And can turn out to be a gold mine if marketing and generating leads is the goal. Subtitles are texts you say in the video, displayed on the screen. It makes the content easier to understand for people who are better at written English than spoken.  YouTube is constantly working to make the content true to what is searched by a user. While you can be dishonest with the title and description, the subtitles are your video script. And your video script is the actual content. You cannot clickbait or dupe the SEO crawler here. This is the prime reason why YouTube trusts subtitles more than anything else, including titles and descriptions.

• Add tags The last one in this list of video aspects is the tags. You can add tags to your video content on YouTube. In a literal sense, they are focused keywords that let YouTube know what the content is all about. It helps in identifying the search term within which this video should appear. Inculcating words that describe the problem being solved with your video is also recommended. You can use a total of 500 characters in the tag section, and we suggest you use it to its fullest potential.
  
  
• Use the description box to provide a link You can use the description box below the video to provide the link to your sales page. It can be a great way to generate organic traffic while using YouTube to market your online course. Don’t just copy-paste the link; complement it with a statement. For instance, If you want to learn more about digital marketing, visit us at this link. This can convert these YouTube leads into learners for your online course.

• Add key moments in the videos Key moments help video watchers to quickly navigate to specific sections in a video. This is done by marking important timestamps in your video. Research has shown that when done right, key moments can increase your video views up to a third more. Here’s a post on the YouTube Key MomentsFeature

Tips on becoming popular on YouTube

Popularity on YouTube is directly proportional to the success of your online course sales. If you are well-known in the YouTube circle, your viewers will do as you say. So how to be popular you may ask

→ Provide great content

It is very obvious that to be popular, to have an audience base, you need to create great content marketing. If your content is strong, you can convert your viewer base into paying customers. For this to provide value to your viewers, don’t stress too much about sales. If they get value from your offering, they will take the relationship to the next level.

So if you are using YouTube to market your online course creating quality content is important.

→ Use the comments section to engage and respond

Comments are crucial to increase the popularity of your YouTube account. This acts as a testimonial of the content you uploaded on YouTube, attracting other viewers too. If the comment section is positive, you will have an increased viewership. The comments section is the word of mouth in the YouTube sphere.

You can ask viewers to comment below while asking them to be specific. Ask for suggestions, hear recommendations for future content or even get them to ask questions that will be responded in a future video.

 This will take engagement to the next level while increasing your popularity. Since you are primarily a teacher, respond to their doubts, and hear back about how they implemented your solution, which will be feedback for your content. Responding to comments can be crucial for trust-building as well. This frequent response even signifies your proactiveness to your viewers, implying your content is fresh and up to date.

→ All you need is engagement

Publicity is publicity, good or bad it doesn’t matter. The same holds in YouTube as well. If your channel is not growing, asking your viewers to like or dislike the video is appropriate. Even if they dislike, the YouTube algorithm only considers engagement, which is fulfilled with both likes and dislikes.

So ask viewers to dislike if they feel your content isn’t great. This will give you feedback while increasing your video’s engagement in the eyes of YouTube.

→ Asking viewers to share your content

While, as a creator, you might hesitate to do this, but asking your viewers to share your videos is a good trick to use. While ending the video, before the sales pitch, ask your viewers to share the video. Sound grateful while doing so. You can even ask them to visit your course website and know more about the topic.

→ Consistency is the key

Choose a niche and continue to produce content. While quality is key, the YouTube algorithm will stop pushing your content if ultimately, your frequency of content production is low. So make sure to maintain a frequency and keep producing more content. You can always use open tools like answering the public to search for more content ideas around your niche.

With all of these tips, you can use YouTube to market your online course and get introduced to a wider audience. You can operate your YouTube channel standalone even if they don’t convert. If and when possible, you can try to push them to buy from you again.