How to Generate Traffic Using Video: Case Study

Here is an example strategy how video can ‘crush' your traffic. From web strategist Jordan Harbour comes a scenario that can yank a company from zero to hero!

As a web strategy and design company, one of our central roles at Sage Internet Solutions Ltd. is to advise people how best to spend their marketing dollars.

For example, we have a client who was looking to attract young dental hygienists for work placements. We were able to target a young educated market through a Facebook page and advertising, giving this target the specific information they wanted the way they wanted it. On the other hand, we advised a bed and breakfast to go the Google Adwords route as their target market might not digest information the same way.

Being Strategic: Video Not for Everyone

Video is a specialized marketing strategy and we don’t advise it to every company when marketing dollars are sparse. For some clients, it’s simply not the best way to spend their money. If we were to advise the dental hygienist to set up a YouTube channel and start creating professional promotional videos, how quickly would her $500 monthly budget be used up? And would she see a reasonable ROI (Return On Investment) benefit?

There are clients we do advise going the video route right out of the gate as it benefit them. One example is a fishing charter client of ours. Outside referrals, almost all of their business came from their website and that wasn’t much. We understood they needed site traffic to increase and they needed it fast!

Video: A Component, Not a Standalone

There were some basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) considerations we wanted to target before anything else, such as drafting a researched keyword list and optimizing the site with it. We also wanted to create a blog so we could get a flow of fresh content going on the site. But video was to play a central role in our SEO strategy.

Strategic Planning: Selecting the Tools

[embedit snippet=”ad2″]From our perspective, the fishing charter could easily create a wealth of short (2-3 minute) videos using basic branding very quickly that would entice their audience, benefiting both. Links would draw viewers to the charter's website. The videos wouldn’t need high production value to be effective for this market and YouTube’s editing software would suffice for text and any music they wanted to add. There weren’t many other companies doing video in their specific sport fishing market so it was an open field.

There were a few key analytics we wanted to target through video: traffic numbers, click through rate, percentage of return visits, the length of the average visit and the bounce rate. Improving these analytics would drive the site up through the ranks by showing Google the site was high quality.

Green Light: Setting Traffic Goals

For traffic, we wanted Google to index the company’s videos on the first or second pages of search results for their top keywords. Google earmarks a place for YouTube videos pretty high for most searches so we felt this would be a great opportunity (Google is closing Google Video so Youtube is the best option).

A stream of videos indexed in coveted locations would give the company a unique piece of real estate their competition wasn’t taking advantage of and could drive traffic to the site.

Fully Integrated: Website Video Embedding

Embedding the videos on the website itself, we wanted not only to increase the average length of the visits, but also give the site a higher click through rate. By creating a more engaging site through video, the percentage of returning visits would also move in our favor while the bounce rate would drop. Improving these analytics would advance the site through the ranks, eventually catching up with their videos on Google.

Active Role: Supporting the Greater Strategy

[embedit snippet=”ad1″]Although video seemed like the logical choice for the fishing company, we didn’t want to choose it over written content. Articles primed with keywords are still (and will always remain) a top SEO consideration for any company interested in page rank. We therefore divided the tasks with the fishing company. They would produce the videos and we would write the articles. The result would be a powerful two-pronged attack, leading to great exposure benefiting the client.

Ultimately, we felt this company would gain the most from having their website rank well in Google rather than through other channels. Although social media is a great tool for drawing traffic (and can even help with some SEO), it didn’t seem like the absolute best way for the fishing charter to spend its marketing dollars or time.

When this company is benefiting from our efforts and has reached its SEO goals, we’ll move into some secondary marketing strategies like social media or Google Adwords.

For now, video is our Big Kahuna.