Member Article

Video Marketing and the YouTube myth

When one of our partners recently exceeded a million views on YouTube, we all celebrated and took a moment to enjoy the success of this video marketing campaign. For Emma Newham of My Body Pilates Studios, the single objective was to create video content, good enough to win a global Pilates competition; the video with the most views wins.Naturally any additional PR and exporsure would be a bonus.

The brief was VERY simple, help Emma film a Pilates class and upload the content to YouTube. As competition criteria demanded a single fixed camera view of her class, there was very little scope for creativity; thereby creating a level playing field for all entrants. In fact what created the chain of success for Emma was the quality of her performance and the fact that she ‘worked her content’ much harder (and smarter) than her competition.

Emma was quick to harness the size and strength of her existing social network, reaching out with a request to view and vote for her YouTube entry. Steadily her audience numbers increased and the result of the campaign rewarded her with second place (pipped to the first by only 6 views!), alongside very credible competition. Her hard work resulted in a genuine increase in online global profile, not to mention sales of associated products.

Emma is recognised as one the leading instructors in her field and her business deservedly enjoys the rewards of not only this competition but several other video marketing activities, including a subscription based online video training platform.

The road to one million views took three years to achieve and the video is now the highest ranking clip for searches of ‘Barre Concept’; exactly the phrase Emma wishes to be found for.

One million views may not sound many when you consider the likes of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ recently topped YouTube’s ‘Top Ten’ hit list with over two Billion! Even Fenton the dog’s escapade around Richmond park has remarkably racked up over twelve million views! However, for a relatively small business based in the Northeast of England, to achieve this many views is actually an incredible result and testament to the necessity to ‘work your video content’ effectively.

The myth that YouTube marketing is ‘easy’ and that by simply having your own channel will bring online success is far from the reality. The truth is that over half of all videos have less than 500 views and only a third of 1% will achieve over one million views. Consider that over 300 hours of content is uploaded every minute and you have some perspective to the amount of videos floating around YouTube with very few views.

The only certainty is that (unless your name is Rihanna), in order to achieve success you must treat YouTube as only a single strand of your digital marketing activity. Deploying professionally produced video content is a hugely powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, but remember, there are many online channels and platforms. Success will very rarely be attained by simply uploading your home-made content to YouTube and hoping for the best…

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Three Motion Media .