Just yesterday, the folks out at YouTube announced that they were pulling in about four billion views per day. So what does that mean for you and your small business? What that means is opportunity for you to take advantage of some serious wide-yield marketing. But it’s not going to be easy, especially when you consider another statistic that YouTube announced.
YouTube’s viewership has been steadily climbing over the last few years, going from one billion views per day just in October of 2009 all the way to the four billion mark where it is today. In fact, it gained a full billion views a day just in the period between May 2011 and January 2012, so it’s safe to suggest that, at its current rate of growth, it may well clear eight billion views per day by 2015. Why do I pick eight billion? Because by that point, everyone on earth should be able to watch a video on YouTube a day.
Now, that should be speaking to you. Even under cautious estimates, if it’s possible that everyone on the planet could be watching a video on YouTube, it gives you an incredible opportunity to get your products or services out in front of a wide, wide array of people. This is perhaps the broadest of broadcast media that’s ever been made. And getting in on it is incredibly low-impact in terms of cost–if you’ve got a camera of some kind, even the one on your phone, you’ve got a start–so you’ve got an advertising source that has incredible reach available to you for minimal cost. So what’s the problem?
The problem is the second statistic YouTube put out: that approximately sixty hours of video is uploaded to YouTube fully every minute. That basically means that, by the end of an average day, ten years worth of video has gone into play. By the end of just eight days, there would be more than the average person could watch in a life time. So how do you use the ultra-popular ultrabroadcasting system? This one is all in the design.
If you want to use YouTube as a promotional vector, you have to make sure that you’re providing value to the client. Don’t think “advertisement”, think “short film”. Some advertising is actually very popular on YouTube; consider the Montgomery Flea Market, which has been up for five years now and has nearly seven and a half million views, got an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show (back when it was on) and then a parody on The Cleveland Show. How much advertising did the Montgomery Flea Market get out of that one before the flea market itself closed? And you can get a similar effect. It won’t be easy, nor will it be guaranteed. But the results might well surprise you.
Of course, you’ll need to be prepared to follow it up. Provide a discount for those who respond to a code in the video. Offer a toll-free number for customers to call. And of course, keep hold and transfer services and similar pieces of cloud-based telephony on hand to make this work.
YouTube gets incredible range as a potential advertising medium, and you can take advantage with a little creativity. A lot of other people are out vying for a shot at the top slot, though, so the competition will be intense.