Use YouTube to grow your business!

written by JoshRimer.com on December 15th, 2010

Have you recently or are you about to start new business? Have you thought about how YouTube can help you with that?

Many startups think they need a good sized budget and/or the help of an advertising company to really get seen. Paying a lot doesn’t necessarily mean success for your business, and you’re up for a big disappointment if the ads don’t turn out to be a hit among your target audience. I can’t tell you the number of professionally produced promotional videos that I’ve seen online with less than 100 views. Why pay thousands of dollars for something that gets so few views?

I came across this article on how you can make the most bang for your buck by promoting your products online, especially with YouTube. The article gives a quick run-down of tips from popular YouTube pitchman Austin Craig, who put the Orabrush tongue cleaner on the map through his YouTube videos. Orabrush almost faded into obscurity because the engineer who invented it, Bob Wagstaff, failed in marketing it, having lost thousands of dollars on infomercials that didn’t even bring in a hundred sales. The two of them met in a marketing class where Craig proposed the idea of doing the promotion on YouTube, which of course worked and in a big way.

There was still money involved in the promotions, but hardly any was spent on the actual videos. Orabrush invested some amount of money in hiring Craig as their talent, as well as paying for the Promoted Videos option offered by YouTube. This option, which has been available for Americans for quite some time now (it’s not available in other countries like Canada yet), allows their video promotions/campaigns to appear in YouTube search and Related Videos a lot, but they only pay for the service once a viewer clicks on the promotion (cost per click) that redirects to the video. It’s really great to use it to get more views if you’re trying to sell something on YouTube, but probably not if you’re just an average YouTuber like myself who just wants people to watch your stuff “for fun” as opposed to doing it for profit. I know someone who had to pay a hundred dollars for getting 700 views using the Promoted Videos program – not cheap.

Orabrush really did push their promotions on YouTube, and the money they made from ads and sales was essentially re-invested into doing more of the same. Their success was also due to a clever mix of social media promotions on Twitter and Facebook, including an offer to receive a free Orabrush when you share the offer on your FB wall. It’s a simple “tell-all-your-friends” call-to-action and yet one of the most effective ways today to get the word out about a product.

Here are some of the other things they did to promote Orabrush:

1. A branded, iPhone application where people can blow into their mobile phones and test their breath after which they’ll hear Craig’s voice giving a snappy remark about their breaths.

2. Taking the product out on the street (man on the street technique) and testing it on passers-by.

3. Product integration that doesn’t look like it. Orabrush developed an eccentric and complicated “tongue” character called Morgan, who stars in a weekly sketch/vlog about the life of a tongue. The videos were so entertaining and non-salesy that you can almost forget you’re watching an actual commercial.

YouTube has certainly evolved from a simple video-sharing website to watch goofy antics and stunts, to a heavyweight PR machine. So if you feel that you have a product or service that you’re launching (or needing help with stepping up), then look at what you’re doing on YouTube and ask yourself what more you can do to really utilize this amazing marketing source.

What do you think? Have you seen Orabrush type of success with other companies? Have you seen some bad examples of companies who completely missed the mark?

P.S. Did you know that companies sometimes sponsor my videos? By incorporating their product, location, or service in one of my comedy videos they get the exposure they’re after while only paying a small amount per thousand views. It amounts to a lot of interest and traffic, for less than creating your own promotional video that typically won’t get nearly as many views if you don’t already have a popular YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers. If you’re interested be sure to head over to the contact page to ask for more info!

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