My mother-in-law just told us that we should check out a funny video that her church, First Lutheran Evangelical Church in Poughkeepsie, New York, recently posted on YouTube (see below). We weren't expecting very much as churches are not known for clever marketing or a sense of humor. However, the video made us laugh and impressed as being a creative way to create buzz for the church's fund raising efforts - especially amongst younger members and visitors. My wife particularly loved how the "sisters" addressed the fact that church membership is "dying off" in a funny and endearing way.
YouTube provides an excellent platform for building buzz that churches and non-profits with minuscule marketing budgets should leverage. According to comScore Video Metrix, 120.5 million Americans watched approximately 10 billion videos on YouTube.com in August 2009. That 82.6 videos per viewer a month. According to comScore, in August 2009, Americans conducted 9.4 billion searches on Google, which has about a 65% market share of the online search market. Yes, the numbers are correct. There are more videos being watched in the U.S. on YouTube than there are searches being conducted on Google.
I know some organizations who have hesitated to upload content to YouTube because they fear that the videos would look too grainy and low quality. However, YouTube has made great technological strides over the last year. Hundreds of thousands of HD videos, like the one below, are now being uploaded to the site every month, and millions are being viewed every day. As for producing a high-quality HD video, great options abound like the new Flip Video minoHD that sells for about $230 and includes simple video editing software and an easy way to upload finished videos to YouTube.
I would be curious to hear whether you've enjoyed marketing success thanks to videos posted to YouTube. What lessons did you learn?
