It’s easy to fail on YouTube. But it’s also easy to succeed, if you follow the best practices.
By far the biggest reason beauty brands fail is that they approach YouTube as if it’s just a smaller version of television. It isn’t. Rather, YouTube is a community, actually more like Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. But instead of photos, YouTube is a community about videos. It’s not a broadcast medium, where paid media can win the day. Rather, earned media wins on YouTube. YouTube is about conversation, engagement and the advocacy of independent influencers.
This Revlon video is one that does not take advantage of YouTube’s core value. The video, called “Halle Berry and Olivia Wilde on Love” contains two of the world’s most beautiful and adored women. Except the YouTube audience isn’t interested in them. Instead they want YouTube-native personalities who will give them practical information.
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Rising YouTuber Is 840 Times Better Than Halle Berry And Olivia Wilde
Yes, the Halle Berry/Olivia Wilde video received 1.7 million paid views, but the engagement rate (comments and likes per view) was only 0.004%. But this video of rising YouTuber “C Key,” who reviewed the Revlon ColorStay Foundation was viewed “only” 22,000 times but had an engagement rate of 3.4%, 840 times the engagement rate of Halle and Olivia’s video. It was better in absolute terms as well, with 10 times the likes and comments. Ten times better! How much did this cost Revlon? Zero. And C Key’s video is much better, because it offers practical information.
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Companies like NYX and BH Cosmetics understand these lessons well.
L’Oreal recently acquired NYX Cosmetics (NYX rhymes with “fix”), a $100 million company founded in 1999. The company had quickly become a fan-favorite on YouTube, far surpassing L’Oreal on the platform. NYX did this in large part by celebrating its biggest fans, the YouTube creators. The company created the FACE Awards, a competition where YouTubers went over the top to create incredible videos. During just one of phase of the competition last year, YouTubers participating in the contest got NYX 32 million earned media views in just two days. Yes, that’s right — 32 million views in two days, with zero paid media. See our piece on NYX How NYX Became A YouTube Leader in #BeautyGuru Fan Videos.
BH Cosmetics is one of the fastest growing private companies in America. The company was founded in 2009 without any outside funding and by 2013 had made $13.7 million in yearly revenue. BH celebrates its YouTube advocates by featuring them on its own YouTube channel, where you see two playlists prominently placed. One is called “YouTube Tutorials We Love,” and the other is, simply, “Liked Videos.” More than 98% of the YouTube views about BH cosmetics, to the tune of 382 million views, are from independent creators. And that’s in no small part due to the 15% commission that BH pays creators who send sales their way. As an online business, BH has outsourced their sales incentives to YouTube influencers. See more at Why BH Cosmetics Features Fan Vids On Its YouTube Channel.
It’s easy to be taken in by the idea that high views mean value, but that’s only true if there’s high engagement. YouTuber influencers know that if their audience isn’t engaging, the video isn’t working.
Start a movement — connect with your YouTube influencers today. We can help.
