Reliable information is hard to come by, but that statement that Zaydis account for "only a fifth of Yemen's population" seems inaccurate. Zaydis account for a greater percentage than that, and in what was formerly North Yemen (the Yemen Arab Republic) they are likely the majority. Attached is a CIA map with an estimated ethnic-religious breakdown as well as a nice little oblique topographical map.
Also, Zaydis are notionally Shi'ite. They are a separate branch of "Fiver" Shi'ites. The main Shi'ites are "Twelver" Shi'ites, while other sects such as the Ismailis are "Sevener" Shi'ites (Alawis of Syria and Druze of Lebanon are offshoots of Sevener Shi'ites). All this is based on which of the successor imams to Muhammad they consider the last true imam.
And Zaydis might have a little more confidence than is currently justified because they ruled Yemen for about one thousand and thirty years. What is now Yemen was a cluster of small states in ancient times, including one claimed to be the Biblical Sheba (as in "Queen of"). Yemen earned its gold in the trade for frankincense and myrrh. In the sixth century, a leader of one of the local states converted to Judaism and began killing local Christians. The King of Axum (in what is now Ethiopia), aided by the Byzantine Empire, attacked and defeated the Jewish state. Christians ruled for just 40 years, until the Persians conquered the region. The Persians and their subjects converted to Islam shortly thereafter, with Yemen becoming a backwater of the Arab-Muslim empire.
Imam Yahya ibn al-Husayn founded a Zaydi state in 890 AD. It was independent until 1539 when it became a province of the Ottoman Empire (but still under Zaydi local rule). The Zaydis rebelled against the Ottomans in 1595 and once again won their independence (in 1635, so they were fairly tenacious). In 1872, the Ottomans retook Yemen but their control collapsed during World War One and under Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ad-Din the Zaydis declared the Republic of Yemen in 1918. He ruled until 1948, leading Yemen into the Arab League and UN, and his son Imam Ahmad ruled until 1962 when he died. Imam Ahmad's son was soon deposed by rebels assisted by Egypt, and the Yemen Arab Republic was declared. The war there in the 1960s pitted nationalists supported by Egypt against royalists supported by Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Meanwhile, what is known as South Yemen had become the British protectorate of Aden in the 1800s. A Communist insurgency and terrorist campaign forced a British withdrawal and the People's Republic of South Yemen was declared in 1967 (and renamed the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1970). The two Yemens alternatively fought and haggled until 1990, when they officially unified. Then their infighting became civil unrest and, in 1994, a civil war, won by the north.
Besides fighting among themselves, Yemenis also have complicated relations with their neighbors. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis emigrated to Saudi Arabia in the 20th century to work in the oil industry and related jobs. Among these was Sheikh Muhammad bin Laden, founder of the family business dynasty. After Yemen sided with Iraq after the latter invaded Kuwait, Saudi Arabia expelled hundreds of thousands of Yemenis. Saudi Arabia and Yemen also had a long-running border dispute, which was settled in 2000. Yemen also had a dispute with Eritrea over a small group of islands in the Red Sea. And of course, Yemen's tribal hinterlands served as a hiding place and recruiting ground for terrorists including those responsible for the attack on the USS Cole.
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Maybe someone more versed in foreign policy can explain why these insurgent groups fight if they have no chance to succeed.
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Presumably, they fight because they don't think "they have no chance to succeed." They defeated the Ottomans at the height of Ottoman power. Other Yemenis defeated the British.
Their leader Badreddin al-Houthi fights in part because the government killed his son, Hussein al-Houthi, last September. The son was the founder of al-Shabab al-Mu'min ("the Believing Youth" or "Youthful Believers" or "Faithful Youth") in 1997 and launched the current uprising last summer. His father took over as "spiritual leader" after Yemeni troops killed Hussein, while actual operations are led by Abdullah Ayedh al-Rizami (or Razami), Yusuf Madani and Abdul Malak al-Houthi.
Also, Yemeni politics, especially in recent decades, seems full of deal-making. Maybe they figure they don't need to win power, only concessions.