Closing the Chasm on Clickthru (Mr. Complicated Case Study)

by Nalts on October 10, 2007

Like that headline? Lots of C’s.

It’s the age old problem of online-video marketing. People watch the videos floating around the web, so the medium is brilliantly cost-efficient for awareness and buzz standpoint. But the little repressed direct marketers in us are looking at the paltry click-thru from video to branded website, and wondering what can be done to close the gap. It’s in low single digits even with a great “call to action.”

When I ran a viral video campaign last year, I worked with a website to buy placement around our quasi-entertaining marketing videos. Despite surrounding display ads, the click thru was modest.

Here’s a solution that I’m testing soon, and believe it will work. A simple microsite that plays off of the campaign, instead of invites people to a promotional message. Campaign sites aren’t new, but they’re rarely coupled with videos that have a distribution strategy of their own. They’re usually the equivalent to a billboard in your backyard.

Example: I’m working with a company that has a a complex eBusiness solution (to help purchasing folks work with temporary workers) and our campaign is designed to pose the question- “If you had an easier way to work with temps, why wouldn’t you do that? Are you potentially overcomplicating your life?”

For this to make sense to the layman, we had to pull the purchasing agent into a situation to which we can all relate… ordering a pizza. So Mr. Complicated has guests over, but obsesses with buying parts of his pizza from various vendors, rather than going to a one-stop shop. Here’s the 4-minute draft, but it’s not yet baked.

I’m betting that more people will go from this video to www.MrComplicated.com (which took me less than 45 minutes to create and that includes the time to park the URL) than to the service-provider’s website Clear-Point’s iLaborNetwork).

So the campaign URL allows viewers of one video to see the others, and pays off the gag some more. It also allows the marketing messages to slowly come through. Ultimately I think it will increase the conversions from the video to the provider’s website simply because it’s a bridge.

The online equivalent to dating before marriage. Ever try to propose to a stranger? It doesn’t work. Now THERE’S a video idea.

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