all posts tagged “marketing”
Video Explanations by 1/29 Explainers
Posted by: leelefever on October 4, 2011- 2:39pm
Categories: 1/29, Explainer Network, Explanation, marketing, video
From time-to-time we like to show off the work of a member of our Explainer Network of video producers. The videos below are by 1/29 Explainers in Oakland CA.
This first example on Next Gen Web Security from McAfee is a classic story-driven narrative. It works well as an explanation by telling a story through the experiences of a character that is likely to connect with the target audience, in this case, IT managers. It plays on the loss of control that IT managers feel (the pain) and shows how that pain is resolved with a product (the resolution). It leaves the viewer (the target viewer anyway) with the feeling that it would be good to feel like Ted, the main character.
Our second example is a video called "In Your Hands" for the organization CompTIA, which is the voice of the world's information technology industry. It's a bit of an outlier in the explanation space, as it uses mostly text and is in 3D. At first I wasn't sure about the video's format, but I found myself being completely engaged by the animation of the words, which feel so real in how they fall. It kept my attention and felt impactful. I think it does a great job of relating the seriousness of the subject without being cheesy or over-the-top.
Our last example from 1/29 is about GigWalk. I found this video interesting in a number of ways. First, like so many apps, it's a completely new idea. People may have never even considered that such a thing is possible. A video explanation is perfect for these kinds of ideas and this one does a solid job of building a foundation of understanding in just over a minute. Something else I noticed... The viewer sees, visually, that you earn money based on "gigs", but that fact never comes up in the script. It's purely visual. I think this keeps the focus on the big idea and value to customers vs. the financial incentive to participate. It's a smart move because if you go too far into the "you can make money!" it distracts from the core message, which seems to be about the Gigwalk customer vs. the GigWalker.
You can find listings for 1/29 and other video producers that can explain your product or service at the Common Craft Explainer Network.
We've been lucky over the years. Our videos tend to speak for themselves and have helped to build a little buzz and help our brand without too much formal PR. But with the launch of the new site, we thought a little buzz would help get the word out about the our new direction. Below are links and excerpts from a few blog posts about the new Common Craft.
Seattle’s Common Craft video firm has built a business out of simple, explanatory online videos made of paper cutouts — most famously the “Twitter in Plain English” video that was featured for more than a year on the Twitter home page. Now the small company is trying to carve out a new business model — switching to a membership approach and moving away from pay-per-download videos.
Three years ago we wrote here about how the two person team quit doing client work and moved into a model based entirely on licensing rights to the educational videos they produced. Their videos were available for free online, but corporate customers happily pay to have the rights to show the content to their employees. This week Common Craft changed models again. From an iTunes model to a Rhapsody model, co-founder Lee LeFever says. Customers will now buy subscriptions and have access to all the videos Common Craft produces. It's an interesting twist in a story that any independent content producer online could find inspiring.
All in all, I think it’s a great move. Today more than ever, teachers and businesses are looking for ways to incorporate video into their educational practices. But there’s a shortage of quality video to choose from, and for many, creating their own videos is simply not feasible.Enter Common Craft, who already has a reputation as a top creator of short, practical educational videos. Says LeFever:“We’re building a platform that will allow us to understand the needs of our members and grow our video library significantly based on that relationship. It’s a win-win.”If you use video to education clients, employees, or students, I’d recommend giving Common Craft’s video subscription service a look. You’ll be hard pressed to find many other sources for videos that entertain and charm as much as they educate.
But I also think the two videos above just prove one thing, Common Craft cannot be copied. No one but Lee and Sachi have the pixie dust to turn 3 minute videos into something magical. I totally agree with this piece of the press release:"The simple format, clear communication and lighthearted attitude connects with people on a fundamental level. They make people smile in three minutes."
As the pay-TV industry has learned over the years - and Netflix has more recently - the pay-once/watch-as-much-as-you'd like aspect of subscriptions is very compelling. The purchase decision needs to be made just once up-front and thereafter the provider can focus on delivering value. That's the approach Common Craft is now using and it looks like a smart move.
There are a lot of reasons I'm delighted by this latest evolution, not the least of which is my happiness at seeing friends succeed. But maybe the biggest one is this:Nearly every traditional business model for content creation is in turmoil these days. Books, newspapers, television, movies, music — all of those industries are scrambling to cope with the challenges of a new and dynamic digital world. So when someone comes along who can create something terrific, who can do it really well, and can turn that into a viable business, it offers real hope for anyone who wants to earn a livelihood from their creative talents and skills.
The Woot! service (known for their one-day, one-deal offers) has always been know for their light-hearted and fun communication style. It's a quality I love to see in companies. Any company that's prepared to be a little silly and not take itself too seriously has an opportunity to find loads of adoring customers and fans on the web. In the context of boring corporate announcements, these companies seem like the life of the party.
Thanks to their business model and adoring fans, Woot! was recently acquired by Amazon. So what do they do in the face of being acquired by a huge corporation? They make their announcement in the form of a rapping monkey. I love it. It tells the story, it's clever and fun and it feels like something Woot! should do.
If that's not enough for you, check out the hilarious email from their CEO.
Via: Laughing Squid
I'm the first to admit that we haven't done a great job on the much-requested Common Craft t-shirts, etc.
But we do have stickers!
If you'd like a few (supplies are limited), please be like the person below and send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
Common Craft
P.O. Box 18322
Seattle, WA 98118-0322
We'll look forward to hearing from you!
A big congrats to Instruxion (the company behind Animated Explanations) for being awarded the Platinum Seal of e-Excellence in Europe, which recognizes companies who have a track record of innovation. Of course, we see this recognition as further proof that video explanations are a valuable and productive element of marketing and education. Animated Explanations is based on Brussels, Belgium and a member of our Explainer Network of video producers.
Here's the description of the award from the award website:
The European Seal of e-Excellence rewards ICT and Digital Media companies with an excellent track record in innovation marketing. Awarded annually since 2003 by the EMF and its Partner Organisations, the Seal is widely known for recognizing companies with:
- innovative products and services;
- excellence in the marketing thereof.
Again, congrats to Geert and the Instruxion team!
If you've been reading for a while, you've seen us write that a secret to a strong explanation is putting the subject in the context of someone's life. Don't just talk about what it does, talk about how it fits into their world - how it takes away pain or makes something easier, faster, better.
Recently I've been reading the Malcolm Gladwell book What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, which is a collection of his past articles from the New Yorker. One of the articles is called The Pitchman and focuses, in part, on Ron Popeil of Ronco. You may recognize his name from late-night TV, where he's often seen pitching a new kitchen appliance like the Veg-o-matic or the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie BBQ. He is a classic pitchman - a pro.
Though I would never call myself a pitchman, there is an element of the skill in creating explanations. Think of a commercial or an exhibit on the floor of a fair or trade show. The pitchman only has a limited amount of time to attract attention and hold it long enough for value to be clear. Common Craft may not sell Ginsu knives, but we do specialize in making value clear, in about three minutes.
There is a section of the story that struck me as particularly apt for explainers. Ron Popeil discusses pitching kitchen gadgets and how VCRs were marketed...
You have to show them exactly how it works and why it works and make them follow your hands as you chop liver with it, and then tell them precisely how it fits into their routine, and, finally sell them on the paradoxical fact that, revolutionary as the gadget is, it's not at all hard to use.
Thirty years ago, the video cassette recorder came onto the market, and it was a disruptive product too: it was supposed to make it possible to tape a television show so that no one would ever again be chained to to the prime-time schedule. Yet, as ubiquitous as the VCR became, it was seldom put to that purpose. That's because the VCR was never pitched: no one ever explained the gadget to American consumers... and no one showed them exactly how it worked or how it would fit into their routine and no pair of hands guided them through every step of the process. All VCR makers did was hand over the box with a smile and a pat on the back, tossing in an instruction manual for good measure. Any pitchman could have told you that wasn't going to work.
These days I see a lot of companies acting like VCR makers - handing over a gadget and focusing on features - without indicating how it fits into the lives of customers. Perhaps we all have something to learn from Ron Popeil.
Online Videos, Testimonials and Conversion Rates
Posted by: leelefever on February 19, 2009- 4:00pm
Categories: business, marketing, statistics, video
It's too easy to just put up a web page and hope for the best. I can certainly attest to this practice for most of Common Craft's existence. However, as we've moved into ecommerce and built some traffic, I've become much more data oriented and learned more about things like "conversions" and "A/B testing."
Many web-based businesses have the same goal: drive traffic to your web site and then convert that traffic into some desired action. This is called conversion - converting traffic to sales, contacts, newsletter sign-ups, etc. is a big deal and something that's important to understand.
I've been keeping an eye out for data on how videos work in this process. My guess was that video is an asset - if you can get people to watch a video about your product or service, they may be more likely to take an action.
I recently spoke with my friend Chris Savage at Wistia.com, who is very data-oriented. Wistia is a start-up that makes it easy to privately/securely share videos and measure the results. Wistia uses videos on a number of their pages and I asked Chris about the impact of videos in terms of conversion. His response:
We consistently get 3-4x better conversion ratios when we have videos on a page. Visitors convert in less time and there tend to be more opportunities.
Andrew Angus, who runs Switch Web Video (a member of our Explainer Network), recently wrote a blog post on the impact of testimonials on conversion rates and included some information about the role of video as well.
If you have a video on a webpage you are much much more likely to convert that visitor to a lead as compared to a normal web page. I have seen figures that show video landing pages convert 2 times to 6 times better then a normal webpage.
Andrew wanted to find out how much testimonials matter on landing pages - the first page a visitor sees. So, he set up two landing pages, one with testimonials and one without. Thanks to Google's Website Optimizer, he was able to test one page vs. the other (called A/B testing). Andrew's results:
The page with testimonials on it beat the competition by 158%! That blew me out of the water and is a huge difference for the business. Just think about it… rather than 7 people out of a 100, a much larger 17 out of 100 would contact us. This changes the game for our business and means we are much busier since we started using this new landing page.
So, I think there are a couple of lessons here:
1. Video may play a positive role in giving people a way to learn about your product and take the desired action.
2. Take a look at your "landing page" - the page that people see first, and consider how video and testimonials can help your conversions.
Of course, I must provide a shameless plug for the members of the Common Craft Explainer Network, who can help you create short and simple video for your landing page.
Yaay! Common Craft Stickers
Posted by: leelefever on February 4, 2009- 4:00pm
Categories: art, conference, marketing, stickers, Swag
Thanks to John, Maureen and the folks at Sticker Giant for their help with these little guys. We're planning to carry them with us at conferences, etc. If you see us at SXSW or anywhere else, ask for one!
Would you like a sticker? Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
Common Craft
P.O. Box 18322
Seattle, WA 98118-0322
Being Lightweight: Business Design
Posted by: leelefever on July 20, 2008- 5:00pm
Categories: beingsmall, business, lesson, lightweight, marketing, ourwork
This is the third in a series of posts about Being Lightweight. The first two were about Working with Clients and Tools We Use.
We are lucky to have a product that people like. Our challenge is to experiment and find the best ways to build a business around this product. To be successful we need the business to be profitable, but also work within the life we want to live.
We see this process as "business design" and as this series outlines, being lightweight is a big priority. Below are a number of ideas and thoughts about creating a lightweight business.
Two People - We are dedicated to being a two person company without employees. This is a fundamental constraint that guides nearly every decision. By making our size the priority, we have been forced to think hard about what is possible for two people and be prepared to focus on opportunities that work within this constraint.
Employees - We may work with contractors and short-term help, but we do not plan to hire employees. In the last article in the series I talked about the heavy nature of stress and anxiety. Growing the business by hiring would add potential revenue, but also add significant stress and loss of focus on our work in order to manage those folks.
Business Model - We ask ourselves - What business do we really want to be in? What do we want to be doing on a day-to-day basis? Consulting? Custom Videos? Licensing? Ads? Commercial? To be lightweight, we need to bring focus to the 1-2 models that get us closer to our goals and put others on the back burner.
Scalability - We are small, but we do want to scale the business. How? We consider business models. The custom video model does not scale - we would have to hire employees to make more videos each month. A more scalable model is selling licensed versions of our videos in the Common Craft Store. In this model, potential revenue is not tied directly to production time.
Not Doing it All - When opportunity knocks, it's hard not to answer. The problem is that we can't do it all and we've learned to say no, even if it hurts sometimes. The key is being clear about our future goals. If an opportunity doesn't take us there, then it's creating drag.
Marketing - We don't spend time on brochures, fliers or ads of any traditional sort. We believe that the best marketing doesn't always come from a campaign - it comes from the users of our products. We focus on making free versions of the videos easy to share.
Agility - About a year ago, a few companies started to become interested in our custom videos. We literally woke up one morning and decided to focus 100% of our business on these videos. The same thing happened when we decided to focus on the Store. Our goal is to retain this freedom to react to changes and opportunities efficiently, and avoid the need to seek approval from others. A beauty of being small and lightweight is the ability to react.
People Philosophy - We believe that people are essentially good and given limited resources, we'd rather focus attention on being open and helping them do the right things rather than trying to make the wrong things impossible.
Balance - We don't believe in working 80 hours a week, 51 weeks a year so that you can vacation when you're old. We work more hours than most, but we're not bashful about making sure that we live a fun, interesting and balanced life. Lightweight businesses make this easier.
Investors and Partnerships - Often, these are required for business growth. The problem comes when the requirements and expectations of others become a part of the business. We've been careful not to form agreements with investors or partners because the baggage these relationships create may not balance with the benefits they provide. It's added stress and anxiety that creates weight we would rather not have. Advice is great, but financial relationships weight a lot.
Limited Middlemen - Each person who handles a product on the way to the consumer adds weight and removes reward. We look for the best ways to get our product from an idea to the customer as directly as possible. Outside of us, The Common Craft Store doesn't have salespeople, distributors, marketers or support. We do it all, A-to-Z, using products like PayPal and e-junkie.
Contact Points - As our visibility on the web has increased, so too has our time managing communication. We recently decided to make email our most public source of contact and have removed our phone number from the web site. It's nothing personal, it just allows us to do a better job managing communications as lightweight as possible.
Supporting Two People - At the end of the day, we remember that we are two people. Sure, our model may not enable us to dominate markets or become a Fortune 500 company, but that's not our goal. We need our business to support us and the life we want to live.
So, you might be wondering about the result of all these ideas. Well, we've made a number of decisions lately. Our future is devoted to building a library of videos for the Common Craft Store. We are phasing out custom videos and devoting time to videos we can license to influencers and educators for use in the workplace. This model enables us to be lightweight and 100% independent.
Ultimately, we want to wake up each morning and know we are choosing what we do that day. For us, that's lightweight.
Wouldn't it be nice if every author actually lived in the world that they wrote about? It's one thing to be an observer, but yet another to be a resident. That's why it's my pleasure to point you to a new ebook by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo of Capulet Communications.
It's called "Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook". You can learn more (and purchase it) at SocialMediaReady.com. This video provides a quick overview too.
I've known Darren and Julie for years and there are few people whose words I would trust more regarding social media marketing. Why? Because it is their world. Through their work, their blogs, their goofy satire sites and sites like DearRockers, they've been there every day for years.
As part of the roll out, they created a Common Craft inspired video called "Blogger Outreach 101" with Sachi and I in starring roles - as horses (I think!). You'll just have to watch it and laugh...Darren reminds us that he think it's "just awful." We are flattered nonetheless.
[Disclosure] I provided a quote and some very small input as a part of the ebook's development.
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