CopyDiva

Today I went boating on a small lake in northwestern Connecticut with my son and my mother. We had the option of renting a small variety of boats – 1 and 2 person kayaks, 1,2 and 4 person canoes, rowboats, paddle boats, even a motor boat. My son decided to be a lone ranger and chose a bright red kayak. My mom and I took the stalwart Coleman two-person canoe. The reason for our choice? The simple problem of portage — not dragging the boat down to the lake (frowned upon by the rental company) and trying to carry it up and down a rocky slope without dropping it. This became the key selling point for us.

Once portaged and situated, a relaxing and fun morning of boating was had by all, with my son playing chicken with his kayak across the chosen path of the canoe.

So what does this have to do with marketing, you may be wondering? Well, ponder the reasoning behind our selections. My son went for the cool looking, sleek and fast moving kayak. My mom and I, being more “old school,” went for the classic (though granted it wasn’t aluminum) forest green canoe, lumbering yet nimble in its own way. Each of us was looking for something in particular in the lake boating experience. (Here’s where it relates to marketing, so pay attention now) So, even though you may sell a particular product or service, don’t assume you understand the feelings behind why a customer selects your product or service. There could be lots of reasons, and even if you ask, you probably won’t get the real answer, because the customer may not be aware themselves.

Are you the industry standard or the largest provider? That will appeal to some. Is the competition’s just easier to buy? Like our portage problem, even though we checked out a few canoes first based purely on looks or size, the mere fact that we could lift the boat became the key selling point. If your purchase process is complicated, confusing or just long, you can lose the sale if your competitor makes it easy. Especially if you’re in a commoditized market. Even if you’re not, chances are if the purchase step is frustrating, customers may dip their oars elsewhere, thinking if the purchase process is difficult or confusing, what will customer service be like? Even after doing all the research and comparison shopping, a small glitch (it’s just too darn heavy) may make the difference between a purchase and a pass.

Not too long ago, I went to a marketing event put on by our local Boulder Marketing Group, and chatted with a woman about her company’s web site and pay-per-click campaign. This is a company that sells courses for professionals in the food industry. She was telling me how much they were spending (a lot!) on their PPC’s to get clicks to one particular program they offer, but they weren’t getting many leads interested in the program. She didn’t understand why.

What’s wrong with this PPC campaign?

Though they seemed to have the right keywords, their follow-through just wasn’t there, and with PPC, you need follow-through. Click-throughs were going to their home page, and not directly to information about this specific program advertised. So, once at the home page, visitors had to search around for the advertised program. How likely is it they will spend the time to do that? Not likely.

How can they fix their PPC campaign?

What would work best is to create a specific landing page for the PPC, which would track directly to that particular campaign. That would make it easy to track ROI for the PPC campaign. If they don’t want to spend the time or money to create a landing page, at a minimum, the click-though ought to go to the program page, as long as there is a way for the site visitor to request more information on that page.

The problem with the second approach? The program page is bound to just lead the site visitor elsewhere because of the site navigation. Then you lose that lead. Landing pages just work better in targeted marketing, such as PPC, because you get the user to immediately act on their impulse.

I know that corporate marketers can find it to be a big hassle to get landing pages created, because inevitably, they have to work with IT or their outside agency to get them done. That equals delays or too much money. But, there are tools out there to create branded landing pages on-the-fly. SurveyGizmo is the best one I have seen. An online survey system, this great little application is easy enough to use that you can just bypass IT altogether and test PPC campaigns easily.

3 basic best practices for PPC

1. Use for specific campaigns that you need or want a specific result. Examples: lead generation, download white paper, sign up for more info, get a discount if you buy now (or soon).
2. Landing pages should be simple: no navigation, not a lot of graphics to distract from the purpose. Save the amazing graphic design for some other purpose.
3. Repeat the heading text from the PPC ad on the landing page. Let clickers know they are at the right place so they trust what happens next.

These days, there are many ways to create a demo or presentation (Flash, Camtasia Studios, others). But, no matter what method you use, the most important part of the process is creating the storyboard and script that tells the story. This really helps you focus on the specifics of what you want to accomplish.

But where do you begin?

General principles: keep the demo or presentation short
The best multimedia presentations are succinct and get to the point quickly. No matter how fascinating your CEO, product managers or anyone else at your company thinks a product or service is, people tend to tune out after three to five minutes of a presentation. It just gets too long winded. Be adamant with your team about that timeframe, otherwise you’re wasting this valuable tool.
You gain more time if you’re writing a tutorial script. Tutorial viewers are typically seeking out
information or trying to learn how to use something. They will be more motivated to listen and watch longer.
First things first: get all the details
Before you begin, make sure you understand the goal of the presentation. Is it to interest potential leads at a key point in the sales cycle? Eye candy at a trade show to get people into a booth? A tool to present compelling or interactive information on a web site? A simplified demonstration of a complex process?
How much technical or industry knowledge will viewers know about the information presented? This is key – it will help you target the script to the right audience.

Will there be a voice-over script? Sometimes, particularly at trade shows, it doesn’t make sense to have a voice-over, because it won’t be heard. Perhaps a music bed would work better, or no sound at all. In that case, you’re writing the story of what’s happening on-screen, the storyboard. What’s on-screen needs to explain everything and stand on its own – without a voice-over to explain animations or other visuals.

Create an outline
Even if you typically do not outline a writing assignment, this is the type of creative project where it really helps. The outline doesn’t need to be detailed. It only needs to organize the major components:

1. What needs to be covered? For example, if you are showing any processes — such as the steps you take to drive a car — remember in your outline to break out every step in the process so you won’t leave any out.
2. Will you need transitions? If your presentation covers more than one narrow topic (more than one product or process), or if there is some kind of introduction – say a brief corporate branding intro – make sure your outline includes transitions so you remember to write them into the script.

Writing the script
Whether you have voice-over or not, you need a screen-by-screen template, a tool you’ll use to write the script and storyboard. Creating one is really easy. Here’s what I use:

Now, here’s what goes into each cell:

Screen #: When the programmer builds the presentation, he or she will need to know what graphics and animation go on each screen. Numbering screens makes it easier to keep track of each screen. It also helps the recording engineer (if you have a voice-over). By having each section of the script numbered, the engineer can record each screen’s-worth separately. When the track gets added to the final presentation, it’s already conveniently recorded by screen. All the programmer has to do is plop the voice-over into the right screen and make adjustments for animation timings.

Script: Use these cells to write the screen-by-screen story of a voice-over.

As you are writing, keep in mind what you think should happen on-screen as the script plays. I generally write out the entire script before I go back and add the visuals and on-screen words. However, if I think of something while I am writing, I’ll jot down some quick notes in the “visuals” cell to remind myself of the idea.

What’s going on on-screen?: Here’s where the storyboard, or visual story gets played out. You’ll probably want to brainstorm an overall look-and-feel with others in your company (or a creative director), and also to discuss any kind of limitations imposed by the budget (photos, video, complex animations and the like). Knowing the limitations, figure out what will work well with the script.

The storyboard should reflect the voice-over script. There should be enough change and movement to keep the viewer’s eye interested, but not so much that it distracts from the overall message.

Highlighted words on-screen: if this presentation has voice-over, the words on-screen provide reinforcement of the voice-over. Sometimes, the words will just be suggestions as to what you want the viewer to walk away with. They also act to reconnect the viewer if they stop paying attention to the voice-over.

If there is no voice-over script, the on-screen words could be more involved. They may need to explain what is going on visually or set a mood for what you want the viewer to walk away with. Make sure to keep the phrases short and easy to digest.

Tips for writing
Write out anything that is not an everyday abbreviation. This will prevent confusion for the
voice-over artist as well as the viewer.

Examples of everyday abbreviations:

• Time: just write 7:00 am, you don’t need to write out 7 o’clock pm
• Web and email addresses: most people understand that “@” means “at”

Abbreviations that are known in your client’s industry will not be known by the voice-over artist — and may not necessarily be known by the viewer. If you must use a particularly long and awkward grouping of words that is typically “acronymized,” follow the first-use rule. At first use, the script should include all the words, followed by the acronym.

Example: “…the Big Nasty Technical Explanation, or BNTE…”

Time it
Get yourself a timer. You will need to read the script aloud to make sure you aren’t going over the allotted time. You may also need to time individual screens if you think they might run too long, don’t have enough animation, have too many words, etc.

Trim, edit, make it sharp
Read the script aloud to catch any difficult or awkward phrasings. Trim as much fat during your editing process and get to the essence of what you need to say – quickly. This keeps the pace moving and makes for a more successful presentation.

What do you want the viewer to do next?
Finally, what is the viewer supposed to do at the end of the presentation? I can’t tell you how often this becomes an afterthought. Don’t let that happen to your project! This is marketing or at least customer interaction. Send them further down the sales process. Tell them to sign up for something. Get their feedback. Give them more support. Just give them an idea to do something!
True, sometimes, a call to action may not be appropriate, however, most of the time it is. Here are some possible calls to action that are effective and give you a way to track the success of you demo:

• Go to our website to sign up for… (have an onscreen click through)
• Contact your sales representative today by calling… or visit our website (on-screen click through to get in touch with a sales rep)
• (for a tutorial) to view the tutorial again, click the restart button. You can also download other helpful documentation from our website at www.xxx.com (have a link that goes directly to the documentation page)

Last chance for changes
If there is time in the production schedule, it’s helpful to run through the voice-over script with the completed screens. You will catch any dead spots – places where the script drones on and on but nothing happens on-screen. Fix these now, either by adding action on-screen or eliminating some of the script. Once you record, it is a major hassle (and can sound really awful) to make changes without re-recording. The cadence of the voice-over becomes stilted when you edit out words and even whole sentences.

Copyright 2006, Copy Diva
Like this article? Want to re-publish it *unmodified* elsewhere? No problem. Either link directly to the blog post or contact me to get a brief blurb to add to the end of the article.

This book is certainly not new. It was published in 1998 — how about that for ancient history in the business world! But, that being said, it is by far one of the best books I have ever read about nurturing creativity and innovation within the typical confines of creative death that exist in corporations. The message in this book still falls on deaf ears today across most businesses, where creativity and innovation are regularly stifled.

MacKenzie worked at Hallmark for 30 years, originally starting off as a sketch artist and eventually worming his way into getting Hallmark to let him loose within the company to jump start creativity and innovation. How? With the job title of Creative Paradox, MacKenzie spent years putting together what he calls diversions with a purpose, shaking up the rules, traditions and “normal” ways of doing things within Hallmark to eliminate the mediocrity that comes with doing things the same way all time (just because they worked in the past). By taking orbit off the hairball (the corporate culture), MacKenzie shows how he helped foster innovation at Hallmark during his tenure (though after he left, apparently it was back to business as usual.

Even the way the book is presented isn’t the typical business book — drawings, weird type, colors — the presentation of the information is also all about the point of the book, which is that you don’t have to follow the same formula all the time. In fact, you might just create something brilliant if you don’t.

Buy it and keep it close by during those moments of corporate drudgery…