Getting your Users to the Web, Part 3: Placing your Plugs

By Alex on July 29, 2008 3:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It's easy to slap the web address on-some menu somewhere and let that be it. Take it from the brand psychologists: if you actually want to make that nice, readable address stick in your viewers' minds, you should expose them to it by as many different ways as you can.

For example, how long does it take to voice over the web spot in the screenshot above? About 10 seconds - and, since your viewers will be repeating the web address verbally later when they try to recall it, hearing "Visit Double-u, Double-u, Double-u, YourCompany Dot Com, Slash Weddings, Slash Jones" makes the address easier to remember than assuming they'll want to read it.

For that matter, you can bury the web address on some side menu somewhere, but exposure yields memory: if you can place the web address somewhere in the viewer's normal "flow," he or she will tend to see it more, and therefore remember it even without intentionally seeking it out. A plug somewhere before or after the meat of the DVD, but in the same DVD Studio Track, is generally preferable to an address buried in a menu somewhere, and a lower third can be better still.

One reason lower thirds rock, of course, is that they can give the content (in this case the web address) context - another key ingredient in good recall. If I see "See more wedding photos at this address" while actually watching some wedding photos in a slideshow, I'll connect that URL with the task of viewing wedding photos - the context backs up what the text is saying.

Of course, not every technique will be appropriate to every situation - but the more different ways you can cue your viewers to remember something, the more likely they are to remember and act upon what you're saying.