Blog Posts About: marketing

New Video: Affiliate Marketing Explained by Common Craft

We just published a new video that explains Affiliate Marketing.

Watch it now

About this video:

Affiliate marketing can help individuals earn a living by promoting products and services they love online. But how the system works is complicated and comes with important best practices. It teaches:

  • Why affiliate marketing is like word-of-mouth marketing
  • How affiliate programs provide links and graphics to affiliates
  • How affiliate links and graphics are used in promotions
  • How revenue is shared when a website visitor buys from an affiliate link
  • Why it is important to disclose affiliate program participation

Get Edit Rights:

Don't forget: we now offer a membership plan that provides the rights to edit our videos in your own software. For example, if you have an affiliate program and need a way to promote it, you can edit this video to include your logo, brand, etc. Learn more about our Editor Plan.

Watch: Affiliate Marketing Explained by Common Craft.

Dropbox: A Case Study in Explanation

Dropbox, with 100+ million users, has become a case study in startup success. But before that success they had a big problem to overcome, one that seems to plague startups everywhere. How they solved it and what that has meant to their company provides a look at the future of business communication and how to engage and turn website visitors into customers.  
 
A New Kind of Problem
 
Companies are problem-solving machines. Whole teams and departments exist to solve engineering problems, design problems, marketing problems, and management problems.
 
Dropbox was no different. They saw a problem causing pain for computer users everywhere and solved it with a remarkably simple solution. By downloading a small program, Dropbox users could suddenly access their documents across computers and devices. 
 
Dropbox solved the design and engineering problems in an elegant fashion. They secured funding and saw an opportunity for mainstream success. Yet one big problem lingered. Dropbox was very difficult to explain. It was a new idea that lived in a world without analogy. The company needed a way to make people care about Dropbox before clicking the “Download Dropbox” button.
 
 
This is where Dropbox found a solution. In 2009, Dropbox approach Common Craft about creating an explainer video. A few months later, the home page of Dropbox.com was redesigned to display a short animated video to introduce and explain the product. Watching the video was one of the only actions a visitor could take on the front page other than sign up. It was a central part of their website strategy. At the time, Dropbox had more than two million users.
 
Here's the video:

 
Did It Work?
 
Over three years and 100+ million users later, the video had an impact. Of course, I can't claim that the video was the reason Dropbox grew so incredibly. But the video's presence during this growth speaks for itself. Dropbox is not the kind of company that takes their home page lightly. 
 

NOTE: If you're interested in learning in-depth about the skill of explanation and how to make Common Craft Style videos, check out our online courses at the Explainer Academy.

 
As the company has evolved, the video is no longer available on Dropbox.com. However, I was recently able to get data on it's performance.  Dropbox told me that over the last year, it averaged about 30,000 views per day, or about 900,000 views per month. During the three years the video has been available, it’s racked up over 30 million views, making it one of the most viewed product videos on the Web.
 
By using a video on its front page, Dropbox was able to solve their explanation problem and give visitors a way to imagine how it could fit into their lives. 
 
Why Did It Work?
 
The video worked because it was designed to be an explanation. Its content is not about features, marketing buzz or technical superiority. Rather, it answers a simple question that every company should consider: “Why should I care about this product?” By answering this question simply and clearly, they were able to motivate website visitors to sign up. 
 
Format and Duration
 
The video also has a number of traits that have proven to be effective in similar situations.  For example, it’s brief, about 2 minutes long. It tells a charming story of a person who experiences a problem and finds that Dropbox solves it. The video is also presented in a disarming style that uses paper cut-outs and stop motion animation - a format known as Common Craft Style. These factors matter and the Dropbox founders made them a priority.
 
Location, Location, Location
 
But there’s more to this picture. Unlike many startups that see viral videos and YouTube views as the key to success, Dropbox thought differently.  They saw an opportunity to connect the video with the one thing that mattered most -- the “Download Dropbox” button. By hosting the video themselves and making dropbox.com the home of the video, they could build a front page strategy around it that focused less on views and viral shares, and more on conversions. This is not possible on YouTube.
 
Dropbox is just one example of companies that are seeing the potential to think differently about how they communicate. Amidst all the technical and design problems to solve, it’s easy to overlook the potential to focus on explanation as a strategy. But the potential is real. People are less likely to adopt what they don’t understand, and remarkably good explanations are the key to solving that problem and inviting website visitors to take the next step.
 
Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, author of The Art of Explanation and is credited for inspiring the explainer video industry. 
 

Seth Godin on Learning by Analogy

Marketing genius and author Seth Godin recently wrote about the use of analogy in educating others and frames an idea that's near and dear to my heart:

 
Marketing, like all forms of art, requires us to learn to see. To see what's working and to transplant it, change it and amplify it.
 
We don't teach this, but we should. We don't push people to practice the act of learning by analogy, because it's way easier to just give them a manual and help them avoid thinking for themselves.
 
The opportunity is to find the similarities and get ever better at letting others go first--not with what you've got, but with something you can learn from.
 
So true.  I also think about this in terms of "why" vs. "how". It's sometimes too easy to provide the manual and a set of steps to help someone learn something new. And it can work. But it can also represent a missed opportunity.  By framing ideas at a higher level and using analogies, we can discuss the "why" first and show people a new way to think about the idea; why an idea makes sense, why it matters.  This can become an invitation to care - and that's what we all want - for people to care about our ideas.
 
I felt the how-why disconnect when learning math. I was so focused on the "how", I never saw the reasoning behind the solutions and formulas - math appeared to be a set of steps you memorize - the "how". I never developed a higher level sense of "why" for most math problems - and my grades reflected this kind of learning. What I needed was for someone to step away from the specifics and build a foundation, perhaps by using analogies, so that I could learn to see math from a different perspective first.
 
 

Please Help Build Awareness for The Art of Explanation

Dear Common Craft friends and fans, I’m writing to humbly ask for your help.

The Art of Explanation, my new book, recently became fully available in bookstores and online. And now, it’s up to us to get the word out - and I’m hoping you can help. 
 
First, I hope you’ll consider buying the book. It’s meant for everyone and especially professionals.  If you’ve already purchased and read it, please consider writing a quick review on Amazon or your website. 
 
There a number of other ways you can help build awareness using your influence online, no purchase required.

The Basics:

Explain That Sh*t and Explain That Idea

We’ve built a couple of new "micro-sites" that share fun and useful explanation tips from the book. You can tweet any explanation tip by clicking the Twitter icon on the page. You can learn more about them here. Fun!

Other Tweetables:

The buttons below are pre-loaded with tweets you can use to share quickly.  Tweet text appears below each button.

"Common Craft founder @leelefever has a new book out called The Art of Explanation. Check it out:"

"Have you ever considered improving your explanation skills? @leelefever's new book may help:"

"If you rely on clear communication for work, check out The Art of Explanation:"

Facebook, Google Plus, etc.:

Please consider giving the book's Facebook page a quick “like”.  
 
But it would be really helpful if you could send a quick message to your friends on any social network you choose.  Below are a some ideas you can use as starting points:
 
“If your job depends on being understandable, check out this book by Lee LeFever called The Art of Explanation. http://bit.ly/aoe-b”
 
“Sometimes, things seem so clear in our heads, but once the words come out of our mouths, they confuse people.  The problem is explanation.  My friend Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft and wrote a book about solving this problem by learning explanation skills. Check it out: http://bit.ly/aoe-b”
 
“Lee LeFever wrote a book that may be worth checking out.  He’s a professional explainer and his book is meant to help everyone learn explanation skills: http://bit.ly/aoe-b"
 
 
Embed the Book Trailer: Find embed codes here.

And of course, good ole word-of-mouth works too. 

Thanks so much, in advance, for anything you can do!

How Would You Market A Book?

We're approaching a new phase in getting The Art of Explanation into the world. Now that the writing is 99% done, we need to think about marketing and promotion. Soon I will have a meeting with Wiley (the publisher) and start putting together a marketing plan. In preparation for this phase, I hope to learn as much as I can.

I would love your help.  If you have written/promoted a book, worked in publishing, marketing, PR, or simply have ideas, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I am a first time author and The Art of Explanation is aimed at professionals and the business/communication category.

How would you market the Art of Explanation?  What tools and resources are most helpful?

Reactions to the New Common Craft

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.
 
If you're interested in writing about Common Craft, or just learning more about us, checkout our Sharing Center which has an embeddable video, facts and figures, downloadable images a press release, etc.