Those sound dudes at SONOS have a new product.
SO, how did SONOS win and lose in launching it?
Well. I got a nice email.
I bought a SONOS product (or two) last year and they cleverly get your email address when you set up their gear.
I'm a prime target.
SO - a win for customer data collection.
What would have been nice is putting a thumbnail with a 'Play' icon on it in the image so that I was tempted to play their video.
Email with a 'play' thumbnails get higher click throughs.
And since, erm, this is a TV product, showing a play icon on a TV would have been a no brainer.
SO - I go to their site and there's a nice big image enticing me to watch the video.
Nicely done. 'See why'... a great piece of copy to pull me in.
It's a nice video! WIN.
What I like is they show the insane detail that goes into creating a product like this.
It shows the care. The science. (The justification for the price tag.)
Because after all... I already know how easy SONOS is to use.
I know how good the sound is.
I don't need those selling points.
This cements a feeling inside me that these guys care and that I'm buying into the brand.
BUT just as I'm having this feeling of 'need' for the product wash over me...
They embedded using YouTube.
And didn't turn off the 'watch this next' button. So I end up with this screen...
Argh! Suddenly I'm snapped out of the reverie of the product and I just want to click things.
I'm lost in the YouTube rabbit hole and not returning to their product's landing page. Crazy!
I've written about this before - it's so easy to avoid.
Like I did when I embedded it at the top of this post.
And if they used a business orientated site like Vimeo or Wistia they could have requested my email at the end if I'm interested... or a button to click ' buy' etc.
This is part of a sales funnel isn't it?
That said, YouTube is still a good place to have it out in the world..
But they LOSE here too with a killer careless mistake.
If I watched this video on YouTube to the end and I'm impressed by the product what will I want to do next?
... Yep. Click a link to find out more about it?
Yet the link in the notes below the video doesn't work!
MAJOR fail.
Especially as a couple of people had flagged this up in the comments and SONOS had ignored it (whilst replying to others).
Neither had they made use of the YouTube 'cards' system of having clickable buttons direct on the video that could have linked to their product page.
Do you want to sell this thing or not?!
Plus, they didn't use any of the video on Twitter...
OR on Facebook (not uploaded natively or posted from YouTube).
SO.. SOrry SONOS.
The video itself is good marketing wise.
But how you put it to use in the world... is another thing.
Sound judgement?
What can you take from this for your business?
Don't get so excited about the video and the 'launch' that you forget about the detail.
That you forget the strategy.
How are you releasing your video into the wild?
How will you turn viewers into buyers?
How will your video play its part within your landing page?
What additional tools in social and on your page can you use to cause people to take action?
As they say in the video 'making simple things is never simple'.
But when it comes to video marketing and sales you don't have to make it harder for yourself either.
SO - what will you do?
(PS. I also learnt today that I've been saying 'SONOS' wrong all along...)