As with any advertising, whether it’s a gorgeous product shot, a carefully chosen tagline or the right location backdrop, marketers and creative directors should spend time thinking about what the reader -- your consumer -- should do with this URL and how to generate an expectation for the effort. Too many ads today treat the URL as if it were a legal mandatory element.
Consider the context (audience, buying process, magazine and campaign)
- Is your objective to sell your product online? Then offer the reader value for making the effort to go online and purchase.
- Is your product or service high involvement, requiring a complex decision-making process? Then mention an online tutorial or downloadable decision checklist.
- Will this purchase require a combination of offline and online research? Then offer a downloadable product catalog.
- Are your consumers in the casual game demographic? Offer and tout your online games.
Your consumer has a problem-- your brand is the solution. It’s your job to guide them through the decision-making process.
HunterDouglas sells premium-priced blinds that require consumers to consider the color of flooring, furniture and wall coverings. This is a custom product and a complex purchase. HunterDouglas attempts to make this easier by guiding the consumer to their website for a free, downloadable catalog. They save the effort and cost of mass mailings, and the consumer benefits by saving time.
Effective
Below, Penguin Books misses the mark by including just their main URL in the ad. Given they only listed the Penguin.com URL, I expected to either see a corporate brochure ware site or to see The Wal-Mart Effect book prominently listed on the home page.
Less effective
When I went to Penguin.com, I saw neither and was surprised to see that it was an ecommerce website. This is a missed opportunity to sell. An easy win would have been in the URL of Penguin.com/Wal-MartEffect that led directly to the product landing page.