Whilst competition is, in many instances, a good thing, in terms of pushing up the quality, reducing the cost to the end user, creating greater choice in the marketplace and harbouring innovation it presents the problem of engagement, particularly in the online sphere.
The rich media and applications of sites like the BBC, YouTube, Trip Advisor, the quality editorial of shopping portals including Amazon and the major social networking sites of Facebook and Bebo fight for attention against conventional platforms, and whilst this statement doesn’t consider the innumerable users and their diverse online needs it goes in some way to illustrate the state of the playing field, and how the bar really has been raised.
But what is your strategy? How can you engage customers? How do you compete for their attention? And once you’ve got customers, how do you retain them? In addition, how can you make cost savings in your marketing by turning visitors into loyal repeat customers who might in turn spread the word about your products and services?
One such engagement tool is multimedia content, which encompasses audio and video content. These multimedia mediums, allow business and website owners to engage with users and communicate differently to the traditional static pages of text and images users might expect from much of the web.
An excellent example of this is UK stag and hen organizers Adventure Connections (http://www.adventureconnections.co.uk) who have devoted their homepage to a range of branded videos which describe their services, ‘sell’ their products and encourage readership in a way that pages of content just couldn’t.
Justin Sayers from Adventure Connections has reported:
“We’ve seen an instant increase in inquiries and customers seem to have more confidence in our brand, which, for a web based company, is excellent!”
In light of the competitive nature of the stag and hen industry, Adventure Connections sought to differentiate themselves from the websites of their competitors by adding value to how they communicated and the choice and format of video played a crucial role in how the company sought to drive forward this strategy.
Opting for professionally recorded video content which employed the services of two trained actors and a blue screen with which to superimpose further video content of the activities, Adventure Connections were rewarded with a range of high quality branded videos, which undoubtedly contribute to the professionalism of the website, the perception of the Adventure Connections brand, and, as Justin Sayers has reported, an increase in conversions.
This user centric approach serves the needs of the ever savvy user, who craves information and will just as quickly move off your website if they cannot find the information they need, and multimedia content is another tool to effectively communicate.
Multimedia content needn’t stop at video either as the use of podcasting technology represents a further opportunity to demonstrate authority in your sector by communicate news, interviews and other discussions in the form of a downloadable podcast, over, or in additional to, traditional static pages.
Therefore the opportunity to increase your conversions is presented when harnessing multimedia content, which can
- Heighten the perception of your brand
- Cement your position as an authority within your field
- Enhance the user experience
- Naturally attracts links to your website
- Differentiate from your competitions and
- Encourage customers to visit the other pages of your website or ‘find out more’
In this age of competitively, engagement is a key consideration, and this is just one reason why multimedia content is good for you.
