Mmmmm, richness.
Media richness is defined as a reduction of ambiguity. Whereas text can be misinterpreted, images and videos provide more concise delivery of information.
In an era when the average person skims content for the juiciest and most useful bits, companies have to say more with less and be very direct with content. Your web-using customer base prefers websites that specifically limit content length to six-second videos or 140-character posts, so your content should achieve brevity.
Try offering more videos, better images, and cooler media in accordance with your online presence if you’d like to reap significant benefits.
Benefits of media richness
It can be costly and time-consuming to up the ante on image quality, video production, and other items, but odds are the benefits will soar for customers and skyrocket for you.
1. Improve your search engine optimization (SEO)
Images and videos offer another opportunity for a gold star on Google’s algorithmic grading scale. Media richness is valued as a criterion for a more endorsable website, according to the Internet search giant.
Plus, media can be keyword-tagged for better optimization for the searches that possible customers will most likely make. More customers will find you in the crowd of your competitors, because of image and video searches.
2. Lower your bounce rating
The bottom line for most web users is convenience. As innovation is born of necessity, the Internet was born from the need to obtain information swiftly.
Of course, today’s cyber skimmers tend to scoff at lengthy articles and wordy content. So a more media-rich website is going to appear and function as a modern, ‘skimmable’ entity for customers, and they will be less likely to bounce.
3. Interactivity
Images and videos feel more interactive to customers than text. Customers are more likely to share a link to your website or blog post if eye-catching images or engaging videos are included.
In fact, some platforms (such as Pinterest and Instagram) aren’t optimized for backlinking unless there’s at least a useful image included with the content.
4. Clarity of brand
Who are you? What do you value? What do you have to offer customers? They really want to know.
You don’t have to convince customers to browse; they already do so naturally. You just have to stand in line to be browsed and make a clear first impression of your brand identity.
Videos and images enable customers to see, hear, and feel for themselves whether your brand is a good fit for them.
5. Highlighting
Sure, Nike makes cool socks and sweatbands and Starbucks offers neat mugs, but are those the focus of their product categories? Probably not.
Get your best stuff noticed and highlight new products, services, locations, or whatever else you want to roll out in a way that customers are more likely to welcome.
How to enrich your media
Do you wonder how to reap these benefits and make media work for you? Try a combination of these media types on your website to engage visitors more effectively.
1. Professional photography
Your own photos might be great, and you might take new ones all the time. If so, disregard. However, for most companies taking photos is last on their list of priorities and the quality isn’t particularly high.
Unfortunately, low-quality photos that are slow to load have a direct effect on bounce rating and will drive traffic away from your site more quickly than a text-heavy post. Investing in professional photography can ensure higher-resolution photos that are larger and fit the needs of your website specs better.
Companies can get more bang for their buck with professional photography if they work with someone who offers the rights to all photos and releases the content in various blog posts or on the site in snippets.
That way, your company appears to have great new photos all of the time, which is better than sharing all your great new images in one swoop.
2. Valuable video
Testimonial videos, product tutorials, vlogging, and more can offer your customers a deeper view into your firm. Your customer base wants to click “play” on videos that offer information they need, want, or would enjoy.
The biggest gaffe is to post only self-important videos that relay redundant information about what is already known or available to the viewer.
3. Infographics
The best way to marry imagery and text for succinct transmittal of information is through a concise infographic. Here’s an example of a library of infographics, which is an excellent way to centralize your visuals. There are many companies that will craft infographics on your behalf to convey the statistics, facts, and flowcharts the way you want them.
4. Icons and buttons
Buttons and icons are a great way to add little media morsels to your website. For CTAs that really do their job, choose icon styles that serve your website’s purpose and engage customer attention.
Infuse your site with the latest in media richness to acquire more readership and reduce your bounce rating. Customers will flock to your website and stay once they see it’s fully stocked with the latest web content technologies.
If you want to get 30 effective techniques to master content marketing along with valuable insights from 10+ influencers like Mark Schaefer, Rebecca Lieb, Lee Odden, Jason Miller or Ian Cleary, download our free eBook now!
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