Multimedia use in marketing of products

"More and more online businesses and internet marketers are recognizing the tremendous benefits and responsiveness that multimedia generates when used as an advertising medium and marketing strategy.

For those that utilize multimedia effectively, significant increases in buy rates, conversion rates and subscription rates have been experienced and all within a very short period of time. However, many believe that just adding any old media content, such as video and audio onto their website will generate significant increases in visitor responsiveness regardless of content presentation, quality, and other attributes that contribute to a positive experience for the website visitor. Just so that we are clear, this assertion is very wrong and can have potentially negative consequences from a marketing and/or advertising standpoint.

My philosophy is quite simple. Using multimedia to advertise your product or service needs to follow the same basic rules and principles as would apply to any other strategy or medium that can be used to convert prospects into subscribers and buyers. Yes, multimedia does improve conversion rates but it has to be done right and convey professionalism. This is absolutely essential.

When it comes to video and audio content online, what’s often been the case is that those who have tried to add this type of media content to their websites have unfortunately had disastrous results. For example, with video content, many have added videos to their webpages that are of extremely poor quality, small and ugly. The overall experience for the viewer - Poor. One of the biggest problems has been the fact that the videos load very slowly. Visitors are turned off completely by the fact that they have to wait for minutes, even longer sometimes in order for the video or audio file to start playing. This, unfortunately, is a result of these webmasters using cookie- cutter solutions to add video or audio content to their site without really knowing the implications and limitations. As I said, with multimedia…either do it right or don’t do it at all. For those who do their research and take a little time to produce video and audio content that is of good quality, the results have been tremendous.
Bottom Line: If you want to capture the attention of your visitors,you need to use top notch technology to bring your message to that person and provides the viewer with a positive experience.

If you do plan on adding video and audio content to your website, here are a few simple guidelines to follow when determining what the best multimedia solution is for you:
Cost Effective: You need a solution that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and leaves you with great video and/or audio content on your website but flat broke.

Fast loading Media Content (Video/Audio) that can play almost immediately. Website visitors are fickle and impatient so its not wise to keep them waiting when trying to view your video advertisement or listen to your audio message.

Superior Website Integration: Video and Audio Content that can appear to be seamlessly Integrated into your websites and emails. Viewers don’t have to view video and audio ads with media player’s that annoyingly pop-up on top of their internet browsers and distract them from the rest of your website.

Superior Customization: Video and Audio Advertisements that can be customized for your websites and emails based on your specific requirements.
The ability to handle a large volume of simultaneous visitors.

Large-Scale Playability: Viewing/Listening DOES NOT require the download of additional plug-ins. Don’t make your visitors have to download any special software to view or listen to the video and audio content on your website.

The media content needs to be of reasonably good quality and resolution. Don’t worry, you don’t need Lord of the Rings quality to provide your website visitors with a positive experience. They won’t expect perfect quality but you need to make sure that the content is of good quality.
Of course, we can get into specific details about each one of these things but we won’t get into that in this article. These are just high-level, general guidelines that you can follow when shopping around for a good multimedia solution for your business.

Multimedia does have impressive results from a marketing perspective. That’s why the big companies and brand names are utilizing multimedia content to sell their products and services. However, not everyone has the exact same budget and requirements and if you are looking for a multimedia solution you need to spend some time shopping around to find a solution that offers the best bang for the buck."

Resource Box:
Shane Kukec is a Corporate President, Trainer and Publisher of a popular newsletter “The Intelligent Marketer” at http://www.theintelligentmarketer.com where he shows people how to generate a substantial income using simple and very powerful marketing strategies. Shane’s also the developer of 2 revolutionary new products guaranteed to help explode any business quickly and easily: (http://www.jvmining.com) (http://www.videoaudiogenerator.com/).


As seen from the excerpt above, we can tell that not all use of multimedia technology can be useful and most of the time it depends on the sophistication and professionalism of the multimedia tools.

Recently. i visited the singtel and sony ericsson websites because i was looking for a new phone. I was extremely impressed and drawn to the website simply because the multimedia techonology used to market their products, be it mobile promotions or mobile phones, produced extrememly eye-catching results. As a customer, i was lured into viewing more of this website and looking at more of the products, simply because everything was interactive, fun and eye-catching. For example, i could choose the model of my phone by just moving my mouse across this whole line of mobile phones. Long gone are the days when we have to click on images one by one while another page is opened to reveal information. Things were fast, interactive and fun for me because of the use of multimedia technology.

http://home.singtel.com/hotdeals/#link?page=Mobile

Today nearly half of the U.S. population, over 125-million people, has broadband internet access (Nielsen/NetRatings, September 2005). At the same time, advances in technology are enabling audio and video information to be accessed virtually anywhere at any time. No longer just a novelty, multimedia in all its forms is becoming a staple of many websites and a communication tool for all to use.

For small businesses especially, the ubiquitous access to video, audio and graphical content, togetherwith a sharply reduced cost of production and distribution, has opened a world of promotion and communication opportunities that were once reserved only for television advertisers with alot of financial support. So just as the web itself allowed small enterprises to appear as big as their aspirations, the broadband revolution now lets those with smaller budgets reach wide--and niche--audiences with a fully engaging multimedia that lets the message come through loud and clear.

There has been two approaches that have been prevalent in the use of multimedia and these include the multimedia news release and the podcast. Itcan put your business in the multimedia space cost-effectively and with the expertise of professionals to guide you along the way.

The Multimedia New Release (MNRs)
If you've ever distributed a text news release or given a slide presentation, you know that every story can (and should) be enhanced with visuals. A multimedia news release (MNR) presents information in an HTML format, like a mobile website,
that can be customized to include a text news release, Video or Audio News Release content (VNR or ANR), B-Roll footage, sound bites and links to other marketing materials such as product brochures, customer testimonials and more. Just like a text news release, the MNR can be distributed to TV, radio, web or print media, or sent directly to customers and prospects, industry groups, employees and others as a direct marketing or education tool.

Ideal for launching new products or services, the MNR allows for a greater depth of information to be conveyed--in picture, sound and written form. This is particularly important when a product is "difficult to visualize," highly technical or requires extensive explanation.
Of further benefit to small businesses is that MNRs offer a level of flexibility that enables companies to use any pre-existing multimedia content, leveraging the material in ways that'll generate renewed customer interest. Video footage of a product demo or snippets from an archived radio commercial, for example, can be reformatted and redistributed online to reach a huge, entirely new audience and attract even greater attention.

For instance, a company launching a new medical device could use an MNR to combine visual, audio and written content into a single product release. The MNR might incorporate a text news release, a demo video, animation on how it works, a recorded Q&A session with a doctor, and a testimonial from a patient. The entire digital package could then be distributed directly to doctors and interest groups, sent to key media outlets over a newswire and placed in the media, employee or public sections of your own website. Within the same MNR, recipients could also be encouraged to submit queries regarding the device or to register to attend a webinar (online seminar) which will showcase the product in more detail.

As an added bonus, MNRs are ideally suited for search engines, and when properly formatted for them can vastly increase a company or product's exposure. MNRs, like websites, can be optimized to increase their attractiveness to search engines and to display the content higher in natural search-engine results. (Optimizing your content for search engines is a must-do, regardless of format because virtually all sales today begin with a visit to a search engine for the latest information.)

Podcasting
Video podcasts are fast becoming an important outlet for marketers and advertisers who want to reach a financially capable, media-savvy audience. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project Report (April 2005), more than 22-million Americans own iPods or MP3 players, and more than 6-million adults have downloaded a podcast of some type.
Podcasting relies upon RSS (Really Simple Syndication, an XML-based format) to deliver MP3 audio and video files. Users can subscribe to podcast "feeds" through their RSS "readers" or through Apple's iTunes database. The initial content and subsequent updates or episodes are then automatically copied to the iPod or other audio device when it's connected for battery charging. IPod users then view or listen to podcasts on the train, at the gym and so on. In addition to iPods, podcasts can be accessed directly via computer from yours or others' website.
Similar to an MNR, companies can create podcasts using entirely new content, or they can develop them using pre-existing video or audio material. Regardless of the source material, the final podcast must be brief, inventive and dynamic. If the content doesn't keep the interest of the viewer or listener, the individual will likely not stick around long enough to take the desired action.

Podcasts also have applications beyond marketing. As an internal communications tool, podcasts can be used to keep members of a sales force up-to-date on a company's latest developments or product upgrades. For instance, the aforementioned medical device company might use a podcast to demonstrate to its employees and sales force the benefits of all its new devices as they're rolled out, enabling the sales force to visualize how the product should be marketed and communicated to potential customers.

Once beyond the reach of most small businesses, advances in internet and multimedia technology has now made audio and video both accessible and effective for small and medium-sized businesses. The result is better ways to bring your message to your many audiences, moving them faster from awareness to interest to intention to buy, even facilitating their ability to respond. Importantly, like websites themselves, what was once a nice idea, multimedia is fast becoming the preferred tool to address increasingly sophisticated audiences and thus, to remain competitive.