Great content marketing is all about connecting with your customer base and target prospects. Utilizing multimedia in your strategy can add a valuable boost to the visibility of your content.
According to this 2014 study conducted by NeoMam Studios, people are “visually wired.” About 50 percent of the human brain is involved in visual processing, and an individual can grasp a visual scene in less than 1/10th of a second.
But how do you go about constructing these multimedia elements and marrying them with an editorial approach to content marketing? Here’s what Ryan Schradin had to say in Think Like a Journalist: How to Create a Unique Experience on Your Corporate Blog.
Ryan: Break out of just written blog posts. There are other things that you could do as well. Look at podcasts and videos; these are both great ways of presenting content to people that’s outside of the written word.
Everyone digests content in different ways. While I personally like written posts, being able to pull them up while I’m in the car or on the Metro on my cell phone, some people prefer podcasts. They want to download something and listen to it while they’re on the elliptical at the gym. Or, they want videos because they would rather watch content.
Diversify the content. Think written word, but also think about how you can bring in podcasts and videos. And if you are bringing in podcasts and videos, just make sure your interview subject is prepared. Give them their questions at least 24 hours in advance. Make sure that they’re media trained. There’s nothing worse than a spokesperson that stumbles around, doesn’t get the key messages out and sounds really uncomfortable. Your listeners and viewers are going to know right away.
That being said, you can really have some fun with this as well. If you’re doing a podcast or a video you can get kind of crazy with it. Think about your key audiences. Think about the people that you’re trying to build relationships with; a lot of times they’re probably sales prospects. Can you interview them? Can you get them on a podcast? Can you do a panel discussion with them on a video? That is a great way to build a relationship and an appropriate way to get them together with someone you would love for them to meet.
If you have a sales representative or a subject matter expert who is really smart, maybe use the other person on the panel with the sales prospect. Now you’ve put them in the same room and they can interact with each other. I would definitely say reach out to multiple third parties, get as much information and quotes as you can, make sure your interviewees are media trained and think about the various ways you can present your content.
Come back next week to read Ryan’s thoughts on where a journalistic approach intersects with measurable sales activities, and how to measure the effectiveness of your editorial approach to content marketing.
Also, be sure to register for Become a Visual Storyteller: The Evolving Role of Multimedia in Content Marketing, an exclusive 30-minute webinar with Joe Witte of ISEBOX set to take place from 11:30am-12pm ET, Tuesday July 29th.
