As the online marketplace grows ever more competitive, brands and marketers must utilize new methods and strategies for promoting their products and services. Essential aspects of a strong marketing campaign include an aesthetically pleasing and informative website, search engine optimized content, and providing a memorable and positive user experience along every touchpoint of the consumer journey. Enhanced content is now the glue that binds these essential elements together.
Many brands and marketers had already realized the benefits of using enhanced content for promotion. But what exactly is enhanced content, and how can you leverage it for optimum benefit and a rich user experience?
What Is Enhanced Content?
When you visit a product page on an e-commerce site, you typically see a picture of the product and some informative text about the product's features. Enhanced content expands upon this by delivering more information through enhanced visuals. Marketing videos for business are a prime example of enhanced content. For example, a product page featuring a barbecue might also include a captivating video of the barbecue in use, showcasing why this barbecue is better than others.
Of course, there are other types of enhanced content, such as downloadable material, 360° models of a product, or even longer descriptions that focus more on more personal aspects of a product rather than just the basic features. But since marketing videos for business have become the most consumed form of online content, it is one of the oft-utilized types of enhanced content used by brands for promotional purposes.
If you’ve started adding enhanced content to your website in the form of marketing videos, Viostream is a business-oriented video hosting platform that can be used to help you better connect with your audience, generate more leads, and bring your products to life. Start your free trial today.
Promoting Your Brand with Enhanced Content
While today’s consumer audience expects videos, you don’t want to forgo some of the other enhanced content you can use to create a more enriching experience for your target market. Consider the following enhanced content types and see where each can be applied to your online store or website.
High-Quality Images
A couple of still photos aren’t enough anymore. Consumers today expect to be able to zoom in on a product and even rotate the product 360°. Using high-quality images and 3D modeling is the first step to improving your marketing efforts.
Scenes of the Product in Action
If the product performs a specific function, it can also be beneficial to show scenes of the product in use. Potential buyers will gain a better understanding of how the product works.
Videos
As mentioned above, videos are an essential part of any online marketing campaign and a primary form of enhanced content. Explainer videos, for example, are short videos that can be used to quickly deliver a message about a brand, product, or service. Testimonials or product demos are also great ideas for promotional marketing videos for business to accompany a product description page.
Downloadable Content
Instructions, assembly guides, and other materials that can be downloaded in PDF format will also be appreciated by potential buyers.
Reviews and Testimonials
Including endorsements on your product pages provides potential buyers with more information from trusted sources — other consumers. They go a long way toward providing a more enriching experience for the consumer.
FAQ Pages
Consumers typically have a few questions about a brand, product, or service they aren’t familiar with. Providing an easy-to-find link to an FAQ page that answers those questions creates a more positive experience, increasing the chances of sales conversions.
Primary Objectives of Enhanced Content
Like marketing videos for business, all types of enhanced content should serve a purpose and work together to form a cohesive unit. Altogether, the different elements of enhanced content will tell a complete story about a brand, product, or service in a clear and informative manner.
Including as much enhanced content as possible is crucial because not every customer is the same — some will prefer to see technical data. Others will focus on images and videos. By including everything possible, you are meeting the expectations of your entire audience.
Enhanced Content Hosted on External Sites
Most enhanced content elements regarding a particular product or service will usually be found on a single page or via a link to another page on your site. However, when it comes to videos, many businesses choose to upload and host their videos on free platforms such as YouTube. However, some of YouTube's practice's could make for a less enjoyable consumer experience.
For starters, ads or other video suggests may cause potential customers leave your site, sending them off the customer journey map. YouTube and similar free hosting platforms have limited security and privacy controls available to the user. That's why it's better to use a video hosting and management platform. You can not only host, share, and manage your video content, you can also add your own branding and maintain total control of your security settings. Doing this ensures that your video and enhanced content are all absorbed and presented under one branding banner.
In Conclusion
Enhanced content serves to help your brand stand out from competitors, increase sales, and improve the positioning of your online content on search engine results pages. However, it isn't just the quantity of the information you provide, but the quality of the enhanced content that counts. You’ll want to avoid cluttering up your online pages with a mish-mash of confusing imagery and text. Instead, work to create an aesthetically pleasing structure that leads the consumer from one piece of enhanced content to the next.
Because videos will play an important role when using enhanced content for promotional purposes, you’ll want to ensure you use a tool that helps you make the most of your video content. Viostream is a scalable platform offering best-in-class tools that help you generate more leads, improve targeting with analytics, and grab attention with embedded CTAs. Try a free trial today and see how you can transform how you manage your video.