Elizabeth Wellington
Are you a visual, auditory, reading-writing, or tactile learner? All of us exhibit one or a combination of these learning styles. Can you guess which group you naturally fall into?
Awareness of learning styles not only increases your ability to learn and teach, it also broadens your impact as a marketer. If you understand the ways that different people learn, you gain a not-so-subtle edge — the ability to educate your audience on their terms.
Imagine a kind of super-content that catered to every learning style, maximizing the effectiveness of your message across a diverse audience. Interactive video is that super-content: it draws on visual, auditory, reading-writing and tactile elements to create a powerful experience for every potential customer.
Let’s dig into each to see how interactive video works to connect across your whole audience.
Visual Learners: Video Is Visually Captivating
Sixty-five percent of Americans are visual learners. And those of us who are not visual learners still feel drawn to images. Utilizing the power of videos sends your visual message to viewers before they move onto the next hot website. With users staying an average of 15 seconds on a webpage, high-impact visual forms are the best way to speak to people in a quick, effective way.
Given our shared propensity for images and the rapid rate with which people process images, it’s not a surprise that videos increase monthly unique visitors from 200 to 300 percent. You have two options when creating videos: animations/illustrations or live-action with real people (or a combination!). Either way, be intentional about the setting of your video and the appearance of your speaker or cartoon — visual elements should reflect your brand.
Despite how professional they look to your audience, interactive videos are not just the domain of filmmakers. With new technologies, any content marketer can create powerful videos that increase your brand’s name recognition and capture leads.
Auditory Learners: Use Voice And Sound To Communicate More Than Words
How boring would a video be without sound? Just as you cultivate a specific tone with your written copy, you can develop an engaging tone through spoken words.
How do you want your company’s voice to sound? Your speaker should reflect your energy as a company. Read your copy out loud with colleagues in a few different tones and intonations to ensure you that your tone matches your brand personality.
Kimbe MacMaster at Vidyard suggests that while storytelling through video, you communicate your message “from the buyer’s perspective, not your own. This means benefits, not features.” Focus on how your product will make your prospective client excited, rather than what makes you excited about the product as a marketer. Kimbe also recommends you keep it short, and as a storyteller always drive your content with a powerful narrative.
When you create your audio, don’t forget background sound as an opportunity to enhance your overall impact. This piece of the puzzle could be new to you, but it’s just like picking a playlist for a birthday party — make sure it fits the mood. Colleen Fahey gives the rundown on why audio branding is so important:
Audio branding lends coherence and continuity to your messaging, so what your consumers hear when engaging with your content is always clearly and distinctively recognizable as a part of your brand. The technique provides brand strategists and CCOs with the tools to make every content marketing touch point a relationship-builder and to get consumers to form positive associations with your brand’s values.
You heard it! If you want to engage viewers, make sure that your sound resonates with your brand. Just as jazz music belongs in a jazz bar, your music should belong in your video. If you doubt about the impact of background music, consider how Anthropologie, the apparel and home retailer, has capitalized on music. Not only do customers consistently ask about Anthropologie’s music selection, their playlists are one of the most valued forms of content on their blog.
Reading-Writing And Kinesthetic Learners: Interactive Elements
With 93% of communication reaching an audience through non-verbal communication, interactive elements are the final touch to video marketing. Language is not just the words spoken during the video but any copy layered over the video, including questions, annotations, and link-outs.
Interactivity is a powerful tool because it allows viewers to engage with questions, which is especially significant to reading-writing learners and kinesthetic learners.
Not only can you layer and align written words on top of your video content, you can even hyperlink to relevant blog posts or websites. For instant motivation, require that your audience answers questions before continuing to watch the video.
Quizzes, assessments, calculators, and polls give you powerful feedback, while at the same time, offering your viewers tactile learning opportunities.
Summarizing important information with layered copy is like offering a written handout during a lecture. It reinforces the learning. Or you could include the name and title of your speaker below their image to build authority. With SnapApp, anyone who can set up a PowerPoint presentation can layer interactive elements on top of a video — it’s that easy!
Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts
Each aspect of interactive video works together to give your audience an immersive experience. This form of 360-degree marketing utilizes every opportunity to build relationships and boost brand awareness. According to Moz, blog posts with videos attract three times the inbound-linking domains (IDLs) as plain text content. And content that includes video, images, and lists attract six times more IDLs than plain text content!
With your next piece, try integrating each form of content into an interactive video for a multifaceted impact. Embedding multiple content forms not only adapts your approach to every learning style, it also creates the ideal opportunity for social sharing, maximizing your reach.
Don’t miss our webinar on interactive video, coming up July 28th!
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