Text Content is Not Enough: Why You Need Multimedia Engagement

Text content is an important foundation for any piece of communication, but it’s not enough. To succeed in the fierce fight for consumer attention, you need multimedia engagement.

Businesses and organizations in every sector, regardless of the size and nature of their missions, face the universal challenge of communicating effectively. At first glance, a manufacturer training its employees on safety SOPs and compliance policies might not have anything in common with a university rolling out a new doctoral program. In fact, both organizations share a common goal. They both need to catch the attention of their target audiences in a saturated environment where content consumers are constantly distracted by the sheer volume of information available to them.

In all likelihood, the manufacturer will publish written safety SOPs and compliance policies to be distributed by email and made accessible on the company’s intranet. The university will probably publish a traditional paper brochure that will also be available for download on its website. In both cases, the stakeholders are using text content in its basic form and function.

The written SOPs and policies and the program brochure cover the bare minimum necessary to convey messages. But will those materials appeal to target audiences? Will people actually read those materials? How many of them will act on what they read?

Basic is Not Enough

Consider the fact that about 65% of the population are visual learners, which means most people learn better through videos, infographics, images, and other visual forms of communication. For those people, basic text content won’t do much. This is especially true for content consumers facing a barrage of distractions from various channels, whether it’s catchy videos on YouTube and TikTok or gorgeous photos on Instagram.

Do you think visual learners, given the choice, would pick up the university brochure? Would they read the manufacturer’s written SOPs and policies in earnest or just skim through them?

Instead of relying only on text content, try an alternative. How about offering your content in other formats in addition to basic text? Let’s discuss the advantages of engaging your audience through multimedia content.

1. Multimedia content helps users absorb information more effectively. According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, the brain takes in information through different channels depending on how it’s presented. Printed words and images are processed in one part of the brain while sounds and spoken words are processed in another part. When a user consumes content that needs to be processed by both channels, the person absorbs more of the information because more parts of the brain are working.

Such cognitive advantages make multimedia communication ideal in knowledge management. Businesses across the board can boost user retention of internal best practices, SOPs, training materials, and other information that constitute company knowledge by using multimedia formats in the curation and dissemination of content.

2. Multimedia content increases user engagement. In a survey by Wyzowl, participants were asked how they’d like to learn about a product or service. The majority (78%) said they preferred to watch a short video. The figure is higher than the number of participants who preferred text-based articles (9%), ebooks or manuals (5%), infographics (3%), sales calls (2%), or webinars/presentations/pitches (3%).

If you limit your content to text only, you’re less likely to reach all your target consumers, especially visual learners. By offering different formats, you’ll greatly increase the appeal and reach of your content. And when users get to choose their preferred formats, they’re more likely to engage with the content longer. According to Wyzowl, 84% of marketers say that multimedia content increases the time visitors spend on their website, also known as dwell time.  

3. Multimedia content increases access to your content. Even if you have great text content, it might be inaccessible to people with disabilities. Some users have trouble reading or perceiving colors and images. If you have only videos or audio content, it might be inaccessible to users with hearing difficulties.

Access is particularly crucial in training employees, customers, patients, and in teaching students and other stakeholders. Regulations such as the Americans with Disabilities Act exist to make sure that people with disabilities enjoy the same rights and opportunities as everyone else in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, hospitals, and transportation.

By offering multimedia content, you’ll be increasing its accessibility. Users with reading or hearing or other difficulties will have a choice of formats. Some people might even use more than one format to suit their needs.

How Conforma Can Help You

Most companies recognize the importance of multimedia engagement, especially videos. The Wyzowl survey shows 89% of businesses are using videos as part of their communication repertoire.

Organizations that don’t use videos reported the following as the top reasons for not using videos: They don’t know where to start (37%) and lack of time (26%). If your company is in the same boat, Conforma can help.

Conforma is a purpose-built, all-in-one platform that can transform text content into various formats instantly, including audio, video, or infographic. With Conforma, every piece of content can be delivered to users according to their preferred formats, facilitating hyper-engagement and immersive experience on an individual basis.

Contact us today. Learn how Conforma’s groundbreaking, AI-powered platform can help you supercharge your text content across all channels.