Rich content has been creating a recent buzz in the world of digital advertising. Do you need more clicks on the ads you are putting online and higher engagement rates? Then you might need rich content to help your brand. Text ads sell with words, display ads sell with pictures, but rich media ads allow you to interact more with your audience. This article will take a dive into what exactly rich content is and how it can help your brand.
Table of Contents
What Is Rich Content?
Rich content can be described as a form of digital advertising that normally includes audio, visuals, or any element that encourages viewers to engage and interact with the content being provided. This can take a variety of different forms but some examples are infographics, videos, GIFS, Instagram stories, podcasts, content narration audio, live streams, and topical webinars. You can commonly find it in blog content, social media content, and emails. The goal of rich content is to make the ad viewer more inclined to engage. Rich content has become increasingly popular in recent years due to the fact that browsers and websites have included HTML5. This makes it easier for rich media elements on the web. In addition, the effectiveness of rich media is unmatched, as ads containing rich media have had overarching success in comparison to standard advertising content.
What is Rich Media?
Rich media is simply another phrase for rich content.
Types of Rich Media Ad Formats
There are different types of rich media advertisements, including video ads, audio ads, animation, and any other video/audio or other elements. Rich media ads offer several benefits including high interaction rate, user engagement, user interactivity, high click through rates, and increased brand awareness.
Rich Content vs Normal Content
You may be wondering what exactly is the difference between rich and normal content. Normal content is text-based and lacks auditory or visual elements. Although this form of advertising can be great for informing your audience, they’re usually not the most visually appealing. Viewers are easily bored, confused, or uninterested. This is why text-based content works best in conjunction with rich content. The two help balance each other out by creating an ad that is both informative and engaging.
Rich Content Examples
Now that we understand what rich content is, let’s discuss a few rich content examples and how they can specifically help your content marketing strategy.
Interstitial Ads
Interstitial ads are a rich media format that include many different elements.
Static Image
This is definitely the most common rich content example, whether it be through a social media platform or in a recent email. A picture can be extremely powerful, as it can often tell an entire story without saying anything at all. Pictures can often explain things that text can’t. This can come in handy if you have a rather complex product or service! These kinds of products can benefit greatly from a deeper context.
Animated Gif
A gif is another commonly used rich content example. Gifs are a collection of frames that give the impression of an animated image. In recent years, they have appeared virtually everywhere on the internet. A great advantage of gifs is that you can incorporate a larger amount of information in them than static images. They are usually lighthearted and comical and you can utilize them to help make your brand seem more approachable and personable. They are great pieces of rich content to use in emails and blogs and since their file size is fairly smaller than static images, they have faster loading times.
Videos
Videos are a great tool as they are the best way to immerse your audience into your brand’s mission, goals, products, and or services. Visuals can also give your brand some personality and flavor, whether they are simply entertaining or informative. You can easily break down how to use your product, feature convincing customer testimonials, and showcase your brand’s success and value. Videos can include videos as a final thought in your weekly email newsletter or you can share them through social media. You can also take a longer video and chop up different pieces of it to feature in different places in your site. Since videos are much larger file sizes, it can be difficult to upload them to certain media outlets. Nonetheless, they can do so much good for your site.
Why Rich Content Matters
So, how does rich content actually help you and your brand in the long run? Well, there are a number of reasons.
Grabs Attention
Nothing catches your attention better than an engaging photo or video. Many people are visual learners, and so presenting your content in a visual format can help people retain information about your brand and product. Even if you aren’t a visual learner, most people tend to find more enjoyment from watching a video clip. That only takes a few minutes of their time and is far more entertaining than a lengthy blog post or article. Those might be confusing and take a long time to understand. Visuals are also a universal language! If someone doesn’t understand the words, images can bridge the gap.
Increase Engagement
Rich content causes a lot more people to follow through with your call to action. By including enticing videos, visually appealing images, and graphics, or a funny gif, you can gain a sense of trust between you and your potential customer. That sense of trust may not have been there if you had not included a piece of rich content. Content that has visual elements is more professional than those that are only text-based. It also gives your brand a bit of flavor as it showcases your creativity.
Decrease Bounce Rates
Especially when it comes to videos, people are a lot less inclined to leave the website if a video has started playing when they open up your landing page. It piques their interest and oftentimes keeps them on the page for a while longer. Having a high bounce rate is something you definitely want to avoid as it implies that either your website or product is lacking in some way. If high bounce rates have been crippling your brand’s success, implementing rich content can thoroughly help your site. Viewers will stay on your site for as long as possible! This increases the chances of them purchasing something on your site.
Enhance User Experience
Rich content can help enhance the user experience by making it more enticing and unique than others. If you’re in an industry that oftentimes underestimates the value of rich content and you begin implementing it into your ads and on your site, you can imagine the positive response you will receive from your customers. They can feel excited and intrigued with your product because your rich content can serve as a breath of fresh air. This works especially well in industries where rich content is not prioritized. Make using your site an exciting adventure that is seamless, entertaining, and informative!
Increase Search Reach
When you include rich content into your website and social media platforms, you increase the number of opportunities you have for your content searched and viewed online. Let’s say you post a video, for example. You can post your video on your website or any platform that houses video content. These could include YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram Reels and IGTV, and various other platforms. Audio files such as podcasts are shareable through iTunes, Spotify, and any podcast-sharing app. The point is, when you create rich content, you’re increasing the number of people who will click through to your web pages.
Overpower Your Competitors
When you create valuable rich content, you are able to create a certain “look” for your brand and your business. You can establish a certain aesthetic that is unique and specific to you and in turn become more easily identifiable towards the masses. What’s more, your unique and overarching media presence will serve as an advantage to you. If you are trying to distinguish yourself from your competition, it is tricky! In this day and age, there is an overwhelming amount of media that people view on a daily basis. If you are a smaller and lesser-known business, you already understand how difficult it is to grab people’s attention. When creating rich and unique content, you are better able to show that you stand a chance against the competition. Show that you are just as valuable as the brand’s business that came before you.
How Rich Content Can Help Your Brand
Rich content is the key to succeeding in today’s digital marketing scene. This is visual content that most often takes the form of images, videos, and gifs. You can implement it in various formats from social media posts and ads, in email newsletters, or within the call to action pop up on your website. Rich content often trumps the standard content because it provides a visual element to the information which makes it more appealing for the viewer. However, this kind of content can be effectively combined with normal content to create a balance of visual and text-based elements. Including rich content into your content strategy is essential for a number of reasons. For one, it grabs your viewers’ attention. If they stay engaged right away, it makes them more inclined to click on your website. It also helps decrease your bounce rate, helps you reach a wider audience, and helps you distinguish yourself from the competition.
FAQ:
- What is rich content?
- Why is rich content important?
- How do I decrease the bounce rate?
- What are examples of rich content?
- How can I increase my user’s experience with my website?
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