When planning your business website, it’s important to consider the way in which you will present information and the different mediums that you will use to do this.
Although you may not choose to use every type of medium under the sun, it is important to understand the different types that are available to use, and then to select the ones most engaging for your target audience and most appropriate for your content.
1. Video
Video is a great way to quickly engage with visitors to your website. Well-constructed videos can convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. Some of the types of video you may choose to include on your website are:
Promotional Videos
Promotional videos provide persuasive, marketing information about your companies products and / or services that may increase the appeal of your product or service, and therefore the likelihood of converting your website visitors to customers. You can use tools like wideo.co to create free or cost effective promotional videos for your business website.
How to / Demonstration Videos for your business website
This type of video is basically a step-by-step guide, demonstrating how to complete some type of action or how to use a certain product.
Informational Videos
The purpose of this type of video is to increase awareness or inform the viewer of something. The video could for example be a person speaking at a conference about a topic relevant to your business, or a short documentary on a relevant subject.
Video Interviews / Testimonials
People love to hear others experiences or opinions about a product or service before they make a purchase. Video testimonials with positive messages from people who have used the product or service, or interviews with industry experts explaining the need or benefits of the product or service, are a great way to encourage a purchase decision.
2. Images
Images are an engaging medium that can really help to catch your visitors attention. It’s true, pictures really can tell a million words, so selecting the right images for your website will help with conveying your business messages.
Standard Images
Photos or graphical images of your business products, services, staff or even stock images can be used throughout your website to break up text and to contribute to the overall look and feel of your website.
Infographics
Infographics are images that provide information. Often they are diagrammatical, and include summarised information (See an example here). Infographics are great for summarising a lot of content or complex concepts into a single image. Thanks to sites like vengage.com and canva.com you can quickly and easily create infographics for free.
Cinemagraphs
This type of image is basically a photo in which there is minor and repeated movement, making it seem as though the viewer is watching an animation. This type of image is an interesting alternative to your standard images and can really help to achieve that wow factor on your website.
3. Audio
Some people like to listen to audio while riding the train home from work, or while going for a run. Others that simply don’t like reading lots of text just prefer to listen to an audio version. Having audio on your website helps to cater to these preferences.
Podcast
These are generally short audio clips from experts in a field explaining or discussing a topic.
Audio book /Audio pod
The audio version of a book, or even a page of text can be considered an audio book or audio pod. These can be recordings of real people reading something aloud or generated using a text-to-speech generator such as that found at speakdocs.com .
4. Text
Text is the obvious and most widely used medium when it comes to providing information and conveying messages on your website. Tone, writing style and text structure are always important to consider, but the text itself can also be classified in different ways such as:
Informative / Descriptive
General text describing or explaining the product or service you offer
Guides
This could be a how-to-manual, or a step-by-step guide explaining how to complete some action or how to use a certain product.
Reviews
A product or service review is written by a consumer, or a critic. Positive reviews, like testimonials are great for business and so are great to have showcased on your website.
Case Study
Case studies are a great way to provide real life examples of how other used or applied your products or service, their journey and the outcomes.
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