When you want to tell a story, engaging as many senses as possible makes it stick. Humans are visual creatures that consume lots of rich media every day. While much of the time the idea of rich media pertains to entertainment or digital advertising, it also has considerable value in sales. Using rich media in sales presentations can boost engagement and retention. It helps tell your story in more compelling ways than a static, text-heavy presentation.
Additionally, rich media is customizable and adaptable. Your sales reps also don’t need to be technical experts to deliver it when you have the right tools. In this post, we’ll review what rich media is, why it works, and how to use it to improve sales enablement content.
Rich media describes content that includes video, audio, or other interactive elements. Its objective is to immerse the viewer into the world so that the message is clear and memorable. Examples that marketing teams use for sales enablement include videos, multimedia PDFs, and HTML5 apps.
Every person learns and retains information in different ways. Various factors impact it, so there are no scientific absolutes on retention. What we do know is that around 65 percent of the population are visual learners. You might say that the human brain is hardwired for visual content. Scientific study purports that human eyes can register 36,000 visual images per hour, and more than 80 percent of information brains process is visual.
There is also a theory called the Forgetting Curve, which was hypothesized by Hermann Ebbinghaus more than 100 years ago. Researchers tested it in many situations, finding that notable events linger longer. On average, however, with general information, memory retention is 100 percent at the time of learning and drops to 40 percent a few days later.
Putting this information together—most people are visual learners, human brains register images quickly, retention fades rapidly, and notable events are easier to retain—you can make a case for rich media.
Rich media is highly visual and would be much more notable than standard formats, so you have a better opportunity of holding attention and ensuring your audience remembers you.
Using rich media in sales presentations allows you to be creative in how you spend your time with a prospect. Instead of explaining everything only with words, you have the media to support you. As concluded before, highly engaging visuals support better intake, learning, and retention.
Attention spans are short, and decision makers are busy. They also don’t want to be sold. Today’s buyer prefers information, education, and consultations. Your content doesn’t have to be static. It can now be dynamic—something not possible with standard PDFs, images, or PowerPoints.
It can be a clear differentiator for your sales team. Sophisticated and advanced technology elevates your company immediately. Plus, you are creating an experience for your potential customer unlike any other.
If you can include rich media, how exactly should you leverage it? It depends greatly on your industry, product or service, and audience. Here are a few examples:
It applies to all industries—as long as you have a visual story to tell.
One of the biggest hurdles in deploying rich media in sales presentations is simply managing the workflows. It can be a heavy lift for marketing departments to add these into different presentations and personalize them without the right technology.
A sales enablement solution is an ideal answer, but not all have these capabilities. You’ll need to compare sales enablement platforms. The ability to store, deliver, and display dynamic content will be key. You need a system built for video and supportive of all rich media formats. That’s how we designed vablet from day one. We’re experts in sales enablement with a deep understanding of the sales journey, and we realized that rich media is a game changer for sales and marketing teams. You can also access content with or without Wi-Fi.
The inclusion of rich media is just one feature of the vablet platform. There are a host of others that allow for content management, analytics, and more. Get to know the next generation of sales enablement software by reading our e-book, Secrets Revealed: How Marketing Can Help Increase Sales Using a Sales Enablement Platform, today.