Ideas for Incorporating Audio Into Your Website

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Please, please, please, do not mention anywhere in my general vicinity that you are “referral based.” If I hear one more kitchen dealer or designer tell me they’re “referral based,” I’m going to scream. If you truly you are referral based, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Why am I so adamant that “referral based” dealers and designers have gone the way of tube socks? Because of the Internet, of course. Your new client may have told you that you were highly recommended by Mrs. Hickenlooper, and I’m sure that fact is completely true. But, if you think that after Mrs. Hickenlooper sang your praises, your potential client didn’t go out and Google you, or at least your company, I’ve got two bridges to sell you.

In fact, back in July, when I spoke to the Minnesota NKBA Chapter, one of the designers there told me that she Googles all of her potential clients!

But this month, I want to talk about how you can use the latest, greatest new idea to put your Website ahead of your competition. I want Mrs. Hickenlooper’s friend, when doing her background research on your company, to be wowed by your Website and see that it represents your company and your design skills in the best possible light – making her believe, hook, line and sinker, every good word Mrs. Hickenlooper said.

USING AUDIO
I believe the largest shift in the Internet is the movement from being a mostly visual medium to one that is both visual and audio based. If you think about it, technology, for a while, was an either/or medium. It was either audio based (iPods) or visual based (Internet). That’s no longer true. iPods now have visual capabilities, as do cell phones. And the Internet has audio.

All of this will impact your Website, and eventually, most of your marketing efforts. Oh, it’s not that there wasn’t audio on the Web before, but with all of the phone technology coming into play, what we are expecting from our technology is changing. So, why not add some audio to your Website – and I’m not talking music.

I’m not a fan of music on a Website…even if you present the reader with the obvious option of turning it off. Music on a Website garbles your message. If people like the music, they end up humming or singing along. If they hate the music, then they’ll concentrate on turning it off. Either way, it’s distracting from your actual message.

Still, I do believe audio has a place on a Website. Audio adds a new dimension to the site – as long as it serves an actual sales purpose. Currently, most kitchen dealers just have photos and verbiage on their sites. In fact, I recently searched for dealer Websites that had taken it to the next level and added audio – and could not find any. So, here’s a chance to take a step ahead of your competition!

Since I couldn’t find anyone in our industry to use as an example, I’m going outside the industry. Visit www.Forshaws.com and they give you a nice little audio intro when you hit the home page. Yes, at the end of the intro you do get a hit of music in their jingle, but it’s short and sweet and under words. What’s also nice about this company, which sells everything from gas logs to granite countertops, is that the voice-over is professional. The firm used a company out of St. Louis, MO called Business Audio Plus.

Whatever you do, please do not try to voice something yourself or with someone who works in your office. Voice-over professionals have years of professional training and have more often than not worked with coaches to train their voices.
On this site, if you click on the gas logs link on the left, you are taken to the page detailing information on the gas logs sold – and you hear the crackling of a fire an instant prior to seeing the page. It draws you in.