A basic testament to any human existence are the five senses: sight, hear, touch, taste and smell. Besides the fact that science continues to prove that there are more than five, for budding business owners and marketers alike, such senses are ideal to appeal to when selling products online. Such tactics are coined, ‘experiential marketing,’ they stimulate our senses to create a connection between the consumer and the brand.

Appealing to all the human senses helps to engage emotions and, ultimately, influence a purchasing behavior. Kissmetrics, for example, indicates that 96% of first time site visitors won’t return. It is essential to create a ‘boomerang’ effect!

Each person, no matter the age, gender or nationality use all their senses in decision making and each one can be taken advantage of to increase your sales. Not disregarding the importance of each sense, I am going to focus on just one, hearing, and how audio content can be effective on an audience’s engagement, in comparison to the predominant use of visual content.

Audio content, historically, is one of the most traditional and popular forms of multimedia online and here’s why: 

1.    Audio content is both useful and entertaining for your audience, but selfishly, audio files’ small size and compatibility makes it easy to add to ones site without compromising speed and usability.

2.    All encompassing. Audio content comes without limitations, a brand's info and product descriptions can be accessible to visually impaired users. 

3.    Audio content performs as an enhancement for your products descriptions, adding more detailed information as well as interviews or testimonials. Taking a page out of the book for sites selling music, which offer previews of tracks, audio can assist other products. For example British Airways is relying on a recent study from Oxford University. They discovered that combining sound with food or drink can enhance ones flavor, called ‘Sonic Seasoning.’ The airline is debuting an in-flight playlist to enrich the taste of its dishes served in-flight. 

We know the ‘why’, but when producing and sharing audio on your site it’s vital to know the ‘how.’ Here are a few tips to consider:

• Similarly to a video, the background noise should be payed close attention to. Without realizing it, when creating an audio file, disturbing noises can sneak their way into the recording. Make sure you have a good microphone and record in a quiet environment.
• Be prepared! Create a script beforehand especially when talking about your product or your online store. A well-written script assures your recording to be more professional and important details won't be omitted.
• Size is important — the smaller the file the better. In order to to do so, MP3files are better suited than WAV files or other types of media formats. MP3’s keep the file size to a minimum whilst maximizing compatibility. 

With so much time spent on the audio and written content, what is important is not to discount all the other parts that your site is made up of. In e-commerce, it’s all about the visuals. Adding extras such as audio content gives it that ‘special’ and unique touch to make your products more real for your customers. The more customers can envision and ‘sense’ your product, they will be able to visualize themselves using it and buying it.

Has such technological wizardry influenced your life online through the five senses? Feel free to comment!

About the Author

Ohad Rozen founded Toonimo with his partner Dan, out of Dan’s one-bedroom apartment. Prior to founding Toonimo, Ohad worked at Wilocity (acquired by Qualcomm) as a senior algorithm and system engineer. He holds M.Sc. and B.Sc. Cum Laude in Electrical Engineering from Ben-Gurion University. Ohad brings a deep knowledge of information technology management and algorithms and vast experience in sales and marketing management.