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An audio message and even music can really give your website a personal touch. An audio message will enhance the message that you are trying to send to your customers and can also be a confidence-building tool for you.
Audio has often been used in the form of music for a decorative effect rather than for marketing. By adding an audio message you are able to create a personal bond with your consumer and they know that there is a real person behind the website.
An Audio Message on Your Homepage
You can use audio messages in a variety of ways on your homepage. You can offer a welcome message to your visitors and explain some of the features your site, business or product has to offer.
You can also offer audio messages of testimonials from your satisfied customers. The majority of PC users today have audio capabilities, unlike in years past when you had to purchase speakers to hear sound. An Audio Message on Your Blog and Newsletters
With blogs being extremely popular these days, an added audio message can help you to personalize the blog even more. This will allow you to include audio product updates in your blogs and newsletters. You may also choose to provide a written version of the audio as a blog posting as well so that the search engines won't pass you by.
Adding The Audio Message
Before you begin recording, you may choose to write out a short script or outline. This way you will know what topics to cover and in what order. When you begin recording the audio you will need to be sure that you have a conversation and pleasant tone of voice. In order to begin recording you will need a microphone or a voice recorder. If you have a MP3 player with a voice recorder this will work perfectly. Once you have it recorded you would just simply download it to your computer like a song. You don't necessarily need any special software to do this with.
To add the audio to your page you will want a picture of speaker so that the audio can be turned off. Any type of simple clip art will do for this. Next you will create a file called a pointer file.
This file has a .wmv extension and allows you to point to the audio file. To make this file go into Notepad and open a blank file. Save the file with same name that you named the audio file, only with a .wmv extension. Inside the file you will place the address where the audio file is located only in this format: pnm://. Do not use the http://. Do not use HTML in this file and this is the only thing in the file.
Now, it's time to add the HTML. Find the place in the website where you want the sound file to be located. It should be between the body tags in your HTML code. Most people will want it in the top where people can easily see it. Now you will create a link to the pointer file, not to the actual audio.
This keeps the audio from playing uninvited. Here is a sample of what the code would like it. You would change these links in order to work for your site.
<A HREF= http://www.yourwebsite.com/audiofile.wmv >
<IMG SRC= http://www.yourwebsite.com/clipart.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER>
Action Steps for Implementing Website Audio
- You may need to buy a microphone and recorder. A basic digital voice recorder may also work.
- A basic understanding of HTML is required. If you are not building the site yourself, your web designer will be able to help you.
- Record your audio!
Important Points for Website Audio
- Keep the audio short and conversational.
- Allow the visitor to be able to turn off the audio if they want to.
- Audio that is uninvited will turn people away quickly.
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