The Role of Interactive Content in Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing with Interactive Content:
What is interactive content? It is creating a connection with your audience and getting them involved with your content via your website. This marketing approach is not new, but it is effective, and it engages your visitors. We have compiled these articles to learn how this technique can be effective in your marketing program.
[1]What is Interactive Content Marketing?
Interactive content marketing involves using content to engage your audience based on their participation. It’s kind of like a conversation, but one in which you don’t have to participate actively.
A simple example of interactive marketing is insurance companies that offer free, instant quotes. You visit the site, fill in some information, and go to the next stage in the process. In the end, you can have your quote emailed or texted to you.
Does Interactive Content Perform Better Than Regular Content?
Did you know that 90 percent of consumers report that they want more visual and interactive content? That’s huge.
Interactive content works better than regular content because it’s more engaging. It encourages consumers to compete, compare, test themselves, consumes information faster, and achieve results quicker.
It can also be highly immersive. Interactive video, for instance, bridges the gap between normal video and artificial intelligence to create a unique user experience.
Why Interactive Content Is Considered the Future of Content Marketing: Interactive Content Statistics
Several marketers and strategists have declared interactive marketing the future of content. That’s largely because it works.
Take quizzes, for example. You can find them on Facebook, websites, and other social channels, and they’re arguably among the most popular content on the web.
Did you know that 96 percent of consumers who start BuzzFeed contests actually finish them? You can bet that 96 percent of your website visitors don’t finish every piece of written content on your site.
What Are the Forces That Make Interactive Content Such Powerful Lead Magnets?
There are several reasons interactive content draws attention from consumers. Here are a few of the most important.
More Appealing: Attract and Educate People Who Might Become Future Buyers
Interactivity gives consumers a reason to stay on the page. It provides something different and unique while still bringing people into your sales funnel.
Just because something is fun doesn’t mean it can’t be educational, too. Think about 360 video tours of destinations for future travellers or quizzes that test your knowledge on a specific subject.
[2]The Benefits of Using Interactive Content
Combine content and experience
Ebooks, infographics, and blog posts are valuable for educating consumers because they bring information.
When they become interactive, they add something that attracts and engages people: fun.
Interactive content, therefore, combines information and entertainment. Thus, the user feels stimulated to consume that content, which contains triggers to hold their attention.
For example, a quiz requires the person to go through all the questions and answer, which can be more difficult in an ebook or blog article.
So the content stops being passive and static to provide a better consumer experience for your audience.
This change is even more relevant if we consider generation Y — the millennials, born between 1980 and 1995, in the market dictating trends and influencing consumer behaviour.
These young people have seen the internet being born, and the world has become faster. That’s why this generation is dynamic and immediatist.
There’s no point in offering static, boring, and irrelevant content; they need innovation, challenges, and experiences. Interactive content, therefore, meets their desires.
Concerning the generations that come in the sequence, content dynamics will no longer be a choice but a necessity to communicate with them.
Increase engagement
Offering an interactive consumer experience instead of static content is the way to increase your engagement rates. This is the great benefit of interactive content, which becomes a solution in marketing.
Content Marketing has grown so much that it has saturated consumers with many stimuli and posts on blogs and social networks, often lacking quality or relevance.
With little room to attract this information-rich consumer, brands need creative ways to capture their attention. Interactive content solves this issue.
Passive content makes room for the emergence of interactive formats, which increase engagement time and involvement with the brand.
When reading an interactive infographic, for example, the user is surprised by a new way of consuming much lighter and more fun information. This encourages them to read all the material, grasp the message, and even share it with their network.
This increase in engagement is evident when analyzing metrics such as time spent on the site or link shares (referral traffic).
In addition, you can also analyze consumption metrics to understand if users actually consumed all the interactive content.
Get more feedback from users.
Another benefit of interactive content is the ability to receive a rich array of feedback data from users.
As we have said, passive content does not show whether the consumer has actually consumed a material.
For example, you only know how many users have downloaded or scrolled to the end of a blog page. But you can’t tell if they read the content, can you?
Interactive content, on the other hand, collects data during content consumption. Thus, you can identify views, clicks, and interactions with each element of your interactive material, as well as evaluate exit points.
According to Scribblelive’s survey, 60% of organizations that use interactive content can better measure their efficiency, while this percentage is only 25% among those that use static content.
For example, let’s say that you’ve created a questionnaire so that the client understands what solution they need to solve their problem.
Each question answered represents a metric to verify your strategy’s efficiency and better get to know the user.
So you can verify that users have covered all of your content and collect valuable data about your audience, behaviours, pains, and needs, which can then be used to optimize your strategies.
Therefore, the benefits of interactive content are not limited to Content Marketing — they can contribute to your entire marketing strategy.
Optimize lead generation and conversion rates
Interactive content generates more engagement and brings results in lead generation, sales, and revenue.
After all, dynamic content, with visual appeal, provides a richer experience and can awaken consumers’ desire. Besides, this type of content can also guide them on their journey to conversion by holding their attention.
For this, you can count on tools to create interactive content (later on, we will introduce some of them).
Some of these tools offer features to optimize conversions and test applications to determine which ones work best.
For example, you can test two layout versions of your landing page to determine which one generates the most conversions.
This way, you make the user experience more interesting and reap better results from your content.
[3]Interactive Content Types and Examples
As you’ve seen, placing interactive content on your own site is effective, especially if you already have great SEO and a significant amount of web traffic. But did you know you can create and host interactive content experiences in other places?
Take a look at these examples of successful interactive content created by StoryStudio, and installed as native advertising on Hearst websites like SFGATE. These experiences are so successful because a web property like SFGATE reaches millions of people every month. It is tough to build up an audience that large, and this method of native advertising allows brands to extend their reach beyond the confines of their owned audience.
Educational content, quizzes, and games are just the beginning when it comes to increasing engagement.
Here are 6 types and examples of interactive content and why they work so well.
Showcase Products With An Interactive Lookbook
An interactive lookbook is an ultimate way to show off your product or line of products.
By featuring your product or service in a fun way in a prime location on your site or as a native experience on a media site, viewers will be more likely to enjoy the shopping experience, and in turn, boost their perception of your brand.
Entertain With Quizzes And Assessments
Fun and quirky quizzes are an excellent way to grab the attention of your audience.
In this example, Resolutioncolo.com created a fun quiz that grabs ahold of the reader and entices them to choose between two hilarious scenarios. The eye-catching imagery and thought-provoking questions draw the reader in further down the page until finally, they are introduced to the brand, what they offer, and the benefits of their cannabis hardware cleaner.
This advertorial is hosted on SFGATE (a website with tons of traffic) and targeted specifically toward cannabis readers is why this content experience is so effective.
Understanding how to reach and target your content effectively by using several distribution channels and placements is the key to driving actual revenue from your investment in interactive content.
Create An Interactive Journey With A Timeline
Timelines are a great way to take your reader on a journey through time to tell your product’s story. Using a chronological narrative is reliable to hold your reader’s attention and immerse them in your story.
Every period in time can have dedicated videos, images, or audio snippets, creating a fuller experience.
In this example, FH Dailey Chevrolet in San Leandro highlights the evolution of the Corvette – one of America’s most recognizable luxury cars, which they also happen to have available at their dealership.
Conclusion:
Anything that can be done to engage your website visitors is a boon! If you need help making this type of marketing work for your business, do not hesitate to call hughesagency.ca today.
Article compiled by hughesagency.ca
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