Interactive Content

Did you know that interactive content can be an amazing engagement driver for your brand?

More than ever, customers are the ones dictating the market trends that subsequently influence consumer responses and behaviour. There is an immediacy and dynamism to the digital world and marketing – gone are the days of businesses succeeding with static, irrelevant, or uninteresting marketing and advertising content.

Consumer engagement is crucial for any business to succeed online. No matter what type of business you operate, or the niche you occupy, connecting with the right consumers to build relationships and ultimately drive conversions is essential.

There are numerous ways to achieve this – and arguably one of the most powerful of these is by providing interactive content that simply compels engagement.

The Importance of Engaging Audiences Online

“Customer engagement” is a catchphrase that refers to the interaction between a business or brand and its customers. These interactions may occur over various channels (with social media being the most prolific of these today).

It all starts with the consumer’s first interaction with your brand. It doesn’t, however, end at the point of conversion, but ideally continues in ongoing interactions via website visits, blog reading, social media follows, likes, shares, and comments, email marketing subscriptions, and other forms of endorsement.

Why is customer engagement so important?

In the depths of generating leads, clicks, and conversions, it can be easy for brands and marketers to focus too exclusively on driving consumers down the sales funnel while neglecting the in-between moments where customers engage beyond purchasing. By engaging your audience members in these moments, however, you can effectively strengthen their emotional connection with your brand, thereby better retaining existing customers, passively generating new leads through them, and fostering loyalty to your brand.

Successful customer engagement keeps your brand top-of-mind so that, when the solutions you offer are actively sought, you’ll be metaphorically present for the decision-making process.

One powerful way to achieve this is by providing interactive content to your audience.

What is Interactive Content?

Most marketing content is static and strives for passive engagement. This includes website copy, videos, infographics, traditional blog article posts, etc.

Interactive content, on the other hand, is dynamic and asks more of its audience, encouraging active audience input and responses.

Interactive content includes:

• Quizzes
• Polls
• Surveys
• Games
• eBooks
• Interactive infographics
• Videos
• Contests
• And more

Why is Interactive Content so Effective?

Actively involving its audience, interactive content engages and captivates them in a personalised, immersive experience where they are encouraged (and indeed required) to dynamically participate.

81% of marketers[1] report that interactive content is substantially more effective than static content in terms of capturing audience attention.

Interactive content is a powerhouse in terms of driving action.

With the right approach, it can help you accomplish everything from educating your prospects and pushing positive decision-making, to improving engagement rates, boosting brand awareness, and driving loyalty. It’s a great way to convert prospects into leads, leads into customers, and loyal customers into lead generators for your brand.

It’s also a fantastic way to gain and leverage a competitive advantage over other brands in your industry or niche. A savvy interactive content marketing campaign strategy lets you compete with larger or more established businesses and strengthen your position in what can be an overwhelmingly crowded marketplace.

Bring Your Content Marketing Strategy to Life!

A creative, interactive, on-brand content marketing campaign will deliver content that is both valuable and meaningful to its audience. Some ideas to consider for interactive elements to refresh existing content or create new content include:

• Explainer Videos: placed in email marketing newsletters, on social media marketing posts, or embedded in website landing pages, these demonstrations compel viewership and provide value at the same time.

• Quizzes: these are fun and effective, whether placed on a website landing page, at the end of a blog article, or on a social media post. They are easy to share and often great lead generators.

• Interactive Infographics/Animations: changing up the approach to an infographic or animation simply by making some elements of it clickable can make it more interesting and engaging for audiences.

• Interactive Calculators/Quote Tools: both practical and engaging, these types of interactive tools perform well on websites for insurance companies, mortgage brokerage firms, lenders, and similar.

• Games: simple gamification elements offered in a non-gaming context can effectively help your brand stand out.

• Polls/Surveys: everyone loves to be heard and feel like their opinion matters. Furthermore, some of us (this writer included!) genuinely enjoy participating in surveys and polls. Exploit this for your brand, drive consumer engagement and satisfaction rates, and gain some valuable insights into who your audience is, what they prefer, and how to best target them going forward.

• Interactive Videos: a new and exciting approach, these put your users in the proverbial “driver’s seat” in terms of what they watch and how. A live shopping stream is an example of this emerging technology.

What Are You Waiting For?

High-quality, targeted interactive content conveys its message and drives participation by rewarding input with a response:

• Develop stronger emotional connections with your brand
• Enhance the brand discovery process for consumers
• Provide cross-channel experiences to give consumers options about how, when, and where they engage with your brand
• Improve brand awareness, presence, and reputation
• Boost customer and lead satisfaction
• Deliver Call-to-Action placement opportunities
• Increase customer loyalty and retention
• Invite and collect authentic feedback
• Provide high-value insights and data to understand consumer behaviour to tailor future marketing efforts
• Deliver a competitive advantage

Book a Strategy Session Now!

Dot-to-Dot Digital is here to help you build a robust content marketing strategy to drive engagement to help your business grow and succeed online.

A premier full-service digital marketing agency based in Brisbane, we work with clients across many sectors all over Australia. Our experience, expertise, and tailored approach to every client and campaign enable us to help you connect the dots to drive engagement, website visits, and queries for your business.

Talk with an expert digital strategist today!  By understanding your business and vision, we can design and deliver the right campaign approach to get you seen and appreciated online – by the right audiences and at the right time. We can’t wait to have a chat and explore how we can help you!

[1] https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/07/interactive-content-research/