Driving Engagement with Interactive Content
It is commonly believed that earning higher content engagement rates has become increasingly difficult in recent years because of shortening attention spans in the average online consumer. The truth, however, is that online audiences have simply developed specific tastes – tastes that often demand more than the run-of-the mill content formats they’ve grown tired of.
Enter: interactive content. Anyone who has been on the internet within the last decade or so (including you, dear reader) has inevitably consumed interactive content in one form or another. Brands look to interactive content to combat declining engagement rates and to gain an edge over competition, while audiences seek it out in order to find relevant, interesting and unique experiences.
So, how can YOU start utilizing interactive content for your own brand this year? We’re glad you asked.
What is Interactive Content?
Interactive content not only informs, but truly engages your audience via direct participation. Incorporating games, videos, quizzes, clickable features, and animations into your content allows you to create engaging two-way experiences for users. These experiences demand their attention while rewarding their participation. And frankly, interactive content is just more fun.
The immersive nature of these interactive formats encourages users – a.k.a. potential customers – to spend more time with your content and more time exploring your site as a result. With the demand for interactive formats on the rise, online consumers are now much less tolerant of content that cannot be easily accessed on a variety of platforms, so it important to focus on creating content that is mobile-friendly as well.
How Does it Work?
The numbers on this are clear: research shows that 81% of marketers have had more engagement success with interactive content than they’ve had with static. Not only did their content perform better, but their overall engagement across platforms benefited from a 66% increase as well. Maximizing engagement across the board is reason enough to consider adding some interactivity into your content creation, but brands are also utilizing it in order to boost key marketing metrics all along the sales funnel.
Interactive content helps to build brand awareness and strengthen a business identity through branded experiences. The immersive nature of these interactive formats encourages users – a.k.a. potential customers – to spend more time with your content and more time exploring your site as a result, boosting open-rates and click scores. Interactive content can also be used to create additional lead generation opportunities and ultimately, to improve conversion rates. Essentially, any part of your marketing strategy can be positively impacted once interactivity is a factor.
Types of Content to Try
Still not convinced? See for yourself. Here are some formats to try out if you’re looking to give interactive content a test run:
Infographics – They’re jam-packed with useful info, and they are way more visually appealing than other static content formats. Make your infographics even more engaging by adding some interactive capabilities, like the ability to zoom in on certain sections, scroll through the design, or expand the content with a few simple clicks. If you haven’t already, check out the outdoor advertising infographic Annah and I worked on.
Quizzes – Not only are they effective tools for capturing useful marketing data, but quizzes are great interactive options as well. Quizzes give your audience control over their content consumption by making it more personal and allowing them to set the pace. Try turning your next article, blog post or customer communication into a quiz and see how much it impacts user-participation. Not hinting at anything, but here’s an Alcohol Use Disorder self-assessment that we recently built for South Shore Hospital’s One Healthy Boston program.
Clickables & Animations – Even subtle interactive assets like simple animations and clickable features like buttons and scrollers can be potent engagement-winners. Features like these can be easily incorporated into a variety of different content formats and they are a great way to add some interactivity to your landing pages. Need an example? Check out some of the interactive features we added to Vytal Health’s new site.
If you’d like some help creating engaging videos, quizzes, games and other interactive content for your brand, or want to take things a step further by utilizing a custom immersive experience during your next event, then contact our team at ZG. We’ve got your back.
Since you’ve been so good this year – trust us, we’ve made our list and checked it twice – we want to give you something extra special: 12 Days of Zizzmas. Each business day between December 16 and 31, we’ll be posting a new piece of real, actionable insight designed to make the New Year your year. So check back daily and don’t be afraid to drop a comment if you like what you’ve read.