Let’s say that you’re scrolling through a website and the website is completely plain. Then there’s another website that you’re scrolling through which has many videos on it. Not just that, the website also has quizzes on many topics. This second website is the one that has interactive content in it.
You can’t just have funny words and sentences on your website and call it a day. People need more than that. Not just that, as a brand owner, you even need more than that. When you include such interactive and relatable content on your website, people engage more with you.
This content lets the users participate more in your website activities. This kind of user participation impacts the overall growth of your website in a positive way.
There’s another reason more than just engagement for people though. Take a look at yourself, you like to do quizzes and fill out survey forms. These quizzes may help you with something related to your work. But that’s not always the reason. Many times, you just do them out of fun and curiosity.
This fun element that these contents give you, makes an escape from mundane activities. It’s widely known that BuzzFeed makes many quizzes on their website. These quizzes have topics ranging from A to Z of everything. This just means that there’s just so much fun there.
Content of this nature also allows you to make serious topics more enjoyable. Who would want to know about love in a scientific way? But well, if you include a few infographics in your content, it’d make a difference.
In this article, we’ve covered the basics of this type of content. Read till the end to know the best tips to create such content for your brand.
In pochi punti:
What Is Interactive content?
In the most simple terms, interaction means when a party participates in an activity with another. Interaction in content can happen in many ways, through the use of videos, quizzes, e-books, and so on. Here, your brand is Party A and your users are Party B.
Party A makes many kinds of content, as mentioned above. You keep these contents on your website or on your other media channels. Party B interacts with these contents. The users come to you when they have such content and they participate in the activity that they like.
But why is the need for interactive content? What is it doing for you? There are many benefits that come with making your content this way.
First, you get more feedback from your customers. When users read any kind of ordinary content, you don’t know who actually went through it completely. On the other hand, with an interactive activity, you can find out the metrics. This means that you can know how many clicks, views, and interactions you got on your content.
Second, such type of content also helps you in making more sales. There are many people who are engaging with you and your content. The better content you make, the more people will go through them. In the end, they even reach the end of the marketing funnel. This means that they’ll come to a point where they can make a purchase from your store.
Third, users get an entertaining experience because of such content. As said earlier, no one wants to know the real chemistry of love. But, you can make that chemistry entertaining by making interactive videos. You can make people learn as well as give them that excitement to learn.
What is interactive content Marketing?
In interactive and entertaining content marketing, brands make use of content to attract their users. When you market your brand, you do it in many creative ways. You give people many things so that they can remember your brand name. There are many strategies that you use for this. You use ads, emails, blogs, newsletters, and so on.
When it comes to the content of these marketing strategies, you’ve to make them interactive. People are no longer just interested in reading and scrolling to the end of the webpage. They need more ways so that they can feel entertained and, well, content.
To do interactive content marketing, you’ve to separate these elements. Interactive would mean that there’s some sort of user participation. Content would include all your blog posts, articles, e-books, etc. Marketing means promoting yourself and your brand.
You start this promotion by making content. This had worked for many businesses for many years. It’s still working well for a lot of businesses. But now people have stepped into a new realm of content marketing by making their content more interactive.
To produce such content, they make use of any type of content and make sure that that relates to their audience. The brand wants to put across their word, but they do it by understanding the way people would understand.
Types of interactive content
There are various types of content that attract readers. Sometimes, even just one of these is enough to make your content stand out from others. Many times, you’ve to use a few types of these contents together to get a beneficial result.
Here’s a list of the types of content you should use for your brand.
- Videos: The easiest way to make your content interactive is by making videos. Your videos shouldn’t be too lengthy for the users. You just have to make them creative, funny, and informative.
- Surveys and Polls: Marketers use polls and surveys on social media as a part of their interactive content marketing. They serve many purposes by giving you useful audience insights. You get to know their name, likes, and dislikes. Then, customers also give you feedback through these polls and surveys. To make them interactive, you’ve to include questions that aren’t demanding. They should be enticing and unobtrusive for the users.
- E-Books: E-Books are a great source of giving information to your users. People really benefit a lot because of e-books and they also gain useful insights through them. To make them interactive, you may include animation in them. You can also use different designs and colour forms in them. You’d also have to change your script in e-books. To do that, you’d just have to use a simpler language that people would understand easily.
- EmailAn email (or electronic mail) is a method of exchanging communications through the internet. It is one of the most used features on the web and the number one mean...: Your emails can become interactive. Emails have always been boring to read for people. There are too many words and they read in a very monotonous tone. That’s not the case these days, though, because brands are changing the ways they create emails. You should use personalization and AB testing while creating them. As for making content interactive, include polls, games, charts, and so on.
Top 3 interactive content Examples
Making interactive and attractive content isn’t easy. Sometimes you may follow all the tips, but it still doesn’t work really well. It can happen due to various reasons. Maybe you don’t know the content your competitors are making. It’s important to know what they’re doing because that way, you’ll know how to make your content different from theirs.
It may also happen that you frame certain questions in a manner that people get confused. Confusion still works, but if they feel something negative, then it’d be a loss for you.
To avoid such scenarios, you may look at these examples to know how to make such content.
- BuzzFeed
As mentioned earlier, on BuzzFeed you can find many kinds of quizzes. There are quizzes on a variety of topics and people find them to be creative and exciting. Making quizzes about literally anything is an art, and BuzzFeed does it amazingly.
- Rock Content
Did you know that calculators are also a part of interactive content? Well, many websites include calculators in their content. Rock Content uses them so that marketers can know their CAC or customer acquisition cost. The calculator lets them know how much they would need to spend on acquiring new clients.
- Salesforce
These days, many brands and businesses are making e-books. Salesforce took things to the next level by making an ebook that also includes an animation in it. This way, they’ve made the content inside the e-book even more enjoyable.
Tips and Best Practices
Here are some tips and best practices to make interactive content. When you follow these tips, you’re ensured that your content would attract people easily.
- Everyone who does content marketing knows that there are multiple types of content. All these contents require proper structure in them. This simply means that you can’t make your content by making that content. For instance, you can’t make a video just by recording yourself speaking some words. You’ve to make a structure of those words, and you’ve to present yourself in a confident way. Anyone who’s watching your video should know the meaning of that video.
- You’ve to think of your audiences as well. This is because they’re the ones who are going to watch your content at the end of the day. Men, women, and children are different from each other. In case your audience includes all three of them, you’ve to think from their point of view. It’s then that you’d be able to make an impact on all of them.
- Design is one of the most important elements in content marketing. Without a good design, no one would want to look at the content you’ve made. The design team of your company should know how to present the scripted words in a beautiful manner. For example, when you’re making a quiz, you should include colours, pictures, and GIFs in it. They add more depth in the written content.
- It’s essential that you also think about your budget and time. Why would you spend many hours making a video series when you can write a paper. Also, think about what would be more feasible for you in terms of money. Great content marketing doesn’t need too much money. You just need a great idea and an interactive way to present it.
In Conclusion
When you want to make your content interactive, you’ve to break down your content. You can’t follow the format and structure that you followed for a long time. To start from the beginning, you’ve to plan your content. What type of content do you want to make? What would you include in it? And what will be the main message?
After doing this, you should look for ways that you can make it interactive. Let’s say you’re making a video. You’ve changed your format fully to make it interactive for users. Now, to make this content interactive, you may use a 360° view in it. People would click on it and they’ll participate and engage in a better way.
Making interactive content becomes easier when you know how to mix both these elements with each other. You take fun and information and combine them together. Well, there you’ve it, your interactive piece of content.
Did you like the tips we mentioned? How do you make your content more interactive? Do you like polls or surveys? Tell us in the comments below!