Why Interactive Content Matters to Your Content Strategy: 3 Points to Keep in Mind
For a marketer, very few things beat the joy of seeing their target audience consume their content, enjoy it, and go ahead to act on it. It’s the clearest sign that the marketing campaign was a success. But, as many can admit, this isn’t child’s play.
Successful marketing in the wake of shorter attention spans, which presently appears to be eight seconds, tougher competition, a sophisticated consumer market, among other things, can only be achieved if one adapts to the changing circumstances and correctly applies clever marketing technologies and trends
Case in point is interactive content. Consumers today have a strong desire for control and interactive content gives it to them by allowing them to be part of an activity. A user can respond to questions, explore scenarios, make choices, gain insights, and so on. What’s more, they won’t feel targeted and that’s what sets this apart from other marketing techniques.
Generally, most humans naturally thirst for interaction and the internet has emerged as one of the places they can get it through interactive content. Well, this should matter a lot to your content strategy and here’s why.
#1. It Raises Engagement Level
Passive engagement rarely achieves any results, but active engagement does. Here’s how. There’s evidently a huge disconnect in what marketers give consumers and what the consumers really want. Thus, the content most marketers supply never really engages the target audience as it should.
But interactive content has demonstrated an ability to fill this void because it offers a better way for customers to connect with content. With elements such as quizzes, interactive videos, surveys/polls, ROI calculators, and assessments, it puts focus on the customer as opposed to the brand. The objective is to provide the customer with a solution and it does so by connecting with them on a personal level.
That explains why an estimated 70% of marketers agree that interactive content performs exceptionally well in engaging customers.
Also, unlike in the event where a user has to wait for a download to finish before they access it or read long pages of content in order to derive value, interactive content offers instant gratification. It would, therefore, be easier for customers with shorter attention spans to engage with such content.
Generally, such content deepens one’s relationship with their audience, increases sales, and builds a strong brand identity in the long term.
A great example is HBO’s promotional campaign for the infamous Game of Thrones. GoT fans were given a chance to pick their favorite character and then cast a vote on an interactive website to choose who would lead the bloody wars in the upcoming seasons. More than 1.6 million votes were cast and the video below is also proof of the campaign’s success.
#2. Customer Data Collection
Collection and analysis of customer data is one of the things successful businesses do to try to enhance a customer’s experience and strengthen other company processes. This is usually achieved through data-driven marketing. Enterprises use network automation services to scale and grow their connectivity as needed.
Putting in mind that modern-day customers respond more to personalized services, that gives a brand a compelling reason to collect their personal data. After all, it’s only with such data that a brand will be able to speak to their audience directly, pique their interest, and get them to act.
Interactive content gives a brand the opportunity to collect such data through assessments, multiple choice answers, quizzes that require special replies, interactive infographics, and so on, which they can then use to come up with a solid customer profile and use it to maximize campaign results.
Attivio’s Search Framework Assessment is a great example. Users are given a chance to respond to questions that assess the different aspects related to the running a company. Answers are then analyzed and, thereafter, a result is sent to the user’s email. While users get what they need – a clear and complete analysis of a framework – the company also benefits by raising the user’s interest in what they offer.
On top of that, such data can also be used in customer segmentation.
Challenges do exist though, from privacy concerns to data usage restrictions and security demands. Usually, it’s upon the marketer and the business to figure out ways to navigate around that. One of them is to familiarize themselves with regulations governing the use of customer data. Listening to the needs, demands, and expectations of customers also help.
More important to note is that before collecting such data, one should always identify which kind of data is going to be useful in helping them achieve their goals.
#3. Better Conversion Rate
Compared to static content, interactive content can gather a 50% higher click rate and an additional 13% shares than its counterpart. This explains why it converts way better than static content, especially if you provide your audience with a great deal of value before they get to the interactive content. Many will more likely share their personal or professional information in exchange for what’s on the other side.
Normally, marketers tend to spend plenty of time, money, and energy to attract a visitor to a site, but few ever get to convert a large portion of them after they arrive. Interactive content maximizes on calls-to-action and other related aspects to improve the conversion rate.
Unlike the typical “Download Now” or “Buy Now”, interactive content gets a bit personal through assessments, quizzes, and the likes, which eventually decreases the bounce rate and easily gets those involved in the activity to act on your message.
Zenni Optical’s “You Have Been Framed” campaign is proof enough that this works. In just 6 months, the quiz generated about 29,410 lead conversions and well over $1 million in revenue.
Bonus Point – Better Targeting & Retargeting
Demographic data is great, but it isn’t as effective as psychographic data when it comes to marketing. Your ideal customer can’t be reached by simply narrowing down your target market to age or sex. In fact, you are likely to miss out on many of them.
But if you do have information that takes into account their tastes, preferences, and other personal information, it becomes possible to engage them further because you will be sending more personalized offers, recommendations, and updates.
Also, since you’ll have gathered a customer’s data and used it to build their profile, it becomes easier to continually engage them based on their previous actions, not to mention that the new content you will develop for this audience segment will be deeply personalized to optimize the results.
Final Word
Evolving consumer demands and technologies have completely revolutionized marketing. Unlike before, marketers now have to always figure out new, creative, and personal ways to reach their target audience. Consumers, on the other hand, expect something special as well.
Interactive marketing bridges this gap by giving you the opportunity to engage your audience on a deeper level, collect relevant customer data, raise the conversion rate, and improve your targeting strategy. Thus, when you make it part of your content strategy, it boosts the chances of achieving remarkable success in your marketing campaigns.
Robyn Howard
Latest posts by Robyn Howard (see all)
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