The Emergence Of Interactive Aspects In Digital Marketing
Posted on: October 29, 2021
Have you ever found yourself taking a random quiz to find out what kind of personality you have or scrolling through YouTube looking for Choose Your Own Adventure videos? If the answer is yes, then you have been engaging with interactive content.
Interactive content spans the gamut. It can be something simple like a personality test or something complex and immersive, utilising VR technology to present its information. But at its heart, interactive content refers to content that changes based on customers’ choices, making it feel like the brand is talking to them.
What makes interactive content unique is that you have to entice the customers to approach you instead of pushing the content to them. This is where your digital marketing skills will be put to the test since you need to encourage your audience to participate and interact with the content.
Since interactive content requires an alternate marketing approach, you probably wonder why you should adopt this strategy in your digital marketing campaign? Well, allow us to shed more light on this matter.
What is interactive content marketing?
In layman terms, interactive content marketing involves using content to engage with your target audience based on their level of participation. It is almost akin to conversing with them, except you do not physically need to be involved in the communication process.
However, interactive content should not be confused with cold-market prospecting. While some form of interaction is involved, this strategy is a far cry from interactive content marketing. In fact, not everyone enjoys being roped into such conversations, as they prefer to participate and interact with a brand’s products and services at their own time and pace.
A simple example of interactive content is a calculator that certain insurance companies have integrated into their websites that allow customers to calculate the cost of their insurance premiums based on data provided by the customers themselves, such as age, gender, and any pre-existing medical conditions.
The statistics backing up interactive content
If you are a pragmatic digital marketer, perhaps the useful stats provided by HubSpot about how interactive content can help with your business can convince you to implement them into your marketing strategies.
Let us share the figures that have caught our eyes:
- 45% of B2B buyers have listed interactive content as their top three preferred content formats.
- 51% of B2B buyers mentioned that they find interactive content helpful in handling business challenges.
- 77% of marketers find interactive content to possess “reusable” value, resulting in multiple exposures and visitors.
- 90% of consumers have expressed a desire for more visual and interactive content.
One of the key reasons interactive content is popular with both consumers and digital marketers is because interactive content usually encourages the audience to interact. This element allows digital marketers to create a unique user experience, which sets it apart from other marketing content.
While interactive content has been a feature of digital marketing for some time now, it only began to gain serious traction in the industry recently. This is partly because certain digital markets bulk at the interactive elements of such content and find it overwhelming after years of being used to static copies.
However, if you want to stay ahead of your competition, it is time to rev up your marketing strategy. After all, the marketing industry is starting to favour storytelling over hard sell, as more digital marketers realise the latter method no longer engages consumers.
Why should you weave interactive content into your marketing campaign?
1. It is entertaining
We have all found ourselves tuning out when interacting with a boring advertisement, TV show, or movie. If you struggle to enjoy the content, you will likely turn off the TV or close the specific webpage. Similarly, nothing is stopping your audience from leaving the webpage when your static advertisement pops up on the tab.
Conversely, by adding interactive features to your content, you add the single element that attracts people: fun. We often desire to be a part of something. This explains why some Singaporeans love the queuing trend, where they join queues even if they have no idea what the others are queuing for.
Furthermore, interactive content makes use of information and entertainment to hold an audience’s attention. For example, a quiz will require the person to answer all the questions before they get the result they are looking for, and this is impossible to replicate with a blog article. Hence, your content stops being passive while providing a better consumer experience.
2. It gives a sense of connection
If you want to connect with someone, you have to interact with them first. After all, the most important thing in the advertising industry is to establish and maintain a relationship with your customers.
However, to accomplish this, you will require an effective marketing strategy that can be tweaked to meet the needs of every customer. When customers feel like you are talking to them, it can build trust and connection with your prospects, making it easier for you to convert them into paying customers.
3. It can stimulate audience participation
Have you heard of the phrase, “The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is curiosity”? This means that when people see something interesting yet unknown, they have the fundamental need to satisfy their curiosity and find out what it is.
For instance, you might stop scrolling your Facebook feed when you see a quiz result with an exciting tagline or a sample gameplay video from an application. Something that will provoke you to take the quiz or tempt you into downloading the game to try it out for yourself. These examples demonstrate why advertisements involving interactives tend to get audiences to spend more time exploring their content.
4. It gives you new information about your customers
Data collection is a crucial aspect of any marketing plan. By gathering data and analysing consumer trends and behavioural patterns on multiple platforms such as social media, you will be able to better optimise your digital marketing campaign to target your customers’ needs. The more accurate and relevant the information, the better your chances of creating content that interests them.
The problem for most digital marketers is how they can access such data. As people become more tech-savvy, they are also more protective of their online privacy. As such, they may not be willing to share their consuming habits online.
So how can interactive content help with this issue? By creating immersive content that offers a personalised experience, you stand a better chance of grabbing a user’s attention. Since the content is attuned to what they are looking for, it is easier to convince the consumer to divulge the information you need. The users get to enjoy what you provide, and you obtain valuable data in return.
Conclusion
Do we think interactive content is going to take the marketing industry by storm? The answer is a resounding yes! Not only is this content a great asset to every digital marketer, but it is also the preferred advertising format for many consumers. Furthermore, businesses can strengthen their relationships with consumers through this type of content.
After all, the most important thing about digital marketing is to create an enjoyable experience for the customers. And the interactive features found in this content can help you fulfil this task. Therefore, we will advise every digital marketer to consider implementing interactive content into their content marketing strategies.