by Over time, the way we think about content marketing has changed from simply having blogs, videos, and static social media posts to creating customer experiences that provide value and engage with and connect personally with the brand(s) in a meaningful way through an interactive experience with customers via interactive content.
The Evolution of Content Marketing Toward Interactivity
As consumers have become fatigued from one-way brand communications via content marketing, they now expect the opportunity to provide feedback and affected the information that they consume from brands. Interactivity creates a dialogue rather than a one-way broadcast between marketers and the consumer so that they can build greater levels of engagement through sustained interaction with the consumer.
Search engines and social networks are rewarding this shift in how consumers engage with brands. Through prioritizing sites that deliver the greatest amount of time spent on the web page and interaction with the web pages, Google and other similar search engine companies are encouraging websites to produce more interactive content. Thus, companies that choose to produce interactive formats generally see a higher level of visibility than those that produce static-format content.
By providing a highly interactive experience, brands are creating an opportunity to differentiate themselves from other brands in a crowded digital marketplace through creating a more personal connection to the consumer via their interactive content.
How Interactive Content Improves Engagement and Retention
Users stay engaged for longer periods when they have clicked, answered, or explored on a Interactive content encourages repeat visits as users feel valued by the content that responds to their activity and input. The emotional response leads to a deeper connection with the brand.
The mobile behaviour of users adapts easily to an interactive user experience. With short attention spans, users benefit from easy-to-use, responsive experiences. Additionally, interactive content has an equal level of compatibility to the way users engage with content today.
Therefore, marketers use unique interactive content formats such as quizzes and similar formats to drive user engagement and retention.
Interactive Content Type of Quiz in Campaigns
That satisfaction helps to retain users and to engage with them longer.
Quizzes are becoming more popular with media companies like BuzzFeed using them in a fun and viral way that has made them appealing to consumers.
Marketers can see what people like, dislike and behaviour patterns with this insight, which allows marketers to make improvements to their future marketing campaigns.
Typically the most successful campaigns using quizzes focus on remaining relevant and clear. This will prepare an audience for faster form types of interaction with marketers such as polls and surveys.
Polls and Surveys as Interactive Content Formats
Interactive content formats such as polls and surveys are two of the easiest ways for an organization to encourage customers/audiences to participate in most forms of content marketing. Polls and surveys allow customers to easily express their opinions and provide organizations with valuable insight into audience member’s opinions. In fact, many organizations utilize polls and surveys as a way to increase engagement and encourage their customers to share their ideas.
Surveys tend to be effective when a limited number of specific questions are presented clearly. Shorter surveys give businesses a good understanding of their audience and therefore respect their customers/audiences’ time. Longer surveys can negatively affect the completion rates and interactiveness of the survey/responses.
Surveys and polls support both types of feedback, qualitative and quantitative and provide valuable information to marketers about their customers/audiences regarding trends, preferences, and problems. This information can be used by marketers to develop future campaigns and create content that is more relevant to their audiences.
Ultimately, providing customers/audiences with opportunities to be actively engaged in two-way communications through surveys and polls will help marketers develop a stronger understanding of their customer’s/audiences’ needs and ultimately prepare them for even richer interactive formats as discussed in the following section.
Gamification as a Tool for Interactive Engagement
Gamification uses elements typically found in games to help improve the richness of interactive materials that users consume. Gamification provides users with rewards and incentives to remain engaged with the content and encourages users to come back repeatedly.
Many brands incorporate gamification within their learning, onboarding and loyalty programs. Users who participate in simple challenges will be encouraged to return to complete tasks. Many users will develop a stronger emotional bond with the brand as a result of the continual engagement through gamification.
The most effective use of Gamification will occur when the rules are easily understood and when the user will be able to derive actual value from the reward. The less a user can find meaning in the reward, the less enjoyment and participation. Finding a balance between enjoyment and participation will greatly improve engagement levels.
Core Elements of Effective Gamification
Gamification typically includes the following:
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Allows users to keep track of their Personal Progress and encourages them to finish
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Provides users with meaningful Rewards that relate to their efforts
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Fosters Healthy Competition among users and encourages them to Share with others
Gamification provides a means for brands to create Engaging, Immersive experiences. These experiential moments can lead to a smooth transition into other Media Formats, such as Infographics.
Interactive Infographics for Simplified Storytelling
Interactive infographic technology allows companies to communicate complicated or multilayered data simply and effectively. Numerous organizations utilize interactive infographics to illustrate complex processes, trends, or comparison between various events.
The user-initiated methodology prevents overload, keeping user interaction levels high. Memory is enhanced through active participation in the analysis of information.
Publishers and tech corporations frequently employ these types of visuals in their brochures and advertising. Online platforms such as Tableau create interactive formats for enabling the stories told using data. The result of this method produces an image that appears professional and contemporary.
Interactive infographics are used in both presentations and websites. They provide the foundation for the combination of storytelling and usability; therefore, readers remain engaged without being overwhelmed.
Design Considerations for Interactive Infographics
When developing interactive infographics, if a designer considers an intuitive navigation strategy and clearly stated objectives, the user will benefit from experiencing interactive calculators and other individualized products.
Interactive Calculators and Personalized Tools
Interactive calculators and other tools offer immediate and personalized value to users. Users enter their data and receive customized results. The increased relevancy encourages additional engagement and helps establish a sense of trust.
Users are more likely to remain loyal to your company when they feel as if you helped them rather than trying to sell them something. Interactive calculators and similar tools are effectively utilized in nearly every industry.
Many financial, fitness, and marketing organizations utilize calculators and other measurement tools to clearly communicate value. For instance, Adobe shares the benefits of their products with potential customers using interactive calculators.
The responsible use of calculators and interactive tools also provides opportunities for companies to generate leads through the collection of information from users. Collecting optional data in conjunction with being transparent will help build your organization’s credibility.
By providing users with a sense of personalized service, calculators and interactive tools also create a seamless experience for users who use social media for engagement.
Social Media Platforms and User-Generated Interactive Content
Social Media Platforms & Interactive Content: Platform Features encourage User-Generated Interactive Content (Polls, Quizzes, Sliders, Challenges) which drive Engagement and increase Post Visibility to help Audience Retention. User-Generated Interactive Content that generates Engagement will be prioritized within the Algorithms to increase User Retention.
TikTok thrives on User Interaction Trends and Challenges, promoting Brand’s to Engagement and User Interaction. Brand’s Oversharing User-Generated Interactive Content Leads to Views that may not be Promotional.
Creating a Community with User-Generated Interactive Content helps create an Emotional Connection between Users and Brands and builds User Trust and Long Term Engagement.
Users have short Attention Spans which is why User-Generated Interactive Content is Important to Engage Users on Social Media Platforms. Users can quickly act and engage with no Effort, which increases the amount of Time Users engage on a platform and increase the number of Repeat Engagement Opportunities a User has with a Brand.
User Engagement on Social Media sets a standard Expectation for Brands to Provide Consistent User Interactivity across all of their Downloaded User Interfaces for Performance Measurement.
Measuring Engagement and Retention Metrics
These types of metrics reveal to marketers how users are actually interacting with their content. Indicators of how well a user retains engagement can be determined by measuring total time spent on a piece of content, completion rates and returning visitors.
By measuring these indicators, we can determine that interactive formats generally perform better across these measurements. Viewers who navigate through a web page using Google Analytics can track the number of clicks, scroll depth and the number of interactions a user has taken through a web page.
Using this information, marketers can determine where their viewers remain engaged with a piece of interactive content or drop off. Engagement metrics also assist marketers in the use of content optimization.
Based on results from engagement metrics, marketers may modify the format of an interactive piece to induce a higher level of user engagement. Testing different elements within an interactive piece can assist the marketer in improving their long-term campaigns.
Qualitative signals such as comments, shares, and return feedback also provide marketers with insight into emotional ties a user has to their content. In the event a user expresses something positive about a piece of interactive content, that content has the potential to remain top of mind to the user.
Building Sustainable Interactive Content Campaigns
Successful interactive content campaign success begins with clear goals and understanding the audience. Brands must be clear on why they are incorporating interactive content. Understanding the reason for using interactive content will determine how it is formatted, designed, and messaged.
Testing and reviewing your interactive content campaign will result in the longest-term results for your brand. If you take the time to measure the success of your interactive campaigns, and then continuously optimize them, they can provide your business with a steady stream of repeat customers through Long Lasting Campaigns & Sustainable Customer Relationships.
