Engagement is the name of the game when it comes to digital marketing and, when you increase engagement, you see conversions soar. That’s because engagement, such as Likes, Shares, and RT, amplifies your message beyond your own online community to the connections curated by your engaged community. Thus, each engaged user acts as a micro-influencer to build awareness of your brand, as well as acting as a tacit endorsement for your company. As you see in the graphic below, engagement is now the engine driving conversion.
That begs the question; how do you increase engagement. Well, content, of course.
Increase engagement with content
In a world where digital marketing is more and more popular, consumers are getting pickier when it comes to choosing content that’s right for them. So, out with static content, in with interactive content – that’s what 93% of marketers believe.
But how powerful is interactive content, really?
Well, according to one study, high-quality visual interactive content boasts a 70% conversion rate, exceeding the typical conversion rate for any other type of content. Impressive, huh?
If you’re reading this article now, we assume you’re looking for the best types of interactive content to increase engagement. Whether we’re right or not doesn’t matter. We’re more than happy to share what we know!
What is interactive content?
Before we explore its different types, let’s talk a bit about interactive content. The most basic definition of interactive content is any type of content where users participate actively instead of just passively looking at their screens.
What makes this online marketing strategy stand out from the rest is that it encourages user-driven discovery and self-guided learning? Through interactive content, you create unique experiences that are playful and fun, while being informative at the same time. Whether you use motion graphics, videos, or another type of visual content, you empower your readers to take action, which helps increase engagement.
Here are several stats to further prove why interactive content is the future of digital marketing:
- Interactive content gains twice as much engagement as static content.
- 45% of B2B buyers say interactive content is among their top three preferred content types.
- Visual content, such as GIFs or online quizzes with images, is 40x more likely to be shared on social networks.
- 88% of marketers say interactive content sets them apart from their competitors.
- 70% of marketers agree that interactive content easily converts site visitors.
- 91% of buyers search for more interactive content.
- 80% of online users will watch a video, but only 20% of them will read the text.
Now you know why interactive content is a force in the marketing world!
Types of interactive content to increase engagement
And here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. Without further ado, here are the five types of interactive content you can use to increase engagement:
1. Interactive infographics
Publishing an infographic isn’t as effective as it was a couple of years ago. Almost everyone uses them, which means more competition for you and readers are less impressed with infographics, having seen so many of them.
Solution? Toss some interactive elements into the mix!
People love infographics for many reasons. To name a few – they’re visually pleasing, they keep people interested in brand storytelling, and they offer valuable information without sounding too boring. Plus, they’re super shareable! Now, however, you need to up your game by adding interactivity if you want your content to increase engagement and conversion.
While creating interactive infographics obviously demands more time and effort, the rewards are far greater than for static infographics. You won’t believe the number of shares and views you generate just by making infographics interactive!
Here are three stunning examples of animated infographics to inspire you:
“Will a Robot Take Your Job?”
Wanna know the odds of being replaced at work by a robot? We’ll let BBC’s interactive infographic answer that. Simply choose from their comprehensive list of careers or type in your profession, and discover your fate in a minute or less.
Notice the green “share my results” button. By clicking, users share their results across their chosen social media platforms, thus encouraging others to access the infographic. You certainly don’t get that kind of sharing from a static infographic.
“A Spacecraft for All”
If you often wonder what life is like in space, Google’s interactive infographic can give you a sneak peek. This moving infographic combines video and illustration to give viewers an in-depth look at ISEE-3, a spacecraft made to monitor data from the sun. This interactive takes you on a journey to outer space, and you can actually see a live view of the scenery. It also gives users an opportunity to learn more about space science.
‘The Dude Map”
Image Source: https://www.visme.co/
Unlike the previous examples, this one’s a fun and light-hearted infographic. It shows the most popular terms of endearment men in America use to call their friends, based on data gathered from billions of tweets. By clicking on any of the words, the state with the most usage is highlighted. You can also see a five-color progressive code that tells you how common the word is in general.
2. Polls & surveys
People enjoy answering questions online, and these two types of interactive content provide the perfect avenue for that, as well as offering options to share your results. Although they’ve been around for ages, polls and surveys remain strong contenders in the digital realm, especially on social media. For instance, Facebook conducts a poll every day to track attitudes toward Covid-19.
Marketers used polls and surveys to collect useful information from their audiences, such as consumer feedback, purchasing preferences, and user insights. You can count on video embeds, interactive buttons, or animations to elucidate the question or topic at hand. Another aspect of polls is that they allow the audience to see how others responded. This provides a sense of how their preferences and opinions compare to others in their demographic, which is a great way to maintain attention.
For example, this poll from Dunkin’ Donuts boosts engagement by simply asking people how much they love coffee. As for those who aren’t coffee fanatics, they can reveal their favorite beverages in the comments.
Image Source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/
You can see how posts like this increase engagement by the high number of shares (112) and likes (211) received.
Here’s another example. To gain insights that help them improve their streaming content, Netflix features an interactive survey in their email marketing campaign. Not only does this provide valuable information to enhance the use of Netflix, it gets shared to increase engagement and reach others who don’t use the platform. Can we say this strategy has contributed to their success? Absolutely!
Image Source: https://www.singlegrain.com/
3. Interactive E-Books
If you have a hard time getting sales from your e-books, it looks like it’s time you take a more dynamic approach. That’s right, go interactive! Interactive e-books are the best way to get people to read your content, especially if you publish long, chunky content. We’re looking at you, scientific reports and research papers.
Because of the sheer volume of words these papers contain, people tend to skim them or avoid them altogether. They don’t want to drown themselves in a sea of words just to find a single answer. That’s why making your e-books interactive is the perfect solution. You allow your audience to seamlessly navigate through the text in a unique way, making reading less troublesome and more enjoyable for them. Finding relevant topics is no longer a problem.
Here are surefire ways you can increase engagement with an interactive e-book:
- Create a clickable table of contents. This lets your readers click their way over to the sections they find most interesting.
- Embed videos. Especially if you’re covering a complex topic, embedding videos into your e-book is a great way to put together an interactive piece of content.
- Add animation. For that wow factor, you can incorporate a few animated elements: animated characters, animated gestures, animated illustrations, and even special effects.
- Share interactive visuals. If you need to include statistics or data, you might as well show them via interactive graphs and charts, such as in the example you can see below.
Image Source: https://visme.co/
Here, readers can see the exact number by hovering over each of the bars in the graph.
4. Interactive videos
Videos are among the most engaging media we have today. By design, video provides an immersive experience for everybody, which makes it one of the easiest types of interactive content to use in marketing. It allows marketers to draw in their audience in ways that static images can’t achieve. Wyzowl found that 86% of marketers use video as a marketing tool, with 93% of them say that it’s an important part of their strategy.
What about interactive videos? Are they just as compelling? Do they offer increased engagement compared to traditional videos?
These numbers tell the story:
- 70% of marketers say interactive video engages audiences “well” or “very well.”
- 35% of marketers who use interactive video saw growth in conversion and 25% increased sales.
- Consumers watch interactive videos 44% longer than traditional videos.
- According to Mobilemarketer, interactive video ads boost viewing time by 47%. They also found these ads are 32% more memorable than traditional video ads.
Also, interactive video creates a game-like experience for users, keeping them invested and wanting more. Not surprisingly, using interactive video resulted in a 591% lift in user activity.
Interactive video takes video marketing to a whole new level. It increases brand engagement, gathers customer insights, boosts your sales efficiency through buyable links, and amplifies your marketing strategy.
Here’s Jaguar showing us how product placement is done via an interactive video:
Image Source: https://www.vyond.com/
In this context, the product is integrated to influence viewers who are emotionally attached to the storyline. While they shine the spotlight on typography, the video still shows Jaguar cars throughout the story. You can click on different points to learn more about the people featured.
Augmented reality
Nothing says 100% interactive like augmented reality (AR) technology. While virtual reality (VR) makes a lot of noise, AR is much more implementable from a marketing viewpoint. Experts even say that AR will continue to surpass VR when it comes to market share.
61% of consumers say they prefer retailers with AR experiences, while 71% say they would shop more often if a retailer used AR. A hundred million people used AR to shop in 2020, while 83.1 million Americans used the technology monthly during the same year. This can only mean one thing: Augmented reality is a game-changer for retail in 2021 and beyond.
AR makes it more convenient for online retailers to increase engagement and increase sales. It allows consumers to visualize and customize products in 3D, providing them with an entirely new customer experience.
IKEA Place is a good example of this immersive technology. Developed by IKEA, the app allows consumers to take a photo of a room using their smartphones (only iOS 11.0.1 for now) to test drive any IKEA furniture in the room. Users can move their furniture around and see how it looks from multiple angles.
Image Source: https://www.singlegrain.com/
Conclusion
So, there you have the five best types of interactive content to increase engagement.
While text-based content continues to prove its worth to marketers and consumers alike, there’s no denying that interactive content is far superior.
The more interactive a brand, the better its engagement and conversion rate.
Read More: Better Content Experiences With Interactive Content.