Are you losing engagement?
Have you noticed that your target audience is losing interest in you?
Then it’s time to create immersive experiences and let your target audience interact with your business.
Quick Links
Explaining the Effect of Interactive Content
The internet contains enormous amounts of content. Right now, there are about 4.4 billion internet users, and all of them contribute content online on a daily basis.
Because there is so much content online today, it’s getting harder for businesses to retain the attention of their target audiences. The trends in content marketing come and go so fast that it’s hard to keep up.
The only content marketing trend that seems to stick around for a while is interactive content. Both B2B and B2C businesses enjoy its benefits to both increase brand awareness and target audience engagement rates.
B2C businesses support the educational value of interactive content, as:
- 93% of marketers agree that interactive content is more effective in educating customers than static content
- 88% of marketers say that interactive content helps them differentiate their business from their competitors due to its enormous educational value
- because interactive content provides an immersive experience, 81% of marketers agree that it grabs attention more effectively than static content
B2B businesses agree with the fact that interactive content offers more value to the target audience, also mentioning that:
- interactive content generates 2x more conversions as static content
- they get 5x more page views with interactive content
- 79% would reuse interactive content again, as it has a great lead generation value
Of course, interactive content is harder and more expensive to produce, which is why many businesses remain on the safe side of the road, but inevitably lose engagement.
Another reason why both B2B and B2C businesses speak in favor of interactive content is that it is relatively universal. For instance, you can use an interactive video in different types of marketing campaigns, and still grab the attention of your target audience.
So, what are the best ways to use interactive content to attract the necessary audiences?
Let’s take a look at some examples.
1 NHS and BMI Calculator
A few years ago, NHS launched the Body Mass Index calculator to help both doctors and patients keep track of weight, especially in cases of obesity and diabetes. The service was first launched as a test trial to help doctors and nutrition specialists automatically calculate the weight of their patients.
The interactive calculator has two different sections to calculate BMI for adults and children. The weight is calculated according to the patient’s height, weight, age, sex, ethnic group, and activity level:
Image credit: NHS BMI
Since its launch, the calculator has become one of the key tools for general practitioners in the U.K. “According to our recent poll, 89% of NHS doctors use the BMI calculator and encourage patients to use it to control their weight”, says Nadine Clarens, a researcher at Flatfy.
The interactive calculator quickly grabbed the attention of the NHS’s target audience, who needed an automated tool to help them calculate the weight. It also comes with a brief explanation of the results and the limitations of the BMI, connected to age, sex, and ethnicity.
2 Function of Beauty and Personalization Quiz
Many online brands create personalized experiences for their customers based on interactive quizzes. Function of Beauty, an online haircare brand, is one of such brands.
When a person registers their account on the brand’s website, they are invited to take a quiz to help the brand learn about their haircare habits. The results of the quiz directly impact, which formula the product will have at the end:
Image credit: Function of Beauty
As a result, Function of Beauty not just tries to attract the attention of their target audience with a random quiz, they made a quiz a part of the customer journey to make their experience more personalized and make sure that the brand caters to the needs of its customers.
Quizzes are also a very popular type of interactive content to drive traffic to your website. One of the best examples of using quizzes for this purpose is BuzzFeed, a popular U.S. media company. Their quizzes deliver 3% of the whole traffic to their website, with thousands of people taking their quizzes every day.
3 Disney and Interactive Video
Both of the examples above showed how interactive content could deliver immense educational value. But it doesn’t mean that interactive content cannot exist for simple entertainment.
A few years ago, Disney Channel launched an interactive video for their fans to help them learn which character they would play in Disney’s iconic TV shows. Fans had to answer a series of questions by clicking on the icons, which would ultimately lead them to the answer:
Video credit: Disney Channel Africa
As of today, the video has over 3.5 million views, which indicates that interactive videos as a content type can suit not only an educational purpose but the purpose of entertainment as well.
Go Interactive!
It’s true that it takes time and effort to develop an interactive content strategy. You need to take into account how well the needs of your marketing campaign correspond to the needs of your target audience, whose insights will give you the idea, which type of content to engage in your marketing campaign.
In general, every business can find the type of interactive content that will fit their needs. As you can see, quizzes and interactive videos can both be used to educate and personalize user experience, as well as to engage and entertain your target audience.
So, don’t lag behind and start taking advantage of the benefits that interactive content gives you. It will take longer to develop interactive content, but the engagement and positive feedback you will receive are definitely worth it.
Ryan is a passionate writer who likes sharing his thoughts and experience with the readers. Currently, he works as content editor and internet researcher at https://hu.flatfy.com. He likes everything related to travelling and new countries.