Interactive content is all the rage. Making easy interactive content is all the rage for marketers.
Why?
Because it works.
The New York Times’ most popular story in 2013 was actually a quiz. According to Buzzfeed, 96% of users who start quizzes finish them. 51% of marketers say that online calculators are most effective in the “consideration stage” of the buying cycle.
These statistics tell us just how important interactive content is, and will continue to be in the future.
Content that is interactive evokes some sort of action between the content and the viewer. Unlike regular content, which might demand an action at the end, interactive content usually demands actions throughout. This demand for hyper-engagement, beyond passively reading, is rewarded with hyper-relevant results that the viewer cares about.
But what sorts of interactions can content provide?
- It Demands an Answer
- It Solves a Problem
- It Causes an Action
One form of interactive content is content that demands answers. Many times, this comes in the form of questions at the end or throughout a text/video/infographic.
This is the most basic form of interactive content and is often the most approachable.
Ensure questions are relevant and help the reader find an answer that’s valuable for their own lives/jobs. This makes them more interactive than a lot of questions marketers ask.
Another strikingly common way that content is made interactive is by solving a problem. This often comes in the form of templates or interactive tools.
Find one the pain points in your audience and create interactive tools that will help them. Make sure that you create a tool that has real value to the consumer. It should be customized to react to their input. This is what separates normal tools from interactive ones.
This could be as simple as a quote calculator or as complex as a benchmarking tool that shows a consumer where they stack up against the competition.
Any good content causes an action, but with interactive content, the knowledge that the viewer absorbs often can trigger an action. The type of action that can be triggered really depends on the content and what state of the buying process the prospect is in.
For example, games are often the best form of interactive content in the early stages of the buying process. They are effective because they are easier to approach for someone who doesn’t know much about the market.
But for those who are midway through the buying process, interactive ebook are the best solution since these buyers already have more knowledge about the area and what they want from it.
How do you make existing content interactive?
Now, you likely have lots of content, and sometimes the idea of creating brand new interactive content can be daunting. Luckily, there are so many forms of interactive content that you can create relatively easily.
- Interactive White Papers
- Ask For Results
- Choose Your Own Adventure
White papers are some of the most common pieces of content in digital marketing. Because of this, it can be hard for white papers to get the results that they used to.
Which is why interactive white papers work so well.
Create quizzes, benchmarking tools, infographics and more, all in the comfortable PDF format that your audience is used to seeing.
When you give advice in a blog post, create a tool, or make a video, be sure to ask your audience what they think about it. Even better, ask them how the tactics you presented worked for them.
Asking your audience for feedback on your content and your offering is a great way to get and keep them engaged.
Remember, what makes interactive content work is that it forces leads, prospects, and others to make decisions about your brand. When they do that, they are more likely to make similar choices about your brand in the future.
Remember those chapter books that would make you flip to one page or another depending on what decision you made?
They were riveting because you were making choices each time to continue reading.
This is an idea that works well with marketing because you can tailor your audience’s experience on your website based on their choices.
Say they just read an article about content marketing tips for small businesses. Give them choices when they finish that article. It might be between a video about creating quality lists or an infographic on lead nurture. Giving them options to continue browsing your website is a great way to keep viewers on your website.
Interactive content is the future of marketing. Your readers want experiences, not just content. These tips for creating accessible, interactive content will make it even easier for you to track engagement from your audience and turn those leads into sales.
- Which of these tips can your marketing department implement today?
- How?
- Do you have any secret tricks for creating easy interactive content?
