Everyone wants to one-up their competitor’s content marketing strategy, but with millions of content flooding the internet, it’s altogether challenging.
So, to stand out, your content needs to be extra special or, even better, interactive.
According to the Content Marketing Institute and Ion Interactive, 81 percent of marketers conclude that interactive content is more effective than static content in grabbing people’s attention.
Moreover, about 90 percent of marketers declared that interactive content effectively distinguishes their brand from competitors (SnapApp).
It seems the battle cry of every marketer has been long since altered to: “Interactive content is king.”
To further help with your interactive marketing, social media strategy and customer engagement, we’ll cover the following topics:
• What is interactive content?
• Types of interactive content
• The benefits of interactive marketing
• Interactive social media posts ideas and tips
What Is Interactive Content?
Interactive content is any content that calls and encourages its viewer to interact or engage with it. This type of content transforms consumer experience from passive consumption to active engagement.
Types of Interactive Posts
All types of interactive content are designed with the same intent to get the reader to take action. Here are some of the most popular types that generate the highest user engagement:
Calculators and Assessment Tools
An interactive tool such as a calculator can help you nurture your audience. There are a couple of tools that come in this form:
• Service pricing calculator
• Discount or savings calculator
• Quantity calculator
• Return on investment or ROI calculator
• Budget planning calculator
• Measurement conversion calculator
Image: Allrecipes
Above is an example from Allrecipes. In this case, they used a quantity calculator for recipe ingredients. You can set your desired serving, and it will automatically calculate how many of the ingredients you need.
At the bottom, you’ll see a seemingly convenient call to action (CTA) that will lead you to sign in, providing them with your information.
With the tool, Allrecipes improved its user experience and customer engagement while boosting lead generation.
Polls and Quizzes
These two are the most common interactive posts. For example, we have witnessed companies like BuzzFeed bank on interactive quizzes for audience engagement.
And BuzzFeed is not doing it blindly because 96 percent of users who start its quizzes finish them. Moreover, most of these users share their quiz results on their profiles, further building BuzzFeed’s social media engagement posts.
You can imagine the compounding social media engagement BuzzFeed was getting from these interactive posts.
Image: BuzzFeed
This particular quiz from BuzzFeed is one of its top-performing quizzes and was answered by over a million users, unlocking the high engagement interactive posts usually generate.
And not only did the company get high engagement, but all its social media engagement posts also allowed BuzzFeed to gather valuable information from its users.
Infographics
An interactive infographic is an informative graphic that has elements of interactivity. Often, these elements are animations triggered by a click or scrolling.
This type of interactive content allows the viewer to consume the information at their own pace.
Image: GitHub @tsipkens
Take “FMVIZ: Face mask visualization” as an example. Instead of providing overwhelming data at first glance, they visualized face mask data through an interactive infographic. As a result, users can hover over the elements to get more information, improving audience engagement.
Video
Interactive videos allow users to engage with the content to deliver a particular action. The simplest yet most immersive example is a 360-degree video where a viewer can control the viewing direction or angle.
Video: ‘Honda The Other Side’
A more sophisticated example is Honda’s ad campaign, Honda: The Other Side. It was hailed the coolest car ad of the year and bagged several video advertisement recognitions in 2015.
Viewers can press “R” any time while watching the video to toggle between two parallel stories that showcase the Honda Civic and its Type R model, providing a unique customer engagement.
The Benefits of Interactive Marketing
Following user engagement, here are more reasons why you should incorporate interactive marketing in your social media strategy and overall content marketing strategy:
User Engagement
Compared to static content, interactive content catches the user’s attention more effectively and holds it for longer, increasing social media engagement.
Increased Time-on-Page
For interactive web content, your time-on-page increases because the viewer is kept for a more extended period.
Lead Generation
Users are more likely to provide you with information if they get something valuable in return. So, for example, you can encourage users to sign up if they want to download the data from your interactive calculator – just like the example we provided.
Audience Segmentation
Your interactive social media posts open the door to more valuable information that can assist you in your audience segmentation.
Lead Nurturing
Establishing and maintaining relationships with your consumers in different sales funnel stages can be a real challenge. With interactive marketing and audience engagement, you can personalize your content based on your consumers’ different journeys.
Old Content Repurposing
If you have timeless content that performed well in the past, you have the opportunity to repurpose them through interactive marketing. For example, you can turn an old blog piece into an interactive infographic.
More Referral Traffic
Share buttons work like traditional word-of-mouth; users will “talk about” or share enjoyable and engaging content, allowing you to gain more traffic and engagement interactive posts yield.
Interactive Social Media Posts Ideas and Tips
Creating interactive content for your brand can be fun and challenging at the same time. So, here are some interactive post ideas and tips to consider to get you started:
Write Creative Copy
Your interactive content is just as good as your copy, so make sure not to waste them. Give your copy more thought – own your brand voice, be creative and appeal to your audience.
Ask for Feedback
Most users want to share their opinion. Bet on this and create social media engagement posts that give your audience a voice. You can simply do this with quick surveys or polls.
Ride the Trend
Do so while making sure it’s relevant to your business or has a cause. Watch out for campaigns that promote awareness, like the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) ice bucket challenge.
Behind-the-Scenes (BTS)
Pique your audience’s curiosity and gain social media engagement with BTS content. For example, if you have a company that offers products, you can share photos or videos of your factory and how you make your products.
Play Games With Your Audience
Let your audience have fun while you gain the high engagement interactive posts produce with some of these game ideas:
• Fill-in-the-blank
• Guessing games
• Contests and giveaways
Live Videos
From Facebook to Instagram and YouTube, you can stream live videos across these top social media platforms. A study by Forrester revealed that users watch live videos 10 to 20 times longer than regular, on-demand videos.
Do Polls Using Emoji Reactions
Many indeed want to share their opinions, but some would rather do it with one click. You can indulge these users with this type of poll.
Encourage User Engagement With Interactive Content
Now that you know all about interactive content, its types, benefits and some interactive post ideas, it’s time to get moving and partner with Thrive.
Understandably, business owners and managers like yourself may not have the resources, such as time and staff, to focus on interactive marketing. And that’s why we offer comprehensive digital marketing services and specialize in content marketing and SEO writing.
Get in touch with our content specialists to get a digital marketing consultation, all for free.
