Interactive content is a highly effective way of doing marketing. It connects users with a brand on multiple levels and provides a creative and unique experience that is personalized to each user. Which in turn lead to keeping their attention longer, increasing excitement and users will be more likely to seek it out.
A distinctive feature of this type of content is the fact that it gives users some control or influence over their experience, making it more personal and memorable. Nowadays, many brands are offering interactive-content marketing campaigns that seek to enhance customers’ experiences, boost their engagement, gain more followers and ultimately grow a brand’s customer base.
So how exactly do these tools work and how can brands take advantage of these strategies?
Opinions, quizzes, and calculators
Interactive opinions offer people ways to give feedback or get more information about your products and company. Quizzes and polls are also a form of interactive opinion and can be highly entertaining. People love filling out online quizzes and then sharing the results on social media.
Quizzes can also be used for more serious topics and can help people recognize the need for your service or product.
Calculators allow users to input information to create numeric answers. These tools are frequently used by companies and brands to help customers estimate and compare the cost of products or features and evaluate the benefits of these options.
Interactive videos
Videos don’t have to be passive but can be an experience. For users, gamification appeals to the reward-seeking mechanism built into our brains. So, it can work well in organizing contests, giveaways or interactive video stories.
You could also try combining an interactive video with a multiple-choice quiz. It can be a great way to capture attention because it turns passive viewers into active ones.
360-Degree videos
Since 360-degree videos allow users to click and drag or move their phones around to explore a virtual space, they allow them to become immersed in that virtual reality.
This type of content is powerful because it combines immersion and engagement. There’s the first-person exploration, where users have the ability to change the angle or view of what they’re seeing, but there’s also amazing storytelling potential here.
As a user navigates a 360-degree video, they’re primed to listen to a backstory about what they’re exploring, or simply hear the sounds that relate to what’s going on in the video. Users are completely immersed and have stronger emotional connections to what they’re experiencing.
Voice-activated technology
Whether they’re playing music, answering questions or setting timers, customers are loving their smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod. These voice-activated speakers are also changing the way people buy products and services and interact with news and information.
But the true power behind the smart speaker is the virtual assistants inside the device. Alexa, Google, and Siri are now household names, and people are using them for more than just checking the weather. These voice-activated platforms allow customers to browse and purchase items.
Brands should be looking for ways to make use of voice-powered technology in their content marketing. Find out how your customers are using their voice-activated assistants. How are these devices making customers’ lives easier? This will help shape effective strategies for using this technology in a way that’s meaningful to your customers. Also, make sure you optimize your content so that virtual assistants can find it.
Get the most out of interactive marketing
What sets the effective campaigns apart from the mediocre ones is the ability to create an immersive experience in which users feel engaged, transported and emotionally connected to the brand.
Brands should endeavor to keep their messaging exciting, engaging and focused on the experience they are creating. Sharp, crisp storytelling is a must for grabbing and holding the customer’s attention. These interactive campaigns work best when they incorporate a multimedia approach. The more ways you can engage a person’s senses, the more immersive the experience will be.