Engaging your customers has always been important, but probably even more now, given the new world we live in. Not to mention, consumers may be getting tired of the same old things.
So, what are you supposed to do?
Create interactive content! This is a type of content your customers can interact with, usually something fun or visual. Here are different types and how you can use interactive content for your business:
Common Types of Interactive Content
Use something fun that draws people into your brand. Think quizzes, polls, games, and surveys. A form of entertainment for the end-user and could offer quantitative data you can repurpose into your business.
Create high-quality visuals. Think interactive infographics, customized data visualizations, interactive image galleries, look books, and video walk-throughs. What better way to engage your customers than to take them on a digital walk-through of your project or location?
Take a practical approach. Think product configurations, interactive e-books, needs assessments, or clickable training exercises. Customers always appreciate something useful, mainly if it saves them time and money.
For more ideas, visit the Content Marketing Institute.
How does interactive content work for my business?
You might be a little wary of putting the extra time into creating interactive content. The truth is, interactive content is more than something that looks ‘good,’ it can benefit your business.
Interactive content helps build brand awareness, increase engagement, boost lead generation, and even promote relationship building and retention.
It does this by creating a personalized experience, serving as a wow factor, and offering purpose. Now is the perfect time to create content mimicking experiences the world misses, which is why the digital fitness platform, Peloton has been so successful. They are creating a gym experience for their users safely, at-home.
Brainstorm ways to make your audience do, say, see, or feel in this isolated world.
Interactive content helps build your audience data. In most cases, customers enter the necessary information to participate in your content. You can ask for email addresses or demographic information in exchange for a download or access to your content. You will develop insights about your customer’s interests, preferences, and behaviors, allowing you to personalize your content techniques, maybe even your products or services.
Will that outweigh the increased cost of creating interactive content your customers crave?
How can I get the most impact out of my interactive content?
First, examine if you have existing resources you can use. Do you have access to a graphic designer that has the time to commit to making new content?
Next, think about how your existing goals match your new ones. Is there an overlap with your content creation efforts? Do you need to consider hiring more staff to help create new content? Will that person be an employee, or would it be more feasible to hire an independent contractor? Independent contractors are highly skilled professionals and can often seamlessly integrate into existing teams.
Then, think about how you will distribute your interactive content. Will you publish through email, social media, or on your blog? Decide to publish where your customers are most likely to engage.
Finally, plan how you will measure the impact of your interactive content. Google Analytics is easy to install and can help you establish benchmarks for bounce rates, time spent on the page, traffic, and conversion rates. Once your plan of measurement is created, commit to viewing analytics frequently to see your progress.
If you want to go a step further, create a score sheet for rating customer click-through and engagement. You can reward customers for their behavior, building long-term relationships. For example, send coupon codes or special promotions for customers that reach a certain level on your scorecard.
Interactive content can be a powerful tool for your business. It is versatile, upping the ante of your content quality, reach, impact, and performance. Before you dive in, wager the pros and cons of the time it will take to create and distribute the best interactive content. If you are willing and able to invest, it will almost always be worth it.
Happy creating!
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