In a 2020 world with an abundance of content, interactive content is the way to set yourself apart from your competition
Interactive content is content that requires the user to act. Amid so much content these days, users want content they can interact with. With the advancement of Covid-19 and all of us cooped up in our houses for the year, users, now more than ever, are looking for content that will make them take action - do, see, say or feel.
With interactive content, instead of just being a passive viewer, the user is now actively engaged in dynamic, two-way interaction. Man is a social animal and participating in an activity gives us a sense of belonging to the community. At a time when community interaction is at its lowest, we need the best interactive content.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR BRANDS?
While interactive social media content is worth considering for the engagement opportunities it provides, it should also be noted that it helps tremendously with building a brand's image and developing that blind trust with their audience. By interacting with their audiences, brands can develop a stronger and deeper relationship with them that goes beyond the traditional buyer-seller dynamic.
Creating interactive content does not require the latest technology or features (although, that helps). It does not hurt, to add a little extra something to your brand using dynamic and unique compelling experiences. Interactive content is also great for visual storytelling – portraying what the brand is and their ethos & values through an audio-visual medium. It is a great opportunity to deepen the brand's relationship with its audience. Along with driving engagement, it also drives greater customer satisfaction since the customer is a part of the conversation and feels being important. Different types of interactive content include, but are not limited to – infographics, videos, polls & surveys, assessments, calculators, E-books & white papers, interactive emails, contests, augmented reality etc. The options are endless, you just must find the one suitable for your brand.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR MARKETERS?
Interactive content marketing puts emphasis on the user and shifts the focus of attention on them from the content. It makes them feel that each interaction is helpful and valuable to them, thus increasing content engagement. Increased engagement means more data. What do we mean by that? Simply that consumers who engage with interactive content help marketers gain access to the consumer’s interest, preferences, behaviours, and unique identification factors that the marketer would not have gained otherwise with traditional content.
This first-party data that would otherwise have not been available to the marketer, further helps in optimizing the content. Marketers that have optimized their content for interaction have since realized that the data you gather from such content is rich and highly valuable for making future ad decisions and enhanced marketing strategies. Here are a few examples of how we used interactive content to drive engagement and for community building-
- VIDEOS:
As mentioned earlier, the audio-visual medium works very well for storytelling, roping in the consumer in the story and demanding interaction. We used videos for our client Cosplaygenie - a Cosplay centric venture by Nodwin Gaming, to raise awareness and educate the Indian masses about Cosplay as an art and its culture. During Halloween, we leveraged a costume-based holiday to promote Cosplay (a costume-based art form) to talk about the culture around Cosplay and helpful tips & tricks for Halloween Cosplay.
- QUIZ:
Questionnaires and quizzes are a great way to start a conversation with your audience. You could have facts and trivia as well. We did quizzes (but in a different way), on NODWIN Gaming, as a fun activity for our audience, where they can show off their knowledge about games and get educated along the way.
Also read- How will chatbots change the future?
- E-books:
E-books and white papers are another great content type for you to interact with your audience. One of the main reasons why E-books work so well is because you are providing tremendous value to your audience and consumers love that. It is even better if you are giving it away for free. Free e-books usually require the user to enter their details, typically their email address, and that again is data that you have gained through interactive content. We leveraged E-books for our client, Ayushakti Ayurved – a modern Ayurveda brand, trying to reform Ayurveda and propagate its benefits. ‘Ayushakti’ being a health & wellness brand, we had more opportunities to provide value to the audience and E-books are a great way to do that.
Immunity Booklet: https://www.ayushakti.com/booklets/immunity
So, if you have not been doing Interactive digital content already, now is the time for you and your brand to jump on the train before the opportunity passes you by. If you’re a brand and have no clue on how to get started with interactive content, feel free to contact us anytime through business@sociomark.in or you can DM us on our Social Media and we’ll help you get started!
Author : Naveen Subramaniam (SEO Executive)
Reviewed By : Heta Baandal , Managing Director - Sociomark
