Today, more than ever before, brands around the world are working hard to create high-quality content that captures attention in a landscape that is becoming increasingly crowded. In fact, the content marketing industry was set to be worth more than $400 billion in 2021. With the constant battle to always create content that is impactful, customer expectations are only further rising.
They expect businesses and brands to go above and beyond in order to capture their attention. This means that if you aren’t already doing this, you need to do much more. With the bar set increasingly high for modern marketers, creating great content that actively engages your audience really isn’t an easy task.
However, this is where interactive play comes in and changes your life. Interactive content can help you bridge the engagement gap by pulling in users to the content by requiring their engagement. Then, you give them something in return. With only a little creative flair, your users can engage more readily, build bonds with your brand, and provide more information.
For these reasons, we can expect interactive content to play a massive role in content operations in the coming years.
What is the Meaning of Interactive Content?
To put it as simply as possible, interactive content is content that works to engage your audience. It is the type of content that asks for action or input from your consumer. It is an excellent and very intelligent way to generate engagement and brand loyalty that typical content can’t always do.
Interactive content is essentially characterized by various resources to encourage users to interact with what they have been presented with. In the digital realm, many types of interactive content include videos, infographics, calculators, and even quizzes. Now, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of interactive content.
- Higher Engagement
Even low-key interactive pieces will see far higher levels of engagement. This is due to the nature of the content itself. Though it does dictate how users will interact with your content, it will also put them in charge of the steering wheel that drives the interaction.
- Increase Data Captured
Interactive content makes it far easier to capture any relevant data from their visitors. Obviously, this has major implications on the ability to personalize marketing campaigns and the ability to speak to the bigger concerns of the prospect. Consumers will often be very wary about handing over information such as addresses in order to avoid being flooded by unwanted marketing messages.
They are very right to be choosy with the companies that will be in their inbox. This is why interactive content can offer a proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the form of a result.
- Improve Brand Loyalty
Ordinary content will make people think your brand is ordinary. However, engaging and interactive content will make your audience part of your story. They can take part in whatever sort of content you’re using.
It will create a shared experience that will become more noteworthy to your audience and encourage them to develop a deeper loyalty to your brand. Brand loyalty means everything when it comes to your business.
The Statistics
Here are some statistics that prove the effectiveness of interactive content:
- 43% of consumers say that they prefer interactive video to standard video.
- Far more online visitors will choose to watch a video than read content.
- Over 90% of people who start quizzes on Buzzfeed will finish them.
- 79% of people say that combining interactive content with other content types improves message retention.
- 88% of marketers say that interactive content helps brands differentiate themselves.
The Bottom Line
Now that you have read this article, you can see that interactive content is very much positioned as one of the top trends in the world of digital marketing right now. It takes various formats and forms to give users an unforgettable experience and retain them. Interactivity, while not a new concept, leverages the power of digital technologies to become an innovative driver.
If you’re looking to eliminate the risk of losing readers when they arrive at your website, consider using interactive content to get them hooked and clamouring for more!
