Interactive content, it seems, has emerged as one of the most significant content marketing trends in 2016 and the upcoming 2017. The digital landscape is literally brimming with brands joining the “content marketing” bandwagon and thanks to all the clamor, your readers now want more from you.
Creating content, today, is much more than optimized keywords and plain information. Your competitors are doing much better than what you’re doing and in order to stay afloat in the race you have to up your game as well.
Interactive content is what your users are looking for. What is interactive content and why is it touted as the future of content marketing? We will try to find answers here.
What is interactive content? Why is it so popular today?
It can, very simply be described as a means with the help of which you can get your users directly involved with your content. Take the examples of quizzes, content, calculators, flowcharts and polls. These are just a few promotional vehicles that give your brand that much coveted “edge” – something which only updating your website with new content and promoting it on the digital channels will not really do. This is how interactive content marketing stands out from regular content marketing endeavors.
Let us not forget the fact that interactive content is not a completely new format. There are several brands that have just started experimenting with this particular marketing vehicle and are reaping benefits as well. Besides allowing users to get involved with the content directly, interactive marketing also enables them to find out useful results, answers or solutions to problems.
What can infographics do for your business?
Infographic, for example, remains one of the best interactive tools steering content marketing campaigns today. The growing acceptance of this marketing tool best manifests itself in these figures:
- In the year 2013, Google reported that they had experienced over 67,000 searches per month for the terms “infographic” and “infographics”
- The infographic is 30 times more likely to be read than plain text
- Between 2010 and 2012, Kissmetrics (online traffic expert) garnered more than a whopping 40,000 re-tweets by referring to its infographic content
However, it shouldn’t really be forgotten that good interactive marketing is a more expensive proposition than that of traditional blogging, content hubs or white papers.
Not all brands are equally equipped to carry out interactive marketing. Winning ideas do not come in a day. It needs years of web experience in order to come up with strategies that will stoke attention and drive the kind of success that you would possibly expect such marketing tools (like contests, quizzes, Infographics) to deliver.
Keep these points in view in order to make the most of interactive web experiences.
Interactive content marketing definitely implies more sharing and engagement and the figures stated above are proof of the same.
One of the most conspicuous features of this kind of marketing technique is that it is delightfully devoid of pop up requests, camouflaged sales pitches or for that matter, over-the-top CTAs.
About the Author: Sam is a tech writer and digital marketing evangelist. She takes special interest in interactive radio concepts and regularly contributes to DX news and other such eminent sites.