Ramp Up Engagement with Interactive Marketing

Our daily lives are so steeped in interactivity that you might not even think about it. You go into a coffee shop and order from an interactive takeout menu without a second thought, pleased with the convenience. Just an average day in the 21st century. Same goes for commercial work. Interactive marketing directly involves customers in promotional content. An ad becomes a layered experience, customers active participants.

Interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content. In this blog, we’ll discuss a few of the different types of interactive content you can integrate into your marketing strategy.

Polls, surveys, and quizzes

Polls and surveys are data gold mines. With every choice a customer makes, you’re collecting invaluable data and analytics on their preferences and needs. More analytical insights means better personalization, and personalized content means higher engagement.

Platforms like Instagram make polling customers easy. For example, fitness entrepreneur Cassey Ho, who has 2.3 million followers, regularly polls her audience on her latest lines of athletic wear. Recently she asked followers whether they’d prefer if her hoodie were longer or if they liked it as is. This advertised her hoodie at the same time that it provided her with feedback, making her aware of her customers' wants.

Staying in the fitness realm, websites like Fabletics ask you a series of questions before letting you shop in what's called a "style quiz."

As someone who's taken said quiz, I appreciate the narrowed down search. When I say I'm looking for patterned, full-length leggings, the site will strictly feed me items meeting those requirements so I don't have to sift through dozens of unwanted styles. Online shopping becomes an expedited, interactive, and personalized process.

Aside from improving user experience, quizzes can be fun! Buzzfeed is proof of that. People love answering questions about themselves, all to determine which Disney princess they're most like or which pizza topping befits their personality.

Brands can do this too. Say you own an ice cream shop. You could create a quiz that would tell customers which flavor matches their current mood. It's not scientific, but it's entertaining. You'd be promoting your sweet offerings and connecting with customers.

Contests and giveaways 

Enter for a chance to win!

Did your pulse spike ever so slightly while reading that, your competitive spirit sparked? There are few CTAs out there that elicit such a visceral response.

Winning is universally beloved. If someone says they don’t like to win or express indifference at the prospect of a prize, they’re a liar. Even if someone isn’t the most competitive person, winning is thrilling.

Hosting a contest or giveaway elevates interactivity because yes, customers click and enter online, but that’s not the full extent of their interaction with your brand. Your contest could require more than filling out a form, it could ask customers to draw a poster highlighting their favorite product of yours or to take a photo holding it. Maybe they'll have to share it on social media and tag you. It's practically free advertising if you receive a substantial number of submissions, only having to send a product to a handful.

Animated infographics and maps

Delivering information is easy. Delivering engaging information is much harder.

If you animate your infographics so that stats can be expanded by users, they can learn more about the specific areas that interest them. This is not unlike adding tags like plus signs to product images so that customers can explore that particular product and its merits.

Similarly, clickable maps present users with a body of information that can be navigated in any way they desire. They can zoom in, zoom out, go east, go north, and so on. They can select places, landmarks, product stores, etc. Static maps offer a static experience. Interactive maps open new doors.

Interactive stories

What combines almost all of the above types of interactivity? Digital stories. (And I don't mean a book on a Kindle.) Snackable digital experiences combine storytelling, personalization, and interactivity to create an immersive advertisement for customers.

Implement interactive marketing to ramp up engagement. It's high time you put your customers in the driver's seat.

Create interactive, Instagram-style digital stories for your brand with STORYSOFT. Learn more.