Interactive Content Basics
Interactive Content
BASICS
Why and how to replace boring content with engaging experiences.
From Boring to Exciting
Content marketing creates engagement and provides buyer education. Because of this, content marketing budgets and resources continue to increase.
But with the rising tide of more and more content, it can be challenging to differentiate and demonstrate compelling results.
There is a sizable, proven opportunity to increase engagement, consumption, and conversion by transforming static, boring, ordinary content into extraordinary experiences built for two-way interaction.
Everyone creates and distributes content the same ways—everything about that experience is undifferentiated. Interactive content is proven to differentiate and educate far better than its static predecessors. It engages people in a useful and informative dialogue that attracts and holds their interest. It’s the future of content and it’s here now.
“Content marketing is defined as “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
- Content Marketing Institute (CMI)
What's Interactive Content?
Interactive content is browser-based and designed for visitor participation. It isn’t content created solely to be read or watched; rather it’s designed to be something that your audience actively engages in—getting and giving useful information.
Consider some of the most common content marketing tactics—articles, blogs, white papers, webinars, research papers, case studies, videos. Consumption of this content is entirely pass/fail. It is either read (or watched), or it isn’t. And often, as marketers, we don’t even know if it was consumed.
In stark contrast, an interactive content experience is participatory, often including a feedback loop in which the outcome of the experience is directly impacted by the interaction of the visitor.
“There are only two ways for companies to break through in an environment that is unprecedented in its cacophony. They can be ‘amazing’ or they can be useful. Instead of betting all your money on ‘amazing,’ what if… you just focused on being useful.”
- Jay Baer
There are many types of interactive content, like:
Click below to see real world examples:
Interactive Infographics
Interactive Infographics
Assessments
Assessments
Quizzes
Quizzes
Calculators
Calculators
eBooks
eBooks
Resource Library
Resource Library
Interactive White Papers
Interactive White Papers
Lookbooks & Tours
Lookbooks & Tours
Solution Finders
Solution Finders
From Content to Experience
Great content, presented in a useful way, can be an effective way to educate, influence and persuade your audience while building affinity for your brand. But it’s not enough to create great content. The content itself is only the beginning. Interactivity bridges the gap between content and experience. And, these types of active experiences are inherently measurable, providing rich audience and individual insights into content consumption, engagement, and conversion.
“The writing is on the wall: interactive content is the future of content marketing.”
- Matt Gratt, Buzzstream
The eye-opening data on interactive content*
79% of content marketers who are using interactive content plan to increase their use of it in the next 12 months.*
79% of content marketers who are using interactive content plan to increase their use of it in the next 12 months.*
87% of marketers agree that interactive content grabs the attention of the reader more effectively than static content.*
87% of marketers agree that interactive content grabs the attention of the reader more effectively than static content.*
77% of marketers agree that interactive content can have a reusable value resulting in repeat visitors and multiple exposures.*
77% of marketers agree that interactive content can have a reusable value resulting in repeat visitors and multiple exposures.*
*Content Marketing Institute 2017 Interactive Content Research Study
Scott Brinker
Editor, Chief Marketing Technologist Blog
ChiefMarTec on interactive content:
There are five reasons why I believe a massive wave of interactive content is coming:
1
The cacophony of content has become deafening — it’s asymptotically impossible to break through the noise with one more white paper, infographic, webinar or eBook.
2
The burden on prospects to absorb all that passive content has become too heavy.
3
Fill-out-a-form-to-get-an-asset lead generation tactics have become stale — and due to way too much shock on the other side of submit buttons, prospects are increasingly skeptical of taking the bait.
4
The value of data from expressed behavioral characteristics of prospects — to feed internal analytics and external personalization — strongly incentivizes marketers to pursue genuine engagement over artificial conversion.
5
The shift in the buyer’s journey, away from dialogues with salespeople to more self-service research and evaluation in digital channels, now puts the onus on marketing to provide more consultative and useful interactions. There’s a widening gap here today.
1
The cacophony of content has become deafening — it’s asymptotically impossible to break through the noise with one more white paper, infographic, webinar or eBook.
2
The burden on prospects to absorb all that passive content has become too heavy.
3
Fill-out-a-form-to-get-an-asset lead generation tactics have become stale — and due to way too much shock on the other side of submit buttons, prospects are increasingly skeptical of taking the bait.
4
The value of data from expressed behavioral characteristics of prospects — to feed internal analytics and external personalization — strongly incentivizes marketers to pursue genuine engagement over artificial conversion.
5
The shift in the buyer’s journey, away from dialogues with salespeople to more self-service research and evaluation in digital channels, now puts the onus on marketing to provide more consultative and useful interactions. There’s a widening gap here today.
