In a sea of online content, it takes more than a catchy image and witty copy to captivate your audience.
To grab your user’s attention and encourage them to stay, you have to give them a reason to engage with what you’ve created.
Enter: Interactive content — a simple yet powerful asset you can use to keep potential customers on the page longer.
What’s more, the right interactive content can move prospects along the sales funnel, encouraging higher conversion rates.
If you’re ready to give your target audience a reason to stick around (and eventually buy), keep reading.
In this article, we’ll show you how to use interactive content to boost user engagement and promote more sales.
Let’s take a look.
What is interactive content?
Interactive content is a type of content that actively engages and involves the audience.
It goes beyond simply reading or watching — it requires participation and interaction from the viewer.
Marketers use interactive content marketing to capture their audiences’ attention and interest.
By incorporating elements such as quizzes, polls, surveys, games, or interactive videos, brands create more immersive and personalized experiences. This helps increase engagement, drive conversions, and build a deeper connection with their target audiences.
What are the benefits of using interactive content?
Interactive content builds connection.
Prospects and customers move beyond lurking to actually participate in the content you create. This not only helps them feel seen and welcome but also motivates them to form emotional ties with your brand.
Using interactive content can help you:
- Deliver personalized experiences
- Drive customer loyalty
- Create more engaging marketing strategies
- Encourage lower bounce rates
- Take advantage of guided selling opportunities
- Gather contextual data to help you better understand your target customer
What are some interactive content types?
In today’s AI world, you can turn nearly any piece of content into an interactive asset.
Some interactive types of content you can use to engage with your audience include:
- Interactive infographics
- Interactive catalogs
- Interactive quizzes
- Gamification content, i.e., spin the wheel to “win a prize”
- Interactive videos
- Interactive calculators
- Interactive tools
*Pro-Tip: Consider repurposing your best content as interactive assets. For instance, summarize a winning blog post with an interactive infographic. Or turn a popular white paper into an interactive video.
How to Boost Engagement with Interactive Content
Interactive content ranges from quizzes, polls, and infographics to more sophisticated tools like interactive videos or augmented reality experiences. This type of content attracts 52.6% more engagement than static content.
These dynamic formats not only hold user attention but also encourage participation, creating a deeper connection between the audience and your brand.
When used wisely, interactive content can significantly increase the time users spend on your site, encouraging better retention and conversion rates.
Our recommendation?
Instead of thinking of interactive content as just another asset to create, think of it more holistically by weaving it throughout your production processes.
Here’s what we mean:
1. Build it into your email marketing strategy
Over 90% of marketers believe email marketing is an essential ingredient in their overall strategy. So why not integrate interactive content throughout your email newsletters, lead nurturing campaigns, and promotions?
By using interactive elements in your emails, you open up a direct channel to engage with your audience personally.
Partnering with email marketing agencies can supercharge your interactive email content strategy. These agencies have expertise in crafting compelling email campaigns.
Imagine sending out a personalized quiz through email or embedding an interactive video that resonates with the recipient. The results can be powerful, transforming passive readers into active participants.
An agency can help you build out an automated email series campaign with interactive content for each of your customer segments — so you can tailor your conversion approach to each one.
For instance, you might use upsell quizzes with loyal customers, discovery polls with new prospects, and interactive catalogs with middle-of-the-funnel prospects.
2. Use it throughout your website or online store
Audit your website, landing pages, and online store (if you have one) for guided selling opportunities.
In other words, look for strategic ways to add quizzes, polls, smart filters, interactive tools, and advanced customization options throughout your web pages.
Studies show that 64% of customers interpret a personalized shopping experience as customization and service. Combine that information with the fact that 60% of consumers will become repeat customers after a personalized shopping experience, and you have a formula for success.
Always aim to grab contact information when using interactive elements so you can follow up with the visitor if they leave your site before converting.
Get inspired by LeatherCult, a brand specializing in customized leather jackets. LeatherCult offers advanced interactive customizations to empower buyers to tailor their jackets to their specific preferences.
From selecting custom sizes and leather colors to choosing jacket linings, quilted linings, and even adding personalized monograms, LeatherCult transforms the purchase journey into a dynamic and engaging experience.
This not only creates an interactive experience but also puts the purchasing power back in the customers’ hands.
If you’d like to take advantage of this tip, here’s an audit checklist you can use:
Web Page Audit Checklist to Uncover Interactive Content Opportunities
What interactive content can I add at the top of my home page to encourage conversions?
For instance:
▢ Interactive quiz
▢ Interactive tool
▢ Interactive poll
▢ Interactive video
▢ Interactive calculator
▢ Interactive filters
What interactive content can I add to each of my website pages to encourage conversions?
Page 1 (Enter Type of Web Page):
▢ Interactive quiz
▢ Interactive tool
▢ Interactive poll
▢ Interactive video
▢ Interactive calculator
▢ Interactive filters
Page 2 (Enter Type of Web Page):
▢ Interactive quiz
▢ Interactive tool
▢ Interactive poll
▢ Interactive video
▢ Interactive calculator
▢ Interactive filters
Page 3 (Enter Type of Web Page):
▢ Interactive quiz
▢ Interactive tool
▢ Interactive poll
▢ Interactive video
▢ Interactive calculator
▢ Interactive filters
What interactive content can I add to my landing pages to encourage conversions?
For instance:
▢ Interactive quiz
▢ Interactive tool
▢ Interactive poll
▢ Interactive video
▢ Interactive calculator
▢ Interactive filters
What interactive content can I add to my online store to encourage conversions?
For instance:
▢ Interactive quiz
▢ Interactive tool
▢ Interactive poll
▢ Interactive video
▢ Interactive calculator
▢ Interactive filters
3. Batch out interactive videos to use in marketing campaigns
Interactive video commercials are a great way to advertise products or services in a creative and fun way.
Since they take careful thought and production time, consider batching them out now so you have them ready for future campaigns.
Commercial videos briefly describe your brand and its products or services while building loyalty and inspiring a call to action. By taking an already powerful resource and making it interactive, you allow your audience to participate in the experience.
You can do this by adding clickable elements throughout the content that take the viewer to specific sections of the video, allowing them to reshape the story. You can also turn a video into a mini-game with questions and decision-making scenarios.
Another trick is to create a few longer videos and then repurpose snippets of them to use across your marketing channels. If you follow this tip, be sure to edit each option appropriately so the mini video feels native to each platform you use.
Real-Life Brands Using Interactive Content For Enhanced User Engagement
Now that we’ve laid the groundwork for interactive content, let’s take a look at two brands that are putting these insights into action.
1. Hims
Hims has brilliantly harnessed the power of interactive content to drive enhanced user engagement, primarily focusing on topics related to hair loss and the potential cure such as Finasteride. It also covers men’s hair loss, skincare issues, and mental health concerns.
Hims uses interactive content to understand its audience better and guide them toward conversion. It also uses static content to share expert health insights with its audience.
Here’s a blend of interactive and static content types Hims uses to engage with and inform its audience:
-
Interactive quizzes
Hims uses engaging quizzes that offer valuable insights into users' sexual health and habits. These quizzes encourage visitors to reflect on their well-being.
-
Personalized health assessments
Following interactive quizzes, Hims provides personalized health assessments based on users' responses. These assessments guide visitors toward the right products and treatments using tailored recommendations for their unique needs.
The user has to hand over their credentials to get access to these results. Just another smart way Hims encourages more conversions.
-
Educational videos
Hims understands the value of video marketing. Hubspot research reveals 92%of marketers see a positive ROI from video marketing efforts.
Hims uses short, informative videos to explain complex topics related to hair loss problems and the potential dangers of using unprescribed medications. These videos use captivating visuals and help users understand how important it is to seek professional advice.
-
Expert insights
Hims collaborates with medical professionals and experts to provide trustworthy health information. Q&A sessions and articles authored by healthcare specialists contribute to a well-rounded user education experience. -
User-generated stories
Hims encourages users to share their personal experiences and success stories, fostering a sense of community and reassurance. Visitors can scroll through to read about real-life experiences. These user-generated stories help prospective customers feel seen and encourage them to find support.
2. Tailor Brands
Tailor Brands uses interactive content to drive engagement, fine-tune its marketing strategy, and nudge prospects down its sales funnel.
One of the most insightful ways it does this is by offering an interactive tool that encourages its target audience to try out its services.
It’s called the Tailor Brands Logo Maker:
After a user enters a logo name and chooses “Create a logo,” an interactive quiz appears asking them how they heard about Tailor Brands.
This not only encourages the visitor to keep engaging but also provides Tailor Brands with valuable data it can use to inform its marketing strategy.
After, it asks the visitor a series of questions about what they offer and what industry they’re in.
Then, the fun begins.
The visitor gets to choose a logo type, icons, and styles and watch the AI tool perform its magic.
The interactive series ends with a logo sneak-peek and other marketing materials, like business cards and social media posts.
But here’s the catch.
After a quick look, the user must enter their credentials to get access to their logo options.
This is a genius way Tailor Brands consistently engages with its target audience and nudges them to conversion.
Tailor Brands also mirrors Him’s content approach, blending interactive with static content to engage with and educate its audience about LLC formation processes and how to start a business.
It uses the following static and interactive content types to inform and guide its audience about business structures:
-
Educational infographics
Visual content is powerful, and Tailor Brands knows this well. In fact, infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than a complete blog post. That’s why Tailor Brands loves using informative infographics to break down complex business topics and structures.
-
Step-by-step guides with interactive elements
Tailor Brands offers step-by-step guides on LLC formation processes and how to start a business. These guides are user-friendly and often include interactive elements like progress trackers to help users stay on top of their tasks.
For instance, if users click the “Get started” button in the above guide, they’ll end up on an LLC formation assessment page:
From here, they can choose the state they live in and move through the steps to officially register their business.
This is another effective way Tailor Brands moves leads along the funnel.
-
Social media videos
Tailor Brands also uses engaging videos to share marketing and branding advice that new and aspiring business owners can use to create profitable businesses.
Key Takeaways For Using Interactive Content
Interactive content captivates and engages audiences. It encourages active participation and moves prospects along the sales funnel.
By incorporating interactive elements into your marketing plan, you can keep your audience on the page and create better strategies to convert them into loyal customers.
If you’re ready to use interactive content to uplevel your sales and marketing approach, don’t forget to bookmark this article and share it with your team. Then, audit your marketing channels and take inventory of where and how you can weave interactive content throughout your campaigns.
Here’s to your success!
