Although static content is still popular and effective, interactive content experiences are a fresh way for marketers to engage audiences and hold their attention. Here’s a closer look at how to get these experiences right.
In a digital world that’s increasingly competitive, brands need reliable ways to stand apart from the rest of the crowd and convince certain audiences to pay attention to them instead of someone else. Innovative marketing strategies that include interactive content are a great way to do that.
Interactive marketing is a specialized approach to digital marketing that leverages engaging visuals and various interactive elements to capture an audience’s attention and make them part of the content experience. It also encourages each user to further connect with that brand.
Interactive marketing also supports better brand recognition and can create valuable opportunities for marketers to collect the precious first-party data they need.
In this article, we’ll go over some of the different types of interactive marketing, along with tips and examples of ways to make the most of each.
Social Media Campaigns
People already spend an incredible amount of their free time on social media connecting with brands they know and researching future purchase decisions. Social media also makes it easy for brands and consumers to communicate in real time, providing marketers with fast, helpful feedback they can use to their advantage.
Craft a successful interactive social media campaign with major viral potential by meeting people where they live, as well as leveraging current trends. Examples of campaigns that did this exceptionally well include:
Spotify #Wrapped
This now legendary campaign found users racing to their smartphones at the end of every year from 2017 on to discover and share data related to their music-listening habits. The personalized info delighted users and humanized Spotify as a brand, to the tune of strong interest for the streaming service.
Dove #RealBeauty
This campaign is considered iconic for promoting healthy self-esteem and demonstrating how something as simple as a social media campaign to sell more soap can become an empowering movement. In fact, #RealBeauty remains a big part of Dove’s brand identity nearly 20 years later.
Interactive Ads
There are many types of interactive ads to consider, including banners, video ads, 360-degree video campaigns, interactive quizzes, and more. Interactive ads benefit brands by making it easy for curious consumers to engage. They’re also great ways to snap web users out of their scrolling daze and retrain their focus on you.
Ensure your interactive ads are successful by paying careful attention to design and placement, as well as making interactivity a regular part of your marketing approach to keep people coming back. Successful campaign examples include:
Gatorade’s Match Point
This engaging, interactive ad from Gatorade included an adorable 8-bit Serena Williams mini-game that let players relive all of her greatest victories. It also delighted people enough to keep them coming back for more.
Spotify’s “Moving to Canada”
When the most recent U.S. presidential election found millions searching for information about moving to Canada “just in case,” Spotify offered snappy advertising encouraging users to add northern flair to their playlists via recommended Canadian artists.
Contests and Giveaways
Everyone loves the idea of winning something or potentially getting it for free, so contests and giveaways are incredible ways to engage an audience. They’re effective ways to get future customers thinking about what it might be like to try one of your products firsthand.
Contests and giveaways are also great ways to encourage existing and potential customers to follow your brand on social media, share your content, or spread the word. Here are examples of this type of interactive marketing that got it right.
Pepperidge Farm’s #GoForTheHandful
TikTok is famous for its infectious interactive challenges. Pepperidge Farm started a great one when it challenged users to see if they could hold more Goldfish crackers in their hands than pro basketball player Boban Marjanović.
Sunrype “Fuel Your Family”
In 2020, health food company Sunrype offered healthy living enthusiasts a chance to win valuable fitness equipment and other prizes simply by sharing their data. They further incentivized people by offering additional benefits for providing more data than was required.
Interactive Email Campaigns
Email may be one of the oldest ways to keep in touch with someone online, but it also remains one of the most effective. Just about everyone uses and checks email daily, so a successful email marketing strategy is a must.
While there are benefits to going the interactive route with your emails, the biggest bonus is that your open rates could increase up to 73 percent. Ensure the success of your strategies with tactics and features like image carousels, videos, or built-in “add to cart” functionality.
British Airways
In a recent interactive email marketing campaign, British Airways added a countdown timer to messages to let travelers know how much time remained to take advantage of special sales. A red and white color scheme combined with a calendar-like design demanded readers’ attention.
Nike
Nike knows that showcasing new items just the right way is the key to luring a customer into making a purchase. The company uses this to their advantage with attractive, dynamic image slideshows, which also streamline the emails.
Interactive Website Features
Adding irresistible interactive marketing features to your website can be a great way to encourage more visitors to stop, stay awhile, and engage with your content. If your features are memorable enough, the chances of those visitors remembering your brand for a long time to come remain high.
Help your campaigns succeed by investing in high-quality images, videos, or animations. (You can outsource the work to professionals if you need to.) Just make sure the elements you add don’t slow your site speeds down or hinder your mobile accessibility.
Visit Humboldt
Visit Humboldt (Humboldt County’s interactive website) is an excellent example of how interactivity can take a travel site from ordinary to enchanting via elements like background music, full-screen videos, and innovative navigation features.
Style Novels
Style Novels is a furniture website that sets a new gold standard for online décor shopping experiences. Instead of lackluster descriptions and static photos, visitors get to experience stunning animated graphics, user-driven navigation features, and more.
Interactive Website Content
The benefits of interactivity don’t just apply to a website’s on-screen features. They also extend to the content, so the right content ideas are a must for your interactive marketing strategy.
Options like infographics, surveys, quizzes, interactive calculators, mini-games, and more boost brand loyalty and encourage better engagement rates. They’re also a highly effective (and ethical) way to collect valuable data from your visitors.
Ensure the success of your campaigns by matching your content choices to your target audience. Regularly assess the interaction rates, and gather user feedback so you know what to improve.
Savvy marketers also streamline the process for themselves with the right tools. Ion is an excellent example of an all-in-one interactive content tool that takes the guesswork out of the entire process. Think of features like user-friendly but fully customizable templates, comprehensive data analytics, and seamless CRM and marketing automation integration.
Instacart
One great example of effective interactive content in action is the turkey cook time calculator Instacart launched for its customers around Thanksgiving. Not only was the calculator amazingly helpful, but inviting animated graphics made it cute and fun to use, too.
User-Generated Content
When it comes to effective ways to approach interactive marketing, user-generated content is at the top of the list these days for many reasons. User-generated content campaigns help existing and potential customers feel included by getting them directly involved in what your brand is doing.
These campaigns are also incredible for maximizing reach, supporting brand awareness, producing qualified leads, and encouraging the development of a true community with your brand at its center. User-generated content strategies are cost-effective, too, as your audience does much of the marketing for you.
Ensure the success of your UGC efforts by studying your audience and developing an understanding of what inspires them to participate. Then, package what you come up with in a way that’s impossible to resist. Creative, unique, energetic campaigns (like the following) are almost always big winners.
Lucy Dacus
In 2021, singer Lucy Dacus launched a UGC-driven video contest to promote her new single “Brando.” Lucy instructed fans to record themselves singing, dancing, and just plain enjoying the song, with the understanding that they could be featured in the music video. Fans had a great time, and Lucy Dacus wound up with an incredible music video for her song.
Calvin Klein
#MyCalvins is, to date, one of the most successful user-generated content campaigns of all time, and with good reason. It started by featuring the models, celebrities, and influencers one might expect. Then it expanded to include user-generated content from customers and fans. It still exists (and thrives) today.
Conclusion
A well-rounded interactive marketing campaign lets businesses and brands really show their audiences what they’re all about in exciting new ways that are impossible to forget. The right experience can ensure a consumer remembers that brand indefinitely, or send a business rocketing toward viral fame.
Interactivity is also an important way digital marketers stay ahead of the game and leverage current trends in their favor. It helps consumers feel even better about the purchases they make and encourages stable loyalty for years to come. Put it to work for your own brand, and watch the magic happen for yourself!
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