Have you heard of the „eight seconds of attention span“ theory? It means that you have precisely eight seconds to attract the attention of your followers on digital channels. Do you think it's too short? Try your luck with interactive content if you worry that people won't read your web article or product description because of digital clutter. 

Interactive content is visually impactful, and it's got an incredible feat to invite your followers to click. It doesn't encourage the usually passive consumption of content, but it promotes an active engagement of fans, their interactive involvement with the mouse.

In this article, we bring you the survey of the five most popular types of interactive content which you certainly have to include in your marketing strategy if you want to improve the engagement of your fans.

Why interactive content, you might wonder? Roland Pokornyk, an expert for digital content marketing at Single Grain blog, states that immersive content that attracts followers' attention and offers a personalized experience can persuade people to make better decisions about their purchases. In addition, online users just love interactive content because it's amusing and informative, and it can increase engagement and bring new leads and conversions.

1. Capture the attention of your buyers with interactive infographics

Are you already familiar with static infographics? They are visually attractive illustrations that transform otherwise dull data into concise and graphically beautiful formats. And yes, you've probably discovered that they are fans' favorite content on social media channels? So why not animate them and make them even more clickable? 

According to available data and marketing research, infographics have a three times better sharing rate than other digital content, and web articles contain a 72% higher readership. Do you need a better argument from that?

See how NeoMan Studios presented the benefits of infographics in, erm, infographic manner: 

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The creation of interactive infographics will demand additional effort from you, but it will pay off. You will be able to offer your buyers unique digital content, and you will capture their attention and make them share your content with their friends.

Here'a an excellent example of the interactive infographic posted by Polygraph and Spotify on their website. It lets you find out how popular your favorite pop, rock, or hip hop author is. You type in Kanye West, Lorde, or Lana Del Rey, and you'll get a graphically attractive display of their popularity ratings on Spotify. Cool, isn't it? Even more remarkable is that Spotify gets fantastic promotion of their platform with such an innovative interactive approach.

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2. Interactive polls, quizzes, and questionnaires

Interactive content has one advantage over the classic static – it enables your followers to express their opinions and reactions. That's why interactive polls and questionnaires are such a popular form of interactivity on the web.

Create an interactive poll on your social media channels, place an interactive questionnaire on your web page, and your fans will gladly respond. You will also reap awards. For example, create some intelligent questions, and you'll get valuable insights into your customers' habits. For instance, you'll get to know what content they like best, which products they consider better than others.

One of the most popular forms of this type of content is online personality quizzes. It's no wonder that famous content agency Buzzfeed built a million size audience by posting such quizzes. Here's an example of their interactive viral quiz in which you can find out which character from the popular TV series „Game of Thrones“ you resemble the most. It seems that we were akin to Robb Stark. :)

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3. Start the conversation with your buyers through chatbots

Most of the web pages today use chatbots as their customer support systems. Popular chatbots make contact between brand and user easier. In addition to that, companies don't have to hire a person who will constantly monitor the messages from website visitors. Instead, you put an interactive pop-up window with the chatbot on your front web page, and you have a tremendous conversational channel to chat with your visitors. 

Chatbot conversations can be amusing to your followers, and they can inform them about your services and special offers. Moreover, if you are skillful with the programming of chatbots, you could use them to get insights into your visitors' behavior and consumer habits.

How this technology is still new and full of promise demonstrated the interactive display campaign of Emirates Vacations company.

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They have cleverly put a chatbot window inside their display ads. And by the browsing history of their users, the chatbot posed a question to start the conversation: „Hi! Chat with me about your next vacation.“ The campaign was so successful it increased the engagement rate by 87%.

4. Offer your customers practical data with interactive calculators

Words are great, but concrete numbers are even better. That's why online calculators are such a desirable commodity in the world of interactive content. Antara Agarwal, the consultant at the digital agency Outgrow, says that web pages embedded with interactive calculators get 40% higher conversion rate. 

The calculator is a powerful interactive marketing tool because it offers valuable data to its users. Even better, the calculators seem to be personalized, and they save customers' money and effort. In only a few clicks or minutes user can find out needed information that will otherwise take hours. 

For example, a BMI calculator could be used to calculate the body mass index like in this example from Live Science:

 

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And if you are in the financial business or you manage the internet page of a bank, think about putting the mortgage calculator that will help your customers calculate their installment payment (here's the example of Canadian mortgage company Zillow):

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What is great about online calculators is that they demand the least effort from the customer, and in return, they offer reliable data without tampering with the facts. It seems particularly useful when you are forced to make important life decisions like getting credit for your new car or apartment.

5. Interactive flipbooks and ebooks

Along with the infographics, questionnaires, quizzes, and calculators, some other interactive formats please the visitors of web pages. It's flipbooks and ebooks – interactive PDFs that enable flipping of the content, including animations and links and adding pop-up windows with additional information. 

When you flip through the ebook or flipbook it seems like you are reading your favorite print magazine or illustrated book but with enhanced „bionic“ possibilities of multimedia. Suddenly you can transform some „dull“ magazine page with excellent videos, clickable links, and animated infographics). Flipbooks and ebooks are great sales tools because you can embed the CTA button in them, and in contrast to the regular print magazine, you can motivate your buyer for instant action.

Here's an excellent example of an interactive flipbook (made by 3D Issue agency) which you can flip through on this link. They have created an interactive flipbook for the centenary of Ford company full of interactive features: 

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It's good to know that flipbooks and ebooks could be SEO optimized and used as an additional tool to bring you customers, via the Google search engine. If you do not want to meddle with interactive ebook programming, open the profile on issuu.com, web page specialized for digital publishing. Just upload your PDF file, and Issu will transform it into a flipping magazine format.

Sure, you can go one step further and use some of the available online programs for PDF to flipbook conversion to create engaging content on your channels.

And if you are feeling a little bit lost in the world of interactive solutions, seek the help of a digital marketing agency like LOGIC MARKETING to increase the engagement of your online content.


Sources and additional links to read:

https://outgrow.co/blog/interactive-content-types

https://www.singlegrain.com/infographic/why-infographics-are-the-best-content-investment-youll-ever-make/

https://www.singlegrain.com/blog-posts/content-marketing/7-types-of-interactive-content-why-and-how-to-use-them/

https://pudding.cool/2017/03/timeless/index.html

https://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/

https://surveyanyplace.com/blog/8-quiz-examples-interactive-content-ideas/

https://outgrow.co/blog/interactive-content-types

https://www.3dissue.com/flipbooks.html

https://issuu.com/

https://www.g2.com/categories/flipbook

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