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Interactive Content: 10 Types To Engage Your Audience

With more people online than ever before, interactive content marketing is your best bet for boosting engagement and growing your audience.

Many savvy companies have a content marketing strategy, so it’s important to think of ways to make your content stand out from your competitors.

Let’s explore different ways you can turn static content into interactive posts and pages that will encourage your audience to stay engaged.

But first, let’s understand a little bit about interactive content and why it’s important.

What is interactive content marketing?

Interactive content means content that prompts your audience to engage in some way, rather than just passively consuming information.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be anything fancy, it could be as simple as clicking a button or answering a survey.

This type of content can make the experience more interesting for your audience and, in turn, make you and your brand memorable.

In addition, it is also a great way to get to know your audience better and collect important data.

This is a recent example that we have applied in my work.

For about a year, I’ve been asking my community what new skills they’d like to learn. I’ve done it in different ways and on different platforms – in our Facebook group, in Instagram Stories, in social posts, and on YouTube.

These questions generated more engagement and gave me solid data to decide what to do next.

Why is engaging your audience important?

From the content they consume to the products they buy, people have more choice (and more information) than ever before — and that can make it very difficult to get their attention.

With a highly competitive market, it’s more important than ever to know the best ways to engage your audience and keep them connected to your brand.

Interactive content marketing is more effective than other types of content, not only because it boosts engagement (which we know all algorithms love), but also because it keeps people’s eyes on your brand longer.

How do you measure engagement posts?

You may be wondering what makes a successful post.

As you start testing different types of content, it’s important to keep an eye on these metrics:

Social media metrics

  • comments.
  • Memorizes.
  • Involved.
  • Direct message.
  • Likes.
  • traffic to links.

Most social platforms provide business and creator accounts access to analytics, and you’ll find some of that information there.

If you’re running a promotion or giving your audience a link to click on, it can be helpful to take advantage of link tracking so you know where your traffic is coming from.

You can use Google Analytics to track those links, we also use a WordPress plugin, beautiful links, to make it less stressful.

Web page metrics

  • session time.
  • Subscriptions and leads.
  • conversion rate.
  • Backlinks.

10 different types of content to increase engagement

There are different ways to create interactive content, and your best advice is to pick a couple and start testing.

Experiment with different things until you have enough data to determine what type of content your audience responds to best – and then keep creating more of that.

1. Live videos and questions and answers

Videos are really taking over the internet – which has made them one of the most effective types of marketing.

Live video content can be intimidating at first, especially if you are an introvert like me. But it does get easier with time, and it’s totally worth it!

Live content allows you to hang out with your community, get to know them better, and help them get to know you and your brand!

That personal element and interaction can make all the difference.

2. Create polls, multiple choice questions and quizzes

Surveys and multiple choice questions are very easy for people to interact with, and very easy to create.

They are also incredibly engaging. why? Because people love to share their thoughts and opinions on topics and contribute to the conversation!

You can use polls and questions on Instagram stories and Facebook groups, or if you have a YouTube channel with more than 500 subscribers, you can also create polls on YouTube Community tab.

People love quizzes too! It is an effective way to arouse interest and grab people’s attention.

It’s also shareable, so it can become a great lead generation tool. You can use online tools like typeform or Paper form to create your test.

3. Allow your audience to rate your content

Another great way to engage your audience with your content is to allow them to rate your content. You can add rating widgets to your blog posts and/or website pages.

Displaying evaluation results on your website can increase your credibility and help you create content that people will care about.

4. User Generated Content (UGC)

Testimonials and reviews are very important for a reason. Let your clients or clients speak for you!

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools in marketing, and while it may occur naturally, there’s no reason why you can’t motivate your audience to engage.

For example, you can create shareable content (like a meme) and get a call-to-action to share, tag, or send to a friend who can link.

You can also give your existing customers an incentive to share information about you and your brand through a customizable story template or a free gift, for example.

5. Gamification

Who doesn’t love a good game?

From simple word searches to sophisticated online games – gamification is a great way to engage your audience.

Large companies have had great success with such campaignsAnd there’s no reason why you can’t cut it back and make it work for your audience.

6. Animation

Animations go a long way to getting people’s attention – so try adding some action to your content!

You can do this with GIFs, scroll effects, or even dynamic scrolling (where items move as the user scrolls across the page).

Especially on sales pages, when you usually have a lot of information to include, animations can help keep people interested – and maybe even improve your conversion rate.

And now, creating HTML/CSS animations is even easier with ChatGPT – you can simply ask it to create one for you!

For example, you can run the prompt below and use the generated codes.

<<HTML/CSS and javascript animation to fade in text when it enters into a browser viewport>>

7. Charts

Large chunks of text can often look confusing and this can be a turn off for readers.

If you have a lot to communicate, the best way to do that is by creating an infographic.

They combine an aesthetically pleasing design with important information – and people often read them more than the general text.

8. Giveaways

Giveaways are a great marketing technique, as they grab people’s attention and encourage them to interact with your brand.

You can offer incentives for people to share content, refer friends, or even encourage your audience to appear at live events.

If you can generate more shares of your content, this can also become a great lead generation tool, as you will reach more people who may not have heard of your brand.

And the prize could be a product or service you offer, or even gift cards from Amazon and Starbucks, for example.

9. Tabs and Carousels

Another way to break down text-heavy content is to use tabs and carousels.

Giving users an option to choose what they want to see. It also helps keep content organized and easy to find.

Instead of having to scroll through long pages, they can easily click through and find what they’re looking for.

It also adds more interactivity to your content, which can be more interesting than just reading large blocks of text.

10. Redirect content

Content creation takes a long time and can be stressful. So don’t be afraid to forward content.

Marketing is about repetition, it is about finding different ways to convey your message and reach the right people.

If you have a post that has received a lot of engagement, think of different ways you can share that back. Maybe you could create a quiz related to the topic, or even make some edits and share it again on a different platform.

Not only will you save time, but you’ll also create content more effectively, as you’ll retarget content that you already know resonates with your audience.

Think YouTube videos, blog posts, and podcasts – longer forms of content can easily be repurposed into several smaller pieces of content.

Final thoughts

As usual with marketing, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe that will make your content stand out.

But interaction is very important in the online world, and it will improve user experience.

It’s also important to note that your audience’s interests and expectations may change from time to time. What works well today may not be the best option a year from now.

Don’t be afraid to change and test as you go; This is the best way to learn more about your target audience.

More resources:

  • 8 Engaging Chart Types and How to Create Them (+ 5 Free Tools)
  • Content marketing metrics and analytics: 5 types of data insights
  • Content Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Featured Image: Interactive Content / Shutterstock

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