Editor
We all want as many people as possible to visit your website. But that means much more than simply clicking an ad, taking a glance, or briefly perusing your content. You want them to stay, and discover your product or service. Historically, that meant lots of text, introducing yourself, explaining your business, and describing all of the benefits of purchasing from you.
The Challenge…
Today’s customers aren’t excited by big blocks of text and details, however. Instead, they want to “touch and feel”, even though this may need to be accomplished virtually.
So how can business owners help customers connect with a business in the internet age? One very popular method has been through the use of interactive content. There are a compelling number of reasons why you should use interactive content to grow your business, and it isn’t as difficult as you might think.
What Are Some Examples of Interactive Content?
As the name implies, interactive content is any type of content experience that allows for personal exchange between your business and your audience.
Read also: Finding your Target Audience.
Social media is a prime example of interactive content, as those who subscribe to your feed are encouraged to “like” and comment on your posts. This can often lead to an engaging discussion between customers and the person responding on behalf of the business.
The concept of interactive content should extend beyond your social media outlets, however. There are many options for inspiring interaction on your site, including:
- Quizzes, polls, and surveys
- Blog posts with open-ended questions or “Ask Me Anything” posts
- Contests and give-aways
- Calculator widgets or interactive infographics
- Live video posts with chat features
You may find that your business has additional opportunities for interaction with your audience, such as vlogs, interactive newsletters, and more, but these are some very popular, and very easy to implement options.
Why Is Interactive Content a Good Idea for Business Growth?
Besides encouraging visitors to spend more time at your site, there are many other advantages to including interactive content.
Interactive content requires user engagement, at least to some degree. A first-time visitor may or may not feel compelled to directly engage in your quizzes or blog comment conversations at first, but the questions you ask will make a huge impression, causing them to linger and consider their own thoughts.
This may lead them to continue to investigate your site further, and in doing so, learn more about your business.
Interaction also leads to a sense of community, which can contribute to deeper feelings of trust.
As a business owner, you want your customers to be confident in the value of your product or services.
By encouraging customers to interact with your business and with each other, they’ll feel more of a relationship with your business. They’ll look to enhance this relationship by joining email lists, reading newsletters, and looking forward to purchasing from your business again and again.
Red also: What Is Bounce Rate? Definition and Meaning.
Getting Closer to Your Audience
All of the options in the list above also allow for those who visit your website to share some sort of insight, from product knowledge, to opinions, as well as their specific needs as a consumer.
This helps you immensely, as you have a direct, first-hand view into your audience’s thoughts and feelings. Many business owners spend years and thousands of dollars on market research, while interactive content inspires users to freely share their thoughts directly, in the form of a comment, or a survey or poll response.
Even the answers chosen in a quiz or activity in a calculator tool can provide insight into the wants and needs of your target audience.
In the long run, all of these aspects lead to the ultimate goal: brand loyalty.
Visitors who feel engaged, who spend significant time on your website, and who feel a part of your brand’s community will feel a stronger long-term relationship to your business. That may translate into more purchases, more recommendations to their friends, family, and colleagues, and a richer customer lifetime value.
Read also: Why your Business needs Gamification?
How Do I Implement Interactive Content for My Business?
Ideally, interactive content should be relatable, interesting, and compelling. You want your audience to understand the point of the content. They should also find the content thought-provoking. And in order to encourage the interaction, they should have a desire to respond.
Technologically speaking, that means making the process of interaction straightforward.
While it might be tempting to ask for an email address in order to allow a visitor to submit a comment, for example, the visitor might feel that’s too much effort just to jot down a question or point of view. Instead, consider collecting that information after they’ve posted their comment.
Not every type of interactive content is right for every business. For example, an interactive infographic for hiking socks would require a substantial amount of creativity and might not attract much traffic, whereas a survey about a visitor’s hiking habits would be far more straightforward and insightful.
This is one of the few instances in marketing when “more is more”, so providing a variety of interactive outlets on your site can be a great way to strategically gain the information and trust you need to grow your business.
Organizing Your Interactive Content
Therefore, it’s a good idea to keep your interactive content well organized. You may wish to create a content calendar to help you keep track not only of what type of interaction you’ve posted, but the responses you’ve received as well.
You’ll be able to gauge the performance of your interactive content easily, as well. Your website performance metrics can demonstrate how much time users spend on each page. You’ll be able to see the answers to surveys, polls, and questionnaires, as well as comments to blogs posts and live videos.
You’ll also want to take a look at when these responses come in. How quickly do the responses come in after you post new material? Do your visitors continue to visit interactive content days, weeks, or months after it’s posted?
The answers to these questions can give you an idea as to the level of interest your users have. Looking at the time of day and day of the week you receive the biggest flurry of activity can also provide you with important infographic information regarding your audience, too, including their time zone and preferred browsing times.
Using interactive content can be a great way to grow your business. With a bit of creativity, you can easily begin adding interactive content to your website and social media. As more and more visitors participate in these interactive outlets, you’ll likely see a rise in brand loyalty, which can easily translate into greater profit in the long run.
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