Interactive content is a type of content that requires the user to take some action and explore the information presented, bringing the advantages of generating more engagement and producing relevant data for sales departments. Some examples of interactive content are: quizzes, calculators and interactive videos.
We are talking about interactive content, a powerful resource that provides a unique experience to users and efficiently retains their attention.
It is already a trend for people to search not only for quality content, but also for materials that add differentiated value.
To match these expectations, you must produce content that builds a connection with your audience and captures their attention enough to drive an interaction or get them to take an action.
What is interactive content?
As its name indicates, interactive posts content is an innovative way to generate commitment through creative content that encourages interaction by the user who performs an action on it.
This type of content allows for more impactful experiences through attractive and optimized visual elements to provide valuable information to the reader, boost engagement and conversion.
The main characteristic that defines interactive content is the need for an action by the user, such as clicking, dragging the mouse or some other type of command.
What types of interactive content exist?
The range of interactive content is quite large and, surely, you have already come across some of them on the Internet at some point during your browsing.
Know the main types:
Interactive videos
360º videos or those that require a command from the user are some of them. You can see an example in the video clip of the song Ink by Coldplay.
These interactive audiovisual materials also allow the user to choose different versions of the story presented, in a device similar to the one made famous by the movie Bandersnatch.
Questionnaires
Quizzes are similar to quizzes, but generally feature more serious language and deeper content. The intention is not only to entertain, but to help the consumer in his journey as a customer, giving him a favorable shopping experience.
At the beginning of your consumption journey, the questionnaire can help you identify your needs. In the final part of the day, the material can help you by showing which solution you should adopt to solve your problem.
That way you can also collect data from this consumer to know what stage of the conversion funnel they are in and what Marketing and Sales approach you should put into practice.
This questionnaire, for example, helps companies identify their needs in the area of contract management, with six strategic questions.
By closing their interaction with the form, the user provides their data to receive the results and recommendations of the company.
Ebooks
Instead of delivering a static PDF to your audience, how about creating interactive content to present information in an ebook?
You can combine the text with videos, images, graphics and animations. The consumption of an ebook becomes much more interesting and pleasant when it is visually attractive and offers possibilities for interaction.
Here you will see an example of Sales force, which transformed an ebook into an attractive page full of animations.
In this example, whoever wants to save the material in PDF can download the file after informing your contact information.
White papers
White papers generally have more technical content than ebooks and blog posts. They go straight to the point and function as a manual or guide to execute a strategy or action.
Well, making them interactive is a way to make this material more attractive and understandable.
This page, for example, presents the sections of a white paper on different pages, with buttons to navigate through the content.
Landing pages
A landing page has a clear objective: to generate conversions. In other words, adding the possibility of interaction to these pages can help to arouse the desire of the visitor and convince him to leave his contact information to become a potential client.
Here you can see an example of the interactive landing page that DHL created with visual and animated content to make the user experience more interesting:
Look book
Look book is a visual material that is usually made up of photographs. It is widely used by fashion brands to present products, models, photographers, and stylists (although it can be used in any niche).
Look books are usually static, in PDF format or even printed. To make them more attractive, you can create interactive look books.
Tour operator North Star Travel created an interactive look book to introduce the Los Cabas destination and also included a questionnaire and contact form at the end.
Resource library
A resource library combines different content that a company has already produced for its Content Marketing strategy.
Instead of providing a list of links for users to access these materials, you can create an interactive page to make it easier for them to find what they want.
That’s what Symantec did with its library of resources, which are divided into categories and also include exclusive access areas.
Solution finder
The solution finder also resembles a quiz. However, it has a more specific goal: to guide the consumer through questions so that they can find the correct solution to their problem.
For example, helping an insurance company’s consumers choose the right extended insurance for their car can be difficult and boring content to explain.
With the solution search engine we can guide the user in a fun way about the best plans offered by the company.
Quizzes
Quizzes are a type of interactive content that has already gained a lot of fans! They were popularized on the Internet with BuzzFeed quizzes and have become effective interactivity tools for brands.
These mechanisms can be used to educate and entertain the public, generally with a soft and jovial tone of communication, in addition to capturing insights about your maturity and knowledge of the subject matter.
When they are creative and relevant to the public, they also have great viral power!
Take, for example, this quiz that aims to solve a series of myths about washing machines.
Search results
Presenting the results of a survey, full of data and graphs, can be tedious for the target audience. With that in mind, creating interactive content to present this data can be more efficient for people to understand the information.
An interesting example is the selfiecity project, which looks at the ways people take selfie in different cities around the world.
On the website, it is possible to navigate the collected data in interactive graphs and better understand the search results.
Calculators
Calculators are interactive content that help show how your product can be pocket friendly to the consumer.
With them you can show how the client is going to save, generate income or plan their finances, depending on the type of solution you offer.
This type of content can be combined with material that explains the value of your product to the market, which makes the calculator check what you are saying.
A good example is the following calculator that shows how much money you save by breastfeeding your baby instead of using standardized formulas.
This material is integrated with data and statistics that support the benefits of breastfeeding.
Evaluation tools
This format provides a customized solution based on user responses. At Rock Content, we have some of these tools, such as the awesome people builder and the wonderful email subject builder.
Interactive maps
It allows the user to find the location and, at the same time, participate in the experience.
In Google Maps, you can drag the marker to the direction you want and move the map, see the world in 3D, and even pan and explore the map using Street View. An excellent example of an interactive map.
Another segment that has accurately used interactive maps is data journalism.
The Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post published a map showing the important economic route between China and Pakistan, where the user can navigate through the cities that comprise it.
Interactive infographics
Interactive infographics combine relevant information (such as statistical data, case studies, reports, etc.) with animated visuals and user actions.
This format can also be applied in ebooks and white papers.
An interesting example of interactive infographics is the one made by Vera code, with educational information for web developers on application security.
