Interactive Marketing: The Best Techniques of 2020

We all know that interactive experiences are good, right? Interactive education has revolutionized the classroom. Interactive parenting is a standard rule of thumb for most families these days, and interactive entertainment continues to push technological boundaries.

Our technology is now more interactive than ever before, as evidenced by the rise in mobile and voice-assisted devices over the past decade.

It stands to reason that interactive marketing represents yet another fantastic concept and one that your company needs to capitalize on. Just like sales management software, project management systems, etc.

Don’t take our word for it, though. Instead, keep reading to find out more about this game-changer, and how it can increase your traffic, ramp up lead conversion, and send your ROI through the roof.

What Is Interactive Marketing?

Yes, we live in the Digital Age, and it’s brought us many nifty things such as TikTok and watches that let us answer our emails. Of course, the downside of all of this new technology has been information overload.

Your customers are drowning in content every day, and much of it bores the heck out of them. Why? Because 60 percent of content marketers struggle when it comes to creating the kind of content that people want to read. Yikes!

No wonder so many users spend their time aimlessly scrolling through Facebook and LinkedIn, ignoring the vast majority of what pops up in their feeds.

The great irony of our technological situation is that people have never been easier to reach. Yet, getting their attention has never proven more difficult.

The Importance of Content

What’s more, because of all of the content floating around online in the form of product descriptions, reviews, blog posts, and more, you can rest assured your leads are about 57 percent of the way through the buyer journey before they reach you.

At this point, are you asking yourself what all of this means when it comes to getting people to buy your products? In a nutshell, it means you have a minimal amount of time to get your customer’s attention.

Without engaging, educated content that guides your customer to the end of the buyer journey, your campaign will fail. Now despite the flood of content out there, it’s critical that you recognize not all of this content is created equal. A lot of it is downright dull.

Nonetheless, the content remains the single most critical marketing tool available to you today. After all, nobody likes a hard sell anymore.

That said, the type of content that you put out there matters. So, it’s time to give it some serious consideration.

Here’s where interactive marketing comes into play. Let’s go over the best techniques for 2020 and how they can set your brand apart from your competition.

Interactive Marketing Strategy

Interactive marketing is the number one way for you to distinguish your brand from the pack. What does it entail? Everything from quizzes to contests, calculators to polls. It’s changing the way that marketers interact with their company’s leads and customers.

This strategy proves so powerful that 93 percent of marketers rate interactive content as the single most effective way to educate buyers. Unlike static content, it generates as much as four to five times more page views and twice as many conversions.

Talk about stellar results! What would you give to duplicate those numbers for your company? Fortunately, it’s easier than you think, but it does require a mindset shift.

Elements of the Best Interactive Marketing Examples

We’ve compared a wide variety of interactive marketing examples. In the process, we’ve developed a list of characteristics that the most successful campaigns have. These ingredients include:

• Gamification
• Design
• Relevancy
• Ownership
• Multi-Channel Follow Up
• Virality
• Customer Service

Why do potential customers react so beneficially to each of these characteristics? Let’s take a deep dive to gain some insights into the interactive mindset and approach to customer captivation and engagement.

Gamification

We live in a world where online gaming represents an accepted and popular pastime. Many individuals report staying connected to the internet for the majority of each day because of their smart devices. As a result, they often turn to these devices for fun and creative games.

You can up the “wow” factor and earn more customers through the gamification of your content. That means including elements that are innovative, playful, and stoke your customer’s imagination. Aim for smart interactions that gain and keep your user’s attention.

Design

Gone are the early days of the internet when the mere presence of a website, no matter how shoddy it looked, was enough to impress customers. Today’s online users are more discerning than ever before, and they won’t overlook glaring visual or content issues.

That means no pixelated or blurry photos, poor content with lots of grammatical errors, or design elements that take away from the esthetic you’re trying to achieve.

How do you guarantee your website and content are pleasing from a visual perspective? By enlisting the services of a professional designer. They can apply the best practices in design to help build credibility and trust for your business.

This approach will, in turn, ramp up your authority and lead to more conversions.

Relevancy

To convert leads into customers, you must present them with hyper-relevant content. No ifs, and, or buts allowed. This content must also be targeted specifically to each segmented group of customers.

If you can achieve this, you’ll be amazed by the attention and business that you’ll earn.

Of course, this begs the question, how do you gain this level of laser-precise relevancy? Through the queries you make, the outcomes you promise, the prizes you give away, and the customer experiences that you foster.

What’s more, all of your content must align with your buyer’s journey. Why is relevancy so important? Because it’s what will inspire your customers to want to interact with your brand.

Ownership

When we talk about ownership, we’re referring to the content that you publish on your own online properties, such as your website. You cannot skimp when it comes to creating this content. Why not?

Because there are so many variables in digital marketing today, you need to take control of the assets you own. What do we mean by these variables? Everything from accessibility to algorithms and usage rights on social media platforms.

Sure, you can and should enhance your message through the strategic use of social media channels, but remember not to pitch your tent in anybody else’s backyard. In other words, you still need to have a central property that you’re driving leads back to.

Multi-Channel Follow Up

Do you have a strategy in place for following up with people who engage with your interactive content? One that doesn’t waste your investment or time? If not, then consider a multi-channel follow up approach.

This concept is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to interactive marketing solutions. You need to be able to follow up with your customers quickly and easily across multiple channels.

Virality

No matter how great or fun your content is, if you’re not getting lots of eyes on it, you have a problem. Not only will you burn through your marketing budget in record time, but you’ll have few sales to show for it.

We’re here to make sure that doesn’t happen. That’s why we recommend building vitality into your interactive content marketing.

How do you do this? For one, by rewarding participants for sharing your interactive content.

When you can motivate your customers to share your promos, not only does it get more eyes on your products and services, but it also represents a powerful word-of-mouth testimony. So, make sure you create campaigns with the right mechanisms in place to go viral.

Customer Service

You must provide your customers with winning experience. An experience that inspires them to write fantastic reviews and one that keeps them coming back as return customers.

Easier said than done? Not if you make customer service a passion and a priority. When you authentically care about your customers and their experiences with your brand, you humanize the relationship.

You inspire your customers to interact with your brand, and you let them know that they’re more than just a number or revenue stream. Today’s customers want a relationship with the brands they choose to patronize.

You must build this relationship through superior customer service.

Interactive Marketing Solutions

While creating interactive marketing content may sound overwhelming and intimidating at first mention, that’s far from the case. We’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive to yield astounding results.

To illustrate this point, let’s take a closer look at some of the most successful forms of interactive marketing out there. They include:

• Quizzes
• Contests
• Calculators
• Polls

Let’s take a closer look at each interactive marketing example listed above and how it can help you captivate your readers and gain their attention and engagement.

Quizzes

Maybe quizzes were your worst nightmare in school, but today’s online versions spark user interest and lead to fascinating insights.

Don’t believe us? Consider this. Ninety percent of the most shared Facebook posts in 2015 was (you guessed it!) quizzes.

Because you can readily tailor quizzes to your audience, you can create narrowly focused, hyper-relevant content that’s fun and feels like a game. Just remember to keep the questions and format short and sweet.

Contests

Contests remain one of the oldest forms of interactive marketing. They range from raffles to giveaways and even social media photo contests. They’re proven to capture an audience’s attention while encouraging them to bring new traffic to your website.

They appeal to our innate drive for free things while also stoking our excitement at the thought of winning something.

While the appeal of contests hasn’t changed much over the years, their content and formats have evolved. Today’s most successful marketers use contests as a holistic tactic rather than a one-off promotion.

What’s more, when you understand your target audience and provide them with the perfect prize, you emphasize the relevance of your campaign. Because contests are fun, you’ll also have the gamification angle working for you.

Calculators

Calculators prove among the best ways to create relevancy and qualify leads. They also provide users with immediate information that’s useful and establishes your brand’s authority.

Some of our favorite examples? Calculators to help potential homeowners get a ballpark estimate of their mortgage payments. Other great ones include fitness-based calculators that let leads determine their daily calorie intake or recommended amount of exercise for weight loss.

How do you determine which calculator’s right for your customers? By considering their pain points, wants, and most pressing questions at the moment. Hone in on one of these questions and then create a calculator around it.

For example, if you market to small business owners, consider an ROI calculator. After all, return on investment remains a high priority for entrepreneurs, and one many think about every day.

Another worth considering? Why not provide a calculator that tallies up a business’s total cost of ownership (TCO)? Almost every product, service, or procurement enterprise needs a TCO calculator. Why not make your brand’s go-to?

Polls

Polls represent another fantastic way to engage your users while making it clear that you care about their opinion. What’s more, the immediate feedback that polls provide allows your users to see what others answered.

Best practices when creating a poll, include keeping it short and to the point. You’re far more likely to get an immense payoff from a quick, tactful social media poll than one that requires 15 minutes to answer. Don’t expect users to stick around long enough to complete a behemoth like that.

Polls are also fun to complete, shareable, and super-relevant when created with your target audience in mind. What’s more, polls offer a great way to know what your customers think so you can provide them with superior customer service.

The Marketing Edge

Interactive marketing will give you a clear advantage when it comes to customer engagement. Because you’re asking customers directly for information (a.k.a. declared data), you also avoid third-party data issues, especially around privacy legislation (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD).

Ready to find out more about capturing declared data through interactive marketing? Let’s do this! Download your complimentary copy of the Declared Data Playbook to get started.