More brands are embracing inbound marketing than ever before. In a digital age where consumers are using content to find answers, locate information, and engage with brands before deciding to do business with you, your content marketing must be effective in targeting your audience and getting them to take action.
How does one stand out amid the sea of content shared daily? With over two million blog posts published every day, brands must use creative measures to engage, entertain and educate their audience.
Doing so gives them the slight edge in their strategy while furthering their business objectives. The solution lies in sharing interactive content.
Promoting content that encourages readers to interact with your content actively improves user-experience and helps people better understand your message.
Interactive content can be tailored to your user's unique problems, giving personalized results that your audience can use to their advantage.
Additionally, offering a variety of interactive content that appeals to different learning styles allows you to extend your reach and influence. You'll cater to people's needs, making your content marketing much more efficient.
Here are five content types that will empower your inbound marketing, inspiring your visitors with your message and encouraging them to engage.
1) Informative Slideshows
Slideshows are successful in keeping visitors on your page as they click through content. They're useful for sharing detailed information in bite-size chunks while improving your SEO ranking.
Your viewers will appreciate the ability to digest your content quickly, versus reading blocks of written text.
Another advantage of creating slideshows is you can easily upload them to other platforms such as SlideShare and LinkedIn to increase visibility. The key is ensuring you share a link that points to your landing page or website to drive new visitors to your web pages.
Repurpose your popular or evergreen blog content into a slideshow using Google Slides or PowerPoint. Keep each slide concise for readability.
Include references or links within your content to increase credibility, traffic generation, and quality backlinks directing back to your website.
2) Quizzes
Did you know on average a quiz gets shared 1,900 times (Source: Buzzsumo)? Simply put, quizzes are entertaining tools that give users a unique experience.
It's an excellent way to build your email list by having people complete their contact details to receive their customized results.
You also allow you to learn more about your prospect via quizzes. By using the information provided, you can modify your content strategy to your audience's needs, enhance customer initiatives, and brainstorm new product or service ideas.
Quizzes perform best when promoted on your Facebook Business Page or website. Design your own using Typeform or Quiz Maker.
Be sure you test content pertains to your industry to keep it relevant. Also, encourage users to share their results on social media to prompt other users to participate.
3) Assessments
According to Content Marketing Institute, assessments are the most leveraged interactive content types.
Like quizzes, assessments give your visitor an opportunity to discover more about themselves, offering valuable information that can be extremely beneficial for users.
Participants grouped into categories based on their responses to a series of questions share insightful details that can yield concrete solutions for your audience and position your brand as an expert in the industry.
Commit to using assessments in your content marketing strategy to better understand your personas, give value, and grow your email list. Keep the questions relevant to your market and the industry you serve.
Finally, use the results to create segmented email campaigns that speak directly to the needs of the user. Consequently, you'll boost list engagement and quickly move leads further along the buyer's journey.
4) Calculators
Calculators are convenient interactive tools that help visitors receive a quick answer versus attempting to estimate or guess on their own.
Any brand can leverage calculators to add to user-experience.
You can show people how much they will save on your service or product during a particular promotion, help users determine their likely body mass for health and fitness brands, or clarify the dollar-amount your visitors will need to retire comfortably based on their current living expenses.
The goal is to find creative ways to keep visitors engaged. In fact, the more time people spend on your site, the more you signal to the search engines that your content is quality-rich and relevant, thus improving your SEO ranking.
Use the tool Calculoid to embed a calculator on your website easily or design your own with Microsoft Excel.
Either way, including a calculator, will make your content more interactive, giving visitors another reason to remain on your pages.
5) Interactive Infographics
Infographics are the most liked and shared on social media than any other content type. People are highly visual, thus, enjoy the ability to process data-driven details in a graphic format.
Incorporating infographics in your content marketing enriches your overall strategy.
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Such images are excellent for brand awareness in sharing on a separate blog post, syndicating on popular content sites, and sharing across various social media channels to boost engagement.
The simplest way of making your infographic interactive is by offering visitors the option of downloading your visual. Just as providing a PDF for your blog posts offers value to your readers, a downloadable version of your infographic lets them easily access your content anywhere from their files.
Including interactive pieces is a must if you desire to stand out in the sea of eBooks, blog posts, and white-papers published daily.
Interactive content gives a unique way of educating, entertaining, and engaging your audience.
From leveraging more interactive pieces in your strategy, you'll notice an increase in website traffic, SEO ranking, lead generation, and follower engagement.
The benefits are too compelling to ignore. Plan your interactive content projects properly with your marketing objectives and you will see great success.
Are you ready to amplify your inbound marketing for 2019? Reach out to us and let's chat! We are equipped to help your small business excel in an increasingly crowded space.
