Developing Interactive Content for Engagement

In a world of passive content consumption, how can you make your audience lean in and actively participate with your brand? The answer is interactive content.

Interactive content is any type of content that requires the user to actively engage with it in order to receive a result or an outcome. Instead of just reading or watching, the user is clicking, typing, and making choices.

This two-way experience is far more memorable and engaging than traditional, static content. For businesses, it's a powerful way to capture attention, provide value, and generate valuable data about your audience.

Why is Interactive Content So Effective?

• It's Highly Engaging: It turns passive consumption into an active experience, which can dramatically increase the time users spend on your page.
• It Provides Personalized Value: The result of the interactive content is tailored to the user's specific input, which makes it feel much more personal and valuable.
• It's a Powerful Lead Generation Tool: Many types of interactive content are perfect for use as a "lead magnet." You can require a user to provide their email address to get their results.
• It's Highly Shareable: People love to share the results of a fun quiz or a helpful calculator with their friends.
• It Provides You with Data: The choices that a user makes can provide you with valuable insights into their needs, preferences, and pain points.

Types of Interactive Content to Create

1. Quizzes and Assessments

Quizzes are one of the most popular and effective types of interactive content.

• How they work: You create a short quiz that helps a user to assess their knowledge, their personality, or their business needs. At the end, you provide them with a result and some helpful recommendations.
• Example: A financial advisor could create a "What's Your Financial Health Score?" quiz. A marketing agency could create a "What's Your Social Media Marketing Personality?" quiz.

2. Calculators

Calculators are incredibly useful tools that help a user to solve a specific problem.

• How they work: You create a simple tool that allows a user to input a few numbers and get a calculated result.
• Example: A mortgage broker could create a mortgage payment calculator. A digital marketing agency could create an "Ad Spend ROI Calculator." Calculators are fantastic lead magnets and can be a great way to earn backlinks.

3. Polls and Surveys

Polls and surveys are a simple way to engage your audience and to gather their opinions.

• How they work: You can embed a simple poll in a blog post or share it on social media to ask your audience a single question.
• Why they work: People love to share their opinions and to see how their answers compare to others. You can then share the results of the poll as a new piece of content.

4. Interactive Infographics and Data Visualizations

Instead of a static infographic, you can create one where the user can click on different elements to reveal more information or to filter the data. This creates a much more exploratory and engaging experience.

5. Interactive Videos

You can use a tool to create a "choose your own adventure" style video, where the viewer can click on different options within the video to control the narrative.

How to Get Started with Interactive Content

You don't need to be a developer to create interactive content. There are many user-friendly tools available.

• For Quizzes and Calculators: Tools like Outgrow, LeadQuizzes, or Typeform provide easy-to-use builders for creating a wide variety of interactive content.
• For Polls: You can use the built-in polling features on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram Stories.

Best Practices

• Focus on Providing Value: Your interactive tool must be genuinely helpful or entertaining.
• Keep it Simple: Don't make your quiz or calculator too long or complicated. It should be quick and easy to complete.
• Gate the Results (for Lead Gen): To use your content as a lead magnet, you can ask for the user's email address before you show them their results.
• Promote it: Promote your interactive content just like you would any other major content asset.

Conclusion

Interactive content is a powerful way to cut through the noise and to create a memorable and valuable experience for your audience. By moving beyond static content and inviting your users to participate, you can dramatically increase your engagement, generate a stream of high-quality leads, and build a stronger, more interactive brand.