Before we get into the benefits of interactive marketing, it’s important to understand what interactive marketing actually is. Simply put, it is a type of marketing that relies heavily on customer action. It is usually highly personalized and often customized to meet customer expectations, making it very different from traditional marketing.
What are the benefits of interactive marketing?
1. you stand out from the crowd. Why? Because interactive marketing is rarely used, even in this day and age, and potential customers respond more strongly to the “new/unknown” than to things they’ve seen so many times before.
2. they improve their engagement. With interactive marketing, your customers feel like they are communicating directly with you, when in fact they are not. This increases your engagement.
3. you gain more returning customers. Thanks to interactive content, customers feel special and important to your company and are more likely to return to your company/brand.
4. you get customer feedback which helps you to improve your product or service. Plus, asking for customer feedback makes your customers feel important and valued.
5. you reduce your costs. This is partly because it has great potential among free media channels. It also increasingly targets current-potential customers to convert into returning customers.
6. you will increase your sales, because returning customers guarantee not only steady incoming purchases, but also that new customers will be acquired through referrals – at no cost to you.
Interactive marketing? What forms are there actually?
The Hover Over Image
These are images that change when you “roll over” them with the mouse. Here, for example, you can pack information about products or insights into how they are used. In the clothing industry, for example, it lends itself to showing a view of the garment on a person.
The quiz
In 2015, they were among the most shared content on social media networks. Among them, especially quizzes aimed at learning more about themselves, usually in a funny way. Quizzes like these appeal to people’s curiosity and are a fantastic way to drive leads to your site and introduce them to your products. Another advantage is that they are inherently interactive and can be easily tailored to individual users.
The survey
Surveys are a very effective way to capture the attention of your audience. They are easy to create and can be directed to their target audience via social media. Their potential is the resulting information that they learn about their target group.
The competition
Contests are one of the oldest forms of interactive marketing. From raffles to social media photo contests, this form of engagement is a proven way to capture audience attention. They appeal to our innate propensity for free stuff. If you combine a competition with a question that is relevant to you, you will also receive important information about your target group.
The calculator
This form of interactive marketing is particularly well suited to filtering out “genuine” prospective customers, as only these can have a rough cost estimate calculated by a calculator, for example. A good example of this is also the calorie calculator: it only appeals to people who are concerned with nutrition and either generally watch what they eat or want to lose weight.
The video
A blog post about interactive marketing wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention video last but not least. Interactive videos allow viewers to choose their own story. Because of the gamified experience and personalization, it’s no surprise that they increase engagement, view time, and conversions from video content. Similarly, an interactive video can recapture a viewer’s attention when they want to click away by retargeting them with a call to action. To get a better idea of what interactive videos can look like just click here.
Conclusion
Interactive marketing is beneficial in many ways. It gives you the opportunities to engage your target audience directly, inspire them with relevant content, and gain key insights. Start using interactive content now and you will find that you become more effective and efficient with all your marketing. We will be happy to advise you on this topic as well.
