To be successful with content marketing, it is important to diversify the kind of content you put out.
Content can generally fall into two categories: Static and interactive. There is also a third category we will go over: Dynamic content.
In this article, you will learn about the difference between static and interactive content, the benefits of each, and examples of interactive content you can create.
What do the statistics say?
Before we get in-depth into the differences between static and interactive content, let’s take a look at what the statistics say to understand the importance of creating engaging, interactive content.
Ninety-one percent of B2B customers said they prefer interactive content to static content. In addition, interactive content generates up to five times more page views than ordinary content.
What is static and interactive content?
Static content is content that doesn’t change and isn’t updated often.
For example, your homepage might fit into this category (unless it is a blog feed). Other examples would be a sales page or an ebook/whitepaper.
In other words, static web pages are those which deliver the same HTML code to all users. Images and pre-recorded videos also fall into the category of static content.
There’s nothing wrong with including static content into your marketing strategy. There’s a time and place for everything, and sometimes it’s better to have a static sales page that you don’t have to update.
However, whenever possible, try to make your content more engaging and interactive.
Source
Let’s move on to dynamic content. Dynamic content is content that is not static and which does change often; however, it is not content that your visitors engage with themselves.
This can be your blog feed, your social media feed, personalized emails, or smart landing pages that display different things to visitors based on their target keyword etc.
Dynamic content is much more interesting than static content. If your homepage never changes, why would users keep on visiting it?
On the other hand, your blog feed keeps on changing whenever you update it. Since new content is constantly being created, visitors have a reason to return.
Interactive content is content that users actually engage with themselves. The comment area of your blog is one example, as are the social media sharing buttons or call-to-action buttons on your site.
Another great example would be surveys and feedback forms, such as the surveys you can create with Pointerpro.
Not only can you create engaging forms with various fields, but you can add images, videos, animations, your custom logo, and other brand elements.
Another example of interactive content would be live webinars where users can comment in a live chat area. Forums and discussion boards are other great examples.
Tools and calculators are interactive content as well. For example, if you operate a blog or website that focuses on helping people save up money or invest in stocks, you can include a savings calculator that visitors can use to calculate how much they need to save or invest each month to reach their goals. Another example of this would be having or creating a membership site for customers, providing them special benefits, discounts and rewards to create an interactive, loyal and engaged online community.
If you have interactive online games or web apps, they would also fall into this category.
What are the pros and cons of interactive content?
Interactive content has a number of advantages.
One advantage of interactive content is that it gets users to engage with you and can lead to higher conversion rates.
Once they start engaging with you, they are often more likely to take other actions, such as completing a purchase, signing up for your email list, or subscribing to a membership or free trial.
Including interactive content on your blog can lead to increased return rates and more brand loyalty. This is because it makes visitors part of the story, so to speak.
Another advantage is that it can give you social proof. If a lot of people are leaving comments on your blog or sharing your content, it can add to your authority.
Interactive content is a great way to collect better data. A great way to do this is to use interactive surveys and feedback forms, as mentioned before.
If you want to boost your SEO rankings, it is best to create interactive content. It’s an important factor in Google’s search algorithms.
On the other hand, interactive content can have its cons as well. For example, if you have a blog comment section, forum, or webinar with live chat, you can’t always control what people will say or post.
A troll could easily come along or someone can post defamatory comments. Although you may be able to delete these comments, it may take some time before you get around to it, and it isn’t an option at all with live chat webinars.
How to get started with creating interactive content
The first step in your content marketing strategy should be defining your purpose. You don’t want to create interactive content for the sake of it.
For example, if you are creating surveys, your intent would be to collect important data and information so you can improve your products and services.
Also, consider that you can turn your existing content into interactive content. For example, if you have a book, you can insert links, tables, charts, and more to make it more interactive. You can even allow people to write notes in your ebooks or create practice questions with fill-in-the-blank answers.
Tools you can use to create interactive content
Fortunately, there are many tools you can use to create interactive content. Here are some of them:
1. Pointerpro
We already mentioned Pointerpro – it allows you to create interactive surveys you can place anywhere on your website. You can even add these surveys to your mobile app.
You can add interactive elements such as rating and image choices, slide bars with texts and numbers, and signatures.
2. Uberflip
SnapApp, now known as UberFlip, is another tool that you can use to create surveys and other interactive types of content.
It also lets you create personalized, dynamic content such as contextual banner images and personalized service or product collections.
You can also create smart, AI-powered web pages that deliver personalized content to consumers.
There are many other features as well, such as the CTA tool, which lets you add interactive CTAs to any blog post or page.
3. GiPHY
Using GIFs is a great way to capture the attention of visitors. These animated pictures are fun to look at and can be used to make a point.
GIPHY is a website where you can find GIFs of all kinds (just make sure to check usage rights first).
4. Visme
Visme is a free infographic creator tool. You can create interactive infographics that are easy to follow and add all kinds of images, statistics, graphics, and paths.
It’s a great way to convey information in an easy-to-understand manner.
Infographics are also great for getting backlinks. People will want to reuse your infographic if it is good and will link to you as the source.
5. Guides.co
Guides.co lets you create easy-to-follow interactive how-to guides. Instead of just creating a long article, you can create long-form content complete with menus, links, images, a commenting section, and much more.
You can break this long-form content up into multiple pages to make it easier to digest. Users can click on a link to continue to the next page.
6. ContentTools.co
ContentTools.co is an all-in-one interactive content creation tool suite. Its goal is to help businesses create interactive content for the purpose of collecting leads and building a customer list.
Here are some of the things you can create with ContentTools.co:
Quizzes: Quizzes and assessments are fun ways to let customers express their opinion. The quizzes have a “score” or final assessment at the end, at which point you can also collect their information.
Calculators: These calculators not only can keep your customers informed, but they also allow you to collect important information based on what your customers are putting into the calculator.
Contests: There are all types of contests and giveaways you can create with the goal of collecting information.
Interactive Maps: You can create maps with hover effects and other features to segment data based on location and more.
Other types of content you can create include:
- Data visualization
- Infographics
- Microsites
- Ebooks
Wrapping It Up
Creating interactive content has never been so easy.
If you are not yet creating interactive content, now is the time to start – and you can begin with repurposing your old content.
