Remember those boring classes where the teacher talked for hours without stopping, practically lulling you to sleep?

GIF source: Giphy

Well, traditional marketing can sometimes feel eerily similar. Why? Because it fails to hold the audience’s attention, leaving marketers scrambling to find ways to effectively engage them and stand out from the crowd. 

It’s time you learn a new teaching method that will wake up your audience and excite them.

And that’s exactly what interactive marketing can do for your brand, which is a great strategy for making consumers actively interact with your content via quizzes and games. 

Now, sit tight and let us explain how this all works.

What is interactive marketing?

Interactive marketing is a strategy that focuses on engaging consumers and making them active participants in your marketing through visuals or videos. 

Let us explain. Traditional marketing relies on one-way communication: you put on a billboard and that’s it. Meanwhile, interactive marketing makes use of CTAs in videos, for example, to prompt people to subscribe. 

How does it do that?

Interactive content has a lot of forms, from interactive video content that lets viewers choose their own journey to quizzes that personalize the experience and games that make interacting with the content fun. 

For example, a clothing brand might use an interactive quiz to suggest products based on the user’s body type. 

With interactive content, what was once a one-sided communication between brands and consumers is now two-sided. 

Put simply, instead of your teacher holding that boring monologue, they start an open discussion and encourage everyone to ask questions and express their opinions.

Isn’t that more engaging?! 

According to Mediafly, interactive content sees 52.6% more engagement than static content. Which means that interactive marketing campaigns have plenty of benefits, like increased customer engagement, better data, or enhanced loyalty.

Ah, but we’ve spoiled the next section for you. Nonetheless, let’s look at the benefits of using interactive content. 

The benefits of interactive marketing

We won’t bore you with all the details.

But we will share the top interactive content benefits for your marketing campaigns.

Better audience engagement

The key to engaging consumers is offering them a fun, interesting, and unique experience.

And what better way to do that than inviting them to actively participate?

For example, instead of sending your subscribers a newsletter containing a long block of text about how great your products are, you can ask them to take a fun quiz to find out which product would best suit their needs.

While they’ll probably never read the lengthy email, they’ll certainly take the quiz because it intrigues them.

Higher conversion rates

Interactive marketing is all about creating a personalized experience for your audience. Basically, you tailor the interaction with a customer based on their preferences, needs, and behaviors, making them feel understood and seen. 

For instance, using the info you gather about your leads from a short survey, you can send personalized offers and recommendations. If your client likes reading about diet plans, then they might want to see more on this topic. 

This makes them feel special but, more importantly, it allows marketers to show users useful products or service suggestions they already expressed interest in, leading them to higher conversions. 

To encourage people to click the buy button, you need to place them strategically as it’ll speed up the buying process and drive conversions. For instance, you can use QR codes and place them on printed materials or in physical stores to take customers directly to the product’s page. 

Or you can write a blog article and sprinkle a few buy buttons throughout it or at the end. 

Lower marketing costs

Interactive marketing can be very low cost! 

How is that possible?

Well, you can simply use traditional types of content marketing and add an interactive twist to them.

Plus, if you don’t have the resources and money to hire a team of designers and developers, a no-code tool like Ceros can fill in the skills gap. 😉

That’s not all — aside from reducing costs, Ceros also has two qualified team members that can make creating interactive content super easy. 

Let’s meet them: 

• Studio offers many cool interactive templates that you can use to avoid the headache of creating your own. 
• Editor offers a user-friendly interface that lets you customize your content however you want. What this flexibility means is that you can convert any existing material into interactive formats, which basically saves you time and money. 

Increased revenue

Every marketer’s end goal is to increase revenue and interactive marketing can help you reach that goal. 

This is all due to the personalized experience you can create using interactive content.

But don’t just take our word for it, check out the Next in Personalization 2021 Report from McKinsey.

According to this report, brands that excel at personalization generate an outstanding 40% more revenue. What brands do to achieve this number is simple: they tailor offerings and reach out to the right individual at the right moment. 

Clearly, you’ve got plenty to gain.

Still, we won’t lie; you’ll face some challenges down the road as well.

Keep reading to find out more.

The challenges of interactive marketing

While disappointing, there’s no such thing as a perfect marketing tactic.

Interactive marketing is no different.

However, if you know the challenges that await you, you can better prepare for them and find solutions.

Here are some of the most common challenges of interactive marketing.

• Content creation. To boost lead generation and keep users engaged, you need to constantly come up with high-quality and enticing content. 

The bad news is that this takes time and resources and requires a lot of creativity.

But don’t fret.

You can partner up with social media influencers and content creators to create user-generated content, which is unique, relatable, and trustworthy.

• Knowing the target audience. The truth is, you can’t create an engaging, personalized experience for potential customers or existing ones without knowing who they are.

You need to determine your target audience’s demographics, needs, and preferences to create the right interactive experiences.

Of course, none of this is easy, but interactive content tools can help.

Quizzes, polls, and surveys allow you to collect valuable information about your target audience and get customer feedback. 

For example, are fun and encourage users to leave a piece of themselves there, revealing their interests and preferences through the answers they provide.

Meanwhile, polls provide immediate feedback to specific questions, which help you see if your consumers’ opinion about a particular product changed.

Lastly, surveys let you get into the meat of the problem and more in-depth feedback, allowing you to get comprehensive feedback about your products or services. 

• Tracking and analytics. Tracking the success of your interactive marketing campaign is not easy at all.

After all, users will be interacting with your content across various channels.

And if you don’t track and analyze performance metrics, you won’t be able to tell which forms of interactive marketing are working and which are not.

For example, let’s say you have a shoe brand and you want to discover how many people are interested in a certain product. You open a social media poll and, after it’s done, you review the results. What you found is that 40% of people want to see that product more, while 60% want something new. 

Don’t worry — our knight in shining armor, Studio, will come to your rescue. 

With its real-time analytic capabilities, Studio can track basic usage and engagement metrics of the interactive content you create using it.

Now that you’ve got the gist, let’s move on to the types of interactive marketing you can use.

7 types of interactive marketing strategies and how to design them

All these types of interactive marketing will sound familiar at first.

After all, they’re all common content marketing tools that you might already be using.

But we’ll show you how to turn your old content marketing strategy into an interactive experience (with Ceros’ help, of course!). 

1. Blogs and articles

Blogs and articles remain very effective marketing tools because they attract and engage users with valuable information.

However, nobody has the time or patience to read long static content anymore. Not to mention that it can be really boring. 😴

So, it’s time to switch things up and create interactive articles.

It’s not rocket science! Interactive articles simply combine static text with interactive elements, such as the little animations that make the content more fun to peruse. 

Here’s an example of an interactive infographic you can add to your articles:

Image source: Ceros

And the results are amazing! You get a fun and interactive article people can read at their leisure, making the information more memorable and fun. Plus, aside from enhancing comprehension, it also boosts engagement as readers will spend more time interacting with the content than a static one. 

Top tips to create interactive articles:

• Add interactive infographics to make complex information more easily digestible.
• Use a slider to show before and after images to avoid static visuals.
• Add audio to your article to create a more immersive experience. For example, if someone is reading an article about Top 10 Beach Vacation Ideas, you can add ambient sounds that mimic the sea. Talk about immersive!

2. Email newsletters

Email marketing can be a very powerful marketing tool if used right.

The problem is that many e-commerce businesses spam their subscribers with annoying newsletters that end up in the trash folder without even being opened.

So, if you want to avoid that, it’s time to create interactive newsletters that your subscribers can’t resist.

These interactive newsletters include various types of eye-catching interactive elements that encourage reader participation, such as surveys, interactive images and GIFs, or countdown timers. In a nutshell, they focus on offering a personalized customer experience.

For instance, a cool survey like this is a great choice:

Image source: Ceros

Ceros Editor can help you quickly create and edit interactive content for your newsletters. How? Through powerful templates you can create, save, and reuse, also ensuring consistency in branding and layout. 

Plus, it’s super easy to create a newsletter with Ceros, as its drag-and-drop functionality is user-friendly even for those without much technical knowledge. 

Top tips to create interactive newsletters:

• Add a fun survey to get valuable customer feedback.
• Create an image carousel to showcase new products and promotions.
• Include a countdown timer to create a sense of urgency that will make users rush to buy your product or service.

3. Ebooks and whitepapers

Ebooks and whitepapers can work as truly educational tools.

Unfortunately, they can also be pretty boring. 🥱

Just think about a digital marketing ebook full of complex data and lots of figures that nobody understands.

But, if you turn it into an interactive ebook with elements that explain the content better and immerse the reader, it can actually become a best-seller.

In fact, any interactive elements you use will enhance comprehension and retention, while creating a unique experience for the reader.

Here’s an example of an educational video you can use:

Image source: Ceros

We know that writing an ebook or a whitepaper involves a lot of time for research and even more time for edits, so you’ll probably need to involve your team members.

To save you from the hassle, try MarkUp, a powerful annotation tool that allows all your colleagues to join the project, leave comments, and give feedback in real-time.

You can thank us later!

Top tips to create ebooks and whitepapers:

• Use video storytelling to explain complex ideas.
• Create interactive indexing that allows the reader to search for specific words and jump to the relevant sections.
• Use interactive annotations so the readers can leave notes you can later respond to.

4. Quizzes

We love interactive quizzes so much that we’ve decided to make them a category of their own. 😍

But you can include them in all the previous types of interactive marketing and many others.

Consumers enjoy interactive quizzes because they can learn something new about themselves or find out what product or service best suits their needs.

And since they can be a lot of fun, users are likely to share them on social media platforms, boosting your brand reach and awareness.

However, aesthetics are very important here, which is why you should use one of the quiz templates provided by Studio.

Check out the eye-catching design of this quiz:

Image source: Ceros

Top tips to create interactive quizzes:

• Come up with a creative idea for your quiz that’ll offer valuable information to your audience.
• Include high-quality product images in the quiz to increase brand awareness.

5. Interactive presentations

The days of static PowerPoint presentations are long gone.

So, if you want to keep up with the trend and keep your audience engaged, it’s time to make interactive presentations.

By including interactive elements in your presentation, you’ll grab your audience’s attention, keep them guessing, and help them understand your points better.

Top tips to create interactive presentations:

• Start with icebreaker questions or games that’ll surprise and excite your audience.
• Combine interactive diagrams with product demos to help people understand what you’re talking about.
• Use humor in your presentation to help your audience retain the information better.

6. Interactive websites

We all know first impressions matter and this is particularly true for websites. 

If a user doesn’t like what they see or your website simply doesn’t have that cool factor, you’re doomed.

So, it’s time for a revamp! 

Create a fresh, fun, interactive website that users can’t get enough of.

For example, you can include an interactive map like this:

Image source: Ceros

But don’t go overboard with interactive content because you risk overwhelming users.

Sometimes, less is more!

Top tips to create interactive websites:

• Add multimedia elements, like videos, interactive maps, or audio content.
• Use animations and transitions to make your content come to life when users hover over it.
• Add a chatbot that can answer users’ questions in real-time, 24/7 to enhance the user experience.

7. Videos and animations

Videos and animations are clearly the stars of the show when it comes to interactive marketing.

Are you wondering why?

Well, according to a 2024 Wyzowl survey, 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video! 😲

What more could you ever ask for?

Still, you must create high-quality and well-edited videos if you want them to be effective.

So, you’ll need a good camera and video editing software.

Then you can use MarkUp, so that all your team members can leave annotations on the video with useful feedback and suggestions.

Top tips to create videos:

• Use video tutorials to explain how your products work.
• Use video testimonials to build consumer trust and boost conversions.
• Collaborate with social media influencers to create user-generated video content showcasing your products.

***

Enough with theory!

Let’s look at some real-life examples.

3 examples of interactive marketing to inspire you

We weren't lying when we said Ceros can help you every step of the way.

But if you’re still skeptical, we thought we'd share some real-life examples of interactive marketing created with Ceros.

Disclaimer: We took all the images below from our website. ☺️

Example #1: Coldwell Banker luxury listing presentation

Check out the ‘before’ version of this presentation:

It feels very static, doesn’t it?

You look at it, but it has nothing more to offer you. It’s just a bunch of images thrown together, no animation, nothing to be enticing enough to invite you to spend more time on it. You’ll scroll through the page, read it, and that’s it. 

Basically, you can consider it a very plain infographic. 

However, the interactive version offers so much more. You get high-quality visuals, such as animations that give the presentation life. 

The design is minimal but effective. You can click on different elements in the presentation to read the information you actually care about. 

Take a look: 

Interactivity makes it more engaging and ultimately easier for you to decide if this is the right company to work with. 

And that’s not all!

There’s also this cool interactive map that you can click on to learn about the company’s global network.

I mean… they nailed it!

Example #2: HubSpot’s Marketing Secrets presentation

Here’s another one: 

They did a pretty good job with all those colorful infographics that make the content more easily digestible.

But it still looks like a boring report that will take forever to read.

So, what did they do?

They used this eye-catching Ceros design and added clear call-to-action buttons that you can’t resist clicking on.

And that’s not all!

Once you do click on the “Unlock the secret button”, you get this:

You can feel the anticipation building, right?

Now, you just have to hover over one of these numbered boxes and it unveils a marketing secret.

If it’s a secret you already know, you can simply move on.

But if you are curious to discover more about a secret, you can click on the “Find out more” CTA.

One click takes you to a new page where you learn all about the marketing secret you’re interested in.

Here, you can read the info while checking out an animated infographic.

And the best part is that they even added clickable buttons that you can use to share the presentation on social media platforms.

Example #3: Basil Hayden Gift Generator

We saved the best for last. 

As you can see, Basil Hayden started out with a simple quiz outline written in a Word document.

It included all the basic info, like the concept and the text they wanted to add.

While this is a good starting point for any quiz, what comes next is the most important part. They created a visually appealing quiz presentation page with cute animated visuals that drop down when you open the page.

After you read the brief presentation, you find out that the quiz will help you choose the right gift for any recipient.

By now, curiosity is already killing you, so you can’t wait to start the quiz.

Once you do, you get this:

entire experience more enjoyable.

Plus, you simply need to click on the preferred answer, and in the end, you discover the perfect gift for your recipient.

Easy peasy! We love it! 

***

We’ve had some fun, but now we need to get back to the serious stuff.🥺

How to create an interactive marketing strategy

To make sure you’ll put all our previous insights to good use, we created this short step-by-step guide to creating an interactive marketing strategy.

1. Start with clear strategy objectives. Every successful marketing strategy starts with clear objectives that help you stay focused along the way.

Make sure you set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound objectives, a.k.a. the SMART objectives. 🤓

So, don’t aim for the Moon!

2. Know and understand your audience. By using fun quizzes and polls, you can get to know your audience better, especially since they’re easily shareable. 

Then, analyze the collected data to find out where your audience likes to hang out.

For instance, you’ll find lots of Gen-Z on TikTok, but less of them hanging out on blogs.

So, once you know your audience you can tailor your interactive marketing strategy to match their demographics and preferences.

3. Create engaging content to match. Keep in mind you need to offer users valuable content.

So, it’s not wise to focus solely on interactivity, but on the information as well.

And this is where Ceros comes into play.

When you’re ready to start, use Editor’s user-friendly interface and go crazy with creativity. You have extensive creative freedom, allowing you to integrate various media types and interactive elements that boost user engagement. 

4. Track effectiveness and adjust. The most important step of every marketing strategy is tracking its effectiveness.

Don’t worry; if it’s not working out the way you want it to, you can adjust it.

But to do so, you need to know if something’s wrong in the first place.

While Studio is more focused on content creation, Ceros won’t leave you hanging. It provides integration options with third-party analytics platforms, like Google Analytics, so you can track user engagement and adjust your strategy accordingly. 

***

That’s it, we’re done.

Now, over to you!

Over to you!

Clearly, interactive marketing has plenty of benefits and you shouldn’t miss out on them.

And now that you know all the boring stuff, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice.

As always, Ceros has your back every step of the way.

To learn more about it, just book a free demo with Ceros.