THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE CONTENT …...generates. A study by Socialbakers.com found that visual posts and interactive content saw the most engagement— accounting for a whopping

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

INTERACTIVE CONTENT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

© 2015 Designhill.com / [email protected]

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ABOUT DESIGNHILL

Designhill is one of the fastest growing custom design marketplaces that give small business and startups the power to drive engagement, generate leads and increase revenue by sourcing affordable, durable and creative graphic designs.

Businesses can select from a range of customizable graphic designs including logos, business cards, website design, social media page designs and infographics, that make it easy to attract sales and build brand awareness.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Definition

2. History

3. Mechanics

4. Types

5. Impact on B2B Marketers

1. Future of Interactive Con-

tent

2. Why Interactive Content is

The Next Big Thing?

1. Significance

2. Generating Clicks

3. Driving Conversion

4. Boosting Social Signals

5. Impact on Consumers

6. Challenges And Solutions

7. Influential Brands Leverag-

ing Interactive Content

1. Creation

2. Top Interactive Content

Tools

3. Leveraging Responsive

Design

4. Promotion & Marketing

5. Impact of Interactive Con-

tent on Content Marketing

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INTRODUCTION TO

INTERACTIVE CONTENT

CHAPTER 1

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Interactive content is a specific piece of

content aimed at engaging participants

or readers, more than simply reading or

watching. In fact, interactive content is a

seamless integration of digital media into

structured content including combinations

of electronic text, graphics, moving

images, and sound to make sure that users

are able to effectively interact with the data

or information.

Creating and delivering interactive content

comes packed with umpteen rewards for

businesses. Snapapp reveals that by

adding interactive content to their content

marketing strategy, businesses can

significantly improve prospect

engagement; achieving 50% click rates on

their content, over 80% content comple-

tion rates and 40% lead form conversions.

As we’re moving ahead in the 21st century,

it’s becoming increasingly important for

businesses to offer value driven

interactive content with effective call to

action including voting, quiz and

assessments to enhance engagement,

drive traffic and generate leads.

01. DEFINITION

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The history of interactive content dates back to 1812. Since time immemorial, we humans have been curious and excited to interact with the

medium of a story’s creation. That impulse to take part in the construction of a story has spurred everything right from the

interactive games to the cutting edge interactive documentaries online today. Now, let’s explore the history of interactive content.

02. HISTORY

The Prussian Army made tactical war games to educate their officers.

1812

The average spend on custom content crosses

nearly $20 billion.

2001

Interactive game Zork was born. This game

used written descriptions, prompts, and commands.

1980

Enemy Within, first interactive web

documentary was introduced to the world.

2004

The Elastic Charles allowed users to interact with the story and shape it by organizing clips and

creating links.

1989

LiveVault’s John Cleese Video targeting IT

managers goes viral. (before Youtube).

2005

Flash was born. It changed the game by

giving computer users an easy to use software

animation tool.

1996

Blendtec uploads first video on you tube through

series “will it bend”?

2007

Penton custom media in Cleveland Ohio starts

the term “Content Marketing”.

1998

P&G launches beinggirl.com. P&G’s

content site for teen girls. The content site

gets hit.

2008

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A study conducted by Demand Metric

Research Corporation reveals that

interactive content generates 2X more

conversions than static content and

generates conversions moderately or very

well 70% of the time, compared to 36% for

static content.

Static content unfolds as a one-way

dialogue and ends up boring today’s

always connected and ever curious

netizens. On the other hand, interactive

content is like a value driven two way

dialogue. It engages and attracts inter-

est and ensures that your audience don’t

get away, at least not right that instant, or

any-time soon. And by the time they do,

your business, service and product would

already, probably, have worked their magic

on them.

There’s so much white noise out there on

the web that it has become difficult for

businesses to stand out and capture

target audience’s interest right from the

get-go. Remember, the rule of the game is

simple: you’ve got to get—and hold—the

attention of your target audience. And hold

it long enough until they’ve paid for your

product or service.

03. MECHANICS

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04. TYPES

There are many different types of interactive content. And each content type has its own unique work flow and unique set of ability to pro-

duce a unique, personal experience for users. Let’s explore some of the most popular types of Interactive Content.

ASSESSMENT

TIMELINES INTERACTIVE MICROSITES

CONTESTS CHARTS / DATA VISUALS

INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHICS

CALCULATORS QUIZZES POLLS & SURVEYS

WHITE PAPER

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05. IMPACT ON B2B MARKETERS

90%of organizations now mar-

ket with content, according

to Demand Metric.

35%marketers using content

marketing are more like-

ly to succeed, according to CMI’s 2015

B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks and

Trends.

36%of marketers say that pas-

sive content is effective at

engaging visitors/buyers.

86% B2B marketers use con-

tent marketing, according

to CMI’s 2015 B2B Content Marketing

Benchmarks and Trends.

83% of B2B marketers use

content marketing for lead

generation, according to Socialmediab2b.

com.

84% of B2B marketers use it for

brand awareness, accord-

ing to CMI’s 2015 B2B Content Marketing

Benchmarks and Trends.

62% lesser expensive is content

marketing as compared to

traditional marketing, according to De-

mand Metric.

90%86%

62%

35%

83% 84%

36%

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WHAT DO INFLUENCERS SAY

“Interactive content is the difference between followers and fans. Engaged fans turn into paying customers..”

MICHELLE MCCULLOUGHSpeaker, Strategist, Serial Entrepreneur, - @startupprincess

“Text is dead, visual is the future.”

MARIA PERGOLINO professional content marketer - @InboundMarketer

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WHY

INTERACTIVE CONTENT IS IMPORTANT FOR

SMALL BUSINESSES?

CHAPTER 2

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Your content often precedes actual

introductions. And it is perhaps the most

vital factor that influences the buying

decision of your visitors. But when

everyone’s creating customer oriented

content, how do you make your content

stand out? This is where interactive content

comes to your rescue. It provides the kind

of ‘stickiness’ that marketers and brands

are looking for.

Leveraging interactive content offers great

value both to the audience and businesses.

Audience Value

Marketer Value

• Entertainment

• Education

• Evaluation

• Information

• Engagement

• Conversion

• Lead Generation

• Qualification

In fact, Hubspot reveals that interactive

content ruled the roost in the past 12

months. Some of the most

prominent interactive content that

impacted B2B marketing included White

Papers (78%); Case Studies (73%); Webi-

nars (67%); eBooks (58%); Videos (58%);

Blog Posts (56%); Infographics (52%).

01. SIGNIFICANCE

WHITEPAPER 78%

CASE STUDIES 73%

WEBINARS 67%

E-BOOKS 58%

VIDEOS 58%

BLOG POSTS 56%

INFOGRAPHICS 52%

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One of the best things about interactive

content is the degree of interaction it

generates. A study by Socialbakers.com

found that visual posts and interactive

content saw the most engagement—

accounting for a whopping 87% of total

interactions. It’s no wonder as 3M

Corporation and Zabisco reveal that 90%

of information transmitted to the brain is

visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X

faster in the brain than text. And 40% of

people will respond better to visual infor-

mation than plain text.

Remember, the more engaging and

entertaining the content is, the more likely

are people to click on it.

Oracle.com says that businesses that use

interactive content consistently average a

50% click through rate, and an over 80%

form submission rate. This is because the

interesting and engaging experience

interactive content provides to readers.

Wether it is social media or older channels

like websites, blogs, and email accounts,

personal, relevant interactions between

businesses and/or consumers is the only

way to increase the click through rate.

02. GENERATING CLICKS

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Over the years, content overload has de-

sensitized buyers to unremarkable content.

In fact, a new research by Demandmetrics.

com found out that passive content

marketing isn’t fuelling buyers down sales

and marketing pipelines with enough force.

Instead, interactive content is the new

factor that drives conversions for

businesses.

This is the result of the dramatic shift of

buyers interest from passive content to

content with which they can interact.

Marketeer.kapost.com reveals that 60%

marketers who’ve adopted interactive

content strategies are able to generate

70% more conversions as compared to

just 36% for passive content.

Marketeer.kapost.com reveals that inter-

active content generates 2x more con-

versions than passive content. So for

businesses, it has become increasingly

important to create interactive, dynamic

content to captivate buyers and immerse

them in a content experience. This is the

type of content you need as far as driving

conversions is concerned.

03. DRIVING CONVERSION

INTERACTIVECONTENT

CONVERSIONS

PASSIVECONTENTCONVERSIONS

70% 36%

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Social media is perhaps one of the most

important platforms for businesses, these

days. But effectively measuring the impact

of your social media content in relation

to social conversions including ‘Likes’,

‘Shares’ or ‘Follow’ is almost impossibly

complicated.

Interactive content opens up a window of

engagement for social media users. They

love the gobs of content they may interact

with as they easily segment and dissect

data according to their needs and require-

ments. Such social media interactions lead

to form completions or recommendations

which is clearly social conversion for com-

panies. Snapapp reveals that four out of

five times people share relevant informa-

tion based on the value of their interac-

tions.

Mediapost.com says that social conversion

has a lot more legs than any single event.

Simply Measured reveals that interactive

content drives more engagement on

social media. In fact, just one month after

the introduction of Facebook time line for

brands, visual content -- photos and vid-

eos -- saw a 65% increase in engagement.

04. BOOSTING SOCIAL SIGNALS

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60% of customers say they feel more positive about a brand after reading custom content

on its site, according to Content +.

69% of people trust an organization’s educational content, according to Kentico.

50% of consumer time online is spent engaging with custom content, according to

HubSpot.

73% of consumers get frustrated by irrelevant web content, according to HubSpot.

70% of consumers prefer to get to know a company through original articles, according to

Content+.

90% of consumers find custom content useful, 78% believe the organizations behind the

content are interested in building good relationships, according to McMurray/TMG.

Stats – Challenges

58% marketers say that their content does not create opportunity for engagement.

9% of content marketers feel a lack of time is their greatest challenge. (Source: CMI)

05. IMPACT ON CONSUMERS

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Interactive content outperforms passive

content at three critical marketing functions

– producing prospect conversions,

educating the buyer, and creating

differentiation from competitors. While

interactive infographics are fairly resource

and cost heavy, the ROI from them is also

heavy. The traffic, links, ad revenue, and

branding from interactive content is well

worth the time and cost invested in

creating them.

06. CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Challenge # 1: ROI

B2Bmarketing.net reveals that 50% businesses believe tracking ROI is the biggest challenge.

Solution:

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Help


Re-purposing your existing content and

turning it into interactive infographic, polls

or surveys, microsite or other types of

interactive content can easily help you

increase your brand impact without

having to painfully curate, compile and

create fresh content.

Challenge # 2: Content Productivity

Socialmediab2b.com reveals that 54% of B2B Marketers see producing engaging content as their biggest challenge.

Solution:

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With interactive content, you challenge

users to participate, vote, assess, enter —

thereby making them active versus passive

recipients. This helps you collect real time

data which eventually helps you measure

the impact of your content.

Challenge # 3: Measuring Impact

49% of B2B Marketers see measuring content effectiveness as their biggest challenge.

Solution:

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07. INFLUENTIAL BRANDS LEVERAGING INTERACTIVE CONTENT

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“We are seeing the rise of platforms…that communicate messag-es in a more visual way.”

JEFF BULLASsocial media marketing expert- @JeffBullas

“Sometimes explanations just lend themselves to a more visual representation.”

COREY ERIDONinbound marketing manager at HubSpot - @Corey_bos

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HOW TO EFFECTIVELY CREATE & PROMOTE

INTERACTIVE CONTENT?

CHAPTER 3

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Interactive content is certainly a big boon

for businesses. But developing an

interesting and engaging piece is easier

said than done! To make the process of

interactive content curation and creation,

businesses and marketers may share,

reuse and repurpose their existing content

in an interactive and interesting fashion.

Remember, finding creative and interactive

ways to engage with the audiences spells

the difference between a successfully

thriving business – and a failed one. But

how can you ensure that your interactive

content stands apart from the rest of the

insipid and woefully uninspired pieces of

creative work? In a word, details. So make

sure everything in your interactive content,

right from your topic to the content depth

and visuals speak to your target market

and resonates with them in the best way.

So that when people see your content, it’s

their experience, their voice, their taste

they see.

01. CREATION

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http://www.designhill.com/design-blog/5-ways-to-repurpose-your-static-content-into-interactive-content/

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02. TOP INTERACTIVE CONTENT TOOLS

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Mobify.com reveals that over 1.2 billion

people access the web from their mobile

devices and 61% of people have a better

opinion of brands when they offer a good

mobile experience. Quite naturally, it is

essential for businesses to ensure that

their interactive content is cross compatible

across different platforms and devices such

as smartphones, mobiles and tablets

without falling off on the parameters of

grid-lines and rules.

Beyond just making the design responsive,

do well to create a personalized

experience where users can also filter

the content and display only what is most

relevant to them. Keep in mind that over 50

percent of mobile users will not

engage with a brand that cannot a deliver

a high-quality mobile content, according to

Yahoo News. Regardless of how long you

have been in business that is a percentage

that you cannot afford to lose and give

away to your competitors.

03. LEVERAGING RESPONSIVE DESIGN

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With 93% of businesses doing extensive

content marketing, no longer are blogs

and articles the secret to inbound mar-

keting success. Interactive content has

become the talk of the town now. While the

challenge of interactive content is largely

in its creation, marketing it effectively is

still extremely important. It makes sense to

reduce friction and create promotion plans

to achieve the full ROI.

For successful promotion and marketing

of interactive content such as interactive

infographics, video, visual note-taking and

memes, do:

• Use photographs and videos of real

people whenever possible.

• Allow broad usage and insert embed-

ded calls to action.

• Involve participants.

• Encourage participants to share the

content.

• Market across multiple social platforms

04. PROMOTION & MARKETING

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05. IMPACT OF INTERACTIVE CONTENT ON CONTENT MARKETING

Articles with images receive 94% more views. (Source: Jeff Bullas)

Customers who receive email newsletters spend 82% more when they buy from the company. (Source: iContact)

Around 82% marketers who blog see positive ROI for their inbound marketing. (Source: HubSpot)

Approximately 73% of B2B marketers are producing more content than they did in 2014. (Source: CMI)

Over 32% marketers are producing significantly more content than they did in 2014. (Source: CMI)

Percentage of marketers who believe content is superior to direct mail and PR is 69%. (Source: CCC)

94%

82%

82%

73%

32%

69%

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Percentage of marketers who believe that branded content is more effective than magazine advertisements is 72%.

(Source: CCC)

Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%).

(Source: Aberdeen)

Year-over-year growth in unique site traffic is 7.8x higher for content marketing leaders compared to followers (19.7% vs 2.5%).

(Source: Aberdeen)

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.

(Source: DemandMetric)

Approximately 50.77% people believe content marketing improves ROI. (Source: Designhill)

72%

6X

7.8X

62%

50.7%

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“I would say that interactive content is better for small business-es because it can produce more customer engagement.”

KYLE ALSTONAuthor/Blogger - @chartermem07

“Break through a cluttered content landscape.”

HEIDI COHENLeading blogger and keynote speaker - @HeidiCohen

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WHAT ABOUT

THE FUTURE?

CHAPTER 4

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With passive content loosing its worth

and traditional content marketing already

a passé, interactive content seems to be

the future of content marketing. Inc.com

explains that interactive content won’t be

overwhelming as its new. It will be trusted

as it is personally customized. It’s more

valuable than traditional content marketing

as it’s personally informative. And because

it’s personally immersive, it’s a more

engaging experience.

In fact, Digitalsignagetoday.com quotes

Jessie Kim, the chief strategy officer for En-

plug, as saying “Interactive content will be

ubiquitous and invisible.” Going forward,

content marketing will be less about words

and images, and more about the holistic

experiences that you can create with

interactive content.

01. FUTURE OF INTERACTIVE CONTENT

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90% information transmitted to brain is visual and visuals are processed 60000 X faster in the brain than text.

Video consitutes 50% of all mobile traffic and 90% of Internet traffic.

Only 36% of marketers say that passive content is effective at engaging visitors/buyers.

70% of marketers say interactive content is effective at engaging visitors/buyers.

55% marketers say that passive content is effective at differentiating their brand.

88% marketers say interactive content is effective at differentiating their brand.

93% marketers rate interactive content as effective at educating the buyer.

86% businesses say that they are looking for ways to repurpose their content within the next 12 months.

02. WHY INTERACTIVE CONTENT IS THE NEXT BIG THING?

36%

90%

50%

70%

55%

88%

93%

86%

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80% of online visitors watch a video only 20% read the content. In 2014, 51% B2B marketers were using infographics as compared

to 38% in 2013.

20%

YEAR - 2013

38% 51%

YEAR - 2014

80%

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“Interactive content brings great opportunities to encourage more interest and engagement in your content.”

IAN CLEARYAward Winning Tech Blogger - @RazorSocial

“I think it goes without saying that interactive contentare absolutely crucial to small business success! ”

VIVEKA VON ROSENSpeaker, Trainer & Author of LinkedIn Marketing

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CONCLUSION

Now, that you know static content is dead,

its time to go interactive. Dynamic, Interac-

tive content offers endless opportunities to

deliver value to both your target audience

and your organization, in equal measures.

So, do well to turn your static content into

an engaging interactive experience for

your consumers and ensure your chances

to stand out above the white noise on the

web.

Engage with your prospects and

customers in a way that encourages

interaction and creativity. Go interactive

and save your efforts, time and cost spent

in engaging your prospects and

consumers. Grab the opportunity to stand

out from your competitors by delivering a

remarkable experience that will keep your

users engaged and coming back for more.

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WHAT’S AHEAD FOR YOU?

So, if you haven’t tapped the potential of

interactive content for your small busi-

ness, explore it’s umpteen opportunities,

before your competitor does! Don’t wait

any further, launch an illustration & graph-

ics design contest including logo designs,

website designs or infographic designs

contests at the world’s most reliable and

fastest-growing custom design marketplace

– Designhill and ensure your chances to

beat your competitors to the punch.

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LAUNCH A CONTEST NOWLAUNCH A CONTEST NOW


http://www.designhill.com/launch


Thank You

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THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE CONTENT …...generates. A study by Socialbakers.com found that visual posts and interactive content saw the most engagement— accounting for a whopping

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