Static marketing is a thing of the past. Consumers aspire to connect with brands, submit ideas, interact with content or participate in the future products creation. As a result, traditional strategies don’t work as they used to. These are brands that opt for interactive marketing to engage their audience, create a bond with their community and build customer loyalty.
In this article, we share the keys to interactive marketing. We also explain which levers to use and which strategy to put in place to boost brand awareness and maximise conversions.
What is interactive marketing?
Capturing consumers’ attention has become the hobbyhorse of marketing professionals. This is true when you consider that every day.., the average person is exposed to over 1,200 advertisements.
As a result, attracting your audience’s attention has become complex. To engage consumers who are bombarded with advertising messages, companies need to stand out from the crowd.
And that’s where interactive marketing comes in.
Interactive marketing involves engaging your audience by inviting them to interact with your content. It is not a one-way communication (like a TV ad or a publication on social networks), but a dialogue between the brand and its audience (prospects and customers).
The different types of interactive marketing
The definition of interactive marketing is very broad and can encompass numerous levers/media. To better understand what it’s all about, it’s interesting to go into practice with examples of interactive campaigns.
Brands that opt for interactive marketing can use several types of formats:
A sports video competition to challenge game fans
Marketing games are interactive by nature. They allow you to engage your audience by encouraging them to take part in a competition to win gifts. To do this, they can take a quiz, complete a test or throw a one-armed bandit. Its a good way to collect first party data (via the participation form).
Launch a poll or survey
Another excellent way of engaging your audience is to ask questions or ask for their opinion. Polls and surveys allow you to start a discussion and find out more about habits and expectations.
This customer feedback will be valuable to improve the shopping experience. Companies can activate this data by personalising their mailings according to the responses given by their audience.
Encourage the creation of UGC (User Generated Content)
Brands can also engage their audience by encouraging them to create content around their product and then share it on their communication channels. UGC is a way of enhancing your customers’ value. It also permits to generate authentic content, ideal for gaining visibility and animating your community.
Sharing playable ads
Unlike advertising, playable ads are interactive. This is what makes them stand out in today’s advertising landscape which is becoming saturated. The person viewing the ad will take part in a marketing game to discover a new product or win a gift.
The interactive format is ideal for engaging your audience by adding CTAs into the video to encourage them to discover a product sheet.
Personalised content and interactive storytelling
Consumers like to feel valued by brands. And personalisation is a way of showing that they are heard and understood. The act of sending an email to a recipient (mentioning their first and last name) can be a form of interactive marketing.
The first-party data collected through marketing games is a way of personalising your e-mailing or creating an interactive brand story, incorporating comments, testimonials and opinions from your customers.
What are the advantages of interactive marketing?
Interactive marketing offers a number of advantages:
Greater visibility and brand awareness
Creating fun and original interactive content gives a positive and modern aura. According to a study by Ion Interactive, interactive content increases retention of the commercial message by 79% compared with static content.
Greater audience engagement
Interactive content creates an experience that makes the brand-customers relationship fun and rewarding. Consumers are encouraged to act (by taking part in a game or producing content), in exchange for rewards. But above all, they feel listened to and have a sense of participating in the activity.
Greater brand loyalty
Consumers are loyal to brands whose values and message are aligned with their own. By creating an experience that is personalised and lively, companies will be able to increase their website retention rate.
Instant feedback
Interactive marketing allows you to evaluate how your audience interacts with your content. By responding to a survey or publishing UGC (such as a crash test or review), consumers can easily share what they think of a company, enabling it to improve what needs to be improved.
Getting started in interactive marketing
To get started with interactive marketing, we recommend that you :
- Define your target audience: this is a step in directing your interactive marketing strategy towards the right content format, also towards the best distribution channels;
- Identify the triggers or the action to be taken: the prospect will have to complete them to start the interactive process. This could be a marketing game, a competition on social networks or even a chat window on their website.
- Determine the expected response: the company may want to encourage its audience to sign up for its newsletter or generate traffic. In this case, the interactive content and CTA should be geared towards this goal.
- Evaluate the impact of your interactive campaign: determine the KPI’s to monitor to find out if customers are reacting as expected and if strategy is effective in maximising conversions or boosting visibility.
- Adjust and optimise your strategy: the brand can make improvements to its content based on the data collected. Ultimately, it will be able to optimise its campaigns to increase effectiveness and profitability.
Want to get started with interactive marketing? Discover our different interactive formats to engage your audience and create a unique bond with your prospects.
