What is interactive content?

Interactive content is any form of content that a visitor or user of a website can manipulate or interact with. Common interactive content includes click-triggered graphical animations, tests, stand-alone applications, and interactive maps.

Why is interactive content so effective?

Why do many content marketers think interactive content is the "next big thing"?

neil-patel - interactive content

When it comes to content marketing, engagement is key. You don't want people landing on your page and bouncing off. Ideally, your content should have an emotional impact on readers. Excitement, eagerness, surprise… these emotions help people Latest Mailing Database connect with your brand, which aids in sales and lead generation.

However, this sentiment is difficult to associate with static content. For example, the interactive " Snowfall " article in The New York Times is more emotionally engaging than your average blog post.

According to SurveyMonkey , 33% of marketers say capturing users' attention is a challenge. In a trend of ever-shortening attention spans, interactive content grabs people’s attention more than blogs or videos.

Interactive content is growing. But it's still very rare. So when you create something interactive, it helps your content stand out. This means people are more likely to share (and link to) your content.

For example, panoramic content in Exxon's digital marketing services .

Users can get more picture content by simply dragging and clicking.

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of a company.

Best Practices

1. Make interactive content beautiful and fast

One of the hardest things about interactive content is making it both beautiful and fast. Both are important for great success.

When it comes to animation, less is more. The more complex the animation, the slower and more cluttered the page will be. Use Google's PageSpeed ​​Insights and Pingdom tools to measure how fast your pages load and get suggestions to speed them up.

Know how to interact (on mobile and desktop). For example, a simple call to action could be added to a video list to make it clear that users can filter the list.

Hire a designer. Unless you are a professional graphic designer, you may need to work with professionals to make your interactive content look great. You can find designers on platforms like UpWork , Dribble , and 99Design .

2. Different types of interactive content

There are many types of interactive content. Here is a list of interactive content types you can try:

Tools and Calculators

Assessments, Polls and Tests

Interactive graphics, maps and timelines

application

Interactive test

Interactive white paper

Panoramic video

Forums, Webinars and Q&A / Interactive Advertising

Interactive infographics

3. Examples of interactive content

Let's take some examples of interactive content.

Nerdwallet Rent vs Buy Calculator

nerdwallet - Rental and Sales Comparison Calculator

Canva Palette Generator

canva-color generator

Polls on Twitter (results only shown after people voted, encouraging participation)

twitter-survey

WooRank SEO Evaluation Tool

woorank

Pudding Kennel Report

Kennel Report

" Jeopardy " in Alexa

alexa-jeopardy

QuickBooks Community Forum

quickbooks - Community Forum

BuzzFeed famous survey

buzzfeed-survey

4. Optimize interactive content for social sharing

Because interactive content is so unique and compelling, people often prefer to share it on social media without any push. But there are a few things you can do to increase share odds and numbers.

Use AddToAny or ShareThis .

By using click-to-tweet or photo-sharing pluginsInclude contextual sharing tips

After providing the results of an assessment, test or calculator, create a "Share your results" call to action to encourage more sharing.

5. Optimize Interactive Content for RankBrain

Google's RankBrain algorithm is one of the top three ranking factors. One of RankBrain's main jobs is understanding what content best meets the needs of people searching for different keywords. Top performing content gets better rankings.

Google likes two different types of content: the first one that solves a problem or gives an answer quickly.

The second type of content can extend the dwell time and keep people engaged and interested.