In a previous article we talked about how interactive content is the current state of the art in content marketing: rather than asking your audience to sit through a video or remember one of the thousands of pictures they might see in their Facebook feed each day, you can give them an easy activity that produces a result, much like a game.

 

People are wired to do things in order to get results, not to sit passively and get told what to do. Video game designers talk about a ‘hedonic treadmill’, the steady drip of rewards at regular intervals that keep a player engaged. You can use the same principles to design experiences that keep people engaged:

 

 

Quizzes: Buzzfeed has become famous for its quizzes that ask often bizarre questions to come up with a weird, non-sequitur answer. What makes them fun is that every question is surprising and entertaining- there’s usually no ‘pick your favorite colour’ or animal questions and they’ll often go on strange tangents rather than taking a predictable path. Facebook has an app that allows you to put quizzes on your page for your current and future clients.

 

Calculators: Businesses from real estate to financial services often use calculators to work out the cost of a mortgage or return on an investment. Any company with a variable cost for their products can help their customers with a calculator: find the cost of getting a granite countertop based on the square footage and material, design a log cabin and get a quote on the price. Using graphics and interactivity to make calculators more than just spreadsheets will encourage their use.

 

Trivia: Everybody loves to feel smart, and trivia quizzes allow them to do so and share their results with their friends. The rule with trivia quizzes is to avoid trying to promote your company (‘Mountain Dew is a) refreshing, b) delicious or c) deliciously refreshing’). Just entertain people: once they start having a good time with your brand the sales will follow.

 

Tournaments: A simple ‘who would win’ survey with multiple rounds and brackets is something guaranteed to get people coming back: people get invested in ‘their’ answer, they get into arguments (which you’ll have to moderate if they get too heated) and they come back to see who won. Anyone who has seen how engaged people get with sports will know how powerful a tournament can be in terms on engagement.

 

 

Infographics: We’ve probably all seen an infographic at one point in our lives, and they have become so prevalent that there are websites devoted to nothing but making them, like Canva and Venngage. Static infographics are all well and good, but they can be enhanced with interactivity, movement and even video to become a fully-featured experience.

 

Your audience is getting more resistant to marketing all the time, almost as if they’re acquiring immunity to each new mutation of the marketer’s playbook. Well-designed interactivity draws people in by giving them exactly what they came online to find: fun.

 

If you’re interested in Content Marketing for your business, click here to find out more!