Why Interactive Content is The Key to Engaging Young Audiences 

If you’re older than 30, you might remember a time before handheld Gameboys. If you’re over 40, you might even remember a time before Pacman. There’s a slim chance you’ll remember a time before television if you’re over 60, but we wouldn’t place any bets on it. 

If you’re a young person fresh out of school, on the other hand, chances are you’ll have grown up surrounded by interactive games and content of all sorts from the moment you were born. That means interactive content is key to reaching younger people.

Reaching out to younger audiences

If you want to achieve content optimization with young audiences, then it shouldn’t be too surprising that interactive content is a key component. With TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and the like rife among the youth of today, a newspaper ad in black and white that your grandmother might have spotted when she was looking for garden center deals ain’t gonna cut it.

Image sourced from mediafly.com

So what counts as interactive content?

Interactive content is any type of material that involves encouraging users to actively engage with it. This interaction can be with things like quizzes, videos, infographics, calculators, and more. While brands often wait for feedback about their content from users through likes and reactions, interactive content is much more active.

It’s a more exciting approach for the user, and can set brands apart from competitors. 

The user has to interact with the material in order to receive any information they want instead of just reading a piece of text.

Interactive content also lets brands know whether people have consumed their material or just seen it and skipped past.

Quizzes

Quizzes have been around for a while, probably because most people are dying to know which Disney princess they are. Buzzfeed tests are an obvious example, but brands have harnessed them to get folks from Boomers to Gen Z engaging with content as well. 

Sometimes used to educate, sometimes just to entertain, they can have multiple functions, the ultimate being to get people engaging with the brand. If they can go viral, so much the better. 

Sometimes quizzes are a way to learn more about the brand itself. An environmentally-friendly detergent company could ask users some multiple choice questions such as “how many household product containers are recycled each year?”. This is a good way to pique the interest of your target audience. 

Calculators

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

Calculators are a useful way to show people how VoIP phone services might be financially viable for a customer. Something as simple as showing that the number of coffees you consume each month cost you more than the price of a VoIP phone service subscription might sway some people to pick that provider. 

You could go further and show how your product is competitively priced compared to other providers. If your target audience is eco-friendly, you could have a tool that allows them to calculate the carbon footprint of each product compared to the average available on the market. 

Infographics

Infographics are a vibrant visual way to share data with an audience, but they can be made even more attractive with interactive aspects. These allow the reader to engage more deeply with the content. You can incorporate interactive buttons, facts, and statistics, as well as sound and visual effects.

Landing pages

The main function of landing pages is to generate conversions above all else. If you can add an interactive aspect to landing pages, you can get a visitor to leave their contact information and become a lead. That usually means you need to build a form and place it on your site.

Lookbooks

A lookbook is made up of photographs that the user can flip through. It’s frequently used by photographers and fashion companies. While they are often static pictures you can scroll through, you can add interactive elements to make them pop. 

Questionnaires

While similar to quizzes, questionnaires tend to be a little more in-depth and serious. As well as offering entertainment, questionnaires can also help customers find the right product to meet their needs. An omnichannel contact center could use questionnaires to help guide leads towards the right product or service for them. 

This is also a useful way to gather data about the consumer in order to find out where they are on their customer journey. This provides the basis for marketing decisions and best sales pitches. 

Videos

Videos are already more exciting than static content, but you can make them interactive with buttons the user can press to make the story move in a particular direction. 

Benefits of interactive content

Now that we’ve delved into some ideas for your interactive content, let’s look more closely at some of the benefits:

Fun

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

The number one reason for adding interactivity is to make your content more fun. The more fun it is, the more young audiences will want to engage with it. We have upped the stakes for what constitutes fun. Long gone are the days when a pack of gum and a yoyo would suffice. Now smartphones are bursting with distracting elements – they’ve raised the bar. 

The only way to capture the attention of young folks is to stand out even further from the clamor. 

Added information

Interactive components add both value in terms of fun and also information. An interactive map included in a blog maker can be educational, and drill home key information in a way that’s easier and faster to absorb. You can combine a whole host of aspects in an interactive setting that you just can’t in a static one. 

Videos, maps, infographics – they can combine multiple elements for an informative user experience. 

Innovation

Not only have our attention spans shortened, and our desire for information increased – we are also not easily impressed. We have grown to expect and respect innovation. When a company finds innovative ways to convey solutions and messages, it’s not only practical. It also conveys the strong message that they are trustworthy and intelligent, and capable of producing new ideas that create a great user experience.

Data

Engagement is much easier to measure with interactive content since you can keep track of the interactions. As well as seeing how long a person spends on a particular part of your website, you can also see how much they interacted with some aspect of your content. 

Has the consumer actually consumed the material, or did they just scroll through? Now you can find out. 

To summarize…

Interactive content allows you to not only offer a more fun and engaging experience for your young consumers (who have grown up surrounded by entertainment and flashing lights). It also gives you a more useful way to measure that engagement. 

You can see if someone was merely scrolling through passively, or whether they were engaged enough to interact. Using this information, you can fine-tune your strategy and create even better content next time.

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