Many aspects of business have evolved over the years, and marketing is no exception. While some traditional marketing approaches will never go out of style and remain the pillars of marketing, interactive marketing is becoming less of a trend and more of a staple as of late. Its effectiveness is what makes interactive marketing so valuable, and we would be amiss if we didn’t encourage you to slip some interactive marketing into your strategy whenever you can. So, what is interactive marketing?
What is interactive marketing?
Interactive marketing, simply put, is a marketing strategy that allows your audience to connect with, experience, or discover something new about your brand. It draws customers in by allowing them to interact with the content and typically invites them to invest time or money at the end (i.e. try a program, make a purchase, etc). It puts them in the driver’s seat a bit, letting them explore your brand at their own pace.
Examples of interactive marketing
The best way to understand interactive marketing is to look at some examples.
EveryDollar: Dave Ramsey’s budgeting app released a story on their Instagram profile recently that serves as a great example of interactive marketing. The EveryDollar Insta story featured an “Are You a Spender or a Saver?” quiz with a “swipe up” link. The quiz was by Rachel Cruz, well-known voice in the budgeting sphere and daughter of finance guru Dave Ramsey. It ends with an “enter your email for your results” page (which gets her brand and message into your email inbox) and a link to buy her new book Know Yourself, Know Your Money. Cleverly packaged as a handy tool to help you understand your spending personality, this quiz also turned out to be an interactive marketing campaign. It piques your interest, gets you to interact with the brand, and then invites you to buy the product.
Project Runway: Another excellent example of interactive marketing appears on the reality TV show Project Runway. Occasionally, the design challenges turn into “flash sale challenges,” where the winning look is produced and available for purchase on bravotv.com. It’s a great deal all around: it gives the designers exposure by putting their clothes directly into the closets of viewers; it allows viewers to interact with the show in a more personal way than they ever have before by owning a piece of the show; and it gives the producers free publicity by turning viewers into walking billboards! “That’s a stunning dress.” “Thanks! It’s a Project Runway look.”
Other examples of interactive marketing include:
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Giveaways (e.g. “comment for a chance to win…”)
- Live videos
- GIFs
- Calculators
- Interactive videos
- Generators
- Interactive flow charts
Why should I implement interactive marketing into my brand strategy?
You need to add interactive marketing to your tool belt because it works. With interactive marketing, you’re able to turn a passive customer into an active customer. Participating with a brand helps customers commit the experience to their long-term memory, instead of seeing your content and immediately forgetting about it 5 minutes later. The value of interactive marketing goes beyond being memorable, though. It develops your identity and can translate into sales. Interactive marketing lets your brand speak for itself, and that’s a powerful thing.
“Interactive marketing can boost sales, enhances customer satisfaction, lowers marketing costs, and opens the door to automated marketing.”
–– Molly Galetto, NGDATA