Interactive marketing is a set of practices and techniques designed to encourage public interaction with your company. That is, it is an extremely effective strategy to increase engagement and, thus, allow the optimization of your Marketing actions.
We will focus on the growing importance of the customer experience in their purchasing decisions. Modern consumers prefer to be humanized rather than being a mere number on spreadsheets.
This understanding guides most Content Marketing strategies, which aim to establish a relationship of trust with people, first attracting them and then converting them into leads. For that, it is necessary to create unique and attractive experiences, in an attempt to overcome the great competition in that market.
That’s where Interactive Marketing comes in.
By using elements with interactivity features, it is possible to optimize all the stages of your sales funnel, from attraction to conversion, through nutrition.
Do you want to know more about that?
In this article, you will discover:
What is Interactive Marketing?
In what areas can this strategy be useful?
How to carry out an Interactive Marketing strategy?
Read on and take a look!
What is interactive marketing?
Interactive marketing is, basically, a marketing strategy, whose main objective is to connect with customers, or future customers, taking into account the interests and needs of each user.
Today’s consumers seek to be heard and included in the processes of a brand, which means that they want to feel part of it. And precisely interactive marketing allows generating that interaction between the brand and the customer, placing the user at the center of everything.
For example, if you frequently use Amazon, you have probably seen a fully customized product carousel based on your previous purchases or searches and, of course, according to your preferences. This is called interactive marketing, where you are part of the process of creating marketing strategies.
What is interactive marketing for?
Interactive marketing is changing the way brands engage with their customers. Well, today the customer has the opportunity to add value to brands, beyond the purchase action.
What makes interactive marketing attractive and inspiring?
Interactive marketing has many advantages that you cannot miss.
✔️ You can meet your customers in real-time since their preferences and interests are revealed based on their reaction and interactivity with your brand.
✔️ It allows you to interact with your customers on multiple channels, as users navigate on different platforms, for example, online forums, social networks, etc. The more their engagement with your brand, the more they will become your followers.
✔️ You can create disruptive and personalized content, making users live new experiences.
✔️ It helps you to retain your customers, since you satisfy their main needs and demands, providing them with an effective long-term solution.
Knowing who your target audience is, knowing their interests and what their behavior is like is key to the development of your digital marketing strategy.
To carry out your interactive marketing campaign, it is essential to know the preferences of your buyer persona and allow a feedback space, where the process of creating the marketing strategy is carried out among many participants.
Types of interactive marketing
Email Marketing
This marketing strategy is a low-cost way, in which you get subscribers by email. This way you can send announcements, special offers, newsletters, and much more by email. Additionally, customization can be done by segmenting the email list based on gender, previous purchases, or likes and dislikes. Later we will explain how to ensure that users do not ignore your email marketing content.
Content Marketing
This marketing strategy can make your brand stand out from the competition. Infographics, videos, and podcasts are some of the tactics that go into content marketing. Content is the main asset of interactive marketing. Gustavo Serrano, our professor of the Content Marketing for Social Networks course, concisely defines the content:
“The content is all that piece that lives in any medium, that will generate an emotion. Good content translates into emotion ”.
Search Engine Marketing
Do you want to reach the top positions in search engines? Search engine optimization (SEO) is an interactive marketing tactic that helps you climb a position in Google search results. Through this, you can attract more potential customers and retain existing customers.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing encompasses the strategies of a brand to capture leads, convert more customers or retain existing ones with the channels of mobile devices. In recent years, customers have begun to focus their attention (and money) on this type of interactive marketing. Because of this, brands are doing the same to create true omnichannel engagement and to keep potential buyers’ attention. Therefore, the content must be strategic and highly personalized.
Social media marketing
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are some of the most relevant social networks for interactive marketing.
52% of the world’s population uses social networks. An opportunity to create the marketing strategies that will allow the reach of your business to extend to the digital world.
Examples of interactive marketing
How to create interactive content without making it look complex? With the help of technology and a growing list of interactive marketing tools, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
If you can’t find ideas on how to incorporate interactive marketing into your brand, we are here to help. We share some examples of high-impact interactive marketing to inspire you in your next marketing strategy.
1. Launch contests on your social networks.
From giveaways to photo contests on social media, this interactive marketing strategy is an ideal way to capture your audience’s attention. Well, appeal to the innate tendency to get things for free. And who does not want, sometimes, to have their favorite product without paying anything? Contests can be extremely relevant to a target audience. If you manage to present an attractive prize you can reduce the potential participants. Ask your followers to share your content. This is one of the best interactive marketing ideas, as you can get a lot of benefits, without investing too much.
Let’s remember the most famous interactive marketing campaign launched by Apple: Taken with iPhone. What did it consist of? The Steve Jobs brand asked users to personally test the camera’s performance, share the photos on their social media, thereby further increasing the recognition of the already world-famous brand
3. Send interactive emails
In most cases, email marketing belongs to static marketing approaches, that is, images without movement. However, you can turn it into interactive email marketing How? Add a GIF image or video, pretend the user is on your web page.
For example, the youth fashion brand Forever 21 always bets on these contents with dynamism and interactivity to captivate the attention of its customers. In this way, they offer a more immersive experience in their emailing campaigns.
4. Create surveys to find out what your customers think
One of the benefits of this type of interactive marketing, compared to a quiz or contest, is that it is usually faster to complete. Yes, polls can be highly relevant, fun, and certainly shareable. But, they are the best for getting quick responses from your target audience. For example, you can use surveys to make important marketing decisions, like changing your logo
5. Use the chatbot to get closer to your customers
A chatbot is a familiar way to interact, stay in touch, provide personalized content, and answer user questions while freeing up your support team. Also, this is an interactive marketing tool, which is always with you, and your clients can use it however they want, depending on the questions and needs they have at the moment. For example, the fast-fashion brand H&M had an interactive marketing campaign based on a chatbot that runs constantly, allowing you to choose and combine outfits, find out what sizes are available in the nearest store, and place an instant order.
6. Make virtual reality a channel to reach your customers
Virtual and augmented reality experiences are a growing trend that will become even more relevant because many people don’t want to visit crowded malls again. For example, IKEA and many other commercial giants already use this approach. Its augmented reality application allows users to see how the chosen furniture will fit into the interiors of their home.
Now you know that interactive marketing is not that complex. What’s more, some of the marketing strategies may be almost free, but they offer a lot in return. Your customers are probably already waiting for something exciting, so start using interactive marketing!