At the recent Content Marketing World 2015 event, many of the speakers highlighted the evolution of content marketing and how new interactive technologies create new engagement opportunities.

As more content is posted online, in emails, and presented in webinars to clients every day, it is becoming quite a challenge to reach and create an impact on any target audience.  Companies need to work closely with their communications teams and agencies to make sure the solutions they implement are right for their particular needs. 

We would like to share with our readers some of the new functionalities that are emerging in the market.

In this issue we highlight five interactive content components:

* Surveys

* Interactive White Papers

* Configurators

* Quizzes

* Lookbooks 

Surveys

Surveys are showing up more on websites, Facebook, and in webinars. Market changes, media reports and a customer’s past experiences can all influence your audience’s perception of the industry. There may be an opinion that is widely held that could either prevent or drive involvement with retail automotive industry brands. Knowing these views can be vital to your marketing strategy when creating new content for your site.

Through surveys, you can gain insight into the choices people make when using services such as yours and what they may like/dislike concerning how the industry functions. Or gather information as to how they view different vendors or brands.  Responses gained from surveys can influence website copy, help determine blog post content and flesh out your FAQ page. Making simple content changes to important pages on your website could help increase sales and leads.  We have also had great success pulling trends from surveys and using them for press releases that help to create a lot of attention and further drive traffic to the company’s website. Surveys do not have to be expensive. A service like SurveyMonkey makes the process quite simple, at very little cost.

Interactive White Papers

White papers are a great way to convey detailed information. However, the standard format is a static PDF file.  An interactive white paper can be web based using tab navigation, animated graphics, infographics, and possibly a quiz or two.  This makes the experience both informative and enjoyable.  Offering a PDF version that incorporates some of the visual graphics of the online version is a good idea. This allows engaged readers to share or save the information presented.

Configurators

Configurators are popular as consumers enter the buying funnel.  Think about the “Build Your Vehicle” configurators on every vehicle manufacturer’s website.  They help an auto shopper view a virtual vehicle in a selected color and with all their preferred options.  Then the shopper can search to see if the “configured vehicle” is available in a local auto dealer’s inventory.  If a product or service can be customized, consider using a configurator.

Quizzes

An organization can take a small set of stats or facts and turn them into an online quiz to test the knowledge of their visitors.  These quizzes can utilize multimedia content and be embedded on most websites and blogs. Qzzr offers both a free and paid solutions for developing interactive quizzes.

Lookbooks

While Lookbooks originated in the fashion industry to highlight new collections, the concept has morphed into and been adopted in other verticals. Think of a Lookbook as a PDF on steroids that incorporates visual elements not unlike Pinterest. A company presentation or product demonstration created in a PDF file can be uploaded to a Lookbook publisher. This then converts it into a page-turning version that can be embedded on a website or newsletter.  It can be a powerful tool for a company launching a new product or service as it allows text and visual elements to be multi-device friendly.  Publitas.com is one provider which offers a free branded solution or a version without branding at a nominal price.  

It’s important to remember that using interactive content is not a gimmick. It must be part of the content that is shared with the reader. Keep it relevant, informative and compelling.

Here are resources to assist with creating interactive content.

http://www.snapapp.com/, http://visual.ly , https://www.publitas.com/, http://qzzr.com , http://www.ioninteractive.com/