Ditch Your Static Pages for Interactive Content that Boosts Conversion

One of the most prolific content marketing trends of the last couple years has been interactive content. According to research presented by Outgrow, visual content, especially content that moves, is 40 times more likely to be shared on Facebook and receives 86 percent more conversions.

To see an example of successful interactive content, consider Buzzfeed, one of the most viewed blogs on the Internet. About 96 percent of users who start a quiz finish it, which is the best statistic out there for audience engagement. One BuzzFeed quiz has been viewed more than 22 million times.

Another online company called Zenni Optical generated more than $1 million in revenue after they created a multiple-choice quiz that "tested" a reader's eyesight. They also pulled almost 29,500 lead conversions out of it.

As these facts curated from Outgrow show, content should be a huge part of your marketing campaign whether you're in retail, information publishing or a service provider. Consumers enjoy the ability to apply a piece of content more directly to themselves, and they're often more likely to follow through with a call-to-action (CTA) as a result.

But how can you successfully incorporate more interactive content in your marketing campaign? Here we provide six examples. 

1. Create Calculators

About 52 percent of marketers report online calculators as the most effective form of content when trying to convince a buyer. according to the Content Marketing Institute.  

Calculators come in many forms, and they're not difficult to make. This list of auto calculators from the loan comparison site Auto.loan shows you a number of companies that have seen high engagement from their calculators.


The use-cases for calculators extends to mortgage companies, app developers, event planning, postage, clothes fittings and more.

2. Get Creative with Search

While not a traditional calculator nor a traditional search bar, online consignment store ThreadUp provides a payment estimator where people interested in selling their clothes to the retailer get an idea of (1) if the brand will be accepted and (2) how much ThreadUp has paid out for similar pieces. Shoppers enter values and the retailer returns results - it's interactive, speaks to consumers' desire to self-serve and establishes trust. 

3. Design a User-Driven Fact Sheet or Infographic

Fact sheets and infographics tend to draw high engagement simply because they're easy for users to read and understand. You can increase that engagement by making it interactive and allowing users to generate their own results.

Consider this example from Google Chrome called the "Evolution of the Web." The viewer clicks along, looking closer at the information that's most relevant to them.

4. Make Relevant Quizzes

As noted above, quizzes create quite a stir among consumers. You can also benefit from increased page views and leads with industry-relevant quizzes shared on your social site. Don't forget to add a CTA at the end to generate leads.

Beauty subscription box company Birchbox runs a number of quizzes for its audience with an interstitial offering 10 percent to join its mailing list. Developing this type of content can be proven effective or not-effective by what a quiz taker does before, during and after they engage with the content (do they sign up for the mailing list, do they read more content, do they buy directly or later). 

5. Catch Attention with Animation

More than 80 percent of stationary digital ads are ignored, calling for a better way to catch consumer attention. Research shows that when contact shared on social media moves, consumers are more likely to stop and engage. About 81 percent of marketers say this is effective.

The use of memes, videos, blinking buttons and other motions in your content will encourage people to stop during their endless scroll to engage when done in a tasteful manner that doesn't impact user experience. 

There is an emerging trend that takes static images and animates one element of that photo for visual effect so that it's compelling without being distracting. 

6. Design a Carousel Fact Page

It's difficult for visitors to process large blocks of text, so you could break things up into a carousel-style display. Section your article or fact sheet into manageable chunks and use carousel formatting to allow readers to click through and read each piece.

Men's retail subscription company Bombfell demonstrates its personal stylist value proposition by including actual employees to share the types of curated clothing a shopper could receive based on what that person's styling goals are. The information is compact while sharing a lot of detail with visitors being able to scroll to the next example in the carousel format. 

This is a great way to map the effectiveness of your content. You'll be able to measure whether or not people are engaging with the information and determine which pages receive the most online attention.

Get Creative

Try some of these new ways to bring your content to life. You'll generate new leads and have access to free data to help you improve your marketing campaign. If you're stuck on how to add interactive elements that will boost conversion, check out some startups in your industry, they can often provide some inspiration just think of the many retail subscriptions that have interactive style questionnaires to curate the best results for their subscribers. There's also compelling use-cases for augmented reality across industries, and could be worth exploring if static just won't cut it. 

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