2015 interactive content marketing trends

2015 Interactive Content Marketing Trends

© i-on interactive, inc. All rights reserved • www.ioninteractive.com

http://www.ioninteractive.com

“Content Marketing Is Becoming Less About The Words You Put On A Page,

And More About The Experiences You Create For

The Consumer.” - William Comcowich, CEO of CyberAlert



But Why?



Only 36% of marketers saypassive content is effective at

engaging buyers.(Passive content includes things like blogs, articles and white papers.)

Demand Metric, Enhancing the Buyer’s Journey

36%

But, 70% of marketers say interactive content is effective at engaging buyers.

(Interactive content includes things like quizzes, assessments, calculators and interactive white papers.)

70%


Only 55% of marketers say passive content is effective at differentiating

their brand.(Passive content includes things like blogs, articles and white papers.)

55%


While 88% of marketers say interactive content is effective at

differentiating their brand.(Interactive content includes things like quizzes, assessments, calculators and

interactive white papers.)

88%


And a whopping 93% of marketers rate interactive content as effective at

educating the buyer.

93%


“In 2013, the most popular pieces of content on both BuzzFeed and the New York Times had something in common.

Was it that they were well-research pieces by respected journalists? No. In fact, the NYT piece was created by an intern. Did they break news?

Nope, no new news was made….They were quizzes. ” - BuzzStream



“The Writing Is On The Wall: Interactive Content

Is The Future Of Content Marketing.”

- Buzzstream




But what the heck is interactive content?



“Interactive content is anything that requires participants’ active

engagement—something more than simply reading or watching. In return

for their engagement, participants receive real-time responses and

information.” - William Comcowich, CEO of CyberAlert


So, let’s look at the 2015 interactive content trends.




Trend #1

Engagement


“The point of content marketing is to attract, acquire and engage an audience.”

Content Marketing Institute

But 58% of marketers say their content doesn’t create enough opportunity

for engagement.Demand Metric, Enhancing the Buyer’s Journey

58%

“Producing engaging content”

Marketers’ Biggest Challenge?

2015 B2B Content Marketing Trends, Content Marketing Institute


The Takeaway:

Think beyond linear words on a page and create an interactive content experience.

Hint: assessments, configurators, quizzes, calculators, interactive white papers & infographics. Get inspired here: http://www.ioninteractive.com/interactive-content-examples/


http://www.ioninteractive.com/interactive-content-examples/


Trend #2

Quality over quantity



“The more content we produce, the more likely it is to fail.”

-Eccolo Media 2015 B2B Technology Survey Report



“Global business executives are seeking substance. While

marketers are largely marketing.”

-The Economist Group, “Missing the Mark: Global Content Survey of Brand Marketers and their B2B Audiences



“86% of businesses say that they are looking for ways to repurpose

content…within the next 12 months.” - AMA



“Repurposing content will be at an all-time high in 2015.”

-Renée Warren, President of Onboardly



The Takeaway:

Don’t create more content.

Take your best content and scale it into several interactive experiences.

Here’s how: http://apps.ioninteractive.com/site/solution-finder/interactive-content


http://apps.ioninteractive.com/site/solution-finder/interactive-content


Trend #3

Youtility.



What is the main reason a piece of content did not make a positive impression?

“It seemed more like a sales pitch ” -The Economist Group



What content characteristics had a meaningful impact on your perceptions of a brand?

“Contained timely or unique information and helped me understand

a complex issue in simple terms” -The Economist Group



"The point isn't just to be present, but to be useful. For companies that sell to other

businesses (like professional services), the litmus test of an effective content marketing program is always to ask the question, 'Will our customers

and prospects find this to be useful?’” - Tim Williams, founder of Ignition Consulting Group



"It's not OK to simply push out anything that contains a relevant keyword. As the content

landscape continues to experience exponential growth, the future will be about piecing together solutions for time-starved individuals and helping them consume and

apply the insights.” - Nadine Dietz, creator of The CMO Solutions Clubhouse



The Takeaway:

Launch an assessment, configurator or solution builder that will help your buyer to learn, do or decide.



Trend #4

Rapid innovation in user experience



There Is A Lot Happening In User Experience Design

• Responsive • Mobile-first • Parallax • Hover • Reveal • Fade • Ghost buttons • Background images • Full width background videos • Scrolling over clicking • Card design • Layers • Transitions • Microinteractions • Microanimations • Material design • Touch-friendly • And on…. • And on… • And on…



“Our analysis shows there is a direct correlation between

increased levels of participation and user engagement.”

- Alex Mathias, Twitter



The Takeaway: Use modern interaction design to engage your visitors. It’s table stakes now.



Trend #5

Visual & interactive storytelling



Future content will… “evoke emotions, express deeper empathy for each customer persona, and tell great stories with less emphasis on

aggressive selling…” - Hanna Andrzejewska of GetResponse



“Immersive, interactive storytelling gives companies a means to strategically orchestrate an agile selling

environment, empowering their customers to uncover the true value of a product or solution while creating an emotional connection. This added level of engagement allows users to circumnavigate relevant materials and

explore as in-depth as they deem necessary. Customers are now engaging with content and

becoming part of the selling narrative by having the ability to influence the outcome as they explore

consistent marketing messages.” - AMA



Visual Content Builds Brand Engagement• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and

visuals are processed 60,000x faster in the brain than text. • Photos are liked 2x more than text updates, while videos are

shared 12x more than links and text posts combined. • 80% of your online visitors will watch a video, while only 20%

will read content. • Video constitutes 50% of all mobile online traffic and over 90%

of internet traffic. • Infographics have seen the largest year-over-year increase in

usage. In 2013 38% of B2B marketers were using infographics, compared with 51% in 2014.

- Michael Brenner, Head of Strategy at NewsCred (the irony of this page not using any visual content is not lost on us!)



“In the age of infobesity and increasing digital noise, visual storytelling will continue to emerge

as a strategy for not only standing out, but also for nurturing and growing vibrant and engaged

communities. The ability to craft visual stories that inspire emotion and spark the movement

will help companies get noticed and amplify their message throughout those communities.”

-Ekaterina Walter, CMO of Branderati



The Takeaway:

Launch an interactive storyteller experience to immerse your audience.

Here’s one we use: http://apps.ioninteractive.com/sales/interactive-presentation/content-marketing


http://apps.ioninteractive.com/sales/interactive-presentation/content-marketing


Trend #6

Meaningful measurement



“To show more value, our content is going to have to be targeted to specific goals. Content is

no longer just ‘content’, but rather a highly tactical piece of marketing created to do specific

things, like bring more people into our funnel, increase the speed at which people move through

the sales funnel, or mitigate the churn rates.” - Mathew Sweezy of ClickZ



“Future content will evoke emotions, express deeper empathy for each customer persona, and

tell great stories with less emphasis on aggressive selling. Driving these campaigns will be the rush of data that is being made available to marketers that

not only help to determine raw metrics such as conversion rates and engagement, but gain deeper

insight into customer behavior to develop smarter campaigns and more targeted offers.”

- Hanna Andrzejewska of Get Response



When we measure interactive content inputs, we have rich insights into buyer needs, pains, goals.

When buyers interact with content like calculators, quizzes, configurators & assessments, we know exactly how they responded. That’s powerful data.

When we measure downloads, page views & shares, we’re measuring pass/fail interactions.

Pass/fail interactions aren’t really all that illuminating when you think about it. So, they downloaded a white paper. Did they read it? So they hit a webpage, did they learn anything?



The Takeaway:

Measure aggregate user interactions and inputs in your interactive content to yield significant audience insights.



Trend #7

Surface buyer insights to sales


Content Marketing Today

“Marketers must produce content that adds value in order to engage customers.

The true measure of content is the experience the person has with it.”

Mathew Sweezey, Director of Thought Leadership at Pardot


“In 2015, digital marketing will converge with digital selling in a meaningful way. Marketing

(one to many) and sales (one to one) are beginning to use the same techniques of

content creation and real-time engagement. The best organizations will not run marketing and

sales as separate ‘departments’ but will merge the two functions into one customer facing

organization focused on revenue generation.” - David Meerman Scott, Keynote Speaker & Bestselling Author, Freshspot Marketing



The Takeaway:

Provide more than pass/fail data to sales. Provide rich insights into specific buyer behavior & inputs.


We can help!ion interactive helps customers concept, create and

launch interactive content experiences.

www.ioninteractive.com@ioninteractive

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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