5 Simple Interactive Marketing Ideas for 2020

Interactive marketing can drive active engagement, improve brand recall, and make your content more meaningful and customer-centric. Here are our five simple interactive marketing ideas that can drive your 2020 marketing strategy.

Interactive marketing is about crafting events to be driven by customers' actions. Marketers prefer interactive content as it can help create lasting experiences, improve brand awareness and recall, increase the likelihood of social shares and mentions, and gather customer insights. While customers enjoy actively engaging with interactive content, brands can gain a better understanding of users and the products or services.

CONTENT THAT CONNECTS: WHY INFLUENCER MARKETING IS THE FUTURE OF GEN Z ENGAGEMENT

Gen Z is a business opportunity you can’t afford to miss. As 40% of the population commanding upwards of $40 billion in spending power, modern marketers need to build compelling strategies to engage with Gen Z.

Download

In this article, we explore five simple interactive marketing ideas to drive your 2020 strategy.

Learn More: Interactive Marketing: 5 Key Takeaways from Leading Brands

Interactive Marketing Ideas to Inspire Your 2020 Strategy

Let’s talk about interactive marketing ideas to make your 2020 marketing appealing, engaging, and insightful.

1. You can still rely on dynamic text-based interactive content
 

We have come a long from traditional content with interactive technology such as Augmented and Virtual Reality, etc. But dynamic text-based content will always be evergreen. Here are a few of dynamic interactive content:

• Quizzes, surveys, and polls are a fun way to engage your audiences and gather insights about their personality, preferences, and expectations.
• Embedded calculators on your website can help your target customers learn more about your products and services, calculate and budget their expenditure and in turn, drive them to buy from you.
   

You can take some inspiration from Disney quizzes on BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed has a dedicated section of Disney quizzes. Disney fans can take these quizzes to learn about the Disney soundtracks, test their knowledge on Disney trivia, reveal their inner Disney princess, etc. This helps fans explore their Disney character, watch more Disney movies to excel at trivia, and it helps the company collect information about the fans’ favorite characters, stories, etc.

2. Chatbots to get conversational
 

We have seen how effective chatbots are when it comes to customer service. But how can chatbots help you market right?

Here is what Hubspot has to say about chatbots, “If we choose the right path…bots might be the best thing to happen to marketing yet.”

Chatbots are a great way to connect with your customers on a one-to-one level and create personalized experiences for them. They can:

• Drive engaging conversations with the customers
• Enable customer-brand interactions
• Facilitate real-time communication
• Reach a wider audience

Example of a Chatbot Interactive Marketing Idea by MessengerPeople.com

Example: Lufthansa and football team Bayern Munich's FanTrip Chatbot helped soccer fans win a trip to Munich to meet their idols. Fans had to simply answer a Bayern trivia while also creatively answering why they were the biggest fans of the soccer club. Fans could also watch a personalized video of the potential trip. According to MessengerPeople, the Chatbot recorded 159,238 responses!

Learn More: 5 Types of Interactive Content and How to Create Them

3. Gamify
 

Gamification is a powerful approach to engage users. In-app competitions, level games, award points, leaderboards, rewards, etc. keep the user interested. Here are interactive marketing ideas for gamification:

• Quizzes to determine the right product or services
• Gamified product recommendations and exploration
• Interactive games to simplify product search
• Level games to unlock surprise gifts, discounts, and special offers
   

Example: The Starbucks app gleans insights from users’ data, past purchases, and location. The gamified content enables users to customize their drinks, and the level rewards systems help them plan their future purchases. This structure motivates them to keep using the app.

​​​​​​​
Example of an Interactive Marketing Idea by Starbucks Gamified App on Appcues.com

4. Interactive videos to capture users’ attention
 

Adding an interactive element to your marketing videos makes them relatable, engaging, and shareable. For your customers to notice you, try:

• Live streaming your campaigns or behind the scenes glimpses to entertain and drive authentic engagement
• 360-degree videos that can deliver rich, immersive experiences and present a realistic representation of your products
• Webinars hosting surprise guests, multiple speakers, and instant polls to keep the audience interested
• Interactive videos in a storytelling format, where you tell a story but the user has the power to ‘chose’ how the story ends

Example: The Mended Little Hearts video gives control to the user to change the life of a kid Max (a heart patient) with their donations. Starting from a sterile white environment, Max gets to play with a friend and animals when the user pledges $2. With a donation of $5, Max gets a family picnic. With each level, users can bring change to Max’s life, who will eventually get the donation.

Example Video of Mended Little Hearts

Facebook opened Facebook pop-up Cafés to conduct a privacy checkup of their Facebook profiles along with a demonstration on how to customize their privacy settings. This campaign is an attempt by Facebook to win back users’ trust and reiterate the company’s stand on safeguarding user data after a string of privacy scandals.

Learn More: 5 Challenges of Interactive Content Marketing and How to Overcome Them

Bonus: Augmented and Virtual Reality
 

The list of interactive marketing ideas is incomplete without Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). Although good to have, AR/VR technologies require significant investment and planning to create compelling experiences.

Here are a few pointers to include AR/VR in your interactive marketing strategy:

• Use AR/VR to create immersive experiences for users
• Focus on the marketing message
• Use AR/VR to amplify brand experiences and not as a marketing gimmick
   

Interactive marketing can lift your marketing efforts if you give your target audience a feeling of control, craft memorable experiences, add value to their lives, and make every interaction relevant and meaningful. The key is to understand what users want and create compelling experiences that are for users and driven by users.

Any other simple interactive marketing ideas you can think of? Tell us on Twitter, LinkedIn, on Facebook; we’re always listening!