Interactive Content Reigns Supreme As Engagement Becomes The Key Marketing KPI

Gone are the days where buyers fill out a long form to access a 3,000-word whitepaper in PDF. In the digital-first world, engagement is the ultimate KPI, and if marketers can’t tell how a piece of content resonates with audiences, future initiatives will lack the insights needed to better cater to buyer needs. Sure, someone may fill out the form and download the white paper, but after that, no one knows how much time the buyer spent with the content, or worse, did they even open the PDF at all?

Interactive content allows companies to embed videos, include polls and even chatbots to make it easier for the buyer to self-navigate through the content. It also provides a level of human interaction that static content simply can’t. Instead of scrolling through large chunks of text with very few visual components or the ability to click on and engage with elements within the content, buyers can navigate through interactive content in a way that allows marketers to learn more about their specific needs.

Using eye-tracking technology, we compared the same piece of content — one in a PDF format; one in an interactive document, [...] It increased read times by 73% in that interactive version, and memory retention increased as well. So there's definitely real evidence out there that changing to a more interactive format is a better experience and will give us that increased engagement.

CASE IN POINT

Leading Edge Forum (LEF) wanted to switch from static research content to interactive content to enhance the client engagement experience. Interactive content helped shake up audience expectations and create a novel experience that was innovative, multi-media friendly and flexible across devices and streamlined the production process.With Turtl's interactive content offering, LEF was able to incorporate multimedia assets that were unfit for static formats and print. The team leveraged videos, charts and polls to give readers a chance to engage and provide real-time feedback.Because most of LEF's past content was printed, the process was long and tedious. Now, with interactive content, the team was able to reduce production time by up to five weeks. Plus, the tracking abilities really allowed the team to hone in on key data insights that they were never able to get with static/printed content.The results speak for themselves:

An average read time of more than eight minutes;

126 engagements with interactive widgets and links; and

One in three readers re-engaged with the report multiple times.

When asked how their B2B content consumption habits changed during the past year,

35%

of respondents said they "prefer more interactive content that can be accessed on-demand."

Source: DGR's 2021 Content Preferences Survey Report