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The Rise of Interactive Marketing

Vivek Kumar Garg

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In August 2016, HBO began a promotional effort for their wildly popular TV show, Game of Thrones, in which they created an interactive website. It was a joy for the viewers since they could look for their favourite characters and vote for who they thought should oversee the major battles in the following seasons. The success of this interactive marketing strategy is demonstrated by Google Trends where the spikes show an increase in the viewership.

The above example is one of the successes that interactive marketing boasts of. Interactive marketing has rapidly expanded to become the fastest-growing market strategy. With mobile applications and interactive content, it is ever-gaining pace.

Passive broadcast advertising and one-way persuasive communication have lost some of their power with the rise of interactive marketing. Since the market is evolving into a venue for talks and exchanges among linked participants via digital and mobile activities in platform ecosystems, contemporary interactive marketing has gone beyond the purview of direct marketing. Marketers are further facilitated by the growing usage of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) to give convenience, tailored content, and remarkable experiences.

I.               Interactive Marketing

It's a two-way method of marketing that emphasizes collaboration and interaction. An interactive strategy turns marketing into a communal activity instead of just talking to the customers in a one-way stream. Due to their shared emphasis on fostering connections and engaging in meaningful conversations that go beyond traditional marketing's sometimes cold and impersonal style, they make the ideal complement to conversational marketing.

Let's look at a few typical examples of interactive marketing and how they may be done in a conversational approach to further clarify the concept.

A. Email marketing/Push notification: Flipkart, Amazon, and other e-commerce sites send targeted emails to their customers regarding their offers, discounts, what’s left in their cart, and real-time engagement to boost their sales whilst appreciating the customers about how much they care. Zomato, and Swiggy send push notifications suggesting their customers to avail delicacies from an array of restaurants.

B. Calculators: In Bajaj Allianz policy page, potential customers can calculate the return on their investments by using an easy to understand interactive calculator. It eliminates their need to reach out customer support and eases the process of purchasing the policy, plus saves their time.

C. Chatbot: Chatbots enhance the content approach, adding extra value. They achieve this by displaying tailored material to the user's needs. Also, by gathering information through interactions, chatbots may reduce the time and expenses associated with conducting research for the consumers. They can offer call to action (CTA) buttons and other clickable information to increase site traffic. Taco Bell a fast food chain’s chatbot let clients choose the ingredients they wanted in their orders. The consumers are happy since the chatbot employed emojis in a pleasant and friendly manner.

D. Virtual Event: Livestream and interactive videos pave way for customers to engage and know a brand more closely. It not only captures customers attention but also allows one to associate themselves with a brand. The elements of Web 3.0 such as AR, VR and XR, along with Metaverse aims at giving the customers an immersive experience. Lenskart allows the customers to try the frame virtually on their phone screens. Also, Nike, H&M have launched their stores and offices in metaverse giving them an immersive experience through VR headsets. There are multiple other ways such as quizzes, games, 360-degree videos, infographics, comics, flipbooks, etc. through which customers can be engaged and brands can market. 

II.              Advantages of Interactive Marketing

      i.         Enhances brand experience: The growth of interactive formats fosters user engagement and brand interaction. With little space to draw the attention of information-rich audience, marketers must find innovative methods to grab their interest.

     ii.         Helps gathering feedback: During content consumption, interactive content gathers data. Each component of the interactive material may be evaluated for exit points, views, clicks, and interactions. For example, in a questionnaire to help the customer identify the remedy they can respond through interactive video. Each response serves as a metric to assess the effectiveness of the plan and learn more about the customer. Later useful information about the audience’s habits, problems, and wants can deliver narrowed results. This information can then be utilised to improve the product strategy. The advantages of interactive content may thus be applied across the whole marketing plan and are not just restricted to content marketing.

   iii.         Lead generation and conversion rates: Visually appealing dynamic information offers a richer experience and can pique consumers' interests. In addition to keeping their interest, this kind of information may direct them toward conversion. For instance, comparing the number of conversions generated by two different layouts of the landing page. By doing so, it enhances user engagement and improve the effectiveness of your material.

III.            Potential pitfalls

Since interactive marketing is more complex and has more moving components than static material, mistakes are more likely to occur. The material might not function fully or lose some of its functionality on some devices. As a result, marketers should make sure to regularly test interactive content and be ready for any setbacks. Marketers are less likely to run into problems if they work with a business that has an expertise in making interactive marketing material or if they receive the essential training to make functional interactive content.

IV.          Conclusion

Well, keeping the pitfalls in mind, it is an established fact that interactive marketing through snackable content is the future in digital marketing. Furthermore, with the developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) one can expect nascent ways through which user and customer engagement can foster. Gamification is one such example. Effective use of data plays a vital role in giving brands an idea of the picture they want to present to their customers

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