By Marques Coleman

Think about a thick forest where the trees are so close to each other that only very little light gets in. This is how one could describe content marketing these days. With millions of new blog posts, infographics, and other content pieces published every day, getting through that noise can be extremely difficult. Especially if very few awesome ideas come to mind.

What will differentiate your content from all those copy-paste ones is engagement and originality. The magic mix is combining engaging content formats with an authenticity that presents your personality. The solution for all of you who are in pursuit of creating engaging content, whether you are a digital marketer, content writer, or a business owner, is to get inspired with simple ideas that will make your content more engaging. That's why we have revised and compiled some inspirational tips on how to create engaging content.

1. Quizzes

This content type played a great role in the success of sites like Buzzfeed, and it makes perfect sense: people love interactive content.

Quizzes have an entertaining and addictive character that easily draws in people. What makes them so popular is that people are intrigued to learn more about themselves or test their knowledge. Since quizzes are interesting content to share with friends, the brands who create quizzes are on a good path to higher brand awareness.

There are many quiz-success stories, but let’s review Food52’s. Several years ago, they created the quiz “Which cake are you?” and shared it on their Twitter account. The aim was to promote their recipes, so each result led to a different cake recipe. This simple yet fun quiz had been viewed over 20,000 times in just three days.

To make an engaging quiz that your audience will love, you should follow these guidelines:

Choose a topic that is right for your target audience. Analyze their demographics and interests and come up with a topic that they would find tempting. The topic should also relate to your brand.
Add an irresistible title. There are different ways in which you can make the title more compelling. Celebrity comparisons are quite popular, for example. Adding words such as “really” or “actually” give a challenging note to the quiz (e.g. How much do you really know your best friends?).
Design results for sharing. If the results of your quiz are well-written, fun, and positive, the quiz-takers won't hesitate to share them on their social media. However, be honest and provide people with logical and reasonable results. That is, don't try to fool them to get more attention.

2. Calculators

Here’s another interactive content type that can make your content more engaging. For calculators, you can use any quantifiable information. The main goal is that it’s interesting enough to get people’s attention and relevant enough to interest your target audience.

Why are calculators engaging for the audience? Calculators use the user's data to generate a unique result by following a back-end logic and set formula. They don't provide users with assumptions but with clear and valuable numeric information.

Calculators can offer a solution to consumers, solve their problems, and answer their questions. All for the purpose of clarifying their dilemma or giving them a good reason for which decision is the right one.

For example, you can have people calculate how much they can save by using your products or services. People will know that you are providing them with credible information and will trust you more.

Brands also benefit greatly from calculators because they offer information that pushes consumers close to making a purchasing decision. Calculators have a high conversion rate because they offer real value, which consumers recognize.

Additionally, you can use the data that consumers input to gather more information on your target customers. Your marketing team can use the data to form a powerful marketing strategy.

3. Generator

Generators give users possibilities on a specific topic. Some add this generator to their website, while others even create an app for it.

Some ideas of generators that can help a business in the food industry are ice cream name generator, flavor generator, lunch generator, meal planner, random meal idea generator, etc. Generators are fun to play with, but they also give practical ideas to users.

Hubspot has taken advantage of this idea and created their HubSpot's Blog Ideas Generator. The way it works is that you enter general terms that you would like to cover in your blog, and the content idea generator gives you some options. This generator is known among the bloggers as it is very useful when you are stuck and can’t think of a topic title.

Besides generating a lot of engagement, you can use a generator to collect emails of users for marketing purposes. Why not grow your email list along the way.

4. Interactive emails

In 2019, global email users reached the number of 3.9 billion users, and this figure is set to grow to 4.3 billion users in 2023. What we can learn from these numbers is that email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Better yet, its popularity is continually growing. Businesses who know how to make the most out of email will have the upper hand.

Considering the widespread use of email, finding a way to stand out in your email marketing campaign can help you a lot. The solution for this comes in the form of interactive emails.

Did you know that Gmail has already introduced dynamic elements for Gmail? It allows the recipients to complete easy tasks such as answering multiple-choice questions and creating appointments possible in the body of the email.

Gmail gives us a perfect example of how you can transform the email's static nature. Add some dynamic to it through interactive elements. Create content that will invite users to engage. Writing services like TrustMyPaper and BestEssayEducation can step in for that task. Your duty is to think of an interactive email format that will suit your audience.

To give you a little push in the thinking process, here are a few examples of interactive emails:

Videos, memes, and GIFs
Surveys and quizzes (for example, Paradigm Life has included Financial Literacy Quiz in their emails to help their subscribers understand their financial knowledge)
Fun interactive experiences
Ask for feedback

5. Webinars

Webinars have multiple factors in their favor. They are informative, approachable, and interactive. People don’t have to travel or move their plans to attend a webinar. They just need a laptop and an internet connection.

Through webinars, you can present yourself as a brand with knowledge and experience worth sharing. Webinars can be proof of your credibility and trustworthiness.

InsideSales reported that 73% of marketing and sales leaders emphasize webinars as one of the best ways to generate quality leads. Statistics obviously support the effectiveness of webinars.

This type of content could work especially well for B2B businesses. Have someone from your company explain how you completed the latest successful project and what you learned. This will be interesting for potential customers looking to see if you have what it takes to tackle their challenges. Not to mention that it also helps with establishing your business as a thought leader.

If webinars got your attention, you should focus on the following aspects while creating one:

Get to know your audience and tailor the subject and webinar to them
Your sales team can help you surface important information
Choose the type of online event that suits you most (webinars, webcasts, or virtual events)
Use relevant and purposeful multimedia content
Be passionate and creative while presenting the content

6. Interactive landing pages

First impression matters; you have seven seconds to make a good impression on your website visitors, which means that your landing page can make or break your success.

A poor landing page can increase your bounce rate and deprive you of the possibility to convert website visitors into buyers. A landing page deserves your time and effort, and you should make it as attractive as possible. For that reason, you should consider an interactive landing page.

By using elements such as interactive forms to your landing pages, you can increase engagement; by adding the element of interactivity, you’re making button clicking and other actions more interesting for the visitors.

The richness and interactivity of the landing page can encourage users to keep browsing through your website and find out more about your products or services. Map out the consumers’ journey and introduce interactive elements to your landing page that will lead the users to the most important pages on your website.

The dynamic that interaction introduces to your landing page will ensure that consumers don't get bored. Additionally, their attention won't be easily averted as they will be focused on interactive elements.

Conclusion

The highly-engaging nature of these types of content is what can bring you closer to your target audience. People are oversaturated with content that sells. They want something fun and natural that won’t force upon them a product or service. That’s why these engaging content types are your best bet.

Make your content more interesting for your audience, and you’ll see that the effort will pay off. In the sea of dull offers, your interactive content can be just what people are looking for. You have a chance to present your business in a new light, so why not take advantage of it?

How to Maximize Content Engagement: 6 Simple Ideas