The 5 Best Interactive Content Types for Email

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been covering every aspect of interactive email campaigns. From giving you the basics of interactive email, to looking ahead for the state of interactive email in 2018, we’ve been dropping knowledge to make your next email marketing campaign a huge success.

In case you missed it, let’s go over a few reasons why interactive email is the strategy to base your marketing around. First, email boasts the largest return on investment for marketers. For every $1 spent, e-mail marketing generates $38 in ROI. Adding interactive items will only transform it into a more epic marketing tool. Second, interactive email is successful in helping your brand achieve differentiation from competitors. In fact, 83% of marketers believe interactive content separates their campaigns from the herd or marketing messages in their customer’s inboxes.

Now that we understand why we need an interactive email strategy. Let’s explore the most effective content types for your next email campaign.

Video:

Video content in your email campaigns not only helps your customers remember the information you serve up, but it also aligns nicely with customer’s desires in today’s modern digital world. Consumers demand more video content, and the brands that are able to step up to the plate will reap great rewards. In fact, 43% of consumers say that they want more video content from brands.

You can add a boost of interactivity to your next campaign by creating top-notch video content that keeps your customers engaged with your marketing message and creates brand loyalty.

GIFs

In 2018, no brand can afford to ignore the marketing power of GIFs. A recent study by Mesh Marketing Agency found that interactive content such as GIFs is 40x more likely to be shared on social media than static content. This viral quality helps boost the reach of your message while keeping your readers entertained.

Try using Zembula’s GIF builder today to add the spice of interactive content to your next email campaign and watch your brand awareness soar!

Interactive White Papers

Despite all the advancements in content types over the past few years, E-books and white papers still remain a valuable way to inform your customers about your products or services. In fact, white papers are still among the three most requested content types by B2B marketers, with 78% of marketers saying they are valuable for purchasing decisions.

Create an interactive white paper today and check out our examples if you get stuck creating killer content that converts or fostering customer interaction with your marketing message.

Infographics

Interactive infographics are going to be the biggest trend in email marketing campaign content this upcoming year. Since 2016, adoption of infographics has steadily been on the rise in the marketing industry. To stand out in the New Year, static infographics simply won’t cut it. In order to remain on the cutting edge of your industry, adding a layer of interactivity to every campaign type will be necessary!

Start today by converting an existing static infographic into an interactive version, and be sure to A/B test your email campaign to see how much an added boost of interactivity effects your click-through rate.

Zembula Experiences

If you know anything about Zembula, you know our products are based in Reveal Marketing. Backed by 6 key psychological principles, Reveal marketing requires the recipient to interact with your message by sliding, clicking, unzipping or otherwise manipulating your content in some way to reveal a hidden aspect of your communication. Reveal Marketing is effective because it utilizes core components of human psychology to drive engagement.

Get your next campaign started today by learning more about using Zembula experiences to boost your Email CTR and start proving the ROI of interactive content strategies for your marketing team right away!

Now that we’ve covered the 5 most effective types of interactive content for email campaigns, learn more about how Zembula’s solution can revolutionize your marketing efforts by checking our resources page or scheduling a demo today.

Tori Johnson

Tori is the marketing manager at Zembula. A graduate of Portland State University with a BA in Marketing, she enjoys good food, international travel, baby animals, and the occasional video game.

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The state of interactive content 2018: email edition

Use of interactive content is on the rise, and it’s no wonder. Competition between brands is intense and marketers need to try something new to stay afloat. The inclusion of GIFs, images, and video in email, as well as interactive, clickable experiences, has upped the game, and we’ve noticed a lot more interactivity in the emails we receive on a daily basis. We realized that we hadn’t seen the consumer view of interactive content in any marketing community studies on interactive content, so we asked 1000 consumers about their experiences with email marketing and the preferences they have for emails from brands. You can read the entire study here, but below are our summarized learnings!

It’s common knowledge that images improve email KPIs; in fact, when asked if consumers prefer text-only emails or emails with images, they answered emails with images 5:1. What about images that move, or images that can be moved?

Well, the staggering preference stays the same as we move toward GIFs, videos, and especially dynamic interactive content.

(To get these answers we showed the respondents 2 emails at a time with each of the elements listed below and asked which email they would be more likely to click on.)

So, having any visual element in your emails like an image or a video is preferred to just text, and will more likely have a higher click through.

In one particular question about purchasing behavior, we gave our respondents three emails, one with an interactive element, one with an image, and one with just text, and asked which email would more likely lead to a purchase. The interactive email was chosen most often, followed closely by an email with an image, and, lagging far behind, a text email.

As we’ve touched on before, people just want to have fun with their email! In our study, consumers reported that they are more likely to buy from a brand that is fun, lively, and inspirational, as well as a brand that makes them feel entertained.

Interactive content is used by brands because it’s much more fun and entertaining than static content. This leads to higher engagement rates and greater brand affinity!

Interactive content can also be used to drum up curiosity by creating tension with an experience that requires an action to uncover a message, like a digital scratch-it.

We also addressed personalization in this research, asking if people preferred personalized email to generic contact. Overwhelmingly, 69% of our respondents preferred personalization in their emails and stated that it would influence their buying decisions.Don’t just take our word for it though! These are actual open-ended responses from real consumers that answered our survey:

• “I get a ton of emails and if they are interactive, I’m more likely to pay attention to them and not just automatically delete it.”
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• “It [interactive content] makes checking emails more fun, and I am more likely to click through to the site.”
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• “I love emails that really pop! Having something more interactive engages me more and holds my attention.”

With all of this in mind, our prediction for 2018 is that videos and GIF usage will continue to increase in email and they will outperform static emails, but consumers will continue to crave interactive content in email. Brands that cater to this desire will experience increased email ROI and brand affinity!

Give your brand the best 2018 and add interactive content to your email strategy. If you need help getting started, check out this post about how to make your emails more interactive.

To download the whole study, click here!

Tori Johnson

Tori is the marketing manager at Zembula. A graduate of Portland State University with a BA in Marketing, she enjoys good food, international travel, baby animals, and the occasional video game.

Grow your business and total sales

Book a Demo