The most efficient way to deliver high fidelity personalization in your daily email, and drive over 11x return on spend (works seamlessly with your existing email service provider).
Infinitely expand your brands photography with Curator™ AI. Generate new product photography that’s indistinguishable from the originals, and combines multiple products together.
Create, manage, deploy, and target an unlimited number of personalized messages. Deliver any of the messages from your pool through a single image URL and link embedded within email, SMS, mobile, or on your website.
Zembula connects with any enterprise data source. If you don’t see a specific data source here or have a custom data source, we will always connect it for free.
The most efficient way to deliver high fidelity personalization in your daily email, and drive over 11x return on spend (works seamlessly with your existing email service provider).
Infinitely expand your brands photography with Curator™ AI. Generate new product photography that’s indistinguishable from the originals, and combines multiple products together.
Create, manage, deploy, and target an unlimited number of personalized messages. Deliver any of the messages from your pool through a single image URL and link embedded within email, SMS, mobile, or on your website.
Integrations
Connect with 100+ integrations
Zembula connects with any enterprise data source. If you don’t see a specific data source here or have a custom data source, we will always connect it for free.
Why And How To Use Personalization And Data To Learn About Your Customers In 2020 [and Beyond]
New decade, new strategy.
Every day, companies vie for customers’ attention, loyalty and money.
Personalization is one way to stand out. In fact, some predict the personalization economy will be one of the biggest business models that every company should follow. If it’s not yet part of your marketing strategy or growth plan, think about how to get an edge.
Don’t worry, there’s still time to get up to speed. But remember you’ll also need a rock-solid data collection and analysis strategy to personalize your products and services.
Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash
ROI and customer retention
Personalization of products and services makes good business sense. Personalization can yield a 5-15 percent increase in revenue and a 10-30 percent increase in cost-effectiveness of marketing spend. Despite this, only 15 percent of CMOs think their company knows what they’re doing regarding personalization.
It’s time they got with the program. Around ninety-one percent of customers are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations based on their past purchases.
That means personalizing the customer’s experience is a no-brainer. If most customers want help to make decisions based on their preferences, your customer acquisition strategy can take a back seat. Masses of one-off consumers can help boost your bottom line but nurturing your existing relationships is what will help you stay in the game longer.
Instead of spending cash on customer acquisition, you can focus on customer retention. Referrals and repeat customers are a far more cost-effective way to create a sustainable business and scale up.
So work on creating a tailored customer journey and curated experiences to keep customers coming back, rather than a hundred different marketing campaigns in the hope of randomly capturing qualified leads. An easy way to do this? Real-time, personalized abandoned cart emails, like the example below.
Higher Value Products
You can make customers feel unique and special by personalizing products. Nike is just one of many brands offering personalized styling experiences. And although Nutella and Coca-Cola have only done the minimum – slapping a name on their original products – it still proved popular with customers.
Personalization can help you build a strong connection between your brand and customers. Plus increase your brand awareness. Best of all, companies that create personalized products offer a sense of exclusivity and perceived higher value which justifies a higher price.
Companies can create a whole new range of products just by personalizing their existing ones or keep customers coming back for more customized products and experiences.
How data is collected in 2020
To get enough quality data to create tailored experiences, you’ll need to think of the best way to get data from customers. From Fitbits to virtual concierge hotel rooms, to personalized loyalty and rewards tracking, personalization is making our lives more streamlined.
In 2020 and beyond, companies are using advanced techniques to get data. Snazzy and sophisticated? Hell, yes. Absolutely essential? Well, it depends.
“Hello Siri. What do I want?” AI, algorithms and RFID
It’s no surprise that our best virtual friends, Siri and Alexa, are collecting lots of juicy gossip about us. Part of the reason is to understand what we might want and recommend a product or service to serve that need. The common, everyday questions we ask mean Siri and Alexa have stored huge amounts of data about our lifestyle preferences. That’s both useful and a little scary.
Netflix uses an algorithm to suggest TV shows to viewers. While they can sometimes be a bit off, it’s still a nifty way to personalize the experience for members and cut out one less decision. You’ll never need to fight with your loved ones again about what to watch for TV tonight. Netflix knows all.
Source: MiceChat
Even Disney’s gone digital in the name of enhanced and more personalized user experience. Their RFID tracking bracelets called MagicBands, help provide a seamless experience – to prebook and prepay for rides, food, hotels and car rentals – and the details they gather can definitely make it seem like a magical kingdom in more than one way.
Hyper-personalization could become the norm. Some predict that by 2025, our data will be collected by sensors and digital devices in our homes, stores, cars and on our bodies as wearables. This data will be used to create more products that we want or need.
Time will tell. For now, there are more simple and cost-effective ways to learn more about your customers. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel or invest big bucks.
Interactive content: A no-fuss and fun way for customers to give data
Breathe a sigh of relief. There’s an easier way to know what your customers want.
Interactive content is an easy way to learn more about your customers. As the name suggests, interactive content makes the customer engage with the content and brand rather than passively consume it.
An estimated 45 percent of customers found interactive content to be very effective compared to only 6 percent saying the same about passive content.
You can use interactive content on your website, social media channels, or through your newsletter or email list.
Make a quiz for customers to answer and win a prize, or simply create a fun game to learn more about the customer. Throw in a few dad jokes, cheesy GIFs and some pop culture references to keep customers chuckling and keen to know the answers.
Think about the design. The flow of the quiz, its simplicity, sense of fun and mixing it up to keep it interesting, are all fundamental to its success.
But colors, font, spacing and layout according to brand guidelines are also vital to engage readers in the first place. So make sure you spend some time making it pretty. Beta-test it, measure the results, and tweak it. Rinse and repeat.
Collect data transparently
There’s no harm in collecting data to help make the customer experience smoother and enjoyable. But be clear about why. It doesn’t make any business sense to jeopardize the trust your customers give you. As quick as you can say unsubscribe, they’ll switch to your competitors.
If you’re upfront and honest about how you collect data and for what purpose, you’re more likely to have happier customers who trust you. As long as you use that data to make their lives easier – better service, lower costs, higher quality – customers won’t bat an eyelid about giving their personal details.
We’re now well and truly into 2020. Are you lagging behind on Q1 goals? Think about how to connect to your customers more deeply. Personalizing the customer experience and your products and services could be the game changer. Using the latest technology and interactive content, gather data from your customers to gain insights that will form the foundation of your personalization strategy.
Interested in how Zembula can help? Click here to chat with an expert!
What Movable Ink Is Doing Wrong (and what Zembula gets right)
Being able to use your own data in email campaigns seems like it should be easy enough. However, those that have tried to do so know how hard it truly is to use the data you’ve worked so hard to collect.
Your data is probably spread out in multiple databases across your organization. You probably have an ESP, a CRM, a commerce platform, a loyalty management system, and many, many more. Being able to create highly personalized emails based on the data in these solutions is becoming more and more crucial to the success of all kinds of businesses.
The problem is getting all the data to be available and usable in your email campaigns. It is impossible to do this without the help of a solution. And for a while, Movable Ink was the best choice to get this done for you.
Movable Ink has helped many marketers create more personalized email campaigns. The problem of making it easy still remains. To use Movable Ink it takes a lot of time and manpower. Making changes to your email content is cumbersome and time-consuming.
This is where Zembula comes in. Zembula’s mission is to make email personalization easy!
Here are three ways Zembula helps marketers make the most of their data.
Our modular email approach:
Zembula Dimensions™ uses Smart Banners™ and Smart Blocks™ to house all the live image content within your email. This makes it easy for you to create live email content and swap it out after you hit send!
Here are some key benefits to our modular approach:
You will never need to touch your email HTML after you add it once.
Automation is easy and you can schedule content in our platform.
No more segmentation because our images update at the moment of open and are unique to each recipient.
We don’t use apps:
Our integrations are easy to set up. In fact, most of them are already there for you when you sign up. You can connect our platform to any data source or API. Because we don’t use apps, (hardcoded images that are inflexible and rigidly defined) our solution is flexible to fit your needs.
Here are some key benefits to our live images over apps:
No hard coding images.
Making changes is easy because our images are more flexible than apps.
Our editor is user-friendly and built with marketers in mind:
Ease of use is at the core of our business, so it only makes sense that our product would be, well, easy to use. Our platform is designed to be used by marketers. You don’t need our help (although we are certainly here for you if you want us) to create sophisticated email personalization. We put the power in your hands! Our editor allows you to drag and drop different data points into images and then design them how you see fit.
Here are some key benefits to our easy-to-use editor:
No coding necessary. Our platform generates a code snippet from your design. All you do is copy and paste.
Drag and drop your data into the image.
Total design control. You can use custom fonts, colors, icons, backgrounds, and more!
With email marketing evolving so quickly it can be hard to keep up with the latest and greatest. Email personalization is getting more complex and advanced. It can seem a bit daunting to keep up with your competitors, but Zembula is here to help!
Want to see how we do real-time email?
Cheyenne Miner
Director of Marketing
Cheyenne is the Director of Marketing at Zembula where she gets to collaborate and coordinate with a team of marketing masterminds. On the weekends, you can find her in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest, or not, because they don’t have cell towers out there.
Why Using a Scratch-Off in Email is Your Best Bet in 2019
The battle over attention has been raging since, well, since forever. Technology and the incredible amount of content being created every day hasn’t helped in terms of getting people to focus.
That can be seen in the decline of email open and click-through rates. As of early 2018, Epsilon found that “email click rates in North America have failed to increase on a year-over-year basis for 18 consecutive quarters.”
Yikes.
So how to combat that?
Going all in on interactive content
One way is through interactive content. This type of content is sticky. It keeps bringing readers back to your site again and again.
Plus, interactive content works. In a poll from Litmus, creating interactive email experiences is one of the most commonly cited trends that marketers are focusing on — now and into the future.
It helps build brand loyalty with readers, it produces higher click through rates, and it gets people actively engaging in your stuff.
And that’s exactly what you need right now to combat lagging attention spans and content shock where you only have a few seconds to grab a reader.
Today, we’re going to look at one specific type of interactive content using scratch-off in emails. You’ll see why this is a really cool way to get readers invested in your brand.
Diving into scratch-off emails
First, the basics.
What is a scratch-off email?
If you’ve ever gotten a lottery style scratch card or needed to get the pin number off a gift card, then you’ll be familiar with the experience. Basically, you take your fingernail or a dime and scratch a box that has a thin layer of coating over it revealing a prize or number underneath.
Part of the reason why scratch-offs are so popular is that they tap into the psychology behind reveal marketing.
When you have one of those cards in your hand you’re curious, very few people are going to put it down because they don’t want to miss out on the prize. And the kinetic nature of physically having to perform an action to get a result makes you emotionally more attached to the process.
Now, take all of those same concepts and apply it to email marketing. With scratch-off emails you can.
How Scratch-It Emails Work
You’ve got the basics down, so let’s take a look at a scratch-it email in action.
Here’s what it would look like to your reader in their inbox.
Pretty cool, right?
This type of email is something that is going to catch the attention of a lot of readers. And you can use scratch-it style emails for all sorts of different interactive experiences including offers around discounts and savings, coupons, and even gifts.
Now here’s the fun part, actually scratching for a prize.When your email reader clicks and scratches away that first layer, a hidden message appears beneath, just like if it was on a scratch card in real life.
Check it out. The results are displayed right there. And, unlike with most lottery cards, you’re always going to be a winner when it comes to scratch-off emails!
With this type of email, you’re accomplishing a lot of tasks at once.
First, you’re grabbing the attention of readers right from their inbox. It’s hard to resist a fun or interesting email that really stands out in a sea of seeing the same stuff over and over.
Next, you’re encouraging your readers to get active. To get the full benefits of the email you are sending out they have to actively engage to get the results, even if they don’t end up acting on them. That starts building conditioning right from the very start.
Finally, scratch-it emails can help improve click through rates which can lead to more sales over the long term.
When you add all those up, these type of emails can really be a winning combination that your organization can deploy to your next email marketing campaign.
Putting it all together
Now that you’ve got a good handle on what scratch-off emails are and how they can benefit your brand, what are you waiting for? Give these a try and get people on your list excited to check their inbox.
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
What is a Kinetic Email and Why Should You be Sending Them?
Have you ever noticed that some emails just look cool?
They have all sorts of interesting features; you can scroll, scratch, click, and interact with them.
It’s almost like you’re doing stuff on a conventional webpage, but it’s all right inside your inbox.
These types of emails are called kinetic emails, and we’re going to dive into these today. You’ll learn a little bit about what they are and why the brands that are using them are seeing some real results.
Ready to get into it?
The basics of kinetic emails
Kinetic emails are a form of interactive content that can bring your email marketing to the next level.
Competition for attention has gotten hardcore today. So anything you can do to stand out from the crowd counts. That’s especially true when it comes to email because it’s such an effective marketing channel.
Even a small lift in your open and click rates can translate to real dollars as customers move through your funnel.
And here’s another bonus, people love these kinds of emails.
What makes kinetic emails stand out from the pack is that they tap into the psychological impacts around the power of touch.
One way to look at it is through what’s called the Ikea Effect. Basically, this hones in on the idea that when a person physically interacts with something they give it a higher perceived value.
That’s why you assign a higher mental value to a cake you baked versus one you bought at a store.
It also works with interactive content too, that’s part of the power of reveal marketing. Engaging with an email that asks you to click or touch or scratch puts it into a different level in your brain compared to passive emails that you just read and move on.
Are you starting to get why kinetic emails are kind of a big deal?
A few examples of kinetic emails
When it comes to kinetic emails, there are a few different approaches you can take. How your email looks primarily depends on the back end CSS coding that is used to create the style you’re looking to feature.
And what really separates kinetic emails from other types of interactive content is they primarily rely on readers to engage by clicking, hovering, and scratching physically.
That extra bit of physical touch is something that isn’t a key component of other types of interactive email like gifs, for example.
Here are a few of the most popular types of kinetic emails you’ll see:
Sliding carousels
A sliding carousel is one type of kinetic email you’ll see. These are great for retail operations and will have each slide represent a product or item on sale.This email from Adidas shows you a sliding carousel in action.
You, as the user, must click on each slide to get information, it doesn’t just scroll for you. As you click on each slide, if you choose to shop, you’ll be taken directly to the corresponding page on the website where the products are located.
So, in addition to getting your brain interested in clicking right away, Adidas also gets points for saving time too.
Puzzles and Games
Who doesn’t like to have fun right from their email? That’s where puzzles and games can come in handy.
From the psychology behind reveal marketing, we know that people love playing with puzzles and games, it taps into curiosity and the fear of missing out.
Spin-It style email can be used as a puzzle or a game. It asks readers to get involved; they have to spin the tiles Vanna White style to see a solution or message that’s hidden behind them.
This is yet another type of dynamic activity that gets people actively involved by clicking. Unless you physically move your fingers across a trackpad or screen, you can’t access what’s behind the tiles.
Both of these examples highlight how asking people to actively interact with your emails can make for better results for your brand and a cooler experience for your customers.
Wrapping up
Now that you have a better understanding of what kinetic emails are and how they can help your email marketing you might want to consider incorporating them into your email marketing strategy.
As these types of emails get more popular and brands continue to see higher click rates with them, you don’t want to be left
Liz Froment
Liz Froment is a content writer at Zembula. A graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Liz is a travel aficionado, Boston sports fan, and maple syrup connoisseur.
Real World Interactivity Part 3: Interactive Album Covers
Music is one of the most powerful memory-makers on Earth. Take a moment to think back to your favorite record. Imagine the album cover art and the way the record felt in your hands. Remember what it sounded like to hear the music played aloud on a record player. The slight scratch of the needle on the vinyl.
What record did you think about? Was it an iconic album, like the zipper-front Rolling Stones cover? Or a lesser known band? Today, we’re continuing our Real World Interactivity series by discussing the top 10 interactive album covers. Read on below to see what fun albums made the cut.
This iconic interactive album cover is instantly recognizable. With a large banana on the front cover, at first glance, this album looks simply like an Andy Warhol painting (surprise, it is!). However, an added layer of interactivity brings the fun and makes this album stand out. Peel back the banana sticker on the cover to reveal the fleshy fruit underneath and ensure you can’t forget The Velvet Underground.
A more recent interactive album cover comes from alternative rock legend, Muse. The packaging for their album ‘The Second Law’ came complete with thermo-sensitive packaging that changes color as the temperature rises. Not only is it beautiful to look at, but it’s clever too, tying the interactivity in with the albums name. (For those who skipped science in high school, the 2nd Law covers thermodynamics!)
Unlike the other album covers on our list, this one brought an interactive album cover to the digital space. By choosing a moving GIF as his album cover art, Donald Glover ensured his personal brand was staying up to date with his internet-obsessed fans.
Much like the Muse album covered above, this EP cleverly makes use of interactivity that ties in with the album’s name. Graff Orrlack’s Boombox EP comes in packaging reminiscent of origami. Follow the instructions and fold out the album cover into a working boombox, allowing you to crank up the tunes!
Another iconic folding interactive album cover comes to us this time from Explosions in the Sky. Their ‘Take Care, Take Care, Take Care’ album art can be folded out into a shadow box house. The vinyl inside even matches the theme, with a wood grain print that matches perfectly with the floor of the fold-out cabin.
If you’ve learned one thing about interactive content from reading our blog, it should be that sweepstakes can pay off big time! Golden Boots brought that marketing model to their album cover by featuring a paint by numbers image and stocking each album with watercolor paints. They invited fans to send in photos of their finished artwork for a chance to win a prize.
We all know that the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sticky Fingers’ album is iconic for many reasons, not the least of which is the cutting edge album art design. With a working pull down zipper, the album cover invites participation and the matching underwear-clad vinyl inside only continues the theme.
Are you really a Bob Marley fan if you don’t own a Zippo lighter? According to the ‘Catch a Fire’ album, the answer is no! This fun cover art turned the album packaging into a model of the ubiquitous Zippo lighter. The only thing missing is the flame!
Led Zeppelin paved the way for interactive album covers with their ‘III’ album. The spinning circles allow for interaction and keep some messages of the album cover hidden until the viewer performs the required action (spinning the wheel to the correct spot.)
They certainly weren’t the first, but the Talking Heads took a leaf from Led Zeppelin’s book with their ‘Speaking in Tongues’ album art. The cover featured three spinning circles, one cyan, one magenta and one yellow. Spin the three wheels to the correct spots and a clear image comes into view. Leave them slightly off kilter and all you see is a jumble of color and imagery.
These album covers are a great demonstration of how interactivity in design intersects with nearly any industry! Incorporate these kinds of principles in your next piece of downloadable content for a digital interactive experience your audience is sure to love!
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
Real World Interactivity Part 2: Lottery Scratch-Off Tickets
If you’ve been following along you’ll know that we’re running a series of posts discussing real-world interactivity and how it converts to digital marketing campaigns. You can catch the last installment, on scratch and sniffs, on our blog.
Today, we want to talk about another form of a scratch card, a lottery ticket or scratch-off. We all know the lottery can be thrilling to play. It’s how you find yourself adding on that extra lottery ticket when checking out for soda at the gas station. There’s something inherently exciting about scratch-off lottery tickets. The lottery has been around since near the beginning of recorded history. No matter the form, people seem to like games of chance. So when did scratch-off tickets become the go-to form of lottery game?The first scratch-off lottery ticket was invented in 1970 by a group of computer engineers. Little did they know the marketing power scratch-off technology would bring. In fact, by 1987 most states were offering some form of lottery scratch-off ticket. Today, physical scratch-offs remain the standard for many lottery games, but we’ve also seen a rise of digital scratch-its that replicate the experience using touch technology.
Why did this form of lottery become so popular? Well, there are a few principles of marketing psychology that might explain the lure of the lottery, and especially of scratch-off tickets.
First, let’s discuss the draw of the lottery or chance in the first place. There’s a marketing psychology principle called the Near Miss Theory that helps explain why the lottery and gambling are so rewarding. According to this principle, the brain is conditioned to respond positively to near-miss events. In the hunter-gatherer days, this might have meant a spear that narrowly missed your prey. Positive reinforcement in your brain chemistry assures you that you’re on the right track. In today’s digital world, Near Miss Theory explains why your basketball bracket is so enticing. It also explains why humans are drawn to games of chance.
When it comes to marketing, you can use the Near Miss Theory to encourage your customer to continue interacting your brand or product. Digital Scratch-its are unbeatable at raising your customer’s value determination of your brand. By calling on a familiar format like the Scratch-it that activates Near Miss Theory, your customers are more likely to build brand loyalty and continue interacting with your messages. The second secret to the lottery tickets success is the scratch feature. Hiding a portion of your message from the reader until they’ve completed an action is called reveal marketing. It’s a specialized form of interactive content that invites your reader to participate by swiping, scratching or otherwise interacting with their smartphone or computer. Reveal marketing is proven to increase brand loyalty and ROI. In fact, reveal marketing campaigns can more than double your conversions.
So how do you bring the lottery ticket scratch-off to the digital world? Luckily, there are a host of options for creating digital scratch-off experiences. Here at Zembula, we’re proud to offer a reveal marketing solution that is highly customizable. You can create Scratch-its to share trivia or offer a discount. You can even create a sweepstakes campaign to capture the full experience of a lottery scratch-off on your reader’s screen. Scratch-off gambling cards have remained a popular format for the lottery for almost 50 years. That longevity can be attributed to the psychological effects of the scratch-off mechanism. With the high demand for digital experiences in today’s world, this form of real-life content translates effortlessly into a piece of stand-alone digital interactive content your customers can’t wait to interact with.
nicolecordier
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
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.
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.”
“It [interactive content] makes checking emails more fun, and I am more likely to click through to the site.”
“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.
Interactive content can take so many shapes and sizes in today’s digital world it can be hard to keep it all straight! Not only does interactive content provide 2X more conversions than static content, it’s also as limitless as your imagination. Check out these 20 inspiring interactive marketing examples to get your creative juices flowing for a new campaign that invites audience participation.
This quiz from MarketWatch uses a type of interaction that’s on the rise in today’s Tinder Era… the swipe! This quiz, along with other interactive marketing examples, works because it uses a format that we’re all familiar with to invite us to participate.
Ah, HubSpot! Every marketer’s friend and easily a company creating some of the most cutting-edge interactive marketing examples. This quiz grades visitors websites across a variety of categories and offers tips for improving your online strategy.
The most annoying part of getting your cell service or internet fixed is always dealing with the carrier’s customer service process. In this interactive marketing example, AT&T strove to eliminate that hurdle in customer relations by creating a dynamic help center.
Something as simple as a dynamic image or GIF on your page can improve your ability to capture customer’s attention and create conversions. Instapage did a great job with their streamlined moving images in a blog post.
Gamification to increase customer knowledge is big strategy among interactive marketing examples in the banking world. BBVA’s games Jubidreams and Jubigame allowed customers to learn more about saving for their goals through a fun interactive experience.
A few years ago, when searching for examples of interactive content, infographics were all the rage! Snips proves that more comprehensive interactive guides perform better now, with today’s digitally savvy audiences.
Despite the hype awhile back about newspapers and magazines going out of business, they’ve managed to adapt to our new interactive world. The Guardian’s article on gun violence demonstrates how interactive maps and clickable elements drive traffic and customer participation.
Even more than just swiping left or right and clicking, customers crave highly developed ways of interacting with their marketing content. In the New York Times “You Draw It” article, and many of their other interactive marketing examples, they adopt an approach that invites to the customer to directly interact by adding data or entering text.
These days, your content must not only be interactive but also omnichannel. Ion Interactive dove into this dichotomy with their lesson on connective interactive marketing that spans across channels.
Much like the interactive marketing examples from MarketWatch early, The BBC has repurposed a common touch screen interaction for their content. The slidable maps in this article on the Middle East use the same muscle memory as opening our smart phones or deleting our emails, giving us the motivation to interact.
Adapting to today’s digitally overloaded world can be difficult. In this interactive marketing example, Adobe breaks down how to respond to content fatigue with a dynamic and intuitive design.
Another interactive marketing example that utilizes the age-old “slide” is the Financial Times Infographic on Bank CEO Compensation. Allowing the reader to slide through time and compare the changes in compensation over a matter of years with a simple slide really drives the article’s main points home through interaction.
If anyone appreciates spot-on interactive marketing examples, it’s the developers that make it all possible. This whitepaper on creating the next developer workforce brings interaction to the table to keep the audience engaged and participating.
The New York Times has really set the bar for interactive marketing examples. Their second inclusion on our list explores the future of music through 25 current songs and keeps readers engaged by utilizing interaction of all types through the article.
No one knows the importance of visual representation and memory more than marketers! Gum Gum’s quiz, styled after old school memory games of childhood helps encourage marketers to pay closer attention to visual details.
Goldman Sach’s interactive content example is their attempt to unravel the complicated millennial generation and understand what that means for the investment industry. By adding interaction to their examination of millennial trends in marriage, homeownership and more, they bump up their content’s attention grabbing power!
Of course a company in the interactive content industry is going to model their website after current interactive marketing standards! Our interactive solutions page allows you to explore all the different types of interactive content we offer!
With this tongue in cheek interactive marketing example, Vox uses the data to prove that today’s teens smoke less marijuana, complete more schooling and watch less TV than their older counterparts. A slidable timeline allows the reader to pick their year of birth and receive statistics personalized for them.
This interactive marketing example is being used to promote a documentary currently in the works about Bosch. By allowing visitors to interact with this classic painting in a digital way and learn more about Bosch while doing so, it helps build excitement and anticipation around the release of the documentary.
Assessments are among one of the most underutilized interactive marketing examples, but this call center assessment from Five9 proves they’re a valuable tool. Assessments allow you to gain data from your recipients while providing value to them in the form of feedback on their marketing strategies.
From quizzes to whitepapers, assessments to games, and everything in between… interactive content boosts engagement and invites audience participation in a way static content can’t compete with. Hopefully, these 20 interactive marketing examples got you inspired to brainstorm your own interactive campaign today. For more inspiration and more interactive content examples, check out our resources page!
nicolecordier
Nicole Cordier is a Marketing Intern at Zembula. A Journalism graduate from the University of Oregon, she is a Portland native who loves coloring, dogs and all things outdoors.
Interactive ads are a great way for marketers to really engage with consumers directly. Interactive content as a whole and interactive ads are a great way for brands to tell stories, enhance word of mouth, and get personal in ways that they just haven’t been able to do before.
Here are 7 examples of interactive ads that highlight the power and success of using this type of marketing in your own strategy.
Let’s take a look:
Volkswagon
Volkswagon, the German car company, has always been known for creativity in advertising, even from it’s earliest days. So, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that they’d be a brand to really embrace interactive advertising.
In this interactive ad, inside a conventional magazine, readers were asked to download an app and take your phone for a test drive along a ‘road’ fold out in magazines.
Reebok
Trying to compete with a brand like Nike means you have to get pretty creative. Reebok decided to do just that in Sweden by creating an interactive campaign that really got consumers excited.
Reebok installed a combination speed cam and a shoe display in the center of town. Then they told people that whoever ran past the display the fastest would get a free pair of shoes.
Domino’s Pizza
Ok, who doesn’t love pizza? Well, Domino’s the brand that really helped innovate ordering pizza online has taken it a step further in recent years. Now, Domino’s give fans and followers the ability to order via both Messenger (through a Chatbot) and over Twitter.
When Domino’s announced the move, they showed just how simple it was for consumers, just Tweet a slice of pizza (that you pre-set on their website) and you’re good to go.
Serena Williams
There’s little doubt that Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players ever, so it’s no wonder brands love partnering with her in ads. Few have done it better than Gatorade and Snapchat with the Match Point game.
Users who played on the ESPN channel were able to interact with a 22 level ad that brought players through each of her victories.
New York Times
Anyone who has considered themselves somewhat clever has tried their hand at the famous New York Times Crossword Puzzle.
This Instagram ad was tailor-made for millennials. Not only does it call back to a show most in that generation watched, but it makes it really easy to download the fun and interactive crossword app right on their phone in seconds.
Verizon Wireless
The Star Wars movies franchise is one of the most popular in the world. So, it was a very smart move for Verizon Wireless to partner with them to create a truly interactive Twitter campaign.
Using the hashtags #TheForceAwakens and #TheoryWars, users were encouraged to submit their own theory in order to get a chance to win tickets to the movie.
Spotify
As one of the biggest brands out there in the music industry, Spotify has millions of users who listen to their platform every single day. With the long and contentious Presidential election in the US, Spotify took advantage of a trend and made the best of it.
Seeing that “move to Canada” as a search time spiked, they created a side project that allowed users to “Canadify” their playlist, recommending Canadian singers that were most like their favorites.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, interactive ads can take many shapes and forms. Their strength is in getting consumers to engage with a brand which can create a stronger and more memorable connection.
