How To Slay Email Marketing With Interactive Content: A Guide

As customers, we know it – our email inboxes are flooded with emails that we either don’t need or resonate with. But as marketers, we often tend to overlook that point. In fact, according to MarketingLand, US companies push more emails than others. This even surpasses the worldwide average figure of 1.38 million per month. As a result, there are heaps of unread boring emails that deliver the message, however not much value. Clearly, this blog is important!

As it’s getting tough to catch attention via email, there is a way to stand out – Interactive Content. It has the power to delight your readers and subsequently improve email engagement.

Interactive content is a great way to provide value and can encourage subscribers to share more information with you. In fact, as per the Content Marketing Institute, 81% of marketers have noticed that interactive content performs more effectively than static content in terms of capturing attention and engaging customers.

Not only creating interactive content is seen to be effective but other content marketing efforts like content curation increases engagement in lesser time.

Now that we have put the facts straight, let’s share with you 7 action-packed ways to drive email marketing with interactive content.

But First, What is Interactive Content in Email? 

Definition of Interactive Content: Content that calls for participants’ active engagement rather than passively reading or watching. It generates relevant lead info. And in return, participants receive real-time, hyper-personalized results they care about.

If you still ask why, here’s another piece of stats for you. Martech Advisor says “interactive email content increases the click-to-open rate by 73%”.

Interactivity in emails is one of the best ways to engage your leads and email list as it invites them to talk back. And since the recipients act in order to get the full message, they ultimately become a part of your marketing, which boosts brand loyalty.

Due to technical requirements, email is still playing catch-up when it comes to adding interactivity. But here are we with 7 ways to give your emails the much needed interactive edge. 

7 Ways To Make Your Emails Interactive

1. Play with Quizzes 

Creating quizzes is super fun and easy if you are using a modern no-code quiz maker. Moreover, you can simply embed them in your interactive email newsletter so that your customers don’t have to take extra steps – they can take the quiz right in the emails.

The best part is- these quizzes can be created in a matter of minutes by simple quiz maker tools!

Here’s an “Ultimate Summer Destination” quiz designed by Outgrow. For a travel company, sending an interactive email like this one will take their email marketing effort to another level. The real-time personalized results that it gives won’t let the customers pass this one up!

2. Research with Polls, Surveys, and Reviews

These definitely aren’t new, but still not used regularly. They solve multiple purposes – opinion for new launches, service feedback, product reviews, etc. Why would customers interact? Because they appreciate brands that voice their customers’ opinions and preferences. 

Try embedding a single-question poll or multi-question survey in your email template. There are survey and form builders that let you do that with a single click. 

Take, for example, this Nokia survey that it conducted for receiving feedback for the new Body+ gadget. They clearly mention its a 2-minutes survey, making it more likely for the busy users to click on it. 

This is a good way to get them talking about an experience they’ve had and whether they think it was worth their investment. Moreover, your interactive email should seek feedback to improve the customer experience. 

3. Surprise with Image Rollover & Scratch Cards

Interactive content works because of the strong psychological triggers it invokes. Emotions such as curiosity propel users to react and interact rather than passively consuming content. And by using an effect like image rollover or scratch cards, you do pique curiosity quite effectively. 

A rollover effect is when you reveal hidden details of the product when a customer rolls the pointer over an image. Here’s an example from a shoe brand that uses this effect to reveal details of its shoe collection. 

Scratch cards need no introduction. So, here’s an example from Forever 21. They used a scratch card design in their Black Friday email campaign. Because of the mystery factor, this marketing technique did incredibly well. A lot of users clicked just to see which one of the three prizes they would get.

4. Humor with GIFs

GIFS are probably the most trending and prevalent type of interactive content in an email. They instantly catch attention. You can further link them to your intended webpages. Videos are also a common way to boost interactivity. However, including long videos can bog your email down, making it difficult for some subscribers to open. GIFs are better, faster, and crisper. 

Look at this lovely holiday-themed GIF from Fundbox. It uses motion to capture the eyes of the viewer to direct them down the page towards a CTA.

5. Personalize with Recommendations

Using personalization is another great way to boost email marketing. Pair it with interactivity, and you will witness remarkable results. Sending your customers an email specific to their interaction with your business is a great way to engage them. And, nothing works better than e-commerce recommendations for this. 

For example, if your potential customer has spent time browsing the sunglass collection on your website, it is the best opportunity to send them a product recommendation email. Have a look at this template created by Outgrow.

This is a great opportunity to drive engagement as well as sales. Moreover, you can even send an interactive email for abandoned shopping cart situations.

6. Win with Contests

Among heaps of similar emails piling up in the inbox, giveaways and contests can give you the power to turn your email into a super magnet. After all, who can turn them down? Don’t fret, you don’t have to go out of your way to host a contest. It could be anything like a free subscription, an e-book, discount coupons, or a gift card from your store. 

Have a look at Cadbury’s email contest “Match & Win” that they promoted during the Premier League. The copy of the contest smartly creates a sense of urgency (only two weeks left) to drive readers to the CTA “Play Now”. Embedding these types of contests into your email can shoot up email open rates.

7. Get Clicked with Buttons

We all know the power of CTA buttons, don’t we? Then why not use interactive buttons in emails too? It draws viewers’ attention and adds a shade of gamification. 

Now, Adidas uses a “Shop Collection” button to direct users to their new collection. A button drives higher engagement as compared to a pure text email informing about the new collection.  

However, you can go to the next level of interactivity. For example, Pret sent this email to its customers as a part of their interactive campaign. Rather than just sending an image with a drink, they made this excellent interactive content. It says, “What’s your favorite flavor? Click on one of the 4 options to fill up the cup.”

As it is way more visually appealing, it boosts user engagement manyfold. Watching the cup fill could trigger a craving, leading to additional drink sales.

Wrap Up

And, that’s a wrap! If you had fun going through these interactive emails, trust us, your customers will too! These interactive emails don’t just boost engagement, but also generate leads. Moreover, these interactive content types like quizzes and surveys are fairly easy to create and set up. If you want to try it out, go for a tool that offers you a variety of interactive content types with modern no-code templates.