Interactive Videos: The New Marketing Trend

Today’s digital marketing world is dominated by visual-centric content. Interactive videos, motion graphics, and a variety of other visual and interactive material are to marketing strategy. 

We remember audio-visual content 2-3 times better than only audio or only visual content. In recent years studies have found that 91% of buyers prefer to consume content in visual and interactive formats. So, where do you start in creating engaging content that contains both audio and visual content? Interactive videos.

Interactive videos are a new technology that mixes video material with human input. They let viewers interact with information. Viewers can define their own routes, answer questions, or make purchases, just by clicking buttons on a screen.

The Concept Behind Interactive Videos

In its most basic form, interactive videos give the spectator of a digital video meaningful power and decision-making abilities. Technically, someone watching a traditional video has “meaningful control” in terms of start, stop, rewind functions. But, a viewer is mostly a spectator, and video is experienced passively. 

The more recent concept of “interactivity” provides a far more in-depth level of interaction with a video. Viewers are now able to make significant decisions thanks to a variety of features.

Brands can get more engagement from their audience by using interactive videos. When using this type of visual format, content makers have the ability to tell a story with multiple endings. Those who are aiming to try something fresh and creative can now take their audience along for a ride. We have no doubt that interactive videos are the future of marketing.

What Role Does Interactivity Play in Users’ Video Experiences?

Interactive content allows for adaptability for diverse audiences. Unique viewers are able to select the options that appeal to them. And, are therefore more enticed with the story plot. Interactive videos consistently surpass linear video in terms of engagement, watch time, and overall success in capturing audience attention. 

Remember that investing in interactive videos might also help to make your content more memorable. Let’s discuss one key element of interactive videos: hotspots!

Hotspots Are THE THING in Interactive Videos

Marketers and website owners are improving their tools and tactics to make videos more engaging and immersive. Video marketing is becoming a popular way to sell a product or service. Interactive video hotspots make videos clickable and dynamic. Hotspots in your interactive videos allow your viewers to be engaged with your content. Don’t believe us? Take a look at this Bob Dylan’s interactive video! 

What Are Hotspots In Interactive Videos?

Hotspots in interactive videos are embedded material that directs viewers.  They allow you to personalize the experience that viewers will have.

How Hotspots In Interactive Videos Work?

Imagine the convenience of being able to be automatically directed to a relevant Wikipedia by clicking on a “hotspot”.These hotspots function similarly to traditional links, but with the added benefit of allowing you to:

• Take your audience to a PDF, or another resource where they may learn more about your brand. This feature is especially important to those viewers who require extra information.
• Travel to a different chronology in the video or skip to specific markers with established bookmarks
• Give viewers the opportunity to ‘see that section again’ if they want to go back over something crucial, or ‘skip intro’ if they just want to get to the main content.
• Drive actions like Click-to-Call, Buy Now, or Add-to-Cart. These encourage users to complete the next step in the sequence, such as filling out the online contract, watching the next video, or labeling important information.
• Ask viewers specific questions at critical video spots, to get immediate feedback and evaluate their overall experience. Remember that the video must be set to grant a pause so that they can respond to the question or survey.
• Make an ad with clickable elements that go straight to your shopping cart by linking your shopping cart or your available products.
• Bring attention to sections you want to highlight, add a button to any grid position. If you don’t want to use a button, any suitable indicator that signals viewers to click the option would be enough.

Benefits of Using Hotspots for Interactive Videos

With generations of gamers growing up with wildly popular video games that feature branching storylines, interactive videos are poised to give a familiar media experience to these nascent customers. When using this feature for interactive videos, your visitors are prompted to take action which allows you to track their specific preferences and qualify leads. As a result, you can create more of these interactive videos and have your audience spend more time watching and participating with your website and content.

There are several advantages of using hotspots for interactive videos in your marketing strategy:

• Keep an Eye on Your Audience’s Actions: Hotspot for interactive videos can let you study your potential clients’ buying behavior by incorporating questionnaires and other features. You gain more in-depth information about your viewers’ behavior whenever they tap, click, or engage with a shape or object that serves as a link.
• Customers Engagement and Leads: Hotspots allow you to use demonstrations and training materials to stimulate deeper learning, attract visitors to your website, explore alternatives, and check task completion. For more interactive participation, you can even ask your viewers questions at certain times throughout the interactive videos. Any incorrect answer will send them back to the previous video section, where they can watch it again and learn that key information you want them to know and further advance to the next phase.
• Allows Easy Post-Production Output Customization: Instead of creating a new video to advertise a new giveaway or sale, you can add a link or an annotation to an existing video. In this way, you can save time and money by repurposing an existing, relevant video to promote new products or special offers. Ultimately you can remove the annotation or the link once your deal has expired.

Warning!

According to recent research, people have far lowered their attention spans, meaning your audience will be looking for straight-to-the-point content material. You can leave regular-length videos for instructional or news-related purposes. Even though the exact duration range of short-form videos is not precisely agreed on, we can conclude it is often between 1-3 minutes. For example, Twitter and Instagram have distinct time limits, with the former having a 2:20 minute limit and the latter having a 60-second limit.

Surely you have heard that phrase “quality over quantity”! Short-form videos should never be seen as a limitation to your creative flexibility. Instead, consider them an opportunity to distill your message to its essence and capture your audience with small bites. If your interactive videos don’t engage your audience within seconds, they will just swipe away searching for more entertaining content. This means you’ll have to come up with new ways to bundle your interactive video material into short, bite-sized chunks!

Bottomline

Interactivity is an effective method for distinguishing yourself from the competition in the industry. Itl allows marketers to gather real-time or instant feedback and gain critical data insights that might help them scale up their marketing strategies.

Partnering with a professional video production agency is the best alternative if you are new to content creation or feel overwhelmed by it!  At StoryBox Studios we can assist you in creating those very appealing interactive videos that will make your brand stand out!