How To Add Interactive Features To A Blog

Any website with a blog works like a magnet that attracts more traffic. It helps your target audience to know more useful niche-related information and get familiar with your service better.

If starting a blog is not a difficult task but creating engaging blog posts related to a kind of art.

What's more important, interactive content can drive 2X more conversions in contrast to static content.

Therefore, the question is how to write engaging content that your target audience would love?

In this post, you will find out 10 ways that will help you create interactive content.

Let's start!

1. Blend Your Content With Animated GIFs

If you have just started a blog, you might have less skills in creating engaging content. For example, you don't know how to create video content but you know that you should do something on this occasion.

You can use the alternatives like animated GIFs instead.

Why GIFs?

GIFs attract people's attention perfectly. Plus, they are more shareable compared to simple images. Furthermore, GIFs can help you explain some details of the information in your content.

You can find interactive and niche-related GIFs on GIPHY.

Keep in mind that if you use GIFs they must align with your brand voice.

2. Use Embed Video

Did you know that people spend 2.6X more time on the page with video content included?

Consequently, if you want to make people spend more time on your blog, you should mix your content with embedded videos. Frankly speaking, it is a well-known practice among bloggers. Here at Visme, we don't neglect using it as well.

Video content not just makes your blog posts more interactive but allows you to promote your YouTube channel (if you have one).

3. Run Quizzes

People always like when content interacts with them directly. Especially, if your blog post contains some kind of quiz with the questions to the readers. Plus, almost everyone likes to test knowledge.

Therefore, don't shy away from mixing your content marketing strategy with quizzes.

A quiz can be a great tool for lead generation. If the person participates in your quiz, he or she will want to find out the results for sure. Hence, your quiz can request the users' names and emails to be able to reach them back.

When you create a quiz, you must be sure that it goes in line with your brand voice. It means you should save brand colors, fonts, and logo design.

4. Create Interactive Charts

Nobody enjoys exploring numbers and statistics in content. However, any kind of statistics enriches your content with some important information.

Likely, you can make static charts more interactive.

Interactive charts work better in terms of the interaction with readers. For instance, you created a chart that compares your service with the services offered by your competitors. The readers might need to hover over the chart to review the information in more detail.

Other than that, charts allow you to suggest statistics in different visual ways – bar graphs, pie charts, mekko charts to name a few.

5. Slideshow

Sometimes it is far better to introduce your content in the form of a slideshow. Slides can help you summarize the entire information in your post and let people skim through it in a blink of an eye.

The main idea of using slides is to suggest to readers the key aspects of the topic in a more interactive manner.

While creating slides, you shouldn't forget about adding a clear call-to-action at the end of the presentation. This CTA will push people to take some action that is you are interested in. Like, download this very presentation or share it across social channels.

From the example above, you can see that there is an opportunity to submit your slideshow presentation on such available resources as Slideshare. Just like this very presentation on SEO mistakes.

Make your slideshow presentation even more engaging by adding different pop-ups, animations, rollover effects, and many other visually appealing elements.

6. Add Interactive Maps Where Is Necessary

Obviously, you can't add maps to your content without a reason. Your blog must be a hundred percent topic-related or includes some geographic information.

Adding the map to your content allows you to represent some population or economical statistics. Or you can show a comparative analysis of different regions of a country. It depends on your content topic.

For instance, this map illustrates the sustainable growth of oil and gas across Africa.

You can create an interactive map by yourself using a map generator tool. It suggests beautiful map templates that will help you master whatever map you need.

7. Interactive Infographics

Infographics have always been in demand. Marketers love to use them in their content strategy pretty often.

Why are infographics so popular?

First of all, infographics suggest statistically proven data. Last but not least, they are visually appealing, skimmable, and work as shareable content.

Unfortunately, you won't impress your target audience by creating static infographics. This way of making your content more interactive doesn't work anymore.

Hopefully, creating interactive infographics increases your chances to attract more eyeballs to your content.

What are the benefits of using interactive infographics:

Adding more effects and animations
Make people navigate through the infographic
Hold more information without cluttering up the design

To create an interactive infographic you can either hire a designer or use a specific design tool. Meanwhile, you can watch this video that will provide you with a step-by-step process of creating interactive infographics.

8. Interactive Chatbot Is a Must

Your blog may have different goals – educational, interactive, or marketing. If the first two goals don't have any purpose to persuade people to take some action, a marketing goal does.

Blog posts with a marketing intent include various CTAs, opt-ins, and popups that your readers may see appearing somewhere on the page. All these marketing attributes give a clear understanding that content is focused on selling but not on building communication with the readers.

However, if you want to care about your target audience, you should engage people in a conversation.

And that is when using an interactive chat can help you out.

How does it work?

When you add a personalized chatbot to your blog posts, it helps you capture leads in the form of a brief conversation. As the rule, the chatbot popups when a visitor of the page spends some time reading the post.

When the users accept the chatbot's offer, they will see an opt-in screen that represents the form that requires adding an email address.

Why do chatbots work great?

Firstly, they are more engaging in contrast to static CTAs. The user gets an opportunity to make a decision and control the process – either to point out the email address and download a resource or refuse to share the contact details and leave.

By using this way make sure you personalize chatbot conversations per each blog post topic accordingly.

9. Blog Post Navigation

It is strictly important to make navigation through your content comfortable. When the readers can get straight to the section they are interested in the most.

You can do this by adding a clickable table of contents.

With the help of anchor links, you will allow the visitors of your blog to jump to the sections they like and get the information they are curious about. This method will improve a blog's engagement and overall dwell time.

10. Don't Forget to Include Social Sharing Buttons

Since any interactive piece of content forces people to do some actions, you shouldn't forget to include social sharing buttons on every blog post page.

This suggestion can't be considered as one of the web writing tips but it will complete your blog posts' engagement performance for sure.

The only thing you should do is to add social sharing buttons that they could be found easily.

For those who run their websites on WordPress, there is a plugin called AddThis that will help you enable social sharing buttons on the blog.

Include the icons of the most popular social channels that people use, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Conclusion

Nowadays, creating static content is no longer an option. It won't impress your target audience and leave your blog on the sidelines of history.

Instead, focus on interactive content. Turn a boring reading of the text into an interesting journey.

Believe it or not but your readers will love what you do on your blog.