Interactive Content Marketing: Engaging Audiences with Quizzes & Polls

Everyone in digital marketing knows that engagement is king. While traditional content like blogs and static posts will always have their place, they don’t always reel audiences in to interact with you.

Interactive content marketing processes like polls and quizzes, on the other hand, are different.

Because they directly ask for input, they offer a natural way to engage audiences, gather research data, and build a more organic consumer base.

Here’s why they’re so effective at engagement—and how to include them in your content marketing strategy. 

Why Do Interactive Content Marketing Drive Engagement So Well?

The reason lies in the basic psychological truth that people usually want to talk more than they want to listen. Generally speaking, of course.

Traditional content, like blogs, only asks to be read (not including the CTAs at the end). Meanwhile, polls and quizzes are immediate psychological triggers that ask for direct input.

And more often than not, people are happy to oblige. After all, people want to speak their minds, express their opinions, and answer questions about themselves. 

Who are you more likely to interact with? A person giving a speech on the street or someone who asks you directly?

Instead of always asking them to listen, polls give them the mic for once. They are treated as people first and consumers second (and not vice versa). 

As a result, they feel heard—and, consequently, valued—as an audience member. 

In fact, it’s not uncommon for people to participate in a short poll they scroll to, even if they aren’t necessarily interested in the products the account sells. 

Top 3 Benefits of Quizzes and Polls

Interactive content marketing is ruling the market right now. Interacting with your audience can bring you engagement like nothing else. Here are top benefits mentioned:

Organic Engagement

Quizzes and polls encourage engagement beyond the direct purchasing or advertising of products and services. 

By asking questions that are related (but not directly) to the things you’re selling, you facilitate organic discussion about your brand. 

For example, a travel company’s social media page can post a poll or question asking their followers: Which do you think is the most underrated travel destination?

That will surely generate a lot of discussion in the comments section! Some people, for example, may suggest other destinations not included in the poll’s options. 

As a result, social media algorithms will push the post into more people’s feeds, increasing reach and exposure.

The more intriguing the poll is, the more likely it is to be shared by people too. They might send the post to their friends, asking them for their opinion about the most underrated travel destinations!

Data Collection

Polls and quizzes are also a great way to conduct research. You can gather insights and data about your target market and their preferences, habits, and opinions.

The poll or quiz itself will yield quantitative results. However, the discussion that it generates will also provide you with additional qualitative data.

You can then use the information gathered for other purposes.

Take the example of the travel post mentioned above. Based on your audience’s answers, you now have a hint of what the next trending travel destination might be. 

You can then orient your products and services towards those destinations!

Sales Funnel Hook

Because polls and quizzes are naturally engaging, they can also serve as effective sales funnel hooks. 

For example, a personality quiz can guide users down the sales funnel by recommending specific products based on their responses.

This makes the path to purchases not only seamless but also highly personalised. 

Tips for Creating Polls and Quizzes

You must follow certain criteria to prepare the right kind of quizzes and polls. Here are those mentioned.

Choose Interesting Topics

It’s wise to choose topics that are relevant but not directly about your product offerings.

Simply posting a poll asking “Which is your favorite product?” is not very interesting and seems very salesy.

Instead, choose a topic that resonates with your audience’s interests and dispositions. 

Bonus points if it’s about a trending topic or if it can generate deeper discussion outside the poll!

Make it About Them

And no matter your topic, always frame it in a way that focuses on your audience’s opinions.

Imagine if the aforementioned poll question…

“What do you think is the most underrated travel destination?”

…was instead phrased as:

“What travel destination should we offer more services to?”

The question is inherently more sales-y, less intriguing, and will not spark as much organic discussion.

As Rafael Romis of Weberous Web Design states succinctly, it should feel “more like a natural conversation.”

But even if the topic is directly about your product, always centre it on the customer experience. For example, you can post a poll asking:

“What kind of VPN features do you value the most?”

Keep it Short and Sweet

Attention spans are awfully short on social media. Create short, snappy titles that can immediately pique people’s interest. 

For example, instead of posting:

“In this quiz, discover your travel preferences, attitudes, and tendencies.”

Simply say:

“What kind of traveler are you?”

Make sure that your quiz or poll is also about a very specific topic, to keep the audience’s interest in check.

Additionally, limit options to 2-4 items to avoid overwhelming people.

And avoid relying on long texts to elaborate on things. Instead, add images and other visual aids to hook people and help with any necessary explanations.

Provide Value

Quizzes and polls need to provide either value or entertainment—ideally, both. 

We’ve covered how to make them engaging, now let’s discuss how to make them worth taking.

As mentioned above, you can use quizzes to function as a personalised sales funnel, offering them product recommendations at the end. 

However, you can also use them as a friendly challenge. Like offering people a discount coupon if they manage to get a perfect score on your trivia quiz!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Conclusion

With authenticity becoming increasingly more important in digital marketing, quizzes and polls are powerful ways to organically interact with your audience.

Instead of always asking them to buy your product offerings, use interactive content marketing and ask their opinions and inputs, which will make them feel heard and valued.

It makes them feel like you’re building a community—one that you’re in yourself—and not just a business.

This, combined with their ability to gather invaluable data and insights, should make them a non-negotiable component of your digital marketing strategy.

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