With people getting more and more used to digital marketing – and the overall world of the internet – SEO strategies are changing. The same old “add a few links and keywords” tactic needs some boosting. One of the revelations that digital marketers came to, in terms of SEO, is interactive content.

Interactive content has an open communication channel that pulls the reader in. Rather than serving them passive content, interactive content’s engaging nature allows the reader to actively enjoy what’s in front of them.

If you wonder what interactive content brings to the SEO table, the answers lie ahead.

Types of Interactive Content

In order for you to better understand the benefits of interactive content, we should first clarify what falls under that content form. There are different types of interactive content, but these are some of the most popular ones:

  • Videos
  • Infographics
  • Games
  • Quizzes
  • Assessments
  • Contests
  • Calculators
  • 3D virtual reality view (of products)

What’s relevant to mention is that these types of content are all gaining in popularity. For example, infographics have had an increase in usage among B2B marketers during the last four years, and 67% of marketers are creating infographics, according to the 2020 Content Marketing Industry Report.

Videos are also seeing continuing growth in popularity. In 2019, people spent a weekly average of 6 hours and 48 minutes watching online videos – a 59% increase from just three years prior.

Based on the increased demand for interactive content, digital marketers have discovered how this can help improve their SEO strategy.

How Interactive Content Can Improve Your SEO

If you are thinking of employing interactive content, but you first want to learn about its power, you are in the right place. Here’s how interactive content can be a breath of fresh air in your SEO strategy.

1. Increase User Engagement

81% of people agreed that interactive content is more effective in grabbing their attention compared to static content. Simply put, interactive content is highly engaging.

But how does that tie into SEO?

According to Marcus Tober, the founder of Searchmetrics, “Looking at the March 2019 Core Algorithm Update, we see another example of Google rewarding user engagement and helpful content. This means that, as the amount of available online content grows, Google is paying more attention to signals that indicate whether users are happy or not.”

There it is. Search engines are looking for engaging content to improve user experience. Their goal is to match users with not just informative content but also with content that will engage them. Consequently, using interactive content will help you add value to your content.

 

2. Earn More Backlinks

The more backlinks your page has, the more search traffic it will get from Google. However, you have to earn those backlinks.

Estelle Liotard, a digital marketer and contributor writer at SupremeDissertations explains: “This is where interactive content steps on the scene. The versatility and engagement of interactive content are what motivates other website owners to link to your page.”

Let’s say that you’ve created an amazing video on digital marketing. Blog owners or marketers are more likely to link that video in their posts than to link to yet another blog post on the topic.

The same goes for infographics. Not only will they enrich your content, but they are also valuable to other content creators. Hence, more backlinks to your infographic.

 

3. Provide Customers with Relevant Information

Interactive content helps you navigate the user’s experience towards valuable information. It enables customization by displaying content in segments and leading users towards their goal.

Take quizzes as an example. They show customers that their opinion is important, but they also collect data that you can use to create more relevant content.

The data you collect can be used for:

  • improving your SEO strategy
  • increasing your conversion rate
  • creating better CTAs

Once you have the data in your possession (thanks to interactive content), you can team up with a writer and figure out the best way to make the most of the newly found information. Some interactive content forms, such as games, allow users to choose their path and experience a personalized approach to content consumption. Different types of interactive content provide different forms of improving the relevance of your content.

 

4. Have a Good Environment for Embedding Long-Tail Keywords

Did you know that 92% of all keywords that people type into search engines are long-tail keywords? Now imagine how much more traffic you will get if you manage to efficiently embed them into your content.

Interactive content is the perfect environment for long-tail keywords. This type of content demands context and is great for storytelling, which means that you’ll have room for adding relevant long-tail keywords.

Of course, many marketers rely on an essay writing service and professional writers to help them with this process. For example, if you wish to create content, you can research relevant long-tail keywords in your niche and craft an engaging content story that lets you add those keywords naturally.

 

5. Improve Users’ Mobile Experience

Interactive content demands that you ensure responsiveness. You won’t invest all that trouble to create interactive content only to let it be ruined when opened on mobile.

Mobile-friendly is a must feature when it comes to interactive content, which plays out well for SEO. With consistent tests of mobile-friendliness, you’ll also improve your website’s SEO.

When you consider that 94% of people judge websites on responsive web design, there is no surprise that Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for ranking. Keep this in mind while creating your interactive content.

There is a good reason why marketers claim that interactive content is the future of SEO. For one, it combines maximized user engagement and enjoyment with SEO benefits. As search engines focus more on providing users with relevant and interesting search results, interactive content will become increasingly more powerful.

About Millennium Agency

Millennium Agency is a national, award-winning, digital, creative, content/PR, and video marketing firm. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, our team unites creative branding and data analytics to accelerate our clients’ growth, while combining our clients’ vision with our marketing expertise to increase sales opportunities and drive brand success. From video advertising and web design to social media and PR, Millennium can guide your marketing efforts every step of the way. Contact the professionals at Millennium Agency to learn more!

 

Word-of-mouth referrals have historically been the most effective and desired marketing tool, as their occurrence within trusted relationships of families and friends lend credibility and esteem to brands. However, social media has launched referral marketing to a new level of opportunity.

Social Media: Changing the Way We Communicate

Social media has irrevocably changed the landscape of communication. People are connected in real-time via online communities where they can share thoughts, personal information, experiences, and referrals with a wide network of their peers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and more. Not only are we seeing an increase in word-of-mouth referrals, but we’re also seeing a surge in influencer marketing. Users with a high following are partnering with brands to help promote their products to impressionable followers. This provides significant influence to individual voices in the marketplace – and has a major effect on how businesses should market, communicate with prospects and customers, manage their public images, and improve their products and services.

Companies must adopt the peer-to-peer communication style of social media and focus on the needs and interests of their customers (rather than their own) to be successful marketers in this medium. By delivering regular content of customer interest and special benefits – as well as being an active ‘listener’ of fans and followers – businesses will enjoy a growing social media following that will deliver positive commentary, increased web traffic, and both on and offline referrals.

Build a Social Media Strategy

Sporadic postings to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts seem disjointed and disorganized. The most effective social media marketing approach is to carefully outline communications with a social media marketing plan. A well-designed strategy includes goals, budget guidelines, competitive research, strategy, and a content calendar. Having a social media marketing plan in place is also essential for measurement. With regular monitoring of the number of followers and quality of interactions, periodic reevaluations of strategies outlined in the plan can be adjusted accordingly.

Using a comprehensive social media marketing plan as a blueprint, increasing leads, referrals, and web site traffic can be accomplished by strategically participating in a variety of social media networks. There are thousands of them out there, but it is critical to select a handful that best reach your customers and target market(s). Typically, the most popular sites – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even TikTok – are great starting points.

Communicate with Consumers

Be sure to communicate with customers and prospects via each social media account in a conversational, value-added fashion that isn’t always about your business. Include calls to action in your postings and web links to increase the probability they’ll be reposted – and answer customer questions and complaints in a timely fashion. Try to flex your creative muscle and design mini-campaigns that offer incentives, like rewards or contests for new ideas, customer-produced videos about your brand, and survey participation. The ultimate goal is consistent engagement with your brand followers.

In addition, a social media policy should be developed to define acceptable online communication practices for staff members who create content. This will ensure compliance with branding guidelines and will serve to prevent conflicts.

If you need assistance in creating a meaningful social media strategy that can directly boost web traffic and generate leads, contact Millennium’s social media team.

About Millennium Agency

Millennium Agency is a nationally recognized, top woman led B2B branding, positioning, and digital marketing firm who knows how to create value that emotionally influences your customer’s buying decision, giving you the competitive advantage. As your trusted partner in B2B software technology and manufacturing, we provide the branding and positioning framework that make an impact – so you can focus on what you do best – run your business successfully. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, and a worldwide presence, the professionals at Millennium Agency would like to learn more about your business.  Visit www.mill.agency or book time here.

Remote working is the new normal for business organizations across the globe. Although the transition from office culture to a remote workforce was a challenging one, organizations have successfully sailed through it. But one challenge which is now troubling most of them is employee engagement.

Although the task of engaging your remote workforce may seem daunting, these ideas will help you do it with a little ease. These ideas have been curated, keeping in mind the requirements for employee engagement along with the fact that your organization is currently operating remotely. So, all of the 7 ideas presented here are such that you can easily implement them virtually.

1. Be Consistent with Recognition

‘Recognition’ is a necessary ingredient for employee engagement. This is because it is a basic human requirement and employees have a strong desire to be recognized. In fact, 66% of employees say that they would quit their jobs if they feel unappreciated. In order to engage your workforce, you have to recognize your employees and make them feel valued. For this, you don’t have to be physically present with them, you can easily implement your recognition strategy virtually. You can recognize your employees over a voice call or a video call.

Further, the results of your recognition will be much better if you recognize your employees publicly via conference calls or video calls. This is because public recognition not only acts as a motivation booster for the employee who gets recognized, but it also ignites a desire in others to be recognized too. As a result, your whole workforce becomes motivated to perform better, which leads to enhanced employee engagement. So, you should start recognizing your remote workforce for the efforts they put in at work and be consistent with it. By maintaining the consistency of recognition, you keep your employees motivated to better their performance, which is the secret to keeping them engaged.

2. Express Your Empathy

This is a challenging time for everyone, for yourself and your employees, so make that known. ‘Empathy’ is a basic human need. It is defined as your ability to understand other people’s emotions, needs, and thoughts. It can also be termed as your ability to step into the shoes of others and feel what they are feeling inside. Your employees need you to be empathetic towards them. They need you to understand their struggles – emotional, mental, physical – and express your empathy towards them. When you don’t do so, the result is employee disengagement. This finding has been highlighted by Harvard Business Review. So, empathy is a basic need for employee engagement and the good news is that you can fulfill it virtually. Below are some tips to express your empathy towards your remote workforce.

  • Give them flexibility:

Working from home during the pandemic is a lot different from working from home during normal times. There is an enhanced need for household hygiene and most family members are staying at home because of the pandemic. All this makes it really challenging for your employees to stick to a fixed working schedule. So, give them some flexibility. To implement this, you can simply assign them the work targets every morning and let them complete them anytime during the day.

  • Ask them if they need any help:

This is a crucial step to take for expressing your empathy towards your employees. You should ask them if they need any help from your side such as technical assistance or guidance for successfully completing the assigned work targets.

  • Derive employee feedback:

To know about the problems and issues your employees may be facing while working remotely, you should ask for their feedback. You can easily create feedback forms on Google forms and derive feedback from your employees. You can put different questions in the feedback forms to know about the problems and issues your employees are facing and then take actionable steps to address them.

3. Help Your Remote Employees De-Stress

A survey conducted by a US-based anonymous professional network, Blind, reveals that as many as 53% of remote workforces at large companies like Google and Facebook say that working from home during the pandemic is impacting their mental health adversely. Remote workers are staying home more to get their work done and for personal safety. Isolation is taking a huge toll on employee’s mental health and making work from home a really stressful affair which impacts their productivity and engagement. Further, the same can be true for your employees too. So, to engage your remote employees you should work on helping them de-stress. Below are some steps you can take in this direction:

  • Have fun with them:

Having fun is an easy way to relieve stress. It makes us feel happy and reduces stress levels. So, have some fun with your employees! You can organize fun activities such as games, contests, or watch stand-up comedies together via video conferencing.

  • Create a “let’s vent it out” group:

When feeling stressed, it is simple yet best to vent your feelings out. The moment you do so you feel lighter and relaxed. Sometimes, only this much is enough to scatter the clouds of stress and make you bathe in the sunshine again. So, you can try creating a let’s vent it out chat group. In this group, you can add your employees and tell them to start a conversation with you and their friends whenever they suffer from feelings of anxiety and aloofness. This will help them vent their stress out and if they don’t feel comfortable sharing their feelings in the group, then try giving them the freedom to share their feelings with you directly.

  • Practice stress management techniques together:

There are many stress management techniques that are instrumental in relieving stress. You can practice these techniques together with your employees via video conferencing. Group meditation and mindfulness exercises are some examples of such stress management techniques.

4. Schedule Time for Some Friendly Interactions

Lack of proper communication is a major factor that leads remote workers to become disengaged. This is because it makes your employees feel emotionally disconnected from you and their colleagues. As a result, they don’t work with engrossment. In order to keep your remote workforce engaged, you should cover up the lack of proper communication and schedule time for some friendly interactions with your employees. You can conduct weekly virtual get together sessions via video conferencing. Here at Millennium we have daily morning status calls that quickly turn to friendly chit chat. It helps colleagues feel connected again.

5. Keep the Work Environment Relaxed

Micromanagement is like a curse for employee engagement. In an interview with NPR, executive coach Steve Motenko stated that micromanaging bosses are one of the biggest complaints he receives from employees. This is simply because micromanagement makes the employees feel frustrated and unhappy. As a result, they don’t get engrossed in work and stay disengaged. Moreover, micromanagement can be even more frustrating for the employees during the current times of the pandemic. So, to engage your remote employees, you should introspect and find out whether you are a micromanager or not. If not, that’s great! If yes, that’s great too as it is in this awareness that you can slowly give up on micromanagement and pave your way towards employee engagement.

 

6. Let Your Employees Have a Break from Work

As discussed above, working from home is really stressful for the employees during this global pandemic. So, they need some breaks from work to de-stress. In a survey conducted by The Hindu, 33.3% of the respondents complained that they were denied leave when they asked for it. This makes the employees feel frustrated and even more stressed, which hampers their engagement at work. In order to prevent this from happening, you should let your employees take some breaks from work. You should let them have one or two paid leaves every month without citing big reasons for them.

7. Assign Group Tasks

A survey of over 19,000 workers conducted by the ADP Research Institute found that teamwork plays a crucial role in employee engagement. Employees who feel like they are a part of a team are more likely to become engaged. This implies that you can engage your remote employees by assigning group tasks to them. You may be surprised to hear about teamwork as a virtual way to enhance employee engagement. You may think that it will be really difficult for your team to work together when its members are not working in the same place. But, smart collaborative tools have made it possible for remote teams to collaborate effectively. These tools are really easy to use and make working simpler for your team.

Whether your employees work in the office or from home, their engagement level determines their productivity. But, engaging your team, when you are not working in the same physical environment is a challenge, not impossible. You can engage your remote team virtually with the above-mentioned ideas.

About Millennium Agency

Millennium Agency is a national, award-winning, digital, creative, content/PR, and video marketing firm. With offices in Boston and New Hampshire, our team unites creative branding and data analytics to accelerate our clients’ growth, while combining our clients’ vision with our marketing expertise to increase sales opportunities and drive brand success. From video advertising and web design to social media and PR, Millennium can guide your marketing efforts every step of the way. Contact the professionals at Millennium Agency to learn more!