Interactive content is an effective way to make your content even more engaging and interactive. It goes beyond typical slideshows, videos and other multimedia features. There are many tools that can help you make interactive content – some are really good, some not so much. I’ve tested a bunch of them and listed my favorites in this post with examples to get you going too.
Do you want to create interactive content? But you don’t know where to start?This article is for you!I am going to present some interactive content tools and will tell you how and why they are useful.
Ceros
Ceros is a platform that provides users with the powerful tools they need to create high quality, interactive content without having to rely on developers.
Through the use of a drag-and-drop functionality, Ceros enables users to create six different types of content:
- Shoppable Catalogs
- Lookbooks
- Magazines
- Infographics
- Nanosites
- Ebooks
All Ceros designs start simple and come to life through the implementation of interactivity and animations. To get a better idea of what to expect, take a look at these screenshots from an ebook made with Ceros:
Through the incorporation of elements like video and interactive buttons, transforming a static piece of content into something more dynamic is quite simple.
Unlike a traditional ebook, an interactive approach makes it easier for you to guide your readers through the content in its entirety with the hopes that they walk away from it feeling more educated and sales-ready.
Brackify
Want to facilitate both social sharing and repeat site visits?
Enter Brackify.
While it can initially be difficult to imagine anything other than sports tournaments taking shape within a bracket, marketers have found a number of innovative ways to use this interactive tool. Here’s a look at a creative bracket that helped BostInno score some viral success:
Looking to crown Boston’s hottest new startup, BostInno was able to drum up a bit of friendly competition by creating this highly-shareable bracket.
Before you get started with Brackify, it’s important to note the difference between the two types of brackets — Complete and Round By Round. While The Complete bracket allows users to fill out a bracket in its entirety with no round restrictions, The Round By Round bracket has specific start and end times for each round, meaning that users can only cast their vote when the round is active.
Zaption
Zaption is an interactive video tool designed to engage learners (of all types) by prompting them with clarifying questions throughout an educational video.
This is how it’s typically formatted:
While this tool is geared toward teachers, it’s perfect for anyone looking to provide and reinforce information and instruction.
From an agency standpoint, this tool can be used as a method of training for both employees and clients. Whether you’re looking to walk them through onboarding a new software, or easily explain a new marketing technique or approach, this type of video-based learning is designed to differentiate instruction and keep it interesting.
SnapApp
Looking to build a dialogue and drive more engagement for your brand? SnapApp is an interactive content platform that enables users to create and analyze nine different types of interactive content assets:
- Assessments & Personality Tests
- Calculators
- Knowledge Tests & Quizzes
- Polls & Surveys
- Interactive White Paper
- Interactive Infographic
- Contests & Sweepstakes
- Brackets
- Galleries
Below is a compelling example of a SnapApp quiz created by Development Dimensions International (DDI):
SnapApp
SnapApp is an interactive content marketing platform that allows you to create all kinds of cool interactive content. For example, you can use it to create interactive videos and infographics, calculators, quizzes and contests and these are just some of the types of content available. Their drag and drop builder is very easy to use and another useful thing is that you can integrate with all kinds of systems, such as Pardot, HubSpot and SalesForce in order to make the most out of your content and generate more leads.
You can publish your content to various channels, including websites, emails, mobiles and landing pages and they also provide extensive analytics for your interactive content.The top 10 interactive content tools @snap_app via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
Qzzr
Qzzr, as the name suggests, is a tool for creating online quizzes, easily. They also aim to help businesses by helping them generate leads. For example, after someone takes your quiz, they can be redirected to a targeted offer. You will also be able to capture emails, or, if you want, can even add calls to action, in order to generate more leads for your business.The top 10 interactive content tools @qzzr_ via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
Guides.co
Guides are some of the most successful types of written content, as they provide lots of value to the reader. With Guides.co, though, you can take things a bit further and create a more interactive, fun to read guide.
Use the guide you’ve already created and add embedded files, images, videos and more to it in order to make it more readable. Your readers will then have to click to go to the next page and they also have the ability to leave comments, ask questions and interact with other users on the platform.
MapMe
MapMe is a tool that helps you “tell better stories” by using maps, videos, images and words.
You can basically create interactive, 3D maps with images and videos that will help you take your readers and visitors on a fun journey. Users can also add their locations to the map, so they can get more involved in the process.The top 10 interactive content tools @mapmeapp via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
Apester
Apester is a tool for creating all kinds of interactive content, such as personality tests, polls, quizzes and interactive videos.
It’s very easy to use and create interactive content and you can add it to your website in order to improve engagement and even make more conversions.The top 10 interactive content tools @apestermag via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
Ion Interactive
Ion Interactive offer an impressive list of different types of interactive content. You can use one of their thousands of fully-customizable templates to create anything from interactive infographics and interactive white papers, to contests, quizzes and calculators to get your readers to be more involved and engaged.The top 10 interactive content tools @ioninteractive via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
Content Tools
Content Tools is a software for creating interactive content with the purpose of engaging users and of generating and capturing leads.
You can use it to create quizzes, contests, interactive maps, interactive calculators, infographics, and much more.
As I mentioned earlier, their content is designed to help you capture more leads; for example, you can add lead capture forms at the end of a quiz.
ContentTools
ContentTools is an interactive content platform aimed at helping businesses generate leads, drive website traffic, and increase social engagement.
Much like Ceros, ContentTools offers seven different types of interactive content:
- Personality Quiz – Engage your audience with personality-style quizzes similar to those Buzzfeed and PlayBuzz publish.
- Trivia – Challenge your audience with trivia-style quizzes.
- Polls – Survey your audience with our opinion-based polling tool.
- Ranker – Collect crowdsourced rankings from your audience on any topic from politics to entertainment.
- Can You Guess – Challenge your audience with informative, numerical-based quizzes.
- Caption This – Encourage your audience to caption an image with this interactive competition.
- Contests – Collect valuable information about your audience with giveaways from your site.
Here’s an example of what you can create with their Caption This tool:
Hosting a caption contest incentivizes your visitors to hand over a bit of contact information and establish and strengthen your relationship with them.
If you’re thinking about implementing this for you agency, consider using a candid office shot to humanize your brand and invite more personal engagement.
Playbuzz
Playbuzz is an interactive content tool that works for publishers, advertisers and content creators.
Instead of simply writing your content and publishing it as is, Playbuzz can help you add all kinds of interactive elements, like videos and quizzes, into your stories/content, in order to make it more engaging and more readable.The top 10 interactive content tools @playbuzz via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
Calculoid
A very simple and effective way to engage your website visitors – and, by the way, also a great way to boost your organic traffic – is to embed a calculator on your website: a calculator that is, of course, relevant to your audience.
To help you create that calculator, you can use a tool like Calculoid – you don’t need any coding skills to use it and create your first interactive calculator.The top 10 interactive content tools @calculoidapp via @lilachbullockCLICK TO TWEET
LeadQuizzes
LeadQuizzes is a quiz and survey creator catering to marketers and businesses. The tool is all about helping you catch more leads through the use of this simple, yet extremely effective form of interactive content: quizzes and surveys.
Conclusion
No matter what may be the output, whether it is a website or mobile app, the content which is interactive can be easily differentiated from its not-so-interactive counterparts. For example, if you are looking for a better way to showcase learning resources to your students in your class room, great examples of how you can leverage on InterActive Content Tools that has proven success over others. Since knowledge is one of the things we accept as being important to everyone, access to knowledge should always be an easy and convenient task for everyone. Thus as designers, we also need to stay abreast with every development that can help us achieve that goal.