Interactive and immersive messaging: taking your marketing to the next level

It sometimes feels like a slog doesn’t it? Marketing? Not to the team at EBY of course, we love it, but if you’re running a business without a dedicated marketing function, or only a small team, the struggle is real.

Working out who your customers are, where they are, what their pain points are, gathering data, creating content, SEO, Google Analytics, email databases, CRMs, A/B testing, remarketing, digital ads, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok – is frankly all-consuming.

The worst thing is when you do all that work, send out your email or upload your Linkedin post and then nothing, tumbleweed. Honestly, we know how frustrating and overwhelming that can be.

Because just as you’ve got to grips with it all, algorithms change, trends change, competitors up their game and you can quickly feel like you’re back to square one.

It’s one of the main challenges with digital marketing. You have to stay up to date and be prepared to constantly evolve and adapt your strategies accordingly.

And with so many businesses present and correct online, it’s harder than ever to stand out.

So how can you push through the sheer volume of content and digital fatigue to engage effectively with new and existing customers?

What we’re seeing now is an evolution of digital marketing from something that comes at people from external sources, to an altogether more immersive and interactive experience.

It’s taking it beyond the posting of social media updates and the sending of emails to a much more personal approach. An approach which ingrains your brand into the habits and activities of your customers.

There are a few ways you can do this, but they all rely on one thing – an intimate knowledge of who your customers are, how they interact with you and what they need in life.

User-generated content marketing

As well as boosting engagement, user-generated content will give you that vital customer knowledge you need to reach the full immersion stage.

This is where your customers generate authentic content, such as videos, images, reviews, testimonials and podcasts, that shows them interacting with your brand.

The trick is starting it off, which is where a bit of creativity will go a long way.

The rise of video content is perfect for campaigns of this nature and there are many examples of this, including Apple’s #ishotthisoniphone campaign, GoPro’s customer footage competition, ASOS’ As Seen On Me, or Starbucks’ White Cup Contest.

You could also encourage your employees and suppliers to go ‘behind the scenes’ of people and processes, which can be great for brand engagement.

This type of content shows no signs of slowing and is an effective way of bringing your product to life.

Going deeper with immersive and interactive marketing

You know those constantly changing trends we were talking about? This is one of them, although we’re pretty sure this one is here to stay.

This is next level marketing. It’s about giving people more choice as to how and when they interact with you, and providing them with digital tools that they want or need to use.

Examples of more interactive marketing methods include video 360-type tours, online calculators, personalised emails segmented by interest, polls and quizzes.

And if you really want to top the leader board, you could try gamification.

The gamification game

Okay, it takes extra effort, but that applies to your whole digital marketing approach – you only get out what you put in.

Successful marketing relies on engaging people for as long as possible, bringing them back to you time and time again and slowly taking them further along that buying journey as you do.

Gamification is a great way of tuning in to our love of gaming and that element of competition to get buyer data, build brand awareness, nurture customers and ultimately, generate more sales.

It doesn’t mean you have to design an actual game (although that works too), it’s anything that brings that element of competition, progress mapping, countdowns and praise,

This could include techniques such as daily challenges, leaderboards, badges and rewards, or even those calculator functions we mentioned earlier.

Examples include things like streaks on Snapchat or Duolingo, the Zoe gut health quiz and Starbucks Star rewards.

Results-based marketing with EBY

While the new era of marketing can seem mind-boggling, especially compared to the old-fashioned flyer or in person product demo, it has made it possible to promote your wares to a much wider audience.

The key to success is making sure that your online and offline marketing activities are goal orientated and results driven. That means testing what might work for your audience and reviewing the results, always being prepared to pivot if needed.

That’s where it’s worth having an agency like ours on board – no more shooting in the dark, no more marketing headaches.

If it’s time for your brand to stand out with next level marketing, get in touch.