8 Types of Interactive Email Content That Convert

An effective salesperson doesn’t buttonhole a client, fill their ears with a pitch they’ve already heard a thousand times, and before they can say a word, hand them a business card and say, “Call me.”

And then walk away, confident that they will.

Good person-to-person pitches are creative and engaging and good email pitches should be, too. Making your emails interactive is a hot marketing trend that gives your brand an edge over traditional approaches. Segmentation, personalization and hitting your audience with lively and alluring content is real-time marketing your subscribers won’t be able to resist.

Here are eight approaches that will reach your client base and give them a chance to reach back.

1. Reveal-Based Marketing

Anyone who’s ever spent any length of time in the dating pool knows suspense and intrigue are attractive-at least in the beginning of a relationship. The same holds true for interactive email marketing.

Games, puzzles, riddles or anything with a hidden payoff that your audience must pursue can keep them hooked. For example, Adweek wrote about a Macy’s ad that allowed users to virtually scratch and peel to reveal different outfits from a clothing line.

2. Involve Social Media Sharing

Getting others to spread your message is great for boosting inbound marketing. One good way to do this is to embed a live Twitter feed into the email with a unique hashtag. The client not only can Tweet about the pitch, but then see their own Tweet in the email they’ve opened.

3. Make it Friendly for Mobile Devices

We’ve talked about the importance of mobile in numerous blog posts, and for good reason: 54 percent of email is now opened on a mobile device and the number is growing. If your client opens your email but can’t access the interactive content, you’ve wasted your effort. Think of your email as requiring the operating practicality of an app.

4. Insert an Interactive Video

What’s better than video? Video with which the consumer can interact or even dictate what happens next. By putting interactive hotspots-tags that allow your customers to click links or mouse over objects-in your video, you give your audience a way to get more information about that object.

Like movie studios that use focus groups to screen several different endings of a movie to see which one resonates, you can also embed videos that allow the audience to choose where they want the storyline to go. It’s like Choose Your Own Adventure books but, in this case, the adventure is your brand’s latest offer.

5. Let Them Design Your Product

If you have something that comes in different sizes, shapes, colors, etc., give your audience a chance to sell themselves their own product-and allow them to buy it directly from your email. Many sports jersey retailers include a function on their websites that allows customers to customize a jersey by putting their favorite number and name on the back.

6. Take a Poll

A poll gives you multiple chances to engage your customers-asking a question, providing the results and requesting their comments.

Don’t ask what everybody else is asking, either. Think of something fun and different that’s related to your brand. For example, NFL Network asked its audience about an alternative career for one of its best athletes and biggest stars: “Which Olympic Sport Should J.J. Watt Play?” (No, ice dancing was not a choice.)

Here are a few inspirational examples of polls to get you thinking.

7. Use Quizzes

Everybody, and I mean everybody, likes to prove how smart they are and share the results across their social media networks. Use that to your advantage.

8. Ask Important Questions

Opinions are like, well, you know-everybody has them. Make them work for you by asking questions your target audience wants to answer. Customize your questions to get information you need to identify customer needs and target markets, and make sure your product fulfills their needs. By promising a response you can grow your email database.

Engaged audiences are receptive audiences. Engage them and they’ll engage you where and when it counts most.

The better you understand your customers, the easier it will be to engage them with targeted interactive content. Get useful customer data with a free trial of InstantData now.