Picture this: you visit a website and the landing page lets you play with the digital product. You get to play around instead of having to read sentences upon sentences touting its usability. It will grasp your attention, right?

That’s the power of engaging content. The website engages you in exploring the product, thus increasing the chances of you buying it. This is why brands now focus on engaging audiences around their content on digital platforms. This engagement results in higher conversion and click-through rates.

What is Interactive Storytelling?

A popular method of audience engagement is interactive storytelling.

Interactive storytelling makes the audience a part of the story. Instead of being a passive part, they become an active element of the story. Usually, the characters and the setting are pre-determined and the audience decides the course of the story.

There are many approaches to interactive storytelling. Some are specifically used in content marketing while others are used in digital entertainment.

Interactive storytelling is meant to make the audience feel special and included. For brands, it engages a lead and increases the chances of conversion. Whereas, in entertainment scenarios, it immerses the audience.

Moreover, since each audience interacts with the story in their own way, this offers a personalized experience for each user.

Evolution from Plain Storytelling to Interactive Storytelling

Digital storytelling began through plain old blogs. People would share their stories through episodic blogs. It started as an alternative to published books.

Then, visual graphics became a part of digital storytelling and digital comics became a thing. Around the same time, digital storytelling became a multi-media experience with motion graphics and sounds. Eventually., storytelling got dedicated platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. People could share their stories in each platform’s own style like pictures, videos, or 280-character tweets.

As these platforms grew, audience interaction became a success metric. People would interact through likes, comments, and shares. From then on, with immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), story-telling became immersive. With that, other means to include the audience in the story also came forward, like interactive storytelling.

Elements of Interactive Storytelling

Interactive storytelling has different forms and shapes. In an entertainment scenario, it can be a game that lets the players decide what happens next. In digital marketing, the audience interacts with the content to get more information about a product.

Interactive content is made up of three main elements. These elements make it different from all other kinds of storytelling.

1. The Magic of Choice: this enables the story to have multiple paths. In an entertainment scenario, this choice determines how the story unfolds in a game, movie, or book. Additionally, in a marketing scenario, this choice makes the content more personalized for the audience.

2. Audience Participation: Interactive storytelling is directly dependent on it. If the story fails to compel the audience to participate in it, it cannot move forward.

3. A Reward at the End: The story or the content piece should have something at the end, which enables the audience to move through. If the audience does not find what they are looking for, this results in disappointment. This can put audience loyalty in jeopardy.

Interactive Storytelling for Digital Marketing

If you are a content marketer, you must be aware of the importance of engaging your audience. You can do that by including interactive storytelling in your content.

Benefits of Making Interactive Content

1. You Get to Know Your Audience.

Making your content interactive for the audience allows you to know your audience. The data collected from their interactions can be used to plan your next marketing strategy.

2. It Allows You to Be Creative.

We have been doing static content pieces for such a long time that barely have any space for creativity. Interactive content like quizzes, infographics, tools, etc., allow you to be more creative.

3. It Sets Your Brand Apart.

At least a gazillion brands want the consumer’s attention. This means too much noise and an unimpressed audience. Interactive storytelling sets you apart from your competitors and increases audience engagement.

4. You get Increased ROI.

Interactive content allows the audience to interact with your brand and increases the chances of conversion. This means if you do it right, you can get an increased Return on Investment (ROI).

Examples

Here are some ways you can incorporate interactive elements in your content.

1. DIY Tools

You can build tools for customer self-service for your website or app. These tools can be a way for the audience to play around—for example, a cost calculator for calculating the cost of multiple products or services. One example is Chatter Buzz’s custom website cost calculator.

Another example is LocalCableDeals’ internet provider location finder tool. This tool allows you to find which providers are available in your area. Now instead of calling or looking up ‘Is Spectrum Internet available near me?’ you can simply head to this website, input your ZIP code, and get a list of providers near you.

2. Microsites

Microsites are supplementary websites of a brand, which promote its specific products or services. Most brand make their microsites with fun interactive tools, visuals, and stories. With microsites, you do not have to follow your main website’s theme. You can provide information through a fun interactive story, or a tool. An example is Waterwise’s everylastdrop.co.uk, where they draw attention to water wastage by taking you through a cartoon’s daily life.

3. Clickable Infographics

Infographics tend to be overwhelming with information pouring out from every nook and cranny. You can make them interactive for your customers by condensing the information in drop-downs and pop-ups. This way, you can make the user interested in an infographic instead of giving them a whiplash with all the information at once. Another benefit of clickable infographics is that it allows the audience to only access the information they want.

4. Quizzes

The chances of a person clicking on “Take this Quiz to Know Which Shampoo Brand Are You” instead of going for an article on types of shampoo brands are pretty high. Quizzes and forms are a fun way for the audience to actively interact with your brand. You can always repurpose your existing content into an interactive quiz. Moreover, market research is an added benefit of interactive quizzes.

More examples of interactive content are live videos, games, assessments, interactive emails, etc., that can engage your audience.

Interactive Storytelling for Digital Entertainment

One of the few differentiating factors about digital entertainment is that it immerses the audience in the story. As the audience interacts with the story, it empowers them to decide its course. This power gives them a thrill like no other. This is why interactive entertainment is gaining popularity. Let us explore the popular digital entertainment mediums that use interactive storytelling.

1. Interactive Movies:

Interactive movies follow a non-linear path where viewers can choose what happens next. This means various movie scenes and endings are shot and the viewer decides which combination will make up the plot they watch. Popular examples of interactive films are Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Puss in Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale.

2. Interactive Story Games

What is better than playing a game where you know all about the character’s backstory and you get to control what they do next? Such games have a full-fledged story revolving around the gameplay and give the player the power to decide the character’s fate. Interactive story games allow the players to bond with their players, which makes the gaming experience all the more enjoyable. Games like Depression Quest and Dreamfall Chapters are popular interactive story games.

3. CYOA Books

Choose Your Own Adventure books or novels allow the readers to choose what happens in the book. With each choice they make, they are directed to the page number from where the plot unfolds. Interactive books became first popular in the late 1900s when Bantam books began publishing choose-your-own-adventure books. The first book in the series is called The Cave of Time.

Reasons Why Should You Use Interactive Storytelling to Engage Your Audience

Even if you are a content marketer or an artist, interactive storytelling is a great strategy to engage your audience in your work or brand. Here are some reasons why you should start considering incorporating it into your work.

• Interactive storytelling is a fairly new concept, so you can use it to stand out amongst your competitors.
• It requires users to interact, so you can decrease your bounce rates and increase user interaction.
• Interactive visuals cater to everyone, so you can use them to capture a larger audience’s attention.
• It gives users personalized experiences, so you can use it to improve your user experience.
• You can collect the data from user interaction to unlock use preferences and trends.