Ask Brightcove: Adding Interactivity to Business Video

A common fear of marketers? That our message isn’t resonating with our audience. In fact, when a viewer watches 60% of our video we consider this a victory. So, how do we double down on engagement? One word: interactivity.  Adding interactivity to your videos keeps attention on your content and empowers the viewer to act at any point and fully engage them. Not only that, with interactivity you are able to lead your viewers towards a specific call-to-action, such as downloading content or signing up to learn more about a specific product.

And the facts back it up - the data around interactivity is compelling:

• 66% of marketers who use interactive video claim its biggest benefit is higher engagement.
• 44% of marketers who use interactive video claim its biggest benefit is longer viewing time.
• 70% of marketers who use interactive video believe it performs well or very well.

Source: Demand Metric Interactive Video Report

One of the key questions we are often asked is: “what types of interactive elements we should add to our videos?” The answer? It really depends on your goals. Your interactive videos should have specific goals whether it is for training, or pitching a new product. Each piece of interactivity is both a way to encourage your viewer to take an action that helps you reach your goal, as well as a potential data point for you to understand who your target viewer is and that individual’s needs and pain points.

How to Get Started: Three Simple Steps to Add Interactive Elements to Your Video

1. Chapterize Long-form Video Content to Make it Easily Digestible

Chapterization of your video content will provide your viewers with easy navigation so they can find the relevant content they need, very quickly. For example, if you send your contacts a video about a particular event and there are different sessions during this event, give your viewer the control to  quickly find the specific session they are interested in and learn more about it.

Additionally, this information can also inform your marketing team as to what pieces of content you should produce in the future. Video analytics mined from interactive elements create a more complete feedback loop-- you now know what interests prospects and customers.

2. Create Clickable CTAs to Push Further Brand Interaction

Keep in mind that video is just one (very important) component of your overall marketing strategy. So whatever end goal you have - whether it is to learn about a new product, sign up for an event, or download content- you need to add a CTA to your video to drive viewers and interest towards that goal.

There are a couple of different ways to do this. The first is to include an end screen, indicating what the viewer should do next and leading them to a desired action. While you can place a screen over your video at any point, it’s not recommended during the video itself, because it obscures your video and the viewer may stop watching. A pop-up annotation, however, is great during the video itself. Annotations are clickable, customizable text or links that you layer on top of your video. Annotations typically appear as small,  button-like CTA’s. With an annotation, viewers stay on your video content and are able to engage with your brand through the actual video content itself. Multiple annotations can be used to provide your viewer choices-- another great video data point! However you decide to format it, always point your video viewer to the next point of “conversation” with your brand. Otherwise, it is very likely that they would leave after watching your video without taking any next step.

3. Insert a Quiz to for Video Engagement and More Lead Data

Inserting a quiz in your video has a couple of different benefits.

First, if your video is educational in nature or training-based, you can test the knowledge of your viewers. Additionally, you can assess if audiences have engaged with the content, and if they are ultimately learning what they need to-- this is particularly important for internal employee training.

Second, if your video is more marketing focused, these quizzes keep attention on your messages longer while allowing you to get more information on your viewers and their interests. Consider adding this data to your marketing automation and CRM tools so you can not only build your lead database but add this data into campaigns so you can make your lead generation goals.

Again, where you take interactive video really depends on your goals. Using interactivity with marketing automation allows for personalized content and more intelligent digital conversations with prospects and leads. Chances are, you’re already mapping content to an individual’s or persona’s needs and pain points. Have a chat with your sales and account management teams to find out commonly asked questions and build-out a custom experience in which interactivity is layered on existing assets. How can interactivity take your content further? The time is now to start experimenting and find out.