Audience interaction is the key to building a strong YouTube channel in today’s digital world. Amongst some of the most fantastic tools for boosting audience interaction, there is that of interactive YouTube videos.
While in regular videos, audiences passively view the content, in interactive videos, the audience interacts actively with the content, thereby making viewing even more immersive and fun. In this blog, we’re going to talk about what exactly interactive videos are, types of them, their benefits, creating interactive videos on YouTube, and using Flintzy to grow your channel.
What Is an Interactive Video?
An interactive video is a dynamic form of media that lets viewers interact with the video itself. These interactions can range from the simplest type such as clicking on the things around you to more elaborative answers or choices that alter the outcome of the video. This kind of video engages viewers as active participants instead of passers-by, thus ensuring higher retention and a personal experience. For entertainment or informative or marketing purposes, interactive videos create the possibility of direct communication with the target audience.
Types of Interactive Videos
There is too much variety in the form of interactive video that creators should try out. Now, let’s look at some of the most common types:
- Quizzes and Polls
These are interactive videos that ask you questions or allow you to take a poll while viewing. This type is excellent for engaging an audience with educational content or getting feedback.
- Clickable Objects
Viewers can click on specific objects in the video for further information or to activate a link to a product page or another video.
- 360-Degree Videos
They can pan the camera, and this is such a great feature used in travel, game, and real estate videos to navigate scenes from diverse angles.
- Branching Scenarios
The scenarios in such videos allow the viewer to decide what happens next as well as which route the storyline will take. These are ideal for storytelling, gamified content, as well as training videos.
- Shoppable Videos
These videos involve interactive products. These products can be clicked and purchased by viewers directly from the video. Such a format is perfect for eCommerce brands looking to showcase their products.
Benefits of Interactive Videos
Interactive videos are highly popular due to their inherent multiple benefits. Let’s see how they can enrich your YouTube content and channel growth:
- Enhanced Engagement
This way, through interactive video experience, an opportunity is provided to the viewers to indulge in active participation and hence watch for more extensive periods and get more meaningful engagement from viewers.
- Higher Retention Rate
Interactive content keeps the viewer glued for an extended period because they are in command of their experience. This not only increases your audience retention but also the possibility of getting more views.
- In-depth Understanding
Using quizzes, polls, and other interactive functionalities, you shall be able to get great data on what your people care about and, hence, tailor future content specifically for them.
- Engaging Storytelling
Use interactive videos to tell your stories using which the audience shall design how the story should run — more memorable and fun.
- Higher Conversion Rates of Sales
If you’re in eCommerce or marketing, shoppable videos provide a direct way for your viewers to go to purchase from the product placement, which simplifies the sales funnel and increases conversions.
- Better SEO Performance
For a while longer watch time and higher engagement rates contribute positively to the algorithm, the YouTube search ranking of your video improves, and so does the visibility of the same.
How to Create an Interactive Video on YouTube?
Now that you understand what kinds of interactions are possible and the benefits, here’s how to create an interactive YouTube video. Let’s dive into the nitty gritty.
- Step 1: Determine what you want the interaction to be
But first, establish which type of interaction you will have. Whether in the form of clickable links, quizzes, or branching storylines, the interactive elements should help explain the content and make sense in the context of the video.
- Step 2: Scripting the Interactive Points
Once you have selected your interactions, add them to your video script. Mark your script where the interactions will take place and what they will do.
- Step 3: Record and Edit Video
Record the video as usual. Think about adding interaction points while recording the video. When you are editing your video, save space for the inclusion of these features later.
- Step 4: Add YouTube Cards and End Screens
Interactivity is, however very much restricted and only available through YouTube Cards as well as End Screens, and you can use these tools to make clickable elements in your video. Employing example, you could add clickable links other videos, polls, or external websites using Cards.
- Step 5: Add Interactive Features with External Tools
For a complex, interactive feature such as branching scenes or quizzes, use third-party tools: H5P or Eko, which allow you to add interactivity to YouTube videos.
- Step 6: Testing and Optimizing
Once you’ve created your interactive video, test the functionality across a variety of devices, gather in-depth feedback, and exploit analytics from YouTube about your viewership to shape future videos.
- Step 7: Promote Your Interactive Video
Now that your video is live, share it through social media, embed it on your website, and ask viewers to share with others. Don’t miss the interesting interactive elements and use them to attract attention and create more engagement.
Grow Your Channel with Flintzy
Creating the most engaging videos is only half the battle when it comes to growing a YouTube channel. To take your channel to new heights, consider Flintzy, your go-to digital marketing platform that is helping YouTube creators increase visibility and reach audiences. Here’s how Flintzy can help you grow.
- Targeted Campaigns
Advanced Targeting Flintzy will promote your content in front of the right people. They push your videos toward the people who are most likely to react to your interactive elements.
- Channel Optimization
Details on strategy and ways to optimize your channel: optimizing video SEO, optimizing thumbnail and title for better click-through rates.
- Increased Subscriber Growth
From Flintzy’s promotional efforts, you can notice how the subscribers are growing in numbers, thus providing you with a loyal audience to whom you would be creating the coming content.
- Engagement
Use interactive videos and targeted campaigns to create a vibrant community around your content. Flintzy ensures that engagement is maximized through consistent promotion as well as outreach to the viewers.
Conclusion
Interactive YouTube videos will add fun and create more viewer engagement, a better retention rate, and more general growth of the channel. Quizzes, clickable objects, or shoppable content are elements that turn passive viewers into participants, or in other words make your content engaging and memorable.
This guide will enable you to find your first steps in creating these interactivity videos that invite your audience. For further amplification, you can always partner with Flintzy and grow your channel more effectively.
The future of YouTube is indeed interactive content. So, by releasing these features into your videos, you could get going in the direction of making your channel dynamic and highly engaging for the viewers.