When it comes to content marketing for B2B, there are many different types of content you should consider for your content arsenal. Blog posts, social media posts, and emails all have their place, but interactive eBooks can be particularly valuable for attracting an audience and nurturing and converting leads. We’ve compiled a list of some interactive eBook examples so you can take inspiration for your own B2B content marketing strategy.
What Is an Interactive eBook?
But hang on just a second – what exactly is an interactive eBook anyway? You’re probably already familiar with standard eBooks, but this new generation of technology adds an additional element to boost engagement.
With a standard paper book, you’re restricted to words on a page, illustrated with a few diagrams and photographs if you’re lucky.
When moving to electronic media, the restrictions of traditional books are removed, meaning you can insert any kind of content in an eBook, including:
- Audio clips
- Videos
- Animations and animated infographics
- Quizzes
- Interactive checklists
- Links
- Maps
- Augmented and virtual reality
- And more…
Including this interactive content in an eBook can make it a lot more engaging and useful for the reader. It also means that content publishers can use the format that’s most suitable for the type of content they’re creating. There’s no need to try explaining a concept in several paragraphs when an animated infographic will make it so much clearer.
Creating interactive content may take more time and effort, but it offers multiple benefits. Not only is this kind of content more effective at capturing the audience’s attention, but it also tends to be shared more on social media and provides an effective way of reusing existing content.
Most brands have a substantial library of content including text, images, and videos. A single interactive eBook can bring all these pieces of content together in one document, without needing to create any original content from scratch.
Research has also shown that interactive content converts much better than non-interactive content. Seventy percent of marketers say that it converts well, compared to only 36 percent for standard content.
You’re probably already starting to see the possibilities of how you can use this technology to reach your B2B audiences. Now let’s take a look at how some organizations are successfully using interactive eBooks in their content marketing strategy.
Nasdaq – How to Launch an EFT in a Crowded Marketplace
This interactive eBook by Nasdaq uses animation to draw the reader’s attention to key facts, with clickable elements to expand the details of case studies. This allows the reader to scan through the document quickly and read more about certain points in more detail without being overwhelmed.
Alfa Systems – Augmented Reality Annual Report
Annual Reports have a reputation for being dull and dry pieces of content. And, as they usually contain a lot of figures, it can be challenging to capture this information in an engaging way.
The Alpha Systems annual report uses augmented reality to overlay digital content onto the printed content, with videos that are automatically triggered by user actions.
Prophix – Adapt & Innovate
Finance company Prophix produced this interactive eBook to explain how AI is impacting the finance industry. The book contains audio clips from finance experts and an interactive menu powered by a virtual assistant to navigate between the different sections.
Top Rank Marketing – Break Free of Boring B2B
Our good friends over at TopRank Marketing created this killer interactive guide that uses comic book-style animated graphics to attract and retain the reader’s attention with clickable elements and navigation. The non-linear format means that the reader can dip in and out of the content, spending more time on the sections that interest them the most.
Pace – Your Corporate Custom Publishing Solution
Marketing agency Pace uses an interactive eBook to showcase examples of digital and print storytelling, including embedded videos and clickable pop-out content.
Pardot – The B2B Marketer’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing
Marketing automation firm Pardot offers several interactive eBooks in its library of resources. This eBook explains what ABM is and how to get started using cute illustrations, animated statistics, interactive checklists, and clickable links to further resources.
IBM – Think City
Not sure I can technically call IBM’s Think City an interactive eBook. It’s more of an interactive experience that is very immersive and takes viewers down whichever path they choose. It starts with some amazing animations to grab attention and then offers several industry-specific paths to follow. Once inside of an industry category, viewers can drill down into different types of buildings to learn more about how IBM is helping companies and consumers evolve using IBM technologies.
DivvyHQ – Back to the Future: Insights & Tips for Content Strategy, Planning, and Measurement
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include our own interactive eBook in this list, of course!
Our guide to the future of content marketing includes video interviews with top content experts, as well as demonstrations of how DivvyHQ’s content analytics module can help you use data to create better content.
Want to Spice Up Your B2B Content?
If you’re feeling inspired to create an interactive eBook for your own organization, it’s important to plan, prepare, and measure properly to ensure it’s a success.
Unless you create content that’s valuable for your audience, it will miss the mark no matter how innovative and engaging it is. And creating an interactive eBook requires a lot more time and effort than creating a basic eBook with text and images, so it’s important that all your effort doesn’t go to waste.
If you need help spicing up your content arsenal, or just some help managing what you’re already doing today, get in touch to arrange a demo or try it out for free.