Interactive marketing, sometimes called trigger-based or
event-driven marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...
, is a marketing strategy that uses two-way communication channels to allow consumers to connect with a company directly. Although this exchange can take place in person, in the last decade it has increasingly taken place almost exclusively online through
email
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
,
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
, and
blogs
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
.
History
As far back as 1995, interactive marketing was seen as the future of e-commerce and digital advertising.
By 1997, the ''Journal of Direct Marketing'' had re-branded to become the ''Journal of Interactive Marketing'', which continues today. In 1999,
Salesforce.com
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...
was founded, allowing marketers and salespeople to directly affect and guide potential customers through their company's sales process using Salesforce's cloud-based
customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.
CRM systems compile data from a ra ...
(CRM) technology.
With the advent of
content marketing
Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to achieve the following goals: attract attention and generate leads, exp ...
in the late 1990s and the founding of
Hubspot
HubSpot is an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006.
Its products and services aim to provide tools for customer r ...
in 2006, interactivity has seen a fundamental change from simple two-way communication to
gamification
Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished thro ...
and beyond. This particular type of interactive marketing is known as interactive content marketing, and many SAAS companies have been founded to respond to the need for new kinds of content and differentiation between competitors.
Applications
As interactive marketing relies on having a means of open communication with customers, social media channels have been a large part of this strategy, usually headed up by a company's marketing or customer success departments. The most common application for interactive marketing is using it as a lead generator in a
sales funnel
Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale.
The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...
. Interactive marketing is nearly inextricably linked to content marketing, so companies can produce audience-relevant content that is shared many times, or "goes
viral", and eventually establish themselves as an authority in their particular industry. Consumers tend to trust those that are designated
thought leader
A thought leader has been described as an individual or firm recognized as an authority in a specific field and also as business jargon.
Meanings Go-to expert
From the perspective of a thought leader as the 'go-to expert', being a thought leader ...
s in their industry, so this strategy can bring in many inbound leads, coming through gated download pages, for example, that they are nurtured via more content created specifically for them off of the information they've previously shared.
See also
*
Content marketing
Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to achieve the following goals: attract attention and generate leads, exp ...
*
Digital marketing
Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Interactive Marketing
Customer relationship management