How to make an interactive video?

Summary

Interactive videos can be a very useful marketing tool. Their call-to-action buttons foster engagement from viewers (and increase views), and they make your brand easy to remember. In this regard, Babelee makes it fast and easy for you to create interactive videos.  

What are interactive videos? 

An interactive video gives the viewer a role inside of a video. Here, the viewer doesn’t just watch a video, but they become a part of it! The video will ask them to make a decision, to express their preferences,  or to download a piece of content or an application, just by clicking on a call-to-action button.  

We’ve already talked about interactive video advertising and 5 great interactive video examples

Interaction makes videos less boring and more engaging for the viewers. They are also more entertaining, making them more memorable by the viewers. For these same reasons, they also increase engagement and the conversion rate.  

How to make an interacti video? Main uses of interactive videos  

Interactive videos can be used both for referral to websites or apps and for data collection. Here are 6 main ways that they are typically used: 

1. Referral to another touchpoint: A call to action can be used within the video to refer viewers to your website, to an app, or to a product or service. This will boost the clicks on the link. In fact, interactive videos have higher conversion rates than normal videos. Storytelling can help facilitate this action.
2. Data collection: Interactive videos offer the possibility of collecting lots of data when integrated with specific tools. You can also direct users to specific content based on their responses. For example, in a video lesson, you can test users with a quiz; those who fail the quiz can be redirected to the part of the video where you explain the topic. 
3. Advertising: Interactive videos are a great way to advertise your products. Use the video to describe  the product and create a direct link that brings customers straight toit to show specific details or tell the story behind the product and how it is made. 
4. Entertainment: With interaction, the audience can identify with the main character of the story, even deciding how it continues and even how the story will end, as if they were playing a video game. In the last few years, interactive films or tv shows are growing, even on streaming services like Netflix.  
5. Marketing: Interactive videos can also be used as a virtual presentation of your brand, your store, or your company’s website, allowing viewers to click on buttons that allow them to discover new areas and follow their own online tour.  
6. News: Interactive videos can also be used by Inews agencies to share the details of breaking news or other stories by clicking the links that connect to specific articles or posts.  

Technical details 

A crucial technical detail regarding interactive videos that you must remember is about their format: It must be HTML5, not MP4, unlike classic videos. That’s because formats like MP4 do not support interactive features.

Also, it’s important to note that videos in HTML5 format must be connected to another platform to host them. With Babelee, you can host your videos right on our platform, which greatly simplifies this process.  

How to make an interactive video: essential steps

1. Think interactive: When you know what to communicate, think about  the points within the video where you can interact with your viewer and where you can really involve them. This is the most important step: once you have your idea, you just have to create it. 
2. Get the right Software: After that, it’s time for you to choose the right  software, the one that best fits your capabilities The Adobe Suite offers Animate. But if you’re looking for software that is easier to use, you should try the Babelee platform.  
3. Watch Analytics to ensure better performance: Once the video has been uploaded, make sure you’re analyzing the results in terms of audience behavior, such as the Click Through Rate or Timewatch. These will help you understand how and where to improve the production next time. You’ll also want to determine which interaction was the most effective in terms of performance, taking into account how many people, among total viewers, who clicked on each interaction. 

Make it easy, use Babelee to create your interactive videos! 

Creating an interactive video with Babelee is simple and fast. Here is an effective guide you can follow. 

First of all, import your video into the platform. You can also compose your video directly in Babelee or choose a template from the many available. If you don’t know how to use a template, this post can help guide you in the right direction.  

After composing each scene of your video and putting it all together, it’s time to work on the interaction. There are two different ways to create interactions in your video: 

• Design a clickable part in the editing software. It’s very easy: decide which part of the video will have a button and create an interactive area. Then place a link that points at whatever you want. With the clickable area, you can create the interactivity more freely and best express your creativity. You can even add something funny: for example, add an easter egg that shows if someone clicks on the wrong area.   

• Create a button and customize it with a code. This is a very exclusive feature of Babelee. However, as you can guess, it requires programming skills. If you possess such skills, the feature will significantly simplify your work. However if you don’t know how to code, this part could be quite difficult. In this case, the first method is probably better for you.

Tips and tricks for interactive videos 

Even if interactive videos are becoming more and more popular, don’t forget that there are still a lot of people who don’t know how they work. Therefore, you’ll want to help your viewer along  the way. Here are some tips: 

1. Make sure the interactivity is very clear and visible, using a button for example. The call to action (or the point you want viewers to click on) must be easily found. It should also be inviting so that viewers will be more likely to click on it. Make it move, zoom it, and add shadows or any detail you think might be helpful. 
2. Remember that the main purpose is to gain clicks. For this reason, don’t forget to insert a sentence that invites people to do just that. Something like, “Discover more!”, “Click here”, or even “Choose between this and/or that!” Focus on the action you want the audience to perform.  
3. If you decide to use a voice over technique for your video, be sure that the speaker interacts with the video and the viewer, soliciting him to click or asking for an option! 
4. Finally audio and video must be effectively connected as if they were one thing. You can consider adding sound effects to emphasize the buttons so that they feel less boring and static. 

Interaction and personalization 

If interaction can bring great results alone, think about what it can do when you add another crucial video marketing tool like personalization. With Babelee, you can! Personalization is the key to making your video stand out  from the competition, engaging the viewer in a familiar way that will make them feel more involved.

As you can see, these qualities are the same ones that we cited in the first part of this post regarding interactive videos! This is exactly why interaction and personalization work so well together and why they are the perfect combination for creating a video for your business. For example, try to personalize some aspect of your video, like calling the user by name at the very beginning!  

To learn more about how to make a personalized video, check out this post on our blog.  

Conclusion  

Interactive videos are a powerful tool for advertising your business or your products and services. In this post we talked about how you can create them using the Babelee platform: now it’s time for you to put what you’ve learned into practice. What are you waiting for? Try the Babelee platform and start making your first interactive video!