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Interactive Elements to Consider Adding to Your Business Site [Updated 2022]

In today’s digital world, your website is everything. It’s your brick and mortar, your online headquarters, and your chance to make or break a first impression. You wouldn’t build a store that’s uninviting; so why would you build a website that’s hard to interact with?

When surfing the web, users make decisions swiftly, and those decisions may mean the success or failure of your business. According to research, it takes about 50 milliseconds for a user to decide whether they’ll stay on your website—or whether they’ll go. That’s only a twentieth of a second!

It’s time to start thinking critically about your business’s website. If you’re looking to improve your website in 2022, read on to learn our favorite interactive elements to consider adding.

Provide Video Content 

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of digital is the distance it creates between a user and a company. Verbal interactions provide the opportunity for genuine connection. Written content, on the other hand, leaves so much up to a reader’s interpretation. Tone, emotion, and personality can all be lost via digital. That may translate to lost business for your company.

Fortunately, video content is here to save the day. Video content gives you the opportunity to talk about your products, goods, or services in the same way that you would in person. It humanizes your brand and allows you to make a real connection with visitors. Your business is no longer a nameless, faceless entity; it has a real and trustworthy human being behind it.

When it comes to video content, the possibilities are endless. You can utilize video content to explain your products or services. This is especially helpful if your offerings or processes have complexities. You can tell the story behind your company and how it came to be. Do you have satisfied customers? Why not work with them to create a testimonial about their experience?

SmartMove, a tenant background check company, features a video testimonial from a satisfied landlord on the homepage of their website. Source: SmartMove
SmartMove, a tenant background check company, features a video testimonial from a satisfied landlord on the homepage of their website. Source: SmartMove

Here are a few best practices to guide your content creation:

  • Keep your videos short; between 30 seconds and a minute is ideal
  • Design for play without sound by adding closed captions
  • Utilize your keywords in the headline and description of your video; this can help improve SEO
  • Create an SEO optimized YouTube channel and add your videos; even if the video is embedded into your site, the presence of your video on Google-owned YouTube will improve SEO rankings

Add a Live Chat Box

Here’s an experience that may be familiar to you: you have a question for a company and would like to talk to someone about it. You search through their website, finally find their phone number, and give them a call. You’re routed first through an automated answering system.

Next, you’re forced to select an option from a menu. Eventually, you are placed on a long hold. You’re left feeling frustrated, with a bad taste for the business—before you even have a chance to talk to someone.

Rather than giving customers the run-around, offer them a direct line to your business via a chatbox. This is a small, chat pop-up that sits on the bottom edge of your webpage. Though there are a few ways to set it up, it’s best to connect customers with a chatbot right off the bat. This can give you a chance to understand their inquiry, in order to direct them to the appropriate live person to help them.

1Dental proudly displays a live chat function in the bottom left-hand corner of their website, no matter which page a visitor is on. Source: 1Dental
1Dental proudly displays a live chat function in the bottom left-hand corner of their website, no matter which pages a visitor is on. Source: 1Dental

The benefits of adding a chat box to your business website are undeniable. Here are a few highlights:

  • Live chat costs 15% to 33% less on average than phone support
  • On average, a chat agent can do the work of 15 email support agents
  • Live chat can increase customer retention by an average of 48%
  • ROI from the live chat is approximately 300%

Create Pop Ups 

We know what you’re thinking: “Pop-ups? It’s not 2001 anymore!” Thanks to the early days of the internet, the word “Pop-ups” has gotten a pretty bad rep. But these days, pop-ups are no longer annoying ads that you can’t seem to get away from; they’re helpful calls-to-action that can help improve your conversion rate.

Incorporate helpful pop-ups into your site design by smartly combining them with a CTA. CTAs, or calls to action, are those small, brightly colored buttons on websites that scream, “Learn More” or “Shop Now”. They’re simple, straightforward, and, when combined with a pop-up window and a great offer, they’re simply irresistible.

Pop-ups aren’t just to grab a user’s attention; they’re also an integral part of your site strategy. When pop-ups are used well, they should usher visitors directly to the most important pages of your website, improving your conversion rate and boosting your sales.

If you’re looking to incorporate pop-ups into your site design, it’s important to build a strong strategy. A good way to do so is to think about your customers’ buyer’s journey. What’s the most important page for a customer to view in each step of the path to purchase?

In the research phase, you may want a customer to view your product overview page. For those in consideration, create a pop-up to take users to a more in-depth product guide, like a “How it Works” page.

Finally, for those on the decision page, link to a page that proves your company’s worth. A comparison between your products or services and your top 2-3 competitors can be a great way to stand out.

Here are a few best practices to guide your pop-up design:

  • Make sure the information included in the pop-up is of value to your customers
  • Keep text large and easy to read
  • Always use actionable words like “Shop Now”, rather than statements like “Our Products”
  • Give customers a simple way to dismiss the pop-up to prevent your site from appearing spammy

Your business’s website should be reflective of your passion for your business. A drab website without interactive features portrays a company that doesn’t care—and that’s never good for sales.

By incorporating these three interactive elements into your site design, you’ll be able to connect with customers more quickly, make impressions that last, and turn site traffic into sales.

Author’s Bio

Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. He is currently a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips. Matt is passionate about marketing and business strategy and enjoys the San Diego life, traveling and music.