Hello and welcome to the first episode of The Interactive Video Podcast!

I'm your host, Brett Lindenberg, and I'm excited to give you an overview of interactive video and teach you how to leverage it for more effective marketing, training, sales, and more.

This podcast is presented by Mindstamp, the industry-leading interactive video platform that turns your videos into engaging interactive experiences in seconds. Create your first video in seconds for free at www.mindstamp.io.

So - let's start from the top. What IS interactive video?

Interactive Video is a new form of media that dramatically increases viewer engagement by allowing them to interact with the content.

While normal videos simply allow the viewer to play, pause, and change the video time, progressing through it in a linear fashion, interactive videos are "supercharged" with interactive elements such as buttons, hotspots, branching, data collection, quizzing and more.

These interactive elements transform a one-way, passive viewer experience into one that is more engaging, actionable, and data-producing.

Sounds great, right? Well, it's even better than it sounds! According to Wyzowl, interactive video produces 44% more viewing time than standard videos, and 78% of marketers have found interactive video to be an effective strategy. If you're not using interactive video already, now is the time to get started!

So - how is interactive video used? Well, everywhere of course, but there are a few key areas where interactive video truly shines. Let's review a few of them...

First, Marketing: The goal of all marketing is to give consumers a positive experience and idea of your brand. Interactive Video helps you achieve that by giving them ownership of their experience through interactivity. For example, in a choose-your-own-adventure experience, the viewer can choose between different branching paths to discover your brand as they wish, rather than being forced through a static narrative chosen by your company. Additionally, interactive videos can be personalized dynamically to each viewer by including elements like their name, company, industry, and more. Personalization is an extremely powerful concept that we will cover extensively in a future episode - stay tuned!

Training and Education: The goal of training is to verify that the learner both completed and understood the content. Traditional video fails to meet this goal as you have no idea if they watched it, if it made sense, or if they had questions. Interactive video enables deep insight into your training and education efforts. All viewing data and interactions are tracked and available to you as the video owner. For example, on Mindstamp, each time somebody presses play on a video, a full report is generated showing everything that happened: view time, viewer contact information, question responses, button and hotspot clicks, scoring, and more. Simply put, interactive video is a massive enhancement to remote learning and training!

Sales: Every sales professional knows that you need to give the buyer the ability to complete a purchase when the moment is ripe. Interactive Video is great for sales as you can add BUY NOW and ADD TO CART buttons or hotspots into the video that allow the viewer to convert at that exact moment, rather than hoping that they visit your site after the video is over. E-commerce companies are using interactive video to allow consumers to dynamically browse their product catalog, choosing their path to exploration and giving them the ability to purchase as soon as they make the decision to.

It's clear that interactive video is important and that it will only continue to grow as the world moves more online. If this is your first time hearing about it, you might have a few questions. Let's address them…

How do I create an interactive video?
There are a few interactive video platforms out there, but this podcast is presented by Mindstamp, so you know the answer here! Mindstamp is the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way to create world-class interactive videos. Simply choose your video and within 5 minutes you'll have an amazing interactive experience ready to send out to your customers, employees, students, or audience. You can try it for free at www.mindstamp.io, no credit card required!

Do videos have to be created from scratch for interactivity?
Great question! Some interactive video platforms require creating videos from scratch which is expensive and time consuming. We take pride at Mindstamp in creating a tool that allows you to take any existing video and turn it into an interactive experience in seconds. You can take your existing videos from Vimeo, Wistia, or Youtube and give them a second life through interactivity by using Mindstamp. Of course, the best interactive experiences have video content designed with interactivity in mind, including small pauses or transitions, but simply making any video interactive accrues 90% of the value without the time and cost to create new content.

Can I put interactive videos on my website?
Absolutely! You can embed your Mindstamp videos anywhere you can put a YouTube video: on your website, in email campaigns, on Facebook or Twitter, and more. The experience is fully branded so that your audience feels deeply connected to your brand while they experience your new interactive video.

That's it for today. Thank you for listening to the first episode of the Interactive Video Podcast by Mindstamp. Tune in next month for a deep dive on interactive video marketing, including personalization, CRM integrations, automation, and more!

Remember, you can try Mindstamp for free at www.mindstamp.io. You'll turn your old, static videos into fresh, engaging experiences in seconds. If you need help, email us at [email protected].