• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 5, 2022

Most brands offer some form of content. But it’s not enough to simply offer it — they also have to make it work, judging by Creating Original Content To Build Engagement, a study by Ascend2.  

Most companies are at least partly good at providing content — 70% are somewhat successful, and 27% are very much so, or best-in-class. Only 3% admit to being unsuccessful.  

But they face some tough challenges: 

• Improving content engagement — 46% 
• Implementing the right technology to execute — 37% 
• Measuring ROI/attribution — 37% 
• Hiring talent/resources — 36%
• Creating content strategy — 36% 
• Allocating adequate budget — 31%
• Organizing/managing content assets — 28%

Interactive emails are rated the most effective form of interactive content—i.e., content that is meant to encourage the engagement and participation of the user:

• Interactive emails — 52%
• Interactive videos/live streaming — 47%
• Polls/quizzes — 35% 
• Interactive infographics — 34% 
• Calculators/measurement tools — 27%
• Interactive ebooks/whitepapers/research — 17% 
• Games—11%

Interactive emails also rank among the least difficult to execute, although a quarter find them challenging. Here are the toughest forms of interactive content: 

• Interactive videos/live streaming — 40%
• Interactive infographics — 38% 
• Interactive ebooks/white papers/research — 32% 
• Games — 30% 
• Calculators/measurement tools — 30%
• Interactive emails — 26% 
• Polls/quizzes — 18% 

How do they gauge success? They measure:

• Social media likes, shares, replies — 48% 
• Conversion rate — 37% 
• Email signups — 43% 
• Time spent on page — 36% 
• Page views — 36%
• Session duration and pages per session — 25%
• Bounce rate — 11% 

Few businesses are using gated content—collecting user information in exchange for content:  

• Yes, we extensively use gated content — 6% 
• We strategically use gated content — 38%
• We rarely use gated content — 28%
• We never use gated content — 28%

How does gated content affect engagement? The respondents say: 

• Very positively — 14%
• Somewhat positively — 39% 
• Does not impact engagement — 32% 
• Somewhat negatively — 14% 
• Very negatively — 1% 

Ascend2 surveyed 346 marketing decision-makers during the week of September 26, 2022. Of these, 23% were B2B, 51% were B2C and 26% B2B and B2C equally.