Ana Fernweh Photography

Want to run a successful blog? Some key tips to start blogging include choosing your niche, defining your target audience, picking the right platform to post on—like Tumblr or WordPress—and selecting monetization methods like affiliate marketing to help you turn a profit. The one thing you shouldn’t neglect, however, is designing your blog, which can significantly impact how well your blog resonates with readers. 

The latest statistics from website optimization company OptinMonster show that adding visuals alone can increase views by over 94%, with bloggers finding that posts with video content are up to 50 times more likely to drive organic search traffic and sustain long-term site growth. You can do the same, but why not go further? Adding interactive elements can make your blog even more immersive by more deeply engaging visitors—making them more likely to turn into loyal readers. 

To glean inspiration for making your blog interactive, you can look in some unexpected places—namely, the practices employed by online eyewear retailers. Why? They all operate in an extremely competitive market. In an industry worth a whopping $233.5 billion, selling quality eyewear isn’t enough. Brands need to go above and beyond just to stand out, and many do that by making their blogs and overall websites more interactive. 

If you’re still not convinced, here are some lessons you can pick up from some of the US’ top online eyewear retailers that can help you create a more immersive and interactive blog:

Eyebuydirect: integrate social media 

Even if you’re not a B2B blogger, it’s worth integrating social media into your blog for a few reasons. Outwardly sharing your blog on your social media profiles can expand your reach, while embedding social media posts in your blog—especially visual content and content created by members of your own audience—can make the reading experience more visually appealing and interactive. This method, also known as leveraging user-generated content, has proven highly effective for popular American eyewear retailer Eyebuydirect. 

Eyebuydirect is an online-only brand, which is why it heavily relies on social media in its blog design. It encourages buyers to use the hashtag #eyebuydirect to show off their new purchases on platforms like Instagram, and it directly embeds the resulting posts and images right on its homepage. The prospect of seeing themselves in such a prominent location only encourages Eyebuydirect’s customers to frequent its site more often. 

You can achieve a similar effect in a few ways. Aside from promoting your blog on social media, for example, you can add floating buttons at the end of each post so readers can do so themselves. You can also use an external comment system like LiveFyre so viewers can add comments directly from their favorite platform. Like Eyebuydirect, you can also initiate conversations with followers on social media and embed the most interesting posts, images, videos, and comments right into your content.

Target Optical: add see-for-yourself features

Clickable assets that readers can try out for themselves can further engage them in your content. They can also offer insights into the nature of your audience and the kind of content they’d most like to see, which you can use to improve your blog and attract even more readers moving forward. You can see just how effective this strategy is by looking at the interactive features on Target Optical. 

Because this retailer boasts a strong physical presence, it needs to convince consumers that its online offerings are equally reliable. That’s why it gives them the option to try on glasses online. This interactive feature uses AI and augmented reality to measure the face and generate realistic frames, letting users see how different pairs look on them—just like they would in a physical store. Virtual try-ons also reveal which eyewear users try on the most, allowing Target Optical to prominently feature its most popular models—like Ray-Ban’s 0RB3716 and Oakley’s 0OX8163—for immediate testing.

B2B bloggers can easily showcase their offerings in the same way. You can use the likes Perfect Corp.’s tools to instantly add virtual try-ons to your site. Casual yet niche blogs, like travel blogs, can easily add interactive, 3D maps of various destinations using Google Maps. Similarly, we’ve noted that integrating poll and survey tools, as well as quizzes, can help any blog achieve maximum engagement when used effectively. 

Sunglass Hut: gamify your blog

A surefire way to keep readers on your blog for longer? Gamification. Features that are both interactive and playable can go beyond making reading your posts more engaging and enjoyable—by also making visiting your blog more rewarding. If you’re wondering how to get this done, consider getting your ideas from Sunglass Hut. 

Like Target Optical, Sunglass Hut operates a lot of physical locations—but, uniquely, it specializes in designer eyewear. That’s why it uses gamification: to expand its reach beyond its traditional luxury customer base. In 2022, it released Sunglass Hut Utopia. Unlike virtual try-ons, this limited-time event didn’t really have anything to do with buying eyewear—instead, it asked visitors to find six eyewear frames, featuring designer brands ranging from Prada to Michael Kors, scattered around the Sunglass Hut website. The prize? An exclusive eyewear style not available anywhere else. 

In a similar vein, you can make your blog more rewarding to read by adding game-like elements like a points system. Visitors can earn these by reading, commenting, sharing, and more. Have them earn badges once they reach a specific number of points and tie rewards to them—like giveaways with affiliate brands, for example. Using Google Sheets, you can even keep track of every reader and create leaderboards that encourage your audience to keep coming back and see what they can do to improve their score. That way, you’ll generate interest, traffic, and long-term growth.