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How To Attract Visitors and Generate Leads with Interactive Content

Interactive Content to Boost Leads

 

All of us inbound marketers are constantly facing challenges in our campaigns. One of the biggest is converting visitors into leads. We've attracted that lead to our website and then we dive into our content marketing pockets and offer up ebooks, templates, whitepapers, etc. For years, content has been used as a tool for generating leads, but how do we make that lead really want to fill out that gated form to receive a piece of much desired content?

The answer lies in interactive content. Let's get our leads to share their ideas with us instead of us just sharing our thoughts with them. Let's try to move to a conversation with our audience.

Interactive content marketing is the perfect blend of rich media, visual storytelling, and participatory narrative to keep your viewers engaged. This content comes in forms such as: quizzes, assessments, calculators, interactive whitepapers, surveys, or brackets.  As humans, we can't resist the urge to test ourselves, compete, share our opinion and have fun doing it. Statistics show the edge interactive content has over static content, including:

  • A 50% increase in click rate
  • A 55% increase in conversion rate
  • A 80% increase in completion rate
  • A 13% increase in share rate

With the right interactive content, your business can break through all the content noise on the internet. Let's take a deeper look into just how you can use interactive content to boost leads.

 

Create a Higher Perceived Value That's Personalized

As we all know, high value information attracts more readers which leads to higher conversion rates. Buyers are looking for answers, solutions, and information, and increasingly don’t want to wade through a 50-page whitepaper to find what they’re looking for. Interactive content, in nature, adds a personalized, unique element to the audience's experience. This two-way conversation results in a feeling that you offered the prospect information that was valuable and they walk away with a positive experience they will remember. You, hopefully, will walk away with a converted lead. In the end, interactive content marketing is all about providing more value to the user. 

There are a ton of options when it comes to personalization. Use the person's information, which you gathered from a previous form submission, and distribute it throughout their experience with your content. Or, show the person only questions that apply to them, based on their lifecyle stage, demographics, or persona.

Whatever way you choose to personalize your content, just remember to be careful on how you approach it. You don't want to be seen as creepy! Check out these stats on the power of personalized content:

Personalized Content StatisticsImage Credit: Kissmetrics

 

Use Irresistible, Action-Oriented Calls to Action

Strong calls to action (CTAs) are the triggers that keep your audience engaged and are an integral part of all content marketing. Using interactive content in the form of quizzes, assessments, or surveys allows you to move past ordinary CTAs and offer a personal and active experience for the user. Use CTAs that gives your content a pop, piques the interest of your leads, and resonates with them, such as: "test your knowledge", "see how much you can save" or "take the quiz to find out".

It's important to not only master the design of the CTA, but the copy as well. You want to draw your visitors in. If your copy fails to do this, it can hurt your click-through rate and conversions. You don't want to use boring language but remember to stay away from super techincal jargon.

As an example of a good call to action, beer producer Dos Equis launched an interactive assessment to go along with their Most Interesting Man in the World Campaign (you know, the guy with the beard that always tells people to "stay thirsty"). This assessment flips the focus back on to their audience and asks them how interesting they are, then to prove it. Would you take this call to action challenge?

 

Content Marketing LeadsImage Credit: Marketing Insider Group

Here's an example of a CTA that is not so good. This CTA is for a coffee brand, but that's not clear from the imagery or the content. What adventure are they talking about? This does not leave the reader with the urge to want to "join the adverture", instead it just leaves them confused. 

Example of non-effective CTAImage Credit: CXL

 

Utilize Interactive Content to Move Leads Through the Funnel

As mentioned above, if a lead trusts that the content that they want to access is valuable enough, they will be willing to give up their contact information in exchange. Here is where you can gain more leads by using interactive content. Let's walk through an example.

Let's say you have a cool quiz on your website that proves your knowledge and expertise to the prospective customer. A lead goes to your website and takes the quiz. That person has a positive, engaging experience with your company and therefore is more likely to respond to other gated content. It's a win-win.

Final Thoughts

Leverage your interactive content to empower your branding message and build a stronger relationship with the prospect. There is so much "noise" out there when it comes to content, but interactive content can help you break through and differentiate your brand. When used correctly, interactive content is the head of the trail to the sales funnel.  

If interactive content isn't part of your content arsenal then I suggest you give it a try. Your interactive content helps keep prospects engaged with your brand. Use interactive content to learn more about your leads and weed out the good leads from the great leads, allowing you to enjoy more marketing driven sales revenue.

This blog was originally published on 3/9/17 and has been updated for freshness and accuracy.
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