By definition, a prospect who downloads and reads a white paper, case study, or other piece of content has “engaged” with it. And that engagement, even in its simplest form, is definitely a good thing. But what marketers are becoming increasingly focused on is taking engagement to new levels, because the more engaged a prospect is, the more likely he or she is to become a customer.
The key to more engagement? Interactivity—content that entices a prospect to take action. That action might be anything from clicking a button to feeding information into a “configurator” tool. But whatever it is, it helps create forward momentum that moves a prospect further into the sales funnel.
Here are just some of the types of content that are, or can be, interactive:
- Interactive Infographic — Already an engaging format for sharing information, infographics can be made even more so by the addition of areas that move or change based on the viewer’s participation. Infographics can be designed to contain or launch video, animations, audio files, etc.
- Quizzes — People love to test their knowledge, especially if at the end they get to see how they stack up against other participants. A well-constructed quiz can both subtly educate takers on your product or service, and bring to light why they need it.
- Configurators — For prospects in the later stages of the buyer’s journey, a configurator can entice them to complete the transaction by using information they provide to show them the product or service as modified to their specifications.
- Contests — Long a marketing staple, contests are also very easy to implement. And they don’t even require a prize in the traditional sense. Simply providing public recognition to the winner is often enough to generate interest and involvement. Encouraging participants to share their experience with their social media audience can help you get extra mileage out of contests.
- Interactive White Papers and Ebooks — Unlike their static forbears, the interactive versions rely on information from the reader to produce a multimedia experience tailored to their needs.
- Calculators — Like configurators, calculators take input from the user and produce a unique end result. In this case, the tool is used to demonstrate some aspect of the value of your product or service.
- Interactive Flowcharts — By their nature, flowcharts tend to show readers multiple paths to one or more results, typically all displayed on one page at one time. By revealing the next portion of the path only after the viewer provides input, you create a bit of anticipation and a desire to see the process through to its conclusion. (Anybody else remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books?)
Bottom line: Virtually all the digital content you produce can have interactive elements. It just takes a little re-imagining of how the material might be presented.
As a leading Colorado content marketing agency, we’ve been helping marketers produce highly engaging content, and customer apps (including configurators, calculators, etc.) for more than 20 years. Let’s talk about how we can give your marketing materials an interactive boost.
