If you’ve been in marketing for more than a hot second, you’ve no doubt heard of the Buyer’s Journey. What you might not know is that this journey has dramatically changed in the last decade.
- 67% of the buyer’s journey is now digital.
- Today’s buyer is up to 90% of the way through their buying journey before they reach out to the vendor.
Interactive content is front and center in this digital shift in the Buyer’s Journey. As companies produce more and more content in order to satisfy today’s self-guided buyer, only the most engaging content will stand out and get noticed.
Why does interactive content stand out in the sea of content online today? Because it doesn’t talk at buyers – it talks with them.
There are interactive content types for every stage in the Buyer’s Journey: Awareness, Evaluation, and Decision-making. However, it plays an especially important role for both the buyer and the business in the Awareness stage.
Creating a Dialogue Through Interactive Experiences
Static (or passive) content is like a billboard. It tells the buyer something about your company – but it’s not a two-way conversation.
Interactive content such as polls and surveys enable that two-way conversation. Instead of telling the customer who you are, you invite them to tell you who they are.
How, exactly?
As prospects click through your survey and answer questions, they share valuable insights about themselves. In turn, your interactive content helps them zero in on their needs and priorities in regard to the solutions you offer.
You can use the insights you glean to provide more relevant information to your prospects throughout the rest of their buying journey. This, of course, is not only a fantastic opportunity to help them along down the path to a sale, but it also builds your company’s credibility, and creates trust between you and the buyer.
Take a look at how Orbitz is creating dialogue with prospective customers with this interactive map. No doubt they’re gathering helpful data when users click on each interactive area of the map.
When you click on a state, it shows you the most popular hotel and flight destinations of residents in that state.
Looks like many of my fellow Coloradans headed to Las Vegas around this time last year!
Generating Demand With Self-Identification
Interactive content such as knowledge tests and quizzes are fun – and they’re certainly more engaging than a static piece of content. But more than that, they help your buyers self-identify.
As human beings, we’re on an endless quest to understand who we are. Interactive content can be an immediate opportunity for a buyer to learn more about themselves.
Note the word “immediately,” there.
A three-minute personality quiz gives the user a much more immediate benefit than reading a 4,000-word ebook.
Here’s a fun one from the Pew Research Center. This 12-question quiz tests your knowledge of science facts and applications of scientific principles. At the end, you can see how you did in comparison with 3,278 other U.S. adults.
Buyers are busy people. Give them a benefit quickly and you’ll gain their appreciation along with their attention.
Plus – bonus! – BuzzSumo found that the average quiz gets shared 1,900 times.
Interactive Content Leads the Charge in the Buyer’s Journey
Capturing the attention of your prospects in the Awareness stage of the Buyer’s Journey is becoming more challenging. Interactive content can help you meet that challenge head-on by engaging your buyers in a two-way conversation during this critical stage.
The benefits of interactive content don’t stop there, though. There are interactive content types for every stage of the Buyer’s Journey. And it’s easier than ever to create and publish this engaging, truly valuable content for your target audience.
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