How Agencies Can Make More Money With Interactive Marketing

What’s the first thing you do as soon as you wake up in the morning? I check my Twitter feed, scroll through Facebook updates, save a couple of reads and then forget all about it. I am a millennial – I binge on content even before I bite into my breakfast. And if this content doesn’t hook me for more than 5 seconds, I do just that – forget it. With such short attention spans, and a constant craving for good content, engaging Millennials is a challenge. And more so when majority of us have tuned out ads.

As a digital agency, your main target audience, and that of your major clientele, are the millennials. In times such as these – where time is limited but consumable content is unlimited – how do you engage them?

This innovative marketing technique thrives on the principle of engaging prospects by adding real value and providing instant gratification.

Interactive experiences like calculators, quizzes, and assessments facilitate a two-way communication, something old school content like blogs, whitepapers, and ebooks can’t. This results in high engagement levels. End users don’t have to commit to find value, and thus interactive experiences resonate with them. This is probably why, back in 2013, New York Times’ top story was a quiz!

And that’s not it. Millennials’ favorite digital content platform, Buzzfeed, publishes an average of 8 quizzes every day. And ever since they have optimized the quiz formula, their engagement graph has shot up (check it out below).

Given the awesome response that interactive content receives, some marketers are already embracing it. According to a report issued by the Content Marketing Institute earlier this year, 46% of marketers surveyed were using interactive content as a part of their marketing initiatives.

As a digital agency, it’s time to truly go digital and step up to this opportunity. Interactive content marketing can help your clients reach a wider audience base, capture more leads, and get better conversions. And at the same time this can add a new revenue stream for your business.

Understanding Interactive Content – An Overview

Interactive content adds value, answers questions, and renders a personalized experience for your audience. It cannot be consumed without interaction and thus, facilitates two-way communication and starts a dialogue. Experiences like calculators, quizzes and online surveys make your customers feel important by giving them an output that is only for them. They talk to the end user. As a result you get rich user data which opens up awesome possibilities.

The three most widely used forms of interactive content are calculators, quizzes, and assessments.

Quizzes

Did you know – Buzzfeed’s quiz – “What City Should You Actually Live In” – has been taken 22 Million times and liked 2.5 Million times on Facebook!

This amazing engagement rate is what inspires marketers to use quizzes to generate new business.

For instance, a quiz along the lines of “Which car is the right fit for my needs?” would be ideal for someone doing lead generation for an auto dealer or an auto insurance provider.

Quizzes can also provide a quantifiable value on a personality characteristic or set of traits you may feel you have. And as a marketer you’d want your campaigns to do just that. Thus, quizzes come handy as an effective tool to appeal to the core psychology of your target audience.

Here’s an example of an interactive quiz built with Outgrow –

Calculators

When you want to buy insurance or enroll in an online school, the first thing you want to know is “what is the cost?” Calculators can help you answer such pressing questions from your customers. How much will it cost? What is the ROI? How much will it save?

In fact, millions of searches are made every month along these lines where the primary intent is to understand the cost or ROI of making a purchase.

Calculators, just like quizzes, are attuned to human psychology as users are inclined to research on their own before any sales pitch. Thus, engagement rates are high. In fact, according to our data, more than half of the people who start a calculator, complete it.

Here’s an interactive calculator built with Outgrow –

Assessments

Your customers always want to know more about themselves, especially where they can improve. And if you can give them a “grade,” they will go to great lengths to get an A! In their pursuit of a perfect score, you get deep engagement and data. Lots of data!

According to a recent research report by the Content Marketing Institute, more than 50% of marketers trust assessments when it comes to engaging prospects in the early stage.

Below is an assessment built with Outgrow-

How Can You Sell Interactive Content to Your Clients

Once you’ve understood how interactive content can turnaround your marketing game, and that of your clients, it’s time to pitch it to them.

Show Them Success Stories

Success stories can be a real driving force in the adoption of interactive content. According to Content Marketing Institute, around 63% of the marketers believe that case studies are one of the most effective marketing tactics. So, showing your clients how interactive marketing helped other brands grow and sell better, you can encourage them to give it a try. Try creating case studies, blog posts, and presentations to make the case.

Prove with Research and Metrics

Hard numbers sell better than any sales pitch or marketing banter. While each of the statistics reveal the importance of content marketing to your clients, here are some top metrics that are sure to turn some heads:

• 93% of the marketers feel that interactive content is very effective at educating the buyer.
• A recent report by DemandGen concludes that around 91% B2B buyers also prefer to engage with interactive and visual content.
• Almost 50% of the marketers surveyed in a recent Content Marketing Institute survey said that they are already using interactive content as an integral part of their marketing strategies
• According to a recent research report issued by the Content Marketing Institute earlier this year, 46% of marketers surveyed are using interactive content as a part of their marketing initiatives
• According to a recent research report by the Content Marketing Institute, more than 50% marketers trust assessments when it comes to engaging prospects in the early stage.
• Create and Present Interactive Content as Part of a Funnel Strategy

Leads essentially pass through 3 stages before converting – Early Stage (Top of the Funnel), Middle Stage (Middle of the Funnel), and Late Stage (Bottom of the Funnel). And at each stage you need to engage prospects with a different strategy and messaging in order to encourage them to go to the next stage.

If you tie the benefits of interactive experiences to each stage of the funnel, your clients are more likely to visualize the end results.

Give Them Examples

Nothing can make a case better than examples. If your clients are able to visualize the use of interactive content for their industry or, even better, their business, they would be convinced enough to give it a shot.

Reaching out to your customers forms the base for convincing them to switch to interactive content marketing. So, make sure you do it the right way.

To help you, we’ve created templates for various communications you can use throughout the process. You can find it in our Guide on How Agencies can create a new revenue stream with interactive content? Get access to ready-to-use sales email templates, case studies, decks & more.

Download your copy now!