This week, I have been helping gather website visitor feedback via exit surveys on a client’s website. My main involvement was in offering an opinion on this particular exit survey platform’s backend – how data is visualised, how to move around and find the “actionable insights” they promise to reveal, and (somewhat ironically) how usable this usability-focused tool is.
… And it’s a little early to tell. I want to use it for a bit longer (there’s bound to be a period of adjustment, after all) and I want to see how it handles more responses.
Anyway.
That’s not why we’re here.
I want to talk about interactive content marketing. While I was having a good old poke around this tool, I couldn’t help but glance over some of the answers given:
That second one; Price. That‘s what people are asking about. They want to know how much they have to pay for the thing. Of course, they do. So I went about trying to find out how much this client’s product costs, and, as this is a scalable product/service, I was hit with an interactive calculator.
Users lurve interactive content
Higher click rates, more shares, and greater pageviews – interactive content is a hit. A quiz, a calculator, or a game offers a level of personalisation that users just find irresistible. Which kind you choose for your site will depend on your goal (a quiz to discover what kind of bread you are is perhaps not so appropriate as a tool to offer an online quote for car insurance!) but in terms of educating, entertaining, and encouraging engagement, it looks like interactive content does it better.
There’s still room for blog posts – you’re reading this one, aren’t you? – and a juicy ebook or informative webinar in your content marketing – but interactive content is believed to have the edge in capturing users’ attention.
Interactive content marketing for lead generation
If one of the most frequently asked questions from users is how much something costs, and your product or service doesn’t have a black-and-white answer, it stands to reason that an interactive calculator could help with lead generation. They’re shareable, they’re useful, and they’re great for conversions. They churn out customised information pretty much instantly too, for the sweet gratification that we all crave.
Here’s what I think you need to consider before you implement your own interactive calculator to drive conversions:
Make your interactive calculator simple
Use descriptive labels for your fields and make the interface easy to understand – and make sure the output makes sense too! You don’t want your users to have a hard time deciphering how to interact with the calculator in the first place, and you certainly want the result of them using it to be useful, otherwise, you can kiss that conversion goodbye.
Make sure you ask the right questions
Ask yourself what you want your calculator to do, and how your users will find value in that. Select your fields or questions appropriately, and offer branching out where appropriate so that it feels tailored to the user.
Make your interactive calculator accurate
This is a fairly obvious one, but if you’re going to be supplying figures for a user about how much they will spend on your scalable service, you need to be pretty accurate. Back your figures up with up-to-date research or data.
Interactive content is about quality, not quantity…
… although quantity would be nice too! Loads of views on a blog post is great, but a handful of leads generated as a result of those users interacting with your calculator are far more qualified. Extra investment in planning and creation could pay dividends later on. Users today are well informed and know their way around a brand. They’re spoilt for choice and the only way to get them to really take notice is to position your business as the real answer to their problems. An interactive calculator will personalise their experience with your brand and illustrate exactly how much they need to invest in you to reap rewards.
