Making Money On-line: Interactive Content Marketing: Taking Personalized Marketing to the Next Level

Dear marketer, let me ask you a simple question: Which CTA would compel you to click?

I’m sure you said you’d click on the right side of the page, just like we would. If so, why does your webpage still look like the image on the left?

Nearly 74 percent of online consumers get frustrated with websites when the content (e.g., offers, ads, promotions) has nothing to do with their interests. Even if the content adds value, it lacks a personal touch and gets lost in the vast arena of content available on the internet.

You surely understand personalization, but don’t know how to correctly leverage it and stand out from the competition.

Well, you’re not alone. Sixty percent of marketers struggle to personalize content in real time, yet 77 percent believe real-time personalization is crucial.

The solution?

Inbound marketing coupled with personalization is the way to go. Why? We'll elaborate.

To begin with let’s talk about something that everyone does.

A consumer visits an ecommerce website, searches for a product, and looks at the options. Based on their shopping history, the site automatically serves up highly personalized product recommendations. But, do they click? And do they buy more products than they would have if they’d been left to their own devices? Yes. According to the data, ecommerce websites that have a product recommendation feature saw a 4.6x increase in conversion rate, 24 percent add-to-cart rate increase, a 26 percent lift in revenue share and average order value increase of 10.3 percent.

That’s the power of personalized marketing.

Now imagine another scenario. Your visitors come to your site and see a quick quiz that asks, “Which Jeans are the Best Match for your Personality?” or one that says, “Which Quirky Shirt Should you Buy Today?” In under 90 seconds, the quiz will recommend a product from your website – it’s like talking to your visitors about their needs without actually having to talk to them.

Now, that’s the power of interactive content marketing.

And why does this work, you may ask?

Well, interactive content takes personalization to the next level as it asks visitors to self-identify relevant information. This makes them believe your brand cares and makes them less reluctant to part with their email address. Thus, interactive content also makes for a great lead generation tool. In fact, some brands have generated upwards of 50K leads through a single interactive marketing campaign! What’s more? Since interactive experiences present the shoppers with a definitive answer and instant gratification, they’re more likely to come back and do business with you. This increases brand loyalty.

Use Cases

Let’s understand the various forms of interactive content you can use to make your marketing campaigns more personalized.

Quizzes — Imagine there are two real estate firms - A and B. Firm A’s website talks about their services, offers customer testimonials, and provides contact details. Firm B’s website has an embedded quiz.

This quiz seems highly personalized as it asks visitors the most relevant questions (e.g., how important is it that you live in a specific neighborhood? etc) while engaging them and saving them the trouble of doing lengthy research work. Based on the responses, it recommends whether they should buy a house or rent one. Which real estate firm do you think will get more leads? We say, Firm B.

Quizzes are known to get you up to 4X more leads. Brooklyn Bicycle Co.’s quiz “Which bike is right for me?” asks shoppers three simple questions, has a lead generation form right before the results, and gives its own product recommendations as outcomes. With the outcome, it adds a CTA to shop that product.

Pro Tip: You can create effective quizzes for any industry or product line.

Travel agency – What exotic destinations are top bucket-list locales for you (i.e. newlyweds, young professionals, Virgos, etc.)?
Fitness trainer or gym – Yoga or extreme fitness: What exercise format will get you in top form? Low carbs or low fat: What diet best suits your lifestyle?
University or educational institution – What major will have the greatest impact on your financial health?

This idea spreadsheet can help you get started with generating quiz ideas for your business.

Calculators — Just like they did with the quiz, Firm B could also embed a calculator on their website.

Their calculator gives detailed estimates backed by logic and shows a graphical representation of the results.

Calculators are a great way to crunch numbers for your clients and add a quantitative value to generic questions. When you do that, we’ve seen click through rates go up to 66 percent.

Pro tip: Again, you can make a calculator for any industry and any purpose. For instance, create a calculator to help prospective students budget for college; help digital marketers plan spend levels for advertising; or help businesses estimate the cost of legal services.

Polls and Surveys — Polls and surveys make participants feel like their opinions matter. If you can capture this psychological hack, you can pave the way to a goldmine of leads. They also help you get insights into the demographics of your prospects.

Pro tip: Make a poll that connects your brand to trending topics. This results in higher engagement rates. For instance, this poll was one of The New York Times’ most successful stories in 2016.

Make a survey for getting a product feedback or create one before launching a new product line or feature to find out more about the requirements of your audience.

Getting the Drift?

Interactive content is like talking to your visitors about their needs. Ask yourself. When you visit a website, would you like something like this or would you like to be slapped with random offers?

I rest my case.