How to Use Interactive Content to Improve Conversion Rates

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Khyati Sehgal is a content marketer at Outgrow. She is a bibliophile, social media enthusiast, has a thing for good food and great thrillers, and can’t go without penning something every day. Here, she writes about interactive content marketing.

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You’ve tried it all -writing a blog, publishing an e-book, and probably even hosting a webinar – all that just to engage prospects, capture leads, and drive more business. But did any of these actions get you the traffic or conversion spike you’d been looking for? Did any of these get you 12 times more leads? Did any of these help you close more deals? Probably not… which is why you’re here, reading this piece.

Here’s a small secret I would like to share as a fellow marketer – one hack that can get you all of what’s mentioned above and more (such as brand awareness, customer engagement, and traffic). The interesting thing? You’ve known about it all along! It’s called Interactive Content Marketing.

Interactive content is known to fetch 50% higher click rate and 13% more shares than its static counterpart; the pageviews are also 4-5 times greater than that of static content. In fact, 81% of marketers believe interactive content catches readers’ attention better than its static counterpart. You just need to know the right formula of using different interactive content forms effectively for lead generation and conversion.

This step-by-step guide brings you a compilation of interactive content forms and how you can leverage them to get more leads and better conversion.

1. Create a Personality Quiz

According to our data, a blog post with an integrated quiz generates over twenty times more conversions than a plain post. Yes, twenty times! The best part? It’s incredibly efficient and not that hard to create. Here is how you create a quiz that will maximize conversions:

A.   Create a Catchy Quiz Title

The title might seem like a small detail but it, in fact, plays a decisive role in the success of your quiz. It is the first thing your target sees, and if it’s not catchy, it can negatively affect the virality potential of your quiz. Devote as much attention (if not slightly more) to your title as you do to your quiz.

To make sure you grab as much attention as possible, try to stick to the following rules:

• Keep it short. Not more than 8 words. Such titles have a 21% greater CTR.
• If using numbers, use odd numbers only. Strangely, odd numbers have a tendency get more clicks!
• Make it a challenge! Words such as “must” and “should” compel your audience to take the quiz.
• Make it personal. Use “You” or “Your” to make the experience personally compelling.

B.   Ask the Right Questions

It’s simple. The more engaging your questions, the better the conversion rate. Not only they have to be relevant, they need to deliver in terms of tone, design, and context:

• Pick 9 questions or less. 5-9 questions are enough to make takers trust the result while not so much to make them quit in the middle of the process. The idea is to keep your quiz short and fun without losing credibility.
• 1 question per page. Listing all the questions on one page can be overwhelming and make the test feel longer than it is. It also takes out the element of mystery and suspense as to “what comes next?”
• Use colors and imagery. There is nothing more off-putting than tons of plain text. Use images and colors to make your test interesting.
• Be interesting. Not all questions are equal. What is more fun: “What’s your favorite color?” or “If you had to describe yourself in one color, which would it be?”

C.  Optimize the Quiz to Generate Leads

If you intend to generate leads, do not forget to design and include a simple opt-in form. Keep it short and to the point. Don’t ask unnecessary details you are unlikely to use. Ask for name and email.

If you’re a B2B company, you can ask for a valid business email and avoid adding another field asking for the company name.

You can also try to include an “Invite Your Friends” button as another good lead-generation strategy.

D.  Go Wild with Promoting Your Creation!

Once the quiz is ready, unleash your promotional beast:

• Optimize your Result page. Let people share their results on social media. Add an image to make it more appealing, pre-draft social media messages (e.g., I got at A+ in XY Quiz, can you do better?)
• Let takers recommend your quiz. As mentioned above, let anybody who completes the test to invite friends via email.
• SEO optimization. Make your quiz searchable! Keywords, meta descriptions – the whole shebang!

2. Create a Calculator

Did you know that Hubspot’s website grader has already assessed over 4 Million websites, and gets a monthly traffic of 340K of which 67.42% converts to HubSpot! Impressive! You can get similar results with your own calculator.

Calculators are popular because they offer customized information in a few clicks – no need to make calls, draft emails, or spend hours making your own research.

A. Characteristics of a good calculator

When building your own calculator, keep in mind that every good one:

• Is backed up by research
• Has simple interactive interface
• Features questions that are easy to and straightforward
• Is accurate and up-to-date

B. Questions to Ask

Calculators are about precision, utility, and accuracy. Before you start building one, determine how pertinent or relevant it is to your business strategy. Ask yourself:

• What is it you want your calculator to do?
• Will your prospects find it valuable?
• Will it help you achieve a particular objective?
• Do you want the option to collect user inputs?

C. How to Build a Calculator?

Luckily, there is no need for complicated programming. Many smart online tools, Outgrow included, offer an easy way to the building complex, well-designed calculators without the need for raw coding.

1. Make a list of questions the user will have to ask and answer to get to the results.
2. Determine the type of questions (multiple choice, slider, etc.)
3. Outline the chain of questions (network) before you start working in the builder not to lose your focus and maintain the structure.
4. Test the calculator thoroughly before going online.

D. Still in Doubt?

For instance, Get Paid for Your Pad (GPYP), a company helping Airbnb hosts maximize their profits, used a clever calculator to attract relevant leads only. In collaboration with us they created a calculator customized for their target audience: “Find out where does your AirBnB profile rank in terms of quality!” A simple idea that scored 41% conversion rate!

If you are unsure about how effective will interactive content be for your business, use our calculator to find out exactly how many leads will you gain from active use of interactive content.

3. Create a Graded Quiz

Graded quizzes give us the chance to show how smart we are. There are very few who resist the opportunity to show off a little. Numerous newspapers and other publications use them on a regular basis to enable their readers to prove their intelligence (and by extension, associate that intelligence with reading their paper).

How to Create a Graded Quiz?

As the name suggests, graded quizzes allow you to award your test-takers with a score, a rank and a grade based on their performance. They are not only fun but useful too. Use this type of quiz to test your customers on the knowledge of your product, brand or your domain in general. You can even offer an incentive for the best results. For example, you can offer a discount voucher, special deal, free trial or ability to enter an exclusive contest.

Points to keep in mind:

• Stick to the general quiz recommendations mentioned above (number of questions, imagery, tone).
• Offer questions with different levels of difficulty.
• Start with the easier questions (having the most difficult questions at the start can discourage some users).
• Offer a fun bonus question as a chance to improve their scores.

4. Create a Survey/Poll

Surveys and polls are an excellent way of collecting customers’ opinions about your brand and should not miss in your interactive content infused marketing strategy. They also make for a great tool to capture the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. You can create surveys around your product/service offerings to generate awareness or around a trending topic to stay in the buzz.

How to Create an Effective Survey?

Although doing a survey doesn’t sound particularly complicated, like any piece of content, it requires attention and careful consideration if you want to maximize its potential.

• Speak their language. Polls and surveys are all about your (potential) customers. Talk to them on their level and avoid overly complicated industry jargon.
• One question, one idea. Polls are to be straightforward. If you express multiple ideas in one question, it becomes hard to respond. For example, the question “Was the conference well-organized and interesting?” poses a dilemma if the person thought the conference was interesting but the organization was a bit of a disaster.
• Objectivity, not bias. Surveys to be valuable need to maintain their objectivity. Therefore, make sure none of your questions are formulated with a bias. Let your respondents express what they really think.
• Be precise. Point of a survey is to gather relevant and constructive feedback. Therefore, be precise with your wording. For instance, “How awesome is our product?” is quite useless as “awesomeness” is a vague term. Rather ask “How helpful…” or “How durable…” is the product. That way you’ll ensure to get some useful “intel”.

5. Create a Social Media Contest

Social media contests are enjoying a warm place in the spotlight among its interactive content counterparts. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. are swarming with exciting opportunities to win anything you can think off. Brands are keeping fans and followers on their toes with fresh new contests that offer great incentives in exchange for engagement.

How to Launch a Social Media Contest?

There are a few ways to go about it. However, these are the most common formats many brands choose to follow:

• Like a Post to Win
• Comment on a Post to Win
• Tag a Friend to Win
• Repost an Image (via a screenshot or a repost app)
• Combination of all the above
• Photo or Video Challenge (Users post themed photos or videos on their profile with a unique hashtag you created for the contest)

While these formats are standard, you don’t have to limit yourself. Feel free to explore. To generate email leads, you can, for example, ask people to complete a quiz and leave an email to participate. For a very targeted contest, you can use the graded quiz and, as mentioned, reward with contest entry only those with highest scores. It will lower contest participation but promote selectiveness and lucrativity of your brand.

So, what to do?

1. Pick a goal. To measure the effectiveness of the contest, you need to set a goal against which you will later compare your data. E.g., gain 1000+ followers, increase traffic on the website by X% and so on. This will also help you to choose the right type of contest!
2. Choose a subject. Great contest subject is about grabbing attention and stirring up interest. Subject needs to be especially strong, if you cannot afford a very persuasive incentive just yet. One of the most successful contests on social media was Starbuck’s #WhiteCupContest – the company encouraged people to paint or draw on their typically white cups. It was simple and creative – a social media sensation.
3. Pick a prize. Prize matters. Better said, the type of the prize matters! Remember, your contest is, in its essence, a marketing strategy not a random giveaway. The aim is to attract relevant leads. So, if you offer something desirable like an iPad, you will get a lot of attention but not the kind you want. A contest participant who is only interested in winning an iPod but has 0 interest in your business or product is the loss of your time and energy. Offer something only you can offer or something your target audience would be crazy about.
4. Set a time frame. How long do you want the contest to stay open? Shorter periods are better as they make users act quickly. Plus, waiting for the results buries your momentum. For a small prize, one or two weeks should be enough. If you are planning something big (e.g., a photo contest to win a trip to the Arctic circle), you can afford to give people one, two or even three months and really build up the suspense.
5. Create a buzz. Even the best contest proposal in the world won’t help you if you do nothing to promote it. Email, post and update your website! Even pay for a Google or Facebook ad, if relevant. Go bunkers!

To Sum it Up…

Interactive content is the Rockstar of online content. Whatever your business, you can find a piece of interactive content that goes well with your needs as well as company image!