How B2B companies can use interactive content

You probably know by now what interactive content is, and you may have even engaged with this type of content before.

If you ever visited websites like Buzzfeed, you have seen quizzes and polls being used to increase engagement. And it has everything to do with what we will discuss in this article.

Although your business might not attract as much attention as pop culture quizzes, there are plenty of ways you can use interaction to make the buyer’s journey more attractive and guarantee better leads.

Today, we’ll look into how B2B companies can take advantage of interactive content. 

In this article, you will understand:

What are the benefits of interactive content?

The fact that websites like Buzzfeed can use interactive content to drive interaction tells us a lot about audiences, but very little of what interactive marketing can do for your business.

After all, the Buzzfeed platform is much different from your company’s.

However, as we’ll explain below, businesses can achieve their goals using different types of content in their strategy. In fact, interactive content can outperform traditional marketing efforts.

We can mention at least 3 benefits of B2B interactive marketing:

1. businesses that use it have higher engagement rates
2. businesses that invest in it learn more about their customers
3. users are more loyal to brands that provide great interactive content
   
   

Now, you will understand how each of those benefits can be reached with B2B interactive content.

Increase engagement

The nature of interactive content drives engagement. After all, to fully understand a piece, users must select a path to follow, which guarantees that most of them will see it through the end.

That’s a characteristic of B2B interactive content that makes it work so well to deliver an idea.

Capture more data

With all those interactions, users generate data for your company. It allows you to know what they’d rather buy, what they look for in products, or how they intend to use it.

Users are constantly telling your company what they plan to do with your solution. 

During the interaction, they are more comfortable giving you hints about themselves, which helps you enhance your buyer personas mapping.

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Build a following

If your content looks like it could be found on any website, that’s because it probably does. Therefore, marketers have started using interactive content to develop more personalized Digital Marketing experiences.

That helps customers see themselves as unique among your client base, and because of this, they will want to know your brand better. 

What are the main types of interactive content?

As you probably can imagine, there are a lot of different types of interactive content you can integrate into your strategy. 

Below, you will see what each of them brings to the table!

1. Quizzes

As we’ve mentioned before in this article, quizzes are a popular way to build interactive content aiming at engagement, which can benefit both B2B and B2C companies.

A quiz may have any purpose you can imagine, from presenting your client the best product option to helping them understand what kind of service they should hire.

Quizzes should be short and quick, and provide a straightforward answer to your audience — one that will help them reach the next step in the buyer’s journey.

2. Videos

Videos are a must-have in a Digital Marketing strategy, and they sure can help you reach other businesses more effectively.

Some specialists even say 2020 is the right year to start including video in your B2B marketing efforts, relying on important stats the latest Wyzowl research provides:

• of the 500 companies interviewed, 81% use video marketing — 21% more than in 2016;
• prospects of these companies watch, on average, 1.5 hours of video online every single day;
• 85% of the companies are so happy with their video results that they plan to increase spending in 2020.

Interactive video is a big trend in this context, delivering buyers personalized messages and helping them reach their goals with ease. 

In interactive videos, tags, hotspots, polls, and questions are used to determine how the content ends. Thus, it’s in the hands of the viewer to choose what to watch.

3. Calculators

Calculators are big winners in the interactive content game, appearing among the most successful cases in this field.

They can be used in various ways, helping customers understand the benefits of the product they are picking up.

An interactive calculator built for your business can, for example, show how much profit your solution will generate for the customer in six months, a year, or even more. 

It can also show how much the client will pay to have access to the tools they need.

More than marketing tools, calculators are great selling tools. They are a type of B2B interactive content your company must rely on to succeed.

4. Ebooks

Interactive ebooks are ebooks developed to work on various platforms, from mobile to desktop. 

They are richer than the regular ones because interactive platforms allow you to insert links, videos, and interactive charts.

Tired of publishing ebooks that don’t make your client reach the next step in their journey? Try an interactive one for a change and see your results increase!

5. Infographics

Much like interactive ebooks, interactive infographics also enhance a format of content that customers love.

Use it to deliver in-depth data and details that your clients wouldn’t be able to find in regular infographics. Besides that, keep the fun and witty nature of this media to make sure it’s as informative as intended.

6. Contests

Contests are a traditional marketing effort that can also be employed in a B2B interactive content strategy.

Give your customers the chance to win a prize by engaging with your content and participating in surveys and games on your website. 

It will help them learn more about your products and services. 

How companies use interactive content in their strategies?

Ready to see what types of results interactive content can provide to the B2B market? 

Check out what companies such as FedEx and the University of Colorado did using the Ion Interactive platform.

FedEx

FedEx Small Business Center is a B2B marketing tool built by the famous logistics enterprise to reach small businesses online.

It integrates plenty of resources to help smaller brands make sure they are using the right FedEx service.

The goal — to make shipping easy and engaging — is met through calculators, checklists, and other interactive tools built with ion.

University of Colorado

The University of Colorado had a challenge: to train and educate researchers on recent medical research to integrate it into medical practice.

Using the Ion platform, they were able to build e-learning that works, breaking free from long PDFs full of information that is hard to read and understand.

Interactive ebooks were the main tool used by the University. However, the digital platform is among the tools they’ve integrated into their marketing efforts in the long run, and other projects are in the making.

Wrap Up

B2B interactive content is a fun way to deliver information, gather data, and engage with customers. When properly used, it can help your business with many different goals.

Ready to begin your journey with interactive content? Check out our Interactive Content Guide and take your content strategy to the next level!