The volume of content we consume in our personal and professional lives is growing exponentially. In 2020, the amount of content we consume in a day doubled. Content fatigue is a real concern, but emerging form factors such as interactive content, give sellers and marketers an alternative that better engages buyers.
The modern B2B buyer is inundated with content across a variety of channels, including email, social media, websites, review sites, and more. Although video content is on the rise, the vast majority of B2B content largely remains static.
Static content plays an important role in the buyer’s journey, but interactive content places the buyer in control, by allowing them to customise their journey through the interactions they choose to make.
In this blog, we’ll define interactive content, why it matters and how your organisation can activate it to reach and engage new buyers.
What is interactive content?
Interactive content is dynamic, visual content that provides differentiated experiences for every buyer at each stage of their journey – from education to discovery, consideration, and beyond.
The success of visual-driven content boils down to user experience. As we mentioned, buyers are exposed to large amounts of content on a daily basis. Most of that content looks the same and is irrelevant or flat-out boring. Standing out in a sea of static content and allowing buyers to choose which topics interest them most is extremely valuable.
Interactive content is a way to dramatically improve user experience by giving buyers the opportunity to chart their own journey. Instead of “read this,” buyers are asked to “explore this”. This simple change from passive to active contributes to higher engagement rates.
Interactive content also plays an important role within organisations. Businesses emphasise buyer experience, but seller experience is, perhaps, just as important. Interactive content can play a critical role within your organisation during sales training. From a new BDR to a seasoned Sales Manager, effective sales enablement is critical for seller effectiveness.
Micro-apps, a type of interactive content, can replace static assets like solution briefs and slide decks, giving sellers at all stages of their careers a more engaging and effective way to onboard, ramp and upskill.
Why does it matter?
Winning new business in an overcrowded content landscape comes down to attracting and retaining the attention of prospective buyers.
Research shows that 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing. Yet, their audience only reads 28% of the text on a given page.
Translation: buyers are barely reading most of the content that marketers share. (Note: The irony isn’t lost on me. If you’re reading this, I appreciate you. Visual content is soon to come).
Perhaps, more important than all, interactive content is proven effective. Among marketers who leverage interactive content, 79% say it generates return visitors.
Return visitors to, and buyer engagement with, interactive content are valuable to your business. Both actions generate data that can help your business make more intelligent content decisions going forward. Engagement analytics on interactive content also generate granular insights that can inform buyer discussions.
How does interactive content compare to static content?
Static content has a long history and it plays a vital role in the buyer’s journey. It consists of thought leadership, product documentation and solution briefs. But interactive content is all of those things and a brand differentiator.
When a significant number of companies use the same static format and stock imagery for eBooks and whitepapers, interactive content is bound to stand out. It makes a difference when your marketing and design teams produce unique, thoughtful content that resonates with buyers.
Highly personalised and detailed content offers buyers a glimpse into your company’s brand and its attention to detail. It shows that your sellers care about helping buyers find solutions in a way that your competitors may not.
Three content types you can convert to interactive content
If your organisation is new to interactive content, you don’t need to convert every asset, all at once. Start by converting one static asset into a micro-app and test how it performs with buyers.
If you need help getting started, we’ve compiled a list of assets you can convert, as well as best practices:
Case studies – From one organisation to another, case studies follow a familiar pattern: challenge, solution and results. Interactive case studies allow your business to demonstrate how it solved a challenge, rather than tell a buyer how. Offer additional context and a human element with videos that show the problem or challenge the buyer is faced with and how your product provides the solution.
Pitch decks – Digital-first selling has made pitch decks more important than ever. Instead of asking your sellers to click through a static presentation, offer them an interactive “choose your own adventure” experience. Interactive presentations give sellers the ability to tailor buyer conversations by drilling down on items that are most relevant to their audience.
Solution briefs – Leave a lasting impression by substituting static one-pagers with dynamic, interactive content. Don’t just describe your product, show it in action with embedded video demos. Provide additional context for your product by linking to additional content and media coverage of your product.
How Seismic can help you get started
90% of consumers prefer video and interactive content. Seismic makes it simple to meet this need by offering an interactive content bundle to help our customers better serve theirs.
If you’re interested in including interactive content in your sales activities, Seismic offers two capabilities: LiveContent and Micro-apps (powered by Tiled).
LiveContent turns traditional presentations into dynamic, memorable stories. Seismic converts static presentations into LiveContent by delivering animations, transitions, video/GIFs and voice-overs, just as sellers might deliver in-person. LiveContent activity is tracked through content analytics so your team can understand what resonates with buyers.
Micro apps function as a miniature website with all of the same interactive features. The micro-app experience allows buyers to explore evergreen content by choosing the content components they most want to engage with.
Interactive content is growing in popularity with buyers and sellers. Buyers have more meetings and content than ever before, so their experience with your brand needs to be memorable. Interactive content removes ‘boring’ from the buying experience and replaces it with memorable, engaging experiences.
Ready to use interactive content as a competitive differentiator? We can help. Click here to see our platform in action!
