Kara Widdison — November 1, 2016 We’re a little over 2 months til 2017. That’s kind of scary to think about, especially when you realize that you have to start thinking about your marketing campaigns for the upcoming new year.
What trends will you follow – or will you be a trendsetter? Do you want your campaigns to be funny or serious? Will you include holiday themed content or stick to just your branding?
There are SO MANY questions!
One thing I’m working on right now is how to create a better journey for our audience. How can I optimize my webinars and our paid media? How can I make sure that each stage of the funnel is informative and exactly what our buyers need to see?
Why don’t we take a walk through the funnel and learn three ways to optimize each stage of the buyer’s journey?
Awareness Stage:
The first date. The initial meeting of business to business (or business to consumer). This is your chance at a great first impression. It’s a time to showcase your brand and tell your audience what exactly it is you do.
In my webinar emails (and not just to TOFU), I include a “Who Is SnapApp?” section at the bottom. Sure, I’m hoping they join my webinar and learn more about us, but why would someone sign up without knowing what we do and how we can help them? These guys are in research mode so you need to educate them!
Creating a dialogue with your audience during this stage is key. When you have a conversation with your audience, you gain actionable data. When you know what their pain points are, why they need help, and how you can impact their priorities, you provide helpful resources and information. That builds trust and credibility.
What kind of interactive content could you try?
Interactive Infographic:
It’s informative, fun, and powerful. Like I mentioned, this is your first impression and it’s got to make an impact! Interactive infographics allow you to provide content to your audience while getting to know them. This interactive infographic from Total Protect Home Warranty is a great example.
Evaluation Stage:
Alright, this is where you’ve got to start really educating your audience. Yes, you’ve told them who you are, what you do, and opened the door to further conversation, but the evaluation stage is prime for educating your audience further on your industry and product. At this stage, you can start to gain even more useful qualifying data and buyer knowledge than you did in the awareness stage.
Have your audience benchmark themselves against their peers. Quiz them on your industry and what your product does. By helping them get to know you (and vice versa) you’ll both be able to gauge whether or not more information is needed and if your product could be the right fit for them.
What type of interactive content could you try?
Interactive Assessment:
Assessments are a great way to learn more about your audience while delivering customized results based on their answers. You could try a persona test, a benchmark assessment, or even a product readiness assessment. These content types are great because you’re helping your audience self-identify with your options and letting them compare to others who have looked into your product.
One of my favorite examples for assessments is this one by Influitive. They created a “What Marketing Personality Type Are You?” assessment to include in a blog post, and directed users to a customized ebook based on the marketing personality type they fit. The ebook addressed the user’s personality and how to use those skills to advance their career.
Consideration Stage:
The final stage. This is your last chance to learn about your audience and, and it’s their last chance to know exactly how your product is going to fix their problems. When you’re in the process of making a final buying decision what is it you want to see? You want to see examples, use cases, relevant and helpful information.
With interactive content, you can provide exactly that to your audience. You can use all the information gain in prior stages to customize examples that are tailored specifically to them!
Don’t you want your audience to feel special?
What type of interactive content could you try?
Interactive Calculator:
Calculators are a great way to let your audience measure how effective your product will be for them. They’re also great for collecting important information about your leads! Take Blackbaud, for example. They wanted to show the success of their product, so the Blackbaud University division created a Time Savings Calculator to let prospects “try on” their services. In the first five weeks of promotion, the company identified 200 new leads for their sales team!
Want to learn more about how you can customize your buyer’s journey and create engaging experiences? Join us on November 2nd at 2PM ET | 11AM PT for our webinar Optimizing Your Relationships Through The Buyer’s Journey!
Vanessa Porter, Director of Marketing at SnapApp will be showing you how interactive content and marketing automation work together and providing key tips to building strong relationships with your audience based on their position in the funnel.
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