Your content marketing strategy needs to keep pace with the online world. Since the internet changes constantly and web searchers shift their query actions with those changes, the information you create and publish has to keep up.
A recent survey by DemandGen reveals that interactive content, while highly rated, isn’t consumed as much as traditional content like white papers and webinars.
The content types discussed in this report are interactive presentations, ROI calculators, and assessments. I found it interesting that while survey participants valued this information sharing process, they didn’t use it all that much.
Some of the reasons marketers use interactive content are to improve prospect conversions, inform/educate the buyer, and make themselves different from the competition.
What I’m taking away from this is to not scrap traditional written, static information, but to offer a variety of ways prospects can learn the benefits and features of your products and services.
Producing any content requires thought, planning and effort in creating, publishing and disseminating each piece to get in front of your personas and grab their attention. Making calculators, assessments and presentations that are more than just a static slide show can take more time and resources, so any campaigns you’re planning to incorporate active content will have to have a longer timeline to complete.
The report also reinforced what veteran marketers and content producers already know: some prospects need to view several content pieces (3 – 5 typically) before they are ready to talk to your sales staff, while others need more – five to seven.
Not surprisingly, many respondents also said they don’t want sales messages in the content they review, and they would like to see thoughtful analysis of research and industry leader’s insights when learning about your products and services.
Not only does this benefit your target audience, but Google’s search algorithm also emphasizes publishing original, unique, thoughtful opinion pieces and analysis on what’s going on within your industry. If the search engine thinks your content does this better than your online competition, your web pages and blog posts will rank higher.
The takeaway here is to be creative and offer variety in your content to stand out from your competitors.
Are you stuck in your marketing program efforts? Could you use an analysis to see what pieces are missing or could be improved upon? Call us at 571-606-3106 to talk about your requirements to improve conversions and revenue.