Marketing can sometimes feel like a one-way conversation. With interactive marketing it becomes a conversation.
Interactive B2B marketing tools and content can take many forms. They can be light touch – for example, gated thought leadership and competitions – or more detailed, such as calculators, assessment tools and configurators.
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These more complex forms of interactive marketing are, at their core, a value exchange. They encourage the target audience to share some data in exchange for something of value they couldn’t otherwise access, such as industry benchmarking information, expert advice or a service. The provider – you – can use this data, which would otherwise be difficult to obtain, to create more targeted marketing.
Creating feedback loops in B2B Marketing
Each tool works towards a different outcome. Calculators invite prospects to input numbers or information about their business to generate an answer, often numerical. Assessors ask targeted questions, generally in the form of a survey or quiz, in order to produce a report. Configurators offer the prospect the opportunity to personalize a product or service according to their needs.
In all cases, the prospect benefits by getting personalized answers to the challenges they’re facing. Whether they then go on to become a customer or not, they will have had a positive interaction with your brand.
For you, it’s akin to getting an insider view of an organization. You’ll find out more about your audience than would otherwise be possible because these tools create feedback loops.
Based on the data prospects provide and how they interact with the questions, you can improve the tools over time. This means they will get better and better, ultimately meaning that the data provided will get better, too. It’s a win-win.
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You can also use the data to create content that is more tailored to your target audience. The business benefits of this are huge: the more targeted a marketing campaign is, the more likely it is that leads will translate into new customers.
Mutually beneficial results in B2B Marketing
In my current company, we’ve seen the benefits these types of interactive tools can have for clients – and their customers. Hiscox, a specialist insurance company, wanted to help organizations quantify their level of exposure to cyber risk. Understanding this is a common challenge for businesses that often results in them paying too much or too little for insurance.
We built a cyber exposure calculator for Hiscox. It enables businesses to gain a clearer picture of their cyber risk and the monetary value of their exposure. In return, Hiscox gains a security profile of a company that would need insurance, including the size, industry, security capabilities and more. All of this is gold dust for Hiscox.
The Climate Game, created by The Financial Times in partnership with Infosys, is a great example of an assessor. Users are appointed as the Global Minister for Future Generations and taken through a series of scenarios with the ultimate goal of cutting emissions to zero and keeping temperatures below 1.5C by 2050. For users, it’s a really interesting insight into the decisions global leaders are facing. For Infosys and the Financial Times, it generates data that can be used to back up future reports or articles.
Ultimately, these tools generate insights that inform content that is in perpetual motion, which builds conversations with your audience. It’s a mutually beneficial approach to marketing where everyone gets something they couldn’t otherwise access.
When everyone’s a winner, what’s not to love?
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