How To Create An Interactive Content Funnel That Segments & Converts

Guest post by Daniel Ndukwu.

Today, an effective digital marketing strategy relies on content that stands out because it’s genuinely engaging for readers, viewers, or listeners. It should also help you achieve your business goals. One of the best ways to do this is by creating an interactive content funnel that segments prospects while turning them into customers.

From quizzes and calculators to polls and many other options, interactive content requires people to become more than passive viewers. To get the most out of the content, they have to actively engage with it. Due to these immersive designs of interactive content, people tend to spend more time with it, which often translates to better metrics across the board.

Interactive content has been shown to convert at almost four times the rate of static content. Who wouldn’t want 4x more conversions for their brand? This guide outlines the primary types of interactive content and how to use it to build a world-class funnel.

Types Of Interactive Content

Quizzes, calculators, and polls are among the most common and effective types of interactive content. There are others, and you may find that those are a better complement to your brand’s growth strategy. The point is, do your research; what you see here is just a start.

Quizzes

The second step (after an initial piece of content) in the funnel usually asks for contact information in exchange for something valuable. This enables marketers to launch nurturing sequences that will eventually turn leads into customers.

In an interactive quiz funnel, the quiz itself works as the first piece of content and the lead magnet. Potential customers become aware of your business by taking your quiz and then subscribe so they can see their results, which allows you to send out a tailored email automation sequence.

The beauty of quizzes is twofold. First, you’re able to use them to segment contacts. Second, you can show a hyper-relevant product immediately. If you’re using paid advertising to generate visitors, then you’ll be able to offset your costs.

Here’s an example of a quiz from the brand that made them popular.

Interactive content example - BuzzFeed Game of Thrones quiz

Calculators

Interactive calculators are different from quizzes in that they can help visitors qualify (or disqualify themselves. For example, you may have a roofing estimate calculator that tells a prospect they’re looking at a $5,000 bill. They only have $1,000 so they disqualify themselves upfront and save you a lot of time.

By taking inputs from each user, an interactive calculator allows you to collect relevant data from your prospects. If you want to follow up with them, you’ll be equipped with the information you need to close the deal or continue nurturing them.

Complexity is your enemy here. Design this kind of interactive content so that it’s simple to understand and use.  Here’s an example calculator from TurboTax.

Interactive content - TurboTax calculator example

Polls

While often thought of as similar to quizzes, polls are easier to take advantage of because they aren’t as complex and require minimal interaction. Polls are unique in that they offer your customers and prospects a way to provide honest and direct feedback on your products, services, customer service, or any relevant issue.

By demonstrating you value their feedback, polls add another layer of investment to your customers’ connection with your business. Their feedback allows you to make educated decisions instead of guesses, which can create innovation opportunities or highlight new emerging trends.

Boost your social media marketing with interactive content - Outgrow

Another way polls can be powerful is when you use them as a way for people to weigh in on relevant news in your niche or problems they’re experiencing. You can ask them something simple like “how often do you clean your shoes” and gate the answers.

Of course, it should be something they find important or you won’t be able to collect leads. Another way to use polls is by redirecting people to specific pages on your website based on their answers and showing them the next steps.

For example, if they don’t clean their shoes often, you can show them a process to care for their shoes. Here’s an example of a poll from a fitness brand.

Interactive content - Twitter poll example

Many of these pieces of content work well in conjunction with other content pieces. For example, an interactive quiz can be paired well with standard blog content and a calculator could be used as the CTA for a short ebook or cheat sheet that you provide for your audience. Of course, you can also create dedicated campaigns around the interactive content and see great results, too.

Before building your interactive content funnel

It’s tempting to jump in headfirst and start creating interactive content. The benefits are clear. But before doing that, it’s important to do a bit of research or get clear on the following areas.

  • Whom you’ll cater to
  • What core products you want to promote
  • What the goal of the interactive content is

Who are you targeting?

All but the smallest businesses have multiple segments of target customers (these can also be referred to as buyer personas). Depending on which type of interactive content you decide to create, you may choose to focus on multiple customer segments or only one.

For example, an interactive quiz will allow you to appeal to the majority of your audience then segment quiz takers based on answers. A quiz like “what kind of entrepreneur are you” can appeal to an entire audience. The questions themselves will let you know if they’re beginners, intermediate, or experienced entrepreneurs.

Calculators are ideal for targeting specific pain points of a single customer group. A calculator about “how much does it cost to design an app” will appeal to a single group of people interested in UI/UX services for their application design.

Once you decide on whom you want to serve, you’ll be able to figure out what the best tool for the job is. At this point, your selection is tentative because, ultimately, your goal will determine the best content for the job.

What products/services are you promoting?

This is important to take into consideration because it will inform how you build out your thank you page/outcomes after they’ve gone through the content. It will also determine the email marketing strategy you employ on the back end.

For example, if you have a high ticket consulting gig that you want to sell, you may use a quiz to ask qualifying questions. In the end, you may show the unqualified people more resources, add them to a nurturing sequence, and promote inexpensive affiliate products. If the contact is qualified, you may send them to a long-form landing page and ask them to book a call.

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Conversely, if you sell a service, you may use a calculator for people to qualify or disqualify themselves at the beginning of the process. If most of your products are inexpensive, you may use a poll to see how the person feels about specific issues and redirect them to the right place.

There are countless ways to tailor interactive content to your products and services but it shouldn’t be an afterthought. Before you do any design work, focus on how you can tailor the experience to your products, and you’ll see more conversions as a result.

What is the goal?

There are many types of conversion actions. Of course, the sale is the ultimate one but it may not always be the practical next step. Obviously, you can’t sell high-ticket consulting services through a quiz alone.

Take a moment to decide on your main conversion action. Do you want to generate a sale using a tripwire offer? Do you want to get new email subscribers so you can start following up with prospects? Do you want to figure out more about your audience so you can then create better products? All of these are possible goals.

Ultimately, you’ll decide based on your products, who your audience is, and the kind of interactive content you’re using.

Create Your Interactive Content

Interactive content is designed to alleviate a specific problem that’s tied to your products and services. More than putting a gate in front of their results, you want to add value. For example, a quiz to find the perfect little black dress or a calculator to help estimate the price of getting a new roof or marketing campaign.

That’s why we start with the end in mind. What value do you want to add to your visitor? How will you deliver that value? That’s done on the thank you page so it’s logical that you start there.

Build Out The Thank You/Results Page

There are several factors to consider when designing a custom thank you or results page. While it should incorporate answers or responses to your content, it should also include some type of tailored action plan. Consider using the PAS copywriting framework of problem, agitation, solution.

Think of it as being a doctor with a patient. Your “patient” (the prospect) goes through your interactive content and the answers they give are like the symptoms of their problem. The outcome is their diagnosis. So, just like a doctor, you shouldn’t simply provide them with their diagnosis, but also explain how you have arrived at that answer.

Easily create beautiful infographics - Venngage

You should also prescribe possible solutions to their problem, which may include a product or service you provide, and explain to them why you believe those are the best options for their situation. This will often include concrete reasons why they should purchase your product, sign up for emails or consultations, or register for an upcoming webinar.

Create Your Offer Sequence

The offer sequence is relevant when you want to quickly generate revenue. This could be to offset advertising costs or even a loss leader that turns sales prospects into customers instead of just email subscribers. To create a compelling offer—in this case a tripwire offer, an upsell, downsell, or cross-sell—the offer sequence looks like this:

–        Initial tripwire offer

–        If purchased, an upsell offer or a cross-sell offer

–        If the upsell is declined, a downsell offer

–        If cross-sell is declined, a downsell offer

If buyers only get the initial tripwire offer, then you may only offset your advertising costs. If the other elements such as the upsell and downsell do their job well, you’ll be able to turn a small profit. You can then reinvest that into generating more customers. It’s a beautiful cycle.

Creating the quiz/calculator/poll/etc.

This is the easiest part of the entire process. You already have your outcomes and the sequence you want people to go through. All you have to do here is create questions that lead people to one or more outcomes.

For example, if you have a quiz that recommends the best little black dress, you may ask “what is your style?” and give examples. If the options are:

  • Chic
  • Classic
  • Casual
  • Rocker

You can then point the chic dresser to a specific category of dresses, the casual person to another category, and so on.

Keep the following in mind for your interactive content:

  • It should have a descriptive title.
  • It should mix questions that serve you and serve the respondent.
  • Use as few questions as possible (it’s not a survey).
  • When asking for contact information, express how you’re adding value.
  • Use a compelling cover image to get people interested in the interactive content.

Over To You…

Remember that when interactive content is done right, you’ll see quality results. Good experiences with interactive content will drive more leads than static content, and you’ll also get collect information.

Start by familiarizing yourself with the different types of interactive content then do the preliminary work outlined in this article. Spend as much time as you need on the thank you pages because that’s where you set the tone for the rest of their interaction with your brand.

Let me know what you think in the comments or how you’re using interactive content. And don’t forget to share!

Daniel Ndukwu is the Founder of KyLeads – a SaaS platform that helps brands better understand their users and generate leads using smart popups and interactive quizzes.

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