The conventional static content that once stood as the cornerstone of digital communication evolved into interactive content. 

In this exploration, we plunge into the intricacies of this content evolution, armed with data, insights, and a roadmap to navigate the shifting landscape.

The power of interactivity within a Marketing strategy

Let’s ground our discussion in data.

Recent surveys have unveiled a significant shift in consumer preferences. According to a survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), a staggering 79% of marketers reported that interactive content enhances message retention.

This same survey also reveals that interactive content delivers a remarkable 52.6% increase in engagement, reinforcing that people are keen on this format.

The numbers don’t merely suggest a preference; they are shouting out a demand for engagement—and brands are taking notice. In another survey, 88% of professionals agreed that interactive content plays a vital role in setting their brands apart.

Many major brands have already incorporated interactive content into their strategies, such as Apple with its interactive iPhone pages, as mentioned in this post.

Of course, you don’t need to be on the scale of Apple to leverage interactivity in your marketing strategy. By simply transforming a static e-book into an interactive experience, for instance, you can boost your metrics in retention, engagement, conversions, and even data tracking.

Let’s dive deeper into this topic.

Benefits of interactive content that static content simply cannot deliver

As we weigh the scales of content creation, it’s imperative to acknowledge the merits and pitfalls of static content. Like a dependable lighthouse, static content offers stability; it’s easy to create, control, and promote. Additionally, it often comes at a lower cost, making it an appealing choice.

However, its Achilles’ heel lies in its inflexibility.

Once created, it remains unalterable, lacking the dynamism that contemporary audiences demand. When compared to the myriad of content formats available on websites and social media, static content may appear uninspiring to users who have been bombarded with content from the moment they unlock their phones or laptops.

Static content is like a frozen portrait, while the digital landscape craves a dynamic canvas.

Moreover… there are certain things that static content simply cannot accomplish—and that’s where things start to get interesting.

Read also: How do we use interactive content in Rock Content’s marketing strategy?

The shift from consuming information to experiencing it 

Imagine a scenario where your audience isn’t a passive observer, but rather an enthusiastic participant. This is the core of interactive content.

Interactive content demands engagement, encourages exploration, and offers freedom. The shift from consuming information to experiencing it is the heartbeat of this evolution. 

You can’t add a calculator to a static website, for example. Or add more information in your infographic as your client clicks and explores the content.

Interactive content isn’t just a medium; it’s an interactive journey. It not only attracts attention but delivers messages effectively and educates the audience by making them part of the narrative.

The gold behind the interactive content experience: data collection

Let’s not forget the gold business behind these engaging elements in your content: data collection.

When users actively participate in the content narrative, they willingly share crucial insights into their digital behavior, preferences, and areas of interest—something that’s considerably more challenging to achieve with static content.

Embracing this approach empowers us to craft content that generates crucial information, benefiting not only improved marketing results but also the enhancement of various organizational processes.

Taking personalized optimization to a whole new level

Interactive tools, such as quizzes and assessments, redefine how marketers understand their audience. By gathering insights into preferences, likes, and expectations, these tools enable the creation of highly personalized marketing strategies. 

It’s not just about reaching your audience; it’s about connecting with them on a personal level.

Should I simply disregard static content, though?

If interactive content is what every marketer should use, now you must be wondering: “Why am I using a static format?”

Static content, with its reliability, certainly has its place, but the modern landscape demands more. The harmonious coexistence of static and interactive content isn’t just a suggestion; it’s a strategic necessity.

As we navigate these waters, finding the right balance becomes crucial for success.

You might be thinking, “Alright, I understand the importance, but I lack the resources to transition to interactive content.”

I’d like to give two valuable tips to help you with that:

1. Consider exploring interactive content platforms. I highly recommend Ion. 

It provides marketers with all the tools necessary to create memorable and effective interactive content experiences. Among its many benefits, Ion offers users:

• An approachable no-code creation experience
• More than 180 dynamic templates that you can customize and make your own
• A suite of managed services to help you make the most of your content experiences

You can get a free demo here.

2. Read this article on how to create interactive content even if you’re not familiar with HTML. It can offer you a fresh perspective on interactive resources, and you’ll find it’s much more achievable than you might have thought.

Conclusion

Interactive content is not a revolution; it’s a renaissance. 

As we conclude this exploration, remember that the future is non-binary: it’s not static or interactive; it’s a seamless integration of both. 

Embrace interactivity, transform your content from a monologue into a dialogue, and watch as your audience not only consumes but actively engages.

To embark on your journey into interactive content creation, consider exploring Ion: a versatile tool designed to empower you in crafting engaging and interactive experiences. 

The seas of content evolution are vast; set sail with the winds of interactivity at your back, and discover the boundless possibilities that await. 

The future is interactive; are you ready to shape it?

The post From Static Content to Interactive Experiences: Navigating the Seas of Content Evolution appeared first on Rock Content.

What are the right questions to ask in a case study interview? 

The questions will largely depend on your specific industry, the client’s experience, and the objectives of the case study. However, there are a few standout questions that can universally help to paint a vivid picture of your success. 

Curious to know what these are? Stay tuned as we explore the top customer interview questions to help you craft a standout case study.

Why Should You Mind Your Customer Interview Questions?

Customer interview questions form the backbone of any successful case study. They act as a window into the customer’s experience, allowing businesses to gain deep insights into how their product or service has positively impacted the customer. 

The right set of customer interview questions can provide you with:

• Valuable data, which can be used to improve their offerings, and foster better relationships with your customers. 
• Unravel stories that can become powerful testimonials that have the potential to connect with potential customers on an emotional level. 
•  Reveal what sets you apart from your competitors in the eyes of your customers. 
• Show that you value customer feedback and are committed to understanding their needs and exceeding their expectations. 

This not only boosts customer satisfaction but also builds trust and loyalty, ultimately driving customer retention and business growth. This information is critical in shaping marketing strategies and positioning your brand effectively in the market. 

Determining What Questions to Ask in a Case Study Interview

Crafting the right questions for a case study interview is an art that requires careful consideration. Key areas to cover include the client’s problem before using your solution, their decision-making process, the implementation, and the results.

You need to understand the customer’s pain points before they implemented your solution. Ask questions such as, 

• What challenges were you facing?
• How were these challenges affecting your business?

These queries help you delve into the difficulties your customer faced, capturing the ‘before’ picture crucial for drawing your audience into the narrative. 

The second aspect to explore is the decision-making process. These questions not only highlight why the customer chose your product but also give insights into their expectations. 

You might ask,

•  What made our solution stand out?
• What were you hoping to achieve with our product?

Such questions help you understand your customer’s decision-making mindset while subtly highlighting the unique selling points of your product or service. 

Lastly, questions about the implementation and results achieved bring the case study to a satisfying conclusion. Here, you should ask, 

• How was the experience of implementing our solution?
• Can you share some specific results you’ve noticed since using our product?

These questions create a ‘before and after’ picture, underscoring the value and effectiveness of your solution. In essence, understanding what questions to ask in a case study interview is about capturing the customer’s journey. 

By focusing on their challenges, decision-making process, and results achieved, you can create compelling case studies that resonate with your audience.

35 Customer Interview Questions for a Standout Case Study

The art of crafting a standout case study lies mainly in the quality of the questions you ask during the customer interview. Your goal should be to extract in-depth, honest, and compelling responses that will resonate with your target audience. 

Understanding the Customer’s Background and Context

• Industry Background: Can you provide an overview of your industry and your company’s position within it?
• Company Objectives: What were the specific goals and objectives your company aimed to achieve before implementing our product/service?
• Challenges Faced: What challenges or pain points were you experiencing that led you to seek a solution?
• Existing Solutions: Were there any existing solutions in place before considering our product/service? If yes, what were the shortcomings of those solutions?
• Budget and Resources: What budget constraints or resource limitations did your company have during the decision-making process?

Experience with the Product/Service

• Initial Impressions: What were your first impressions upon using our product/service?
• Ease of Use: How user-friendly did you find our product/service, and did it require extensive training for your team?
• Notable Features: Were there specific features of our product/service that stood out to you and were particularly beneficial?
• User Adoption: How quickly did your team adopt and integrate our product/service into their daily operations?
• Support and Communication: How would you rate our support and communication during the implementation phase?

Comparisons and Decision-Making

• Competitor Analysis: Did you evaluate similar products/services from our competitors? What made you choose our offering over theirs?
• Unique Selling Points: Which specific aspects of our product/service convinced you that it was the best choice for your needs?
• Feedback from Colleagues: Were there opinions or feedback from your colleagues or team members that influenced your decision?
• Long-Term Viability: What factors led you to believe that our product/service would be a sustainable solution for your company in the long run?
• Decision-Making Team: Can you elaborate on the roles and perspectives of the key decision-makers in your organization during the selection process?

Implementation and Support

• Implementation Process: How was the experience of implementing our product/service into your existing systems and processes?
• Training and Support: Did your team require additional training or support during the implementation phase? How was it provided?
• Integration Challenges: Were there any challenges faced while integrating our product/service with your existing tools or technologies?
• Technical Assistance: How responsive and effective was our technical support team in addressing any issues that arose during implementation?
• Customization and Adaptability: Were there specific customization options that our team provided to tailor the product/service to your company’s unique requirements?

Impact and Results

• Tangible Results: Can you share specific metrics or data points that demonstrate the positive impact of our product/service on your business objectives?
• Efficiency Improvements: How has our product/service improved efficiency or streamlined processes within your organization?
• Cost Savings: Have you noticed any significant cost savings or reductions in operational expenses since implementing our product/service?
• Customer Feedback: Have you received any notable feedback from your customers related to the improvements brought about by our product/service?
• Employee Satisfaction: Have you observed any changes in employee satisfaction or morale as a result of using our product/service?

Future Expectations and Recommendations

• Future Needs: Are there any specific features or improvements you would like to see in our future product/service updates?
• Recommendations: Based on your experience, what would be your recommendations for other businesses considering our product/service?
• Long-Term Partnership: Are you considering a long-term partnership with our company? If yes, what are the key factors influencing this decision?
• Scaling Possibilities: How do you envision our product/service accommodating your company’s growth and scaling needs in the future?
• Final Thoughts: In hindsight, what advice would you give to other businesses in your industry considering similar solutions for their challenges?

All these questions are intended to provide a rich narrative for your case study. However, it is essential to adapt and modify these questions based on your unique business context and customer experience. 

By asking the right questions, you can craft compelling case studies that demonstrate the value of your product or service, resonate with potential customers, and ultimately drive business growth.

How to Transform Customer Interview Answers into a Powerful Case Study

Turning customer interview answers into a compelling case study isn’t as simple as copying and pasting responses. It’s about understanding your customer’s journey, showcasing their experiences, and presenting a story that resonates with your audience. 

To create a captivating case study, you need to translate customer answers into a narrative that underlines the advantages of your products or services. 

1. Identify the Problem: Identify the main problem your customer had before using your product or service. Use direct quotes for credibility.
2. Highlight Solution: Detail how your product or service provided a solution. Use specifics, data, and statistics to demonstrate tangible benefits.
3. Strong Conclusion: Summarize the customer’s journey and the positive outcomes achieved. Encourage readers to envision themselves in your customer’s shoes.

You can learn more about how to craft a compelling story for your case study in this guide: Business Case Study: A Guide to Creating Captivating Customer Stories.

Conclusion

In the dynamic realm of content marketing, customer interviews and case studies remain powerful tools. They amplify the voices of your customers and provide an authentic perspective of your products or services. The strength of a case study lies in the right customer interview questions. Ask questions that reveal the customer’s journey and the transformative power of your product.

Creating relatable content connects you to your audience and alleviates their pain points. Real-life testimonials showcasing how your product or service resolves challenges are invaluable. Armed with these essential customer interview questions, it’s time to elevate your content marketing game.

Explore how our writers can help you craft outstanding case studies during your WriterAccess free trial. Try it now!

The post Essential Customer Interview Questions for Engaging Case Studies appeared first on Rock Content.

But coming up with content is a bit harder than you might expect. Before going all-in on content marketing, it’s imperative to address these questions: 

• What Does Your Audience Want? 
• What Does Your Audience Expect?
• What Do You Want From Content Marketing?
• What Are Your Competitors Doing?

Answering these questions will give you a decent foundation upon which to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy. However, when it comes to the last question (what are your competitors doing?), it’s crucial to break away from the pack. If your brand is just doing what everyone else is doing, you’ll seem late to the party and boring overall. 

So, we’ve curated 10 innovative content ideas to help you spice up your marketing and differentiate your brand from all others. When these tactics are utilized correctly, you should see some incredible returns. 

Interactive Content Experiences

Most content you’ll find online, including blog posts, videos, and social media posts, is passive. The goal is to relay information to the audience, who receives the information at their leisure. While there is some interaction in the form of comments, it doesn’t affect the content itself. 

Interactive content is much more engaging because the user is affecting the outcome of the piece. A perfect example of interactive content would be a quiz or survey. The results of the quiz depend on the answers the user gives, so if they don’t interact with the content, they won’t know the outcome. 

This type of content strategy works well because it can help qualify leads and validate customer engagement. With a static content post, it’s hard to know whether the post resonated with the audience. With interactive posts, you can see the engagement happen in real-time and gather valuable data from it. 

User-Generated Content Campaigns

The average person is a brand ambassador, whether they realize it or not. Every time someone posts a picture of their meal at a restaurant, takes a selfie at a concert, or shows something they just bought, they’re advertising a brand. 

User-generated content is valuable for companies for a few different reasons: 

• First, it offers social proof. The more people who share their experiences online, the better the product or service looks to new leads. 
• Second, it’s remarkably cheap and delivers an exceptional ROI. This is because you don’t have to spend any money on advertising—your customers are doing it for you. 
• Finally, UGC can help enhance your brand reputation and build brand awareness. Since people are sharing these experiences on their own social profiles, you can reach more leads organically than you could through targeted advertising. 

You can also be proactive about getting customers to create user-generated content. For example, you could have a photo area where guests can take pictures or selfies at your business. This area could have excellent lighting, some props, or decorative elements that help make a captivating image. 

Incorporating Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality is when digital elements blend into the real world via technology. One of the most recognizable examples of AR is the mobile game Pokémon Go. In the game, players will “see” Pokémon in the real world via the app. The software adds digital renditions of the characters into a live video stream, so it can appear as if the animal is right there next to the player.  

AR can be a lot of fun when it’s done correctly, but it can also feel cheesy when done incorrectly. As you may imagine, not all businesses can take advantage of this technology. However, there are some creative ways to make AR work, such as: 

• Travel – Agencies and booking sites can transport their guests to the destination of their choice by using a 360-degree video of a resort or landmark at that location. 
• Home Decor – Users can see how a particular item will look in their home before buying. Similarly, customers can see what a certain color of paint will look like on their wall before making a final decision. 
• Real Estate – Guests can take a tour of a property virtually by moving their phones around and seeing what each room looks like. 
• Beauty and Fashion – Customers can see what products look like on their face or body before buying. 

Overall, AR is still a fledgling marketing strategy, but it can also yield some incredible returns. In many cases, these interactive experiences make guests more likely to finalize a purchase. 

Gamification for Engagement

Gamification is exactly what it sounds like—turning an experience into a game. When it comes to marketing, this process can take several forms, depending on what kind of game you want your users to play. 

For example, let’s take the concept of a loyalty card. The traditional method involves having customers get a stamp or punch every time they visit, with the promise of a free item after a certain number of visits. This concept can easily be gamified to make it more interactive and engaging for your audience. 

So, instead of having a physical card and getting stamped with each visit, customers may try to earn points. Once they reach a certain number of points, they get something for free. The great thing about gamification is that it can incorporate virtually anything. Liking a social media post can be worth one point. Buying a product can be worth one point for every dollar that item is worth. Visiting the store can be worth 10 points, and so on. 

The goal of gamification is to make the interactions between your brand and your customers more fun and exciting. Customers enjoy playing the game, and you get better returns on your marketing investment. 

Webinars and Workshops

Educational marketing is valuable because it establishes your brand as an authority within your industry and helps your customers achieve their goals and/or solve their problems. Two of the best options for education marketing are webinars and workshops. 

A webinar is a virtual seminar at which guests attend virtually via a teleconferencing app (i.e., Zoom). The great thing about a webinar is that it’s interactive, even if you use pre-recorded elements during the presentation. Also, because it’s virtual, attendees can come in from anywhere, including places around the globe. Webinars are great for conveying valuable information to your audience and gathering feedback from attendees. 

A workshop is typically a timed lesson about a specific topic or problem. The goal of the workshop is to teach skills and invite collaboration among attendees. In many cases, workshops are smaller, although they can also be virtual. Workshops are great because they’re far more engaging with the users. While a webinar is mostly passive, a workshop is very interactive.

Both of these options are ideal for marketing purposes because they generate buzz and create meaningful connections with your customers. Plus, if the event is valuable enough for your audience, you can even charge attendees and earn revenue that way. 

Collaborative Content Creation

Collaborative content is when you work with other companies or organizations to create mutually-beneficial marketing materials. For example, maybe you can partner with a complementary brand to create a video series about your products and how they can work well together. To illustrate how collaborative content creation can work, let’s dive into a specific example. 

Let’s say that you sell water bottles. So, you decide to partner with a local gym to create videos showing your water bottles in action. In addition to partnering with the gym, maybe you can also reach out to local fitness influencers to see if they want to be part of the video series. 

In this case, everyone benefits from the collaboration. The gym can increase its online presence and get more people signed up for a membership. Fitness influencers can add authenticity to their brands and make themselves more marketable to other companies looking for collaborations. You benefit from promoting your water bottles and generating more online sales. 

Micro-Moments Content

In marketing, a “micro-moment” is when a customer uses a device to discover more information or make a purchase. An example of a micro-moment would be if someone wanted Thai food and typed into Google Maps, “Thai food near me.” Basically, a micro-moment is when someone has made a decision but needs technology to facilitate it. 

What’s great about these moments is that most people don’t have a specific brand in mind when it comes to products or services. For example, if someone needs wireless headphones, they’re likely focused on its attributes, not the company that makes it. 

So, in marketing terms, it’s best to create curated content to capitalize on these moments. The best way to do that is to get into the mindset of your target customer and create something that speaks to their unique needs. 

Using our headphone example, it may be a good idea to create a targeted landing page for “wireless headphones for listening to music while studying.” You can also create a landing page for “wireless headphones with long-lasting batteries that are perfect for traveling.” Both of these pages are hyper-specific, but they will connect instantly with a customer who needs headphones for those reasons. 

Data-Driven Personalized Reports

Data is everywhere on the internet, and you can tap into it for marketing purposes. In most cases, the more data you have about your audience, the easier it is to market to them. 

However, the primary advantage of using data-driven personalization is knowing when to market your products or services to them. The golden rule of sales is to sell the right product to the right person at the right time. When you have mountains of data about a single individual, you can use that information to your advantage. 

The other fantastic thing about data-driven personalization is that it works for virtually everything, so you can get highly creative when customizing your content. You can tailor content pieces around a customer’s likes, wants, and needs, as well as present the product as a solution to a problem they’re having right now. 

Immersive 3D Product Showcases

Usually, the best way to look at and review a product is in person. However, 3D product showcases are the next best thing. A 3D product showcase is a digitally constructed recreation of your product, usually within a computer-generated environment. 

The primary benefit of a showcase is that it allows your customers to view the product as if they were handling it themselves. Ideally, they should also be able to see it in action. For example, if you’re selling a couch, it’s best if customers can see what the couch will look like in their living room after inspecting the 3D model. 

Another fantastic thing about these showcases is that you can combine them with other marketing tactics. For example, you can collaborate with other companies to create a more immersive environment. You can also use AR and gamification to make the showcase more interactive. The possibilities are endless. 

Harnessing Emerging Technologies

Technology is always advancing rapidly, so it’s hard to keep up. However, by capitalizing on new breakthroughs and innovations, your brand can benefit in a couple of different ways. 

First, it shows that you’re a forward-thinking company that’s not afraid to take risks or try new things. Second, it helps you get ahead of the curve and outpace the competition. 

One example of an emerging technology is virtual reality (VR). Although the demand for VR content is growing, there are still only a handful of companies producing it. If you can create meaningful or engaging VR content, you can expand your audience and develop stronger connections with your customers. Similarly, AI is rapidly becoming more mainstream, so you can utilize AI technology to provide better customer service and more curated content. 

The Bottom Line: Innovation Breeds Success

Content creation doesn’t have to be an overwhelming ordeal. In many cases, a company has big ideas of what it wants to do, but it doesn’t know how to turn those ideas into tangible marketing materials. 

When it comes to written content, WriterAccess makes it super easy for brands of all sizes to create whatever they want. Blog posts, whitepapers, infographics, and social media posts can be delivered in a snap, thanks to the extensive pool of talent from around the world. Best of all, you can try WriterAccess for free for two weeks to get a feel for it. Once you get the content marketing ball rolling, there’s no telling how far it can take your brand. 

The post 10 Innovative Content Ideas to Spice Up Your Strategy appeared first on Rock Content.

At the time, I didn’t fully grasp the extent of digital marketing and the amount of work it involves. Just to give you an idea, I used to believe that every marketing team had a developer on board. Otherwise, how could a company like Apple create interactive experiences for each new product launch?

Now, having managed more than 50 interactive content creation projects, I laugh (and kind of cringe) when I think back to that time. You see, I don’t code. I don’t know HTML, and I’m still unsure about what CSS stands for.

The journey from knowing nothing about marketing or code to where I am today was long, but it all started with one question:

Why use interactive content instead of static materials?

When I first started working with content creation, I was quite intimidated by interactive content, and I didn’t really see its purpose. Why invest all this additional effort when static materials can convey the same information?

I have very limited knowledge about design, and everything I do know, I learned here while working as a project manager for Rock Content. So, naturally, it seemed much more straightforward to me not to worry about designing and coding a whole page just to use the same copy we could have used in an ebook.

However, as I learned more and consumed more content, I began to grasp the strategic aspect of interactive content: it’s more like a conversation than a lecture.

When you use static content, you’re merely providing the user with information and hoping they provide some feedback.

In contrast, when you use interactive content, you’re inviting them to a conversation. You’ll be able to observe how they interact with each part of your content, understand what interests them the most, and identify which subjects perform better—even if the user never writes you a single word.

If you’re solely focused on metrics, interactive content typically results in better engagement, higher conversion rates, and increased time spent on the page.

Read also: How I Increased an E-Book’s Conversion Rate by 20.7% Through Interactivity

Moreover, if you’re considering the user experience, it’s quite intuitive: interactivity holds your interest much more than reading a block of text.

At this point, I still had one question: Even with all that considered, is it still worthwhile to code an entire interactive page?

What are no-code solutions, anyway?

We live in an era where nearly everyone has heard at least one of these terms: CSS, JavaScript, HTML, Python, etc.

Learning how to program has never been more important (no wonder I used to think every marketing department had a developer on their team).

It was genuinely surprising to learn that not only do most marketing departments lack a developer, but they also tend to be severely understaffed.

Considering this, and the fact that most people neither know how to code nor want to learn it, some amazing platforms provide no-code solutions for designing websites, blogs, and yes, interactive experiences.

The idea is that you’re able to create without having to code everything from scratch – or anything, really. Instead, you can simply click and drag different elements to where you’d like them to be, and that’s it.

No-code solutions for interactive content 

No-code solutions are already quite popular for website and blog creation. If you watch YouTube as much as I do, you’ve probably heard about Wix or Squarespace. 

But what if you don’t want to build a whole new site? What if you’re just looking to create interactive content to differentiate your campaign?

My favorite tool for this is Ion. Yes, I know, I’m biased, but I’ve also witnessed the power of this platform time and time again.

As a project manager, one of the most important aspects for me is to build rapport with my customers so I can truly understand their needs. I can tell you there’s no better way to connect with someone than to share experiences with something you don’t know much about, and for me, that’s coding. Most of my customers hate it.

Considering this scenario, here are some of the main advantages I see in Ion:

Easily apply your branding to the content

You’ll need to include your brand materials on the platform before using it for the first time. No coding involved here.

After that, everything you need is easily available whenever you create a new experience, ensuring your team stays within your brand guidelines.

Easily change your branding 

Did your team just revamp your marketing materials, and now you’re wondering how to update every single creative piece you have? It’s quite simple: after you update only the necessary assets, your interactive content will update automatically.

Even if you decide to change everything and create a whole new guide, a single click of a button will guarantee your creatives are updated as well.

Content-led design 

When you’re creating your experience in Ion, you can use one of its many functionalities to better highlight the information, ensuring that you’ll have the best showcase for your carefully crafted content every single time, just by dragging and dropping the elements on the page. 

Tags everywhere 

If you’re a project manager or someone who works with data, this is where Ion thrives. 

You can tag different elements of your experience with just a couple of clicks of the mouse, and know exactly how much time your user spent on each page, which elements and sections were the most engaging, and where they are accessing the experience from. 

Not to mention a full view of the funnel: how many unique users you got, how many engaged and converted. 

Quick and easy 

For short-staffed teams, Ion can be your work bestie: it’s possible to create simple experiences in about two hours, from start to launch.

The platform offers pre-set templates that you can use. Again, with just a few clicks, you can add your brand’s materials, copy, and images, and you’ll be ready to go.

Different types of experiences

Most people think no-code solutions are only available for ebooks or landing pages. However, you can go much further than that. 

With ten different types of experiences, Ion helps you to make the most out of your content in every stage of your funnel. 

Read also: How do we use interactive content in Rock Content’s marketing strategy?

Going further than the interactive landing page

Each stage of the customer’s journey calls for different types of content, and this holds true for interactive experiences as well.

If you’re engaging with someone who has just discovered your brand, discussing the merits of your product may not be the most effective approach. Therefore, it doesn’t really make sense to provide them with a microsite that solely highlights your solutions for their challenges.

Conversely, when your customer is already interested in doing business with you, a simple infographic may not be the deciding factor.

Consider viewing your content from your persona’s perspective: What pain points do they have? What challenges do they face? And how can you provide assistance?

As a good rule of thumb, landing pages and interactive infographics tend to work well when you’re aiming for brand awareness, as they can quickly showcase different percentages and scenarios.

Ebooks, assessments, quizzes, and whitepapers are best suited for the middle of the funnel when the customer understands the options available to solve their problems.

Last but not least, calculators are excellent for the end of the funnel. Typically, most calculators require a significant amount of information or sensitive data to function. Your customers are more likely to provide this data if they already trust your brand.

A common request I receive from my customers is to revamp a page on their website to make it more interactive. This could involve creating a more engaging “About Us” page for both customers and employees or embedding a “Solution Finder” to assist customers in finding the best solutions.

In these cases, there’s a small amount of coding involved. Your team will need to embed the interactive page using an iframe. That’s it—no more code to worry about.

My favorite use cases for middle and end-of-the-funnel experiences are related to VSP Vision Care. Their customers didn’t know which plans would satisfy their needs best or offer the best cost-benefit.

Ion not only solved this problem with a savings calculator, allowing users to assess plan value based on their specific needs and financial scenarios, but it also assisted VSP’s team in developing a sophisticated product wizard. This wizard generates personalized recommendations for each customer, with 98% of them mentioning it as highly useful.

Increased performance (no matter the format)

I mentioned earlier how the performance of your content can be enhanced by transitioning from a static format to an interactive experience. Let me illustrate this with a real example: Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2022 report.

Through Ion, they managed to make the most out of their content and data, transforming a report, typically content-heavy and not particularly engaging to read, into a beautiful, informative, and digestible experience. 

This made the entire content much easier to read and retain and expressed the brand’s essence much better than a PDF file.

That year, unique traffic visiting the Report pages increased by 34%, while time spent on the page went up by 119%, while the number of downloads grew by more than 30%.

Pretty good, huh?

Read also: How Hootsuite Transformed Its Largest Annual Campaign

Here’s a fun fact: did you know that 75% of marketers use interactivity to enhance educational content? By engaging with different elements on the screen and even answering quiz questions, the user’s retention of your content increases exponentially.

Final Thoughts

Interactive content isn’t just the future of content creation; it’s already the present.

You can use it to make your strategy more versatile. It can help educate your customers, raise awareness of your products and solutions, or even assist your own team in effectively communicating your brand’s value.

Don’t let your concerns about coding deter you from adding this tool to your arsenal.

If you do have some coding knowledge, you can further customize it using CSS. If you don’t code, you can simply forget that programming exists and focus on what you do best: creating content and thinking about your clients.

No HTML required.

Want to see how to add interactivity to your marketing? Click here to get a free demo with one of our specialists.

The post How to create interactive content even if you don’t know what HTML is appeared first on Rock Content.

Seasonal campaigns give us a bigger incentive to go creative and explore different narratives in many different engaging ways. Rock Content’s marketing team explores this as well, but with extra features to go beyond cool images and fun copies: we count on Interactive Content Experiences.

In this article, I will bring 3 examples of how we used interactivity in seasonal campaigns. 

Before we dive into Seasonal Campaigns, an important thing about interactive content

Before we dive into the examples, let’s go quickly through the interactive content aspects.

To create interactive pages we need to count on a developer or an interactive content platform. 

At Rock Content, we use our own product to do so: Ion Interactive. 

The best part about it is that it does not require any coding to create content and comes with a good variety of ready-to-use templates. The work gets a lot easier with our team of marketers and designers. 

Another interesting point is that by doing these pages inside Ion, they can be optimized for SEO and designed in a way that engages and collects first-party data from visitors. With that in mind, while the user interacts with an ebook, calculator, or infographic, we provide a personalized experience capturing the data we need.

Now that you know more about interactive content, we are ready to check out the examples:

Black Friday 

This is a global campaign that we ran in 2022 that basically consists of a hub where we added 3 sessions with rich materials. 

After filling out a form on the landing page, the visitor gets free access to help marketers lead tactics toward a stronger Black Friday season.

One of the assets inside the Hub is a Black Friday Strategy Guide, which looks like a simple quiz. 

After filling out some basic information about the business, the visitor is able to get personalized suggestions to drive a successful Black Friday campaign.

In both experiences, visitors are exposed to some offers that connect to our products and services. 

In case they want to move forward with a product demo, for example, they are halfway through the form submission process, since they have provided their information through the experience they just had.

An interesting point about it is that we created the pages with our brand identity. So it will not only look beautiful because it has animated elements, but also connected to your brand identity. You can also add seasonal elements to make the experience more attractive. 

In the end, we are able to see how the page performed in the creative dashboard, which gives us insights on the results and if needed, we can dive deeper into the page to discover where people interacted the most or the least, so we can adapt the next wave accordingly. 

Click here to see the updated version of the Hub!

Marketing Planning Bundle – Summer

The Marketing Planning Bundle is one of our most successful materials with over eight thousand downloads from our English Speaking base alone since we first launched it in 2020. 

We update it and launch it every year and it aims to help marketers plan, organize, and act on their tactics in the year or quarter that is about to start. 

It is full of spreadsheets, guides, templates, and other resources that provide professionals with free tools that they can use to make their jobs easier. 

In 2022 we launched it in the interactive format, so the person fills out a form and gets access to a hub, similar to the one for Black Friday, where they can find all the assets they need. 

To help professionals move forward with H2 2023 tasks, especially during the summertime, when people go on vacation and things may get a little bit complicated, we relaunched the Planning Bundle with a Summer narrative. 

As mentioned in the Black Friday example, working with interactive experiences allows us to collect relevant feedback from the audience. 

In the Marketing Planning Bundle, we were able to notice that people engaged much more in the first stage of the experience, especially with the interactive ebook How to Create a Marketing Plan, which was the most clicked resource of the hub.

It is worth noting that an interactive ebook, just like other interactive pieces created in Ion, provides a richer reading experience, driving the reader through the content in a captivating way while collecting relevant information about their preferences. 

For the How to Create a Marketing Plan one, we divided the chapters into blocks with other interactive elements inside. 

It also allows marketers to gate the content where they need the reader’s information to provide value at the right time.

The information collected helps us make more data-driven decisions when it comes to repurposing and relaunching the experience. 

At the same time, it gives us insights into what the audience really needs and shows us some new possibilities.

A good example of this is that for the next phase of the campaign, we can optimize the most wanted assets from the Marketing Planning Bundle Hub and create new pieces to generate even more results. 

At the same time, it gives us a glimpse of potential improvements, like the materials that did not catch so much attention throughout the experience.

Read also: How I Increased Conversions on Ion by 431% In Only Two Months

World Cup 2022

This was another global campaign where we took advantage of the World Cup wave. 

It is a worldwide event that catches the attention of marketers and consumers all over the world, so we decided to attract visibility to our solutions using this narrative. 

Our team of designers nailed it by creating illustrations that are really aligned with the soccer theme, working with colors that would remind people of the latest World Cup palette and all the interactive elements that were added to the experience. 

Click here to check out the full experience.

At this stage, just like all the stages inside the interactive, the copies, symbols, background, and all the narrative elements are not only aligned with our branding but also with the soccer side of the communication, which makes it more attractive and engaging. 

We created an Idea Generator to help marketing professionals get inspired when launching new content pieces and other offers according to their current strategy. 

The user just needs to select from the 11 “players” the ones that are applicable to their strategy.

After selecting the main channels they work in, similarly to soccer coaches, the visitor gets personalized advice and suggestions to create successful campaigns, based on the inputs provided by the previous page. 

This is a great chance to provide valuable recommendations and resources to the visitor while collecting first-party data. At the same time, we get people exposed to our brand, products, and services. 

An example of that, is the 14-day trial to WriterAccess, our freelance marketplace to help professionals scale their content marketing production. By the way, you should try it now to see how AI features combined with human creativity can take your content strategy to the next level!

These are just a few examples of how interactive content can help marketers develop creative campaigns that catch the attention of the audience with infinite narrative possibilities. 

We count on interactive content to create webinars, calculators, infographics, quizzes, and many other resources that get people really interested in consuming our content. 

Want to see how to add interactivity to your marketing? Click here to get a free demo with one of our specialists!

The post 3 Examples of Interactive Content to Support Creative Seasonal Campaigns appeared first on Rock Content.

If so, freelance content writing might be a perfect fit for you. Freelance writing allows you to work remotely, set your own hours, and choose how much you want to work.

For businesses, employing freelance content writers enables you to acquire high-quality content for your website, blog, and social media platforms without the cost of a full-time staff member.

By working with a freelancer, you can efficiently scale up your content production while aligning your budget with your content requirements.

How Do I Write Content As a Freelancer?

Freelance content writing begins with finding one or more clients, which can be accomplished in various ways. You can approach small businesses in your local area or online and offer your services.

Another option is to apply as a writer with content writing companies like WriterAccess. These companies simplify the process of finding freelance work and take care of invoicing and collections with clients. However, most of these services may charge you a percentage of your earnings on the platform.

Online content differs from traditional newspaper or magazine articles. Website content needs to be easily scannable to accommodate the notoriously short attention span of internet users. This entails writing concise paragraphs, using clear subheadings, and incorporating bullet points or lists to highlight key information in the article.

To learn more about becoming a freelance content writer:

How Much Do Content Writers Get Paid?

Like most work, the more a freelance content writer works, the more he or she gets paid. 

Content writers also get paid more based on the experience they have in addition to how challenging and demanding the projects are. 

Having said all that, GlassDoor reports that content writers make between $39,000 and $63,000 annually. Salary.com reports a range of between $52,000 and $78,000.

Keep in mind that freelance work (by definition) is independent work, so although you’ll still have a tax liability, you won’t have any taxes deducted from the amounts you collect for your freelance work. 

Suffice to say, it’s wise to set aside money from every paycheck to cover your taxes, so you aren’t caught unaware with a bill you can’t afford when tax season comes around.

The good news for freelancers is that you can deduct costs associated with your work from your freelance income. These include things like mileage to visit clients, supplies like pens and paper, your health insurance premiums, reference materials, and training courses. Check with your tax accountant for more information on this.

Which Content Writing Type Pays the Most?

There are a variety of types of content writing, including blogs, articles, press releases, white papers, ebooks, and case studies. 

Generally, content writers are paid by the word, so the longer the piece, the more it pays. However, specific projects, particularly those of substantial length such as ebooks, are remunerated on a project basis.

Skill level, expertise in an industry, and experience also affect the amount a client is willing to pay a content writer.

Is Freelance Writing Legal? 

Yes, freelance writing is a legitimate way to make a living. Some clients will only work with US or North American writers. Others are set up to pay writers working from any part of the world.

Be aware that there are a lot of scams on the internet that target freelance writers. Some involve selling worthless training materials to new freelancers, while others appear to be legitimate but fail to pay once you send an invoice, and others encourage you to write for free, promising “exposure” to a large audience.

One great way to avoid most of these hazards is to work with a reputable content company like WriterAccess. These companies handle the invoicing and money end of things, so you have more time to concentrate on writing while being assured that you’ll be paid on time.

What Skills Does a Content Writer Need?

To be a successful content writer, you need to have a good grasp of proper grammar and spelling, as well as, be able to write succinctly and on topic. 

Unlike creative writing, you don’t need to be able to craft flowery descriptions or dynamic plot lines. You just need to be able to create simple sentences that are easy to read and that communicate effectively.

The best freelance content writers are also self-starters and are able to meet deadlines without a supervisor watching over their shoulders. 

Good content writers are also able to work with a variety of client personalities and carefully follow written instructions. 

Lastly, it’s helpful for content writers to be able to use constructive criticism to better their work without taking the comments from editors and clients personally.

Jump-Starting Your Freelance Writing Career With WriterAccess

Working with a content platform like WriterAccess can make it easy to earn a living as a freelance content writer. Apply to join more than 15,000 writers who make up the WriterAccess community. 

For marketers and business owners, having access to a pool of talented and pre-screened writers eliminates the risk of hiring freelancers directly. We invite you to take advantage of our free two-week trial.

Our platform combines the efficiency of AI-powered tools with the creativity of human writers to help you streamline your content production. Why wait? Try it now!

The post The Advantages of Freelance Content Writing appeared first on Rock Content.

While many industries seem to be on a downward spiral, translation businesses have boomed.

In fact, as of 2023, there are over 75,200 translation businesses in the United States alone. Year after year, the translation market has been steadily growing. 

While the translation market has been growing, so has the need for translators. The market even grew during COVID-19, rather than slowing down.

After the pandemic, the translation services market grew by 40%. But what is driving this need to translate, and why is it such an essential direction for marketers and business owners to look into?

In this blog, we’ll help you understand the factors that are powering the growth of the industry and cementing the job security of translators across the globe and in the United States. 

1. The Changing Face of America

The growth of the translation market is reflective of the growing diversity found within the United States. As the landscape of America continues to change, more languages and cultures are continually being introduced.

Whether at work, at school, or out in town, we all interact with people who speak different languages.

After all, there are between 350 and 430 languages spoken within the United States, which makes it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. 

This diversity is found everywhere, even in the digital world. Over 50% of queries in Google are made in languages other than English.

As more and more language inclusivity is introduced into the United States, the need for translators will increase with it.

This is because businesses are appealing to a range of cultural groups with advertisements and business pages in multiple languages. 

2. The World is Shrinking as Businesses Expand

Companies are now going global searching for more clientele. Not long ago, a U.S.-based company would be mostly active in the United States.

But today’s technology allows businesses to reach further.

Now, companies that wish to go global need to learn how to market their service or product(s) to prospective clients in other countries in their native language.

This means that there’s an urgent need for the translation of all sorts of documents such as logos, slogans, ads, brochures, instructions, and websites.

3. Wait. Why Translate at All?

Why do businesses bother to translate their documents? Doesn’t almost everyone speak English? According to the American Translators Association, this is a common misconception in English-speaking countries.

The ATA says that only 17% of the world’s population speaks English natively. Research indicates that we all strongly prefer using our own language when we spend our money, surf the web, etc.

So, to avoid misunderstood or misinterpreted messages, most successful businesses hire qualified translators to get their points across effectively. It may cost some money, but it makes sense when the message is received well and the bottom line skyrockets due to added efforts to translate.

No matter the document, quality translators help companies entering the global market look more polished.  They help avoid embarrassing gaffes and the dreaded international “advertising fail” list.

Translators with knowledge of medical terminology are translating documents into other languages and saving lives!

Translators with legal expertise ensure that legal documents are accurate. Literary translators make sure the nuance and “color” of the source language rings true.

Individuals are also using translators. They need driver’s licenses, marriage, and birth certificates translated. Wills, court transcripts, service agreements, and other legal documents also require solid translation.

4. Business Travel Is on the Rise

After most types of travel halted during COVID-19, business travel is back on the rise.

Travel trajectories are back on the rebound in the United States and in Europe, even surpassing half the levels of travel that were around pre-pandemic in 2019.

This trend is expected to continue until business travel recovers to the full level of pre-pandemic corporate travel. 

Because people are starting to move around the world for business again, there has been increased pressure on the translation market.

Businesses must be prepped and ready to make new connections and present high-quality materials in native languages. 

5. Companies Need to Be Competitive in the Global Market

The global market is always growing, which means that more and more businesses are conducting business in international markets.

Along with strengthening brands worldwide, companies are also investing in translators to ensure their messages are heard around the world. 

More shoppers are looking across borders to find the perfect products. According to PayPal, 57% of online shoppers have bought products from outside their home countries.

In addition, people are 75% more likely to purchase products from websites in their native languages.

These factors combined mean that having your products and website translated into more languages increases the chance of sales by more than 50%. 

6. Communication Is Key to Good Business

Person-to-person connection is the keystone of good business. When you are working in global markets, however, this becomes more difficult to accomplish.

If you are unable to speak directly to people in new areas of the globe, then you can still interact with them using translated materials and business assets.

The top five languages that international marketing content is translated into are English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and French. 

By localizing content and providing more than one language translation on website pages, you can grow your international audience and improve communication, even without spoken words.

Translation services help make sure that the context of translations is accurate and take things like local dialects and idioms into account during the translation process. 

7. Computers and Artificial Intelligence Are Helping People

The rise of computers and artificial intelligence (AI) has helped people and businesses expand into new markets.

Machine translation alone is valued at $650 million, and it is expected to reach $3 billion by 2027. Machine translation services from companies like Apple and Google have helped people expand their ability to communicate with others online and in business.

However, these AI translation services are far from perfect. Anyone who has tried to translate phrases in Google has found that the results don’t always mean what you are trying to say.

The direct translation of words doesn’t always match the context they are provided, which can lead to awkward interactions.

In a business environment, it becomes even more important to ensure that translations are accurate and reflect the meaning behind the message. 

Human professionals in the translation market can ground and contextualize the work of AI translators, making the result more targeted to specific audiences.

Human translators have in-depth knowledge of the languages they speak, and they are usually backed by advanced degrees, certifications, and years of experience.

They can also understand the meaning behind idioms and turn off phrases that machines miss and mistranslate.

In addition, human translators can translate meaning from one language and culture to another without losing any of the tone, message, or nuance. Because of this, there is and always will be a need for human translators to power the growing translation industry. 

Final Thoughts

So, no matter the state of the economy, no matter how small or heterogeneous the world gets, we still need to communicate with one another.

As long as there are languages mingling on the world stage, there will be translators.

If you are looking for translation services, then look no further than WriterAccess.

At WriterAccess, you get access to vetted professionals who can take your business or marketing copy and translate it into flawless, easily understandable content for multiple global markets.

Our translators cover some of the most popular languages for global translation, along with more niche languages for key markets.

To learn more, visit WriterAccess today and get a free 14-day trial of our translation services.

The post Translation Market: 7 Reasons Why the Need for Translators is Growing appeared first on Rock Content.

How that conversation ultimately goes depends on how you approach key factors like values, pain points, and solutions.

First, just so we’re on the same page, let’s clarify B2B and B2C:

• B2B means Business to Business
• B2C means Business to Consumer

In B2C marketing (business to customer), you’re addressing the needs of a single individual, family, or household. These are everyday consumers making personal decisions solely for themselves or their loved ones.

But with B2B marketing (business to business), you’re speaking directly to another business owner or someone otherwise in charge of making a buying decision on behalf of a larger team. Consumer decisions are less personal in this context and more technical or professional.

Mastering the ins and outs of B2B vs. B2C copywriting is all about shifting your copywriting approach effectively. Here’s a closer look at everything you need to know.

Differences Between B2C and B2B Copywriting

There are several areas where the copywriter will have to make adjustments to effectively speak to their audience based on whether this audience is made up of consumers or other businesses. These are the places where B2B writing and B2C writing are the most divergent. Keep the following in mind when developing a B2C or B2B content strategy:

Tone

Tone sets the stage for how the topic will be approached. When encountering content for the first time, the customer will often experience the tone first. And that will determine for them whether they proceed and consume the content or turn and walk away. This means that it must be spot-on and have the appropriate tone for the customer.

B2B: When it comes to B2B sales, the purchasing decision usually takes a lot longer for a B2B audience. They typically prefer to research something before making a purchase so their decisions will be slower and more methodical. The tone is usually more formal or professional while the content is very detailed and heavy on information. 

B2C: The B2C audience often makes decisions rather quickly although sometimes they do research and consider their options. Because you are marketing directly to humans for human values, needs, and goals, this calls for a more lighthearted approach. Articles may be shorter, and the tone may be more conversational. Engagement is the goal here so shorter, livelier articles are often preferred.

Number of buyers 

This does not refer to the number of individual buyers, but rather the number of individuals involved in the buying decision.

B2B: The B2B audience typically has several people in the decision-making chain, so you aren’t marketing to a single person for one sale, but rather to several people who are involved in the purchase decision. This means that the copy must appeal to each of these people, regardless of their position or personal needs. 

B2C: Reaching a B2C audience means marketing to an individual consumer. Yes, there may be hundreds or thousands of “single people” out there but you will speak to each of them on a more personal level. You want to get their attention and hold it, guiding them to make their decision.

Pathos vs logos

There is always an emotional element in copywriting, even if it means the absence of emotion. When writing copy, it is essential to take into account the emotion, or lack thereof, that the customer will resonate with best.

B2B: This audience responds better to logos. Therefore, the content should be more logical and straightforward with evidence or proof to back up any claims. B2B customers usually aren’t interested in humor or warm fuzzies. Just the facts, please! 

B2C: This audience loves its pathos! Emotional appeal within the copy is more attractive to them. B2C companies that entertain their audience and make them laugh or at least feel something are the most successful at capturing the attention of their audience.

Customer persona

A target audience is a broad group of people that fit into general categories or demographics. Individual habits, interests, and similar details rarely factor into the mix. However, a buyer persona is a much more personal concept.

A persona is a semi-fictional individual designed to represent a hypothetical member of your target audience and better help a copywriter connect with the human being reading their writing.

B2B: A B2B representative will make decisions on behalf of an entire team or company. They’ll also have long-term goals in mind when considering options, so focus on their professional role when considering buyer personas.

B2C: B2C consumers, on the other hand, should be approached as individuals – people with emotions who are often looking for immediate solutions to make life better or easier for their household.

Sales cycle length

Business products and corporate solutions aren’t typically “one-and-done” purchases. They’re complex, slower to implement, and often represent a bigger investment, so the typical sales cycle is a lot longer and more complicated.

B2B: Lengthier sales cycles mean more different steps. That said, a specific piece of B2B copywriting really only needs to convince the person on the receiving end to take the next step (e.g., begin a free trial).

B2C: When speaking directly to an individual consumer about a personal decision, you want to sell them on a purchase now, if possible. Appeal to their emotions and create a sense of urgency to help things along.

It is also important to remember that within these two audience types, there are endless sub audiences. For instance, B2C audiences may include moms, retirees, or people with a specific health problem. On the other hand, B2C audiences may include specific industries, certain areas within an organization, or different education or professional levels. 

All this is not to say that businesses don’t have a human element because they most definitely do. And you have to appeal to that human, just frame it in a less emotional, more professional way. Still, there are some things that will be the same because under it all you are still dealing with human beings.

Similarities Between B2C and B2B Copywriting

Of course, understanding B2B vs. B2C copywriting is also about grasping the similarities. Here are a few to keep in mind when crafting winning sale copy.

Authenticity

Although a business owner, team leader, or corporate decision-maker will naturally have different goals than a single consumer or homemaker shopping for a small family, marketing authenticity is always important.

All buyers want to buy from credible brands invested in what they’re doing or stand for something greater than themselves. B2B and B2C copywriting techniques successfully leverage authenticity to make a genuine connection with the human on the receiving end.

Problem-solving

Ultimately, all marketing targets (B2B or B2C) are looking to solve problems and implement sustainable solutions, whether they realize it right away or not. Successful copywriting connects with an audience by naming a pain point or issue before presenting a specific service or product as the solution.

A business owner may be more aware of the problem and more likely to actively seek a solution, but businesses and individuals ultimately respond to this dynamic.

Positive customer experience

Customer service and customer experience are everything when it comes to both B2B and B2C marketing. That said, great copywriting is always people-focused and crafted with a positive customer experience in mind.

In other words, it should use appropriate but dynamic language, be formatted for readability, deliver any promised information, and include clear calls to action.

Digital presence

In 2023 and beyond, a strong digital presence isn’t just a good idea for brands. It’s a must that legitimizes a business in the eyes of a target audience.

Solid B2B and B2C copywriting approaches go hand in hand with a frequently updated company website, active social media feeds on platforms the target audience uses, and multiple choices for getting in touch with the brand behind the content.

Marketing investment

Both B2B and B2C copywriting require a willingness to invest in their quality if you want to guarantee effectiveness. Instead of trying to handle the job alone, assemble a team of experienced copywriters who understand the ins and outs of writing effective copy for brands like yours.

Use a trusted elite platform like WriterAccess that carefully vets its writers and has a proven method to ensure good client-writer matches. Try it free when you sign up for your 14-day WriterAccess trial!

What Consumers Are Looking For In Content

Consumers are looking for something different in the content they consume than a business owner, executive, or other professional would.

Content that builds trust

Consumers are looking for something to believe in. They want to trust your brand, and they want something that they can put their loyalty behind. At the same time, they are wary of people trying to sell them something. 

Give your B2C audience someone to believe in, to strive to be like. Give them a cause to champion. Give them values and a mission they can get behind.

Content that fosters relationship-building

B2C customers want a relationship. Once they know that they can trust you and that you will deliver on what you promised, they will keep coming back, time after time.

Your content needs to foster that relationship-building if you want to encourage trust and gain their loyalty. You can do this by creating content that is personal and evokes emotion.

Content they can come back to

Now, when it comes to making the purchase, there usually isn’t a very clear-cut path for many consumers. The buyer’s journey often involves going from one piece of content to another, checking out the competition, then coming back to you.

B2C customers will meander, backtrack, and surge forward before deciding to make the purchase. Because of this, they need to be able to return to the content. They may come back several times before making a purchase.

That’s why it’s important that your tone, voice, and style is consistent across your brand. When customers come back to your content, they should already feel familiar with these things. Coming back to a piece of content that’s wildly different than what they saw before can be disorienting.

Content that speaks to their needs

Your B2C content needs to speak to the values and needs of your audience. It’s worth noting that each generation has its own set of values and needs, which will require you to use different tactics to reach them.

With millennials coming into their own in the marketplace right now, it is important to keep in mind what speaks to them. This generation is tech-savvy and attracted to causes. They want to see how the things they buy impact the environment and their world. Inclusiveness and emotion are also important elements that speak to them directly.

Content that makes them think

Today’s consumers love content that makes an emotional connection and leaves them with something to think about long after they’ve walked away. Great copywriting does this so well that it actually makes the reader forget it’s marketing content in the first place.

A good copywriter understands how to go beyond the topic at hand and get to the root of why it should matter to a consumer in the first place. Give a reader something new or interesting to consider that challenges them to shift their perspective.

Content that is social

B2C copy works well on blogs and landing pages, and customer testimonials are always a hit on your web page. But things really heat up when you involve social media as one of your marketing channels.

When your customers can share, comment, and like your content, they are in their element. Keep in mind though that each platform has its own unique demographic, and you’ll want to speak to that demographic in your social media marketing campaigns.

Know the social media demographic for your chosen platform so you aren’t wasting your marketing dollars dumping content into say Facebook when the bulk of your audience is on Instagram. There is value in taking some time to research and find which social media platform your audience is most likely to frequent so you have your best chance of reaching as many potential customers as possible and expanding your reach.

What Businesses Need to See in Content

While B2B audiences are looking for some of the same things that B2C audiences are, they need different things from marketing copy to help them make the right purchasing decision.

Content backed by research

The B2B audience wants to find the product that is the best fit for their business. Given that B2B buying cycles are longer and B2B products are typically pricier than B2C products, you need to pack your content with research and evidence that shows them why your solution works best.

With B2B customers, it’s up to you to give them what they need to confidently decide to choose you. 

Here’s a hint: Content that is backed by heavy, solid research is always a winner. 

Content that’s educational

As for copywriting strategies, the more information you provide in your content, the better. A business that is looking to buy is concerned about two things: cost and ROI.

B2B copywriting needs should address how your product or service affects your customers’ bottom line.

Content that provides proof

Product reviews, case studies, and in-depth, well-researched articles work well to guide B2B buyers down the sales funnel. Testimonials and reviews show leads how real customers feel about your products. Case studies help your leads better understand how real customers use your products.

Comparing the positive aspects of your organization to your competitors gives your buyers a clearer picture of why they should pick you. Comparison charts that line you up against your competitors and show that you have more features, better service, or more amenities give your B2B buyers a visual that is quite powerful. 

Content focused on the facts

Keep in mind that the B2B audience tends to be somewhat narrower than B2C, meaning that your audience is more focused or closely targeted. With the B2C audience, you can romance them a little, but the B2B audience is more focused and less likely to respond to romance copy or clever ploys that touch on emotion. Facts, statistics, research with citations, and real-world solutions are all highly valued by this audience. In fact, anything that shows them how your product will affect their bottom line is a boon. 

Content that speaks their language

Take the time to learn about your target B2B customers’ culture, processes, policies, and lingo. If you can create content using their own language, this can definitely be a win for your B2B brand.

Take the time to learn your target audience’s lingo and terminology, what they do, and how they do it. Learn about buying decisions that they’ve made in the past and other products they’ve used. Find out what decisions they have to make at various points of the buying process and speak to that. Learn their problems and solve them with your products.

Content they can easily skim

B2B buyers are also looking for content that’s easy to skim, especially buyers who are at the executive level. They may not have much time to read or they are squeezing some product or service research into their lunch break.

What does this mean for B2B copywriting? You need to trim the fat or get rid of the fluff in your B2B content. This audience just wants the main points.

Benefits of Tailoring Your Copywriting Based on B2B vs. B2C Audiences

Successful digital marketers never simply put their copy out there and hope for the best, especially when it comes to ultra-precise B2B digital marketing. Here are a few key benefits of consistently fine-tuning your efforts to suit your B2B or B2C audience.

• You’ll drastically increase engagement.
• Your conversion rates will improve.
• You’ll be more likely to forge meaningful connections with your audience.
• Your audience will be better motivated to take the next step.
• Your audience will truly feel you understand them and can meet their needs.

Hiring a B2B Copywriter or B2C Copywriter

All this information is great and useful, but now you need to find a way to execute it. To be perfectly honest, a garden variety writer is not likely to have the skills and expertise necessary to craft the specialized content that is required for this type of copywriting. It takes highly specialized skills to find that delicate balance between logic and human – for either audience – and creating content that works.

Your best bet is to hire a freelancer who specializes in B2B copywriting or B2C copywriting. These freelance specialist copywriters will have the knowledge, skills, and abilities, to create content that speaks to your audience, builds trusting relationships, and convinces them to convert. A freelancer who specializes in B2B writing will know just what voice and tone to use when speaking to a business audience. While a freelance copywriter who specializes in B2C writing will know just how to write compelling content that captures a consumer audience.

At WriterAccess, we have some amazing B2B and B2C copywriters. The WriterAccess team has done all the vetting and testing, so you don’t have to. Just search for writers who specialize in your industry topics, and choose the one whose voice fits best with your brand. Regardless of the type of audience you want to reach, we have the writers who can get the job done. 

Your new freelance writer is waiting on WriterAccess. Try it free for 14 days!

The post B2B vs. B2C Copywriting: All You Need to Know appeared first on Rock Content.

This expectation for personalization extends to consumers’ online experiences. While personalization has been a growing trend for years, we’ve come a long way from just email subject lines and direct mail campaigns. 

During a webinar on content trends, our then Senior Director of Content Strategy, Stephanie Mansueto, shed light on the continued growth of personalization, particularly in the realm of interactive content. 

During the presentation, Stephanie pointed out that 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content isn’t personalized.

With that in mind, we’ll take you on a journey into the realm of personalized content with a focus on interactivity. You’ll discover:

Why Is Personalization Important in Content?

These days, people don’t just prefer content personalized with their unique needs and preferences in mind. They’ve come to expect it and can quickly lose interest in content that isn’t personalized.

With the wealth of content that’s presented to customers on a daily basis—from a wide range of companies and services—this is no surprise. We all want content that is personally relevant to us and addresses our pain points. 

This is the content that will make an impact on your audience, and it’s the content that you need to continually evaluate and tailor to their needs as they move throughout their journey. 

Consistent content personalization helps your marketing assets stand out from the rest of the noise and grab a consumer’s attention.

It inspires trust and loyalty, especially over the long haul. And it leads to a much better user experience overall, boosting conversions and encouraging repeat business.

Why Should You Use Interactivity to Personalize Your Content?

Interactivity is one of the more effective ways to make your marketing content feel as personal as possible to your target audience. For example, it can:

• Boost engagement and hold a user’s attention for longer
• Make social sharing seem irresistible
• Help you establish a connection with new audience users and audience members
• Help you acquire valuable first-party information about your users
• Make it easier to reconnect with users and nurture leads in the future

Approaching content personalization with interactivity also opens the door to some truly creative content ideas. Examples include exciting, engaging options like interactive landing pages, fun social games, personality quizzes, helpful calculators, and more.

You can create content your users enjoy and remember and feel moved to share with others in their circle. And you can ethically collect data to help you make each subsequent interactive content experience even better and more effective.

7 Examples of Content Personalization With Interactivity

1. Segment Interactive e-books by Job Title or Other Attributes

In this Ion Interactive customer example created by Progress, the interactive e-book begins with a question that customizes the experience for the visitor. 

Here, you’ll notice that once the visitor selects their role from the three options, they also provide their pain points. The e-book then personalizes itself to fit their specific interests and needs, showing them e-book chapters that are relevant to their responses. 

The data collected from these segmentation questions is also sent to a marketing automation platform, creating a lead profile for future content suggestions.

2. Provide Personalized Solutions with a Calculator or Assessment

In an interactive solution finder, assessment, or calculator, you can create targeted questions that unearth your visitor’s pain points or discover what topics, products, or services they are currently interested in. 

In this Ion example, created by Korn Ferry, an interactive assessment asks questions to the user, ultimately offering them personalized insights on salary. By inquiring about the visitor’s company size, industry, and location, Korn Ferry tailors the results page. 

Feedback from this assessment helped Korn Ferry fine-tune future marketing efforts, based on the responses they received. 

3. Use A/B Testing and Adjust Accordingly 

The beauty of interactive content lies in A/B testing. Ion makes it easy to create two versions of an experience, giving you the opportunity to test different questions in an assessment, different placements or requirements of a form, or even something as simple as a different headline. 

For personalization, this data is a gold mine. As with the above examples, the data collected provides a foundation for information: who is our audience? What are they looking for? What will be relevant to them?

By testing and making adjustments to future iterations of your content, you’ll reduce the feeling of frustration mentioned earlier. You’ll be able to provide customers with content that can truly impact their day-to-day struggles, making their work lives easier and their connection with your brand more valuable.

4. Create Interactive Infographics That Stand Out

Digital marketers have been crafting infographics for several years now, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Infographics are user-friendly, shareable pieces of content that simplify complex topics, making them easily understandable at a glance for any audience.

However, the fact that they’ve become essential for any comprehensive marketing campaign means that everyone is producing them, making it challenging for yours to shine. This is where interactivity becomes crucial.

By utilizing a tool like Ion, you can create stunning interactive infographics that breathe life into your content. You can incorporate dynamic features like reveal tiles, videos, music, and more. Additionally, you can generate more leads by personalizing branded content with built-in calls to action.

5. Leverage Interactivity to Generate Better Leads

With Ion on your side, you can also harness content personalization options, such as interactive assessments. I can help you pre-qualify more leads, guide connections toward future sales conversations, and empower your sales team to facilitate efficient interactions.

Assessment-style content helps brand managers and sales associates better understand where a customer is coming from by uncovering unique pain points and introducing personalized growth opportunities. This makes it much easier to offer the best possible solutions upfront.

Top companies and well-known brands like FedEx use interactive experiences to empower their customers, enhance their experience, increase website visits, and boost revenue.

You can even employ Ion to transform older static content into engaging assessment experiences, making it easy to build on what has already proven successful for you in the past.

6. Bring White Papers to Life with Interactivity

When it comes to genuinely educating your audience about a topic, event, or product they need to know about, a white paper is a great choice. A well-crafted whitepaper can help bridge critical knowledge gaps, raise overall awareness, and get potential customers enthusiastic about your brand.

Incorporating white papers into your content marketing strategy grants your brand the ability to delve deeper into a topic than even a long-form blog post would. However, it requires creativity and finesse to ensure that readers genuinely absorb the information, read through to the end, and potentially revisit the content in the future.

Once again, content personalization with interactivity is the key to success here, and Ion can assist you in bringing your white papers to life by making them truly interactive. Users can:

• Navigate the document according to what information is most relevant to their needs, knowledge gaps, or pain points
• Revisit sections that were particularly captivating or relevant
• Provide data or personal information to access exclusive sections or chapters
• Share the experience with acquaintances or across social media

Meanwhile, brand owners gain access to valuable, ethically collected user data. Marketers can track user interactions to gain valuable insights into which features, information snippets, and content types engage users best.

7. Add Energy to Landing Pages and Microsites

Developing dedicated landing pages can help drive conversions and boost interest in a product or key topic by focusing on one particular aspect. Landing pages and microsites are also excellent for qualifying leads and increasing search traffic.

However, today’s consumers have seen countless landing pages by now. They’ve heard all the sales pitches and seen all the gimmicks. Nonetheless, content personalization with interactivity offers marketers a much broader set of tools to work with when it comes to creativity.

For instance, you can use Ion to go beyond the traditional landing page designs that consumers encounter everywhere and create uniquely captivating interactive microsite experiences. For example:

• Sears has designed a user-friendly landing page that allows customers to book appliance services instantly
• DHL has simplified the process of setting up and managing new shipments for customers by integrating various interactive elements
• Robbins Research has created a landing page that simplifies holiday shopping for clients seeking special seasonal deals

Consider the features that could make your customers’ lives easier, and then leverage top-tier tools to bring those features to life in vivid color.

Renewing Focus on Personalization

Remember, in 2024 and beyond, content personalization is no longer simply a good idea. It’s something today’s consumers are used to and have come to expect from the brands they buy.

You could lose business without engaging, properly tailored, interactive experiences that meet rising expectations.

Revamp your brand’s focus on personalization on a level that resonates with your customers when you make Ion by Rock Content an ongoing part of your interactive content campaign today.

Build top-tier experiences in record time with superior support at your fingertips and see firsthand what a difference it makes.

The post 7 Ways to Use Interactivity to Personalize Your Content appeared first on Rock Content.