How to Use Interactive Content for Salesforce Lead Generation and Sales Prospecting

If we were to guess, the reason you’re so fond of Salesforce is the ease to access and manipulate prospects' data, helping you make agile decisions. 

But to gain even better insights, you have to make your Salesforce database more effective by adding new account profiles while enriching the existing ones. 

Fortunately, You Know How to Go About That

You only need to attract clients to your site through blog posts, live events, coupons, etc. Then boost their interest and willingness to pay through lead nurturing, using interactive tools like Campaignware which connect to Salesforce

That comes down to:  

• Gathering information about prospect’s goals, challenges, pains, and thought processes
• Using the data to tailor content (lead magnets) in a way that helps capture prospect’s contact details  
• Scoring and segmenting the leads based on their interest and willingness to pay
• And building relationships with prospects by offering valuable and quality content.

Salesforce even makes your lead generation easier with automatic lead scoring and routing tools, as well as lead tracking software. 

But there's a catch. You have to capture leads in a GDPR friendly way and without delivering poor customer experiences. The second aspect is particularly significant because, well, the Villains!

The Villains: Declining Organic Reach, Deafening Noise, and Boring Forms

Sure, you have access to unlimited lead generation channels. Think Facebook, Twitter, Email, LinkedIn, blog content, webinars, and Live events. (Thank heavens Salesforce can integrate with MailChimp, Facebook Lead Ads, Facebook Custom Audiences, ActiveCamapign, and more – making it easy to nurture leads.) 

But organic reach is on the decline as social sites adopt a pay-to-play business model. 

Take Facebook, for example. 

Facebook’s organic post reach started declining after the EdgeRank Algorithm, that's geared towards making the platform more user-friendly. 

With the social site updating its content ranking algorithm periodically, marketers and business owners alike have experienced the effects firsthand. 

Just in: reaching the target audience will get even harder as Facebook shifts its algorithm to prioritize 'loved ones.'

Now, the decline in organic reach is happening when people and brands are producing more content.

Advances in technology mean people can now create and post content on Facebook with only a few taps on a screen. 

That translates to more content on the platform and stiffer competition for attention. 

According to Facebook data: "over one billion people see an ad through Audience Network every month." 

With such high amounts of content: Facebook's News Feed space is competitive amongst businesses. The same goes for Google Ads and other PPC channels. 

(Yes, it's increasingly hard slush expensive to gain paid visibility as well.)

Worse, you don't own social media engagements. 

You are promoting your business on borrowed space.  Hence the need to get any leads to your CRM system, email lists, etc., without delay. 

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That begs for a lead capture form, but does it perform?

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According to Gravity Forms, the average conversion rate for lead capture forms is 3-5%. But there are numbers lower than that. In fact, 0.1-0.5% conversion rates are common.

Then again, that’s to be expected seeing that:

• Forms are tedious to fill out
• Most businesses make their forms too long 
• The target audience fails to realize the value of exchanging their details, etc.  

Yes, those webinars and eBooks in exchange for prospects data aren't enough anymore. People don't even read anymore. According to the Neilsen Norman Group, “users will read about 20% of the text on the average page”. 

That means 80% of that whitepaper, eBook, and PDFs go unread.

In other words, people don't care about content anymore. They want to have answers, fun, or both. That can be partly due to the world going mobile and users expecting more and more interactivity. 

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There’s, therefore, a need to provide positive experiences before prompting users to fill in their data. And that’s where interactive content shines. 

Enter Interactive Content: The New Ruler of Online Space

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Imagine going to buy some cakes in a bakery, and the baker is not present to assist you. in their stead is a 15-page book detailing the bakery and its hundreds of products. What would you do?

What if you went to the same bakery, still no one to assist you.  But this time you get to play a quiz that prompts you to answer a few questions. And suggests the right cake as per your preference and the checkout instructions. 

Wouldn’t’ you love that? 

That’s what interactive content is about. 

It stimulates engagement, evoking a reaction from the target audience. Yours is to use responsive digital tools to generate a two-way conversation with prospects. 

Such content includes: 

• Animated graphics 
• Quizzes 
• Contests and giveaways 
• Live chats
• Surveys
• Polls
• Games 
• Interactive videos, whitepapers, eBooks, timelines, etc. 

So why is interactive content effective in generating leads?

Interactive content work because people love to have fun, compare, share opinion, compete, and test themselves. 

If a targeted audience completed your quiz, they are likely eager to know the results. And will probably be happy to share their details in return. 

Generally, interactive content works because it offers satisfaction. It's also:

• Fun and easy to do, making it easy to grab the reader's attention. (You're stimulating the audience to use their creative juices.)
• Adds value by catering to prospect’s queries and delivering personalized results in real-time with actionable solutions.  
• Engaging and highly shareable, bringing with it the power of word-of-mouth 
• More effective at generating leads (2X as much conversion as passive content)
• More educative than static content given its practical, active nature. That makes it easy for prospects to remember your brand, offerings, and style. 
• Have multiple embedding options, such as ads, websites, blogs, social media, etc. You can even embed a quiz on a pop-up form.

To you,

• Interactive content helps highlight the prospects' challenges, pains, and objectives. That, in turn, provides a clue on how to tailor your message to boost their interest. 
• It also provides comprehensive data metrics, easing the lead qualification process.  

The bottom line: interactive content marketing can transform your lead generation strategies for the better. 

But enough with the theory! Let’s explore how you can use interactive content to generate and nurture leads.  

How to Use Interactive Content for Salesforce Lead Generation and Sales Prospecting 

As mentioned: you have to acquire, qualify, and nurture leads to enhance your Salesforce database. Here’s how interactive content can help you realize that. 

Using interactive content to acquire leads

What do you do to collect prospect details?

Most businesses place a CTA button on a text or image on their blog, website, etc. The CTA link redirects the prospects to a lead capture form where they are prompted to fill in their details. 

The following interactive content help make the lead capturing process more fun for the target end-users. 

Quizzes

Quizzes are hard to resist. 

The reason is they offer personalized, interactive, and relevant content that creates rapport with prospects – way before you ask for their details. 

Notice how Airbnb's quiz taut the kind of traveller one is and recommends perfect destinations, including accommodations, places to visit, and activities to do. (Who can refuse to give out their details in exchange for such value?)

Here’s are examples of well-performing quizzes for inspiration.

• Airbnb’s “Trip Matcher” quiz
• Topshop “Style Quiz” 
• Warby Parker “Home Try-On” program 

The best part: quizzes are easy and fun to create using an easy online quiz maker like Campaignware. 

Other ideas

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Besides quizzes and UGC, here are more content options to help capture leads:  

• Polls and surveys 
• User generated content
• Interactive whitepapers, videos, or eBooks 
• Interactive microsites 
• ECommerce recommendations 
• Interactive webinars 
• Interactive landing pages 
• Contest and giveaways 

Here's how such a process would look like:  

• Determine your target audience and purpose of the lead capture relative to the prospects phase in the sale cycle 
• Decide on the lead generation offer or the interactive content that best fit the purpose.
• Create the interactive content using tools like Campaignware, ensuring the CTA is specific and personalized (they can even adapt based on prospects geographic, demographics, and other aspects.)
• Make it look stunning and by adding clickable graphics or animations (use free online resources like Flaticon/ Pexels)
• Adapt the page to display personalized content to different users based on their demographics, searched terms, etc. 
• Automate the lead generation system, and ensure every interaction is logged into Salesforce. (Done through Zapier or a simple integration)
• Launch and promote to your audience regularly

Using interactive content to qualify leads 

You can qualify leads based on their budget, needs, time frame, preferences, etc. The idea is to see how well they match your offer. 

To do so, create follow-on interactive content geared towards answering questions such as: 

Does the offer meet the prospect’s needs?

To convert leads to customers, you must meet their needs. That means understanding the solution they are shopping for. 

Fortunately, quizzes, surveys, and calculators can help you identify the prospect's needs.

For example, a marketer can use a quiz titled “Which Marketing Software Is Perfect for Your Business” to determine the marketing software that would meet a prospect’s needs. 

Then use the results to gauge whether your offer matches what they are shopping for to qualify them. 

Are they the decision-makers? 

It’s advisable to only engage prospects with some decision making authority in their company. The goal is to save sales prospecting time and resources. 

Luckily, you can leverage any type of interactive content to gain insights into the prospect’s role in the organization. Just add a mandatory “Job Role” section in your interactive lead capture form. 

Does their set budget meet yours?

Can the prospect afford the service or product you’re providing?

Figuring that out helps save time and resources. And it’s where calculators shine. 

For example, a financial consultant can create a calculator that let people compute the amount they can save in a given period. In turn, the consultant will have access to valuable information like the prospect's annual income, expenditure, etc. And as expected, gauge whether the lead can afford their consulting services.

What's their solution time frame?

The time frame within which you can deliver the solution should match the prospect.  

Otherwise, you may spend time and resources nurturing them only to realize they needed the solution two days past. 

Live chats are great at determining such information. You only need to have your chatbot inquire how soon they need the solution or when they’ll be commencing their project. 

The questions are endless.

Using interactive content to nurture leads 

Ninety-six per cent of web visitors are not ready to purchase yet. But you can nurture them to increase their interest in buying your client’s products or services. 

Using interactive emails, for instance, helps prospects take part in the conversation. 

As does: 

• ROI calculators 
• Interactive case studies 
• Interactive FAQ
• Interactive display ads, etc.

The goal here is to make prospects a part of the conversation, making them feel listened to and valued, as well as a part of something – a community. That will, in turn, increase their interest in buying from your client.

Sample process: How to acquire, qualify, and nurture leads using interactive content. 

• Choose the target audience and think of an idea (or use template solutions like Campaignware to outsource the idea creation process.)
• Pick the template(customer feedback, quizzes, etc.)
• Create the contnet, add an interactive lead capture form as the CTA
• Ensure the form captures all the necessary information without sacrificing user experience 
• Add call to action to each of the results + enable social media sharing
• Integrate Campaignware to Salesforce with one click to log all the interactions to the CRM seamlessly 
• Create workflows in Salesforce (automatic emails with personalized content)
• Make lists after automated qualifying 
• Launch your lead generator 
• Promote it extensively, in the "right" channels 

Ensure each interaction is logged into Salesforce to enhance and speed up lead qualification and scoring. You can also set to be notified on Slack when decision-makers have interacted with your content. That way, you can follow up with them when they’re thinking about your client’s brand.

How to ensure your interactive content attain the maximum conversion rate?

For optimal results, ensure your interactive content is:

• Based on trendy topics
• SEO optimized 
• Visually attractive
• User-friendly  
• Value-driven (results should include in-depth answers and comparable outcomes) 
• Shareable with pre-drafted messages and social media buttons

Don’t expect to get it right the first try, though. Experiment and combine different strategies to find the ideal mix for your company.  

Overall, Interactive Experiences + A Form = More Data for Your Salesforce.

Lead generation and sales prospecting are essential if your client's business is to thrive. 

That calls for "smart" lead management strategies, like incorporating interactive content marketing into your lead generation process.

Following the tactics overviewed in this post is a great start. And you only need to leverage tools like Campaignware to help create different interactive content – anything from quizzes to gamified forms. 

It's easy and more fun than you think!