Your website is valuable real estate. According to a recent report from the Acquity Group, 94% of B2B buyers say they conduct some form of online research before purchasing a business product, and 83% of buyers visit vendor websites directly to find information.
All this sounds great, right? Buyers are proactively seeking you out. But wait. According to a Forrester Research brief, “B2B Content Fails The Customer Engagement Test,” more than 85 percent of the sites included in the research received a failing grade. One of the biggest faux pas is not providing value in helping prospects solve their problems.
One of the best ways to increase website visitor engagement is to make use of interactive content and lead gen tools. These types of tools help buyers understand their problems and how you can help and, typically, have a lead-capture mechanism to increase website conversion. Here are three types of tools that can help you generate more leads.
1. Assessment Tools
Most of us are curious to know how we rank compared to others or industry standards. Self-assessment tools are often a popular way for prospects to get an idea of where their business stands and how their problems stack up. Based on experiences with our own clients who make our assessment tools available to their prospects online, we often see that they enjoy a greater ability to shape the buyer’s thinking during the critical early stages of self-education.
2. Value Calculators
Prospects typically enjoy calculators for two reasons. One is instant gratification—after inputting the numbers, the calculations are instantly viewable in a single click. Two, they appreciate being able to use their own numbers to assess the size of their particular problems.
As we’ve written before, it’s essential that prospects believe in the numbers related to the sale. The prospect needs to believe that your promised revenue gains, for example, are a reality. If they’re able to use their own estimations, they’re more likely to trust the calculations and might even have an easier time discussing those calculations with you if they become more interested in making a purchase from you. Allowing customers to “own the numbers” from the outset is an essential part of a successful sales approach.
3. Product Configurators
A product configurator helps prospects decide which among your offerings best fits their criteria for selection. These interactive tools allow prospects to enter their preferences (e.g. price vs. performance vs. energy consumption) and requirements (e.g. hardware specifications) and the configurator offers recommended solutions.
Given the abysmal performance of today’s B2B websites found by Forrester, using interactive content like these three lead gen tools to help buyers understand their problems and conceive paths toward resolution provides you an opportunity to separate yourself from the competition.
