Ideation Strategies

So you know what interactive tools you can leverage to drive user engagement. Now, let's talk about specific strategies that brands use to develop successful ideas for calculators and quizzes.

1. Consider Your Funnel

Sales & marketing funnels usually look something like this. And if you were a company that built roofs, you could create quizzes/calculators that map to each stage.

1. Awareness (Top of the Funnel)

At this stage, you want to engage with your customer in the context of your product or service. So you may start with "Which colour will look good on your roof?" You can also create some exciting experiences around ideas like:

_1. Are you a ___ expert?_
_2. Are you a true ___?_
_3. Which ___ are you?_
*4. Are you a ___ or a ___?

2. Consideration and Interaction (Middle of the Funnel)

Here, you can touch your product or service more directly, focusing on real education. So your roofing company could have a "How much does it cost to rebuild your roof?" You can also diagnose needs, recommend products, and showcase risks with ideas like:

_1. Which is the right ___ for you?_
_2. Am I spending too much on ___?_
_3. How much should ___ cost?_
_4. What is the risk of not doing ___ ?_

3. Transaction (Bottom of the Funnel)

When the prospect is about to make a purchase decision, your calculator or quiz can directly address their decision-making. So when a customer is about to rebuild a roof, his decision will rest on cost, so you can ask "How much can you save by using us to build your roof?" Other examples include:

_1. Should I switch to ___?_
_2. How does ___ compare with ___?_
_3. What is the ROI on ___ ?_

4. Engagement (For Existing Customers)

Once the prospect becomes a customer, your job isn't over. You must keep them engaged throughout to not only retain them but also keep them engaged. Keep them hooked with ideas like -

_1. Are you making the most of ?
2. What should I do next with ?_
_3. How well do you know product?
4. When is the right time to upgrade my ?_

2. Bring in Customer Perspective

You're creating the calculator/quiz for your customers (existing and prospects). So when thinking of an idea, it's best to take a cue from them.

1. Consult Your Sales Teams

Sit down with customer-facing teams like customer service and sales and get them to list the most common questions and concerns prospects and customers have.

For instance, a university can get a lot of calculator/quiz ideas from the admission counsellors; they are the ones who speak to students and know their real issues.

2. Consider Resonating Topics

Feel free to go beyond your product and service and think more about what your customers are interested in. If you are selling an email marketing tool, you can very well engage your audience with a Facebook marketing quiz. It's the same audience!

3. Consider Controversial Topics

What are the topics that your customers tend to disagree on the most? Creating experiences around raging debates (think Clinton vs Hillary, Blue Dress vs Golden Dress) has a much higher chance of going viral.

3. Research Search & Sharing Behavior

There are many tools out there that can help you figure out what the talk of the town is. Such cues can be beneficial when it comes to curating viral content. Here are a few tools you can use for this research:

1. Google Trends

This will give you an insight into what's trending in a particular geographical area, category or period. Go to Google Trends and set the geographic location of your chosencategory. You'll get a list content pieces that are trending. You can also use Google Trends to compare the performance of two topics or how a topic has been trending over time. As you can see below, now would be a great time to have a calculator about President Trump.

2. Google Keyword Planner

and mortgage calculatorscalculatorsIf you have been running Google ads, you already live on this tool. But it is also helpful to understand what calculator titles & keywords can get the most organic traffic. As you can see, there are accurate searches for home loan calculator and mortgage calculator every day.

3. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a content analysis and discovery app that helps you find the most shared content and topics. With the tool, you can also see how a topic is performing in shares and bac it has, the influencers whwho'veo’ve shared it, etc.

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