New forms of marketing seem to rise to the top of the priority list every few months. And although trends like influencer and experiential marketing are important and effective, being able to read and respond to your customers' actions is arguably the most valuable currency for engagement.

And, for that, you need to make an interactive marketing strategy a priority.

As a customer-centric strategy, interactive marketing (sometimes called event-driven or trigger-based marketing) involves reacting to a customer's behaviors or actions, and then working to meet his or her expectations.

Because interactive marketing is facilitated by the technology at your disposal, it offers new ways for your brand to engage with customers. And now that customers journey through digital channels and expect seamless interactivity, interactive marketing has become crucial.

For example, consider a common lead-generation journey for a software-as-a-service company as a member of its target audience goes from prospect to client:

  1. Someone visits the website looking for more information about the software.
  2. That person comes across educational content covering what the company does and enters an email address to download a whitepaper or case study to learn more.
  3. The SaaS company sends emails to the person prompting him or her to schedule a call and consult with a salesperson.

Behind that journey is a web of interactive marketing: the platforms, content, and emails already built to attract clients and guide them toward the next step of their engagement.

Interactive comprises all the digital touchpoints your brand has with customers—including experiential and influencer—and it also takes into account media planning, SEO, and content. It allows customers to connect with companies directly, through two-way communication channels.

Although everyone says being proactive is better than reactive, in this case it's better to be both: Interactive becomes a cycle of responding to—and then anticipating—customer actions.

Adding Value to Your Brand Through Interactive

Regardless of the industry you're navigating, you can use interactive marketing initiatives to bring cohesion to your marketing. Here's how.

1. Involve all departments in your strategy

Every department is affected by an interactive marketing approach. From Sales to Services and Operations, all can benefit from having a clearer understanding of the needs of their customers—even if their customers are their colleagues.

Let's say you're a well-known real estate brand looking to attract brokerages to join your business. It's a B2B play: You'll need to show fellow business owners that you offer services and a brand that will benefit their clients.

You might undertake several interactive features to begin engagement with your potential partners: A downloadable whitepaper could outline your existing tech stack in exchange for an email address, while a poll could let visitors to your site to measure the success of your existing affiliates against their own business.

In the background, those kinds of features benefit multiple teams. Sales can start to identify which prospects to target based on their level of business sophistication. Product can identify new offerings to develop to fill in revealed market white space. And Marketing and Operations can begin to plan in a more tactical way for business growth.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of John Passerini

John Passerini is global vice-president of interactive marketing for Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC, where he oversees marketing, interactive, content, and advertising.

LinkedIn: John Passerini