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Creating Interactive Content The tools, the milestones, the skills, the timelines.
Behind-the-scenes with our team—see how we create interactive content for our own marketing.
What’s Inside• Inside peek into two interactive
content experiences: • From static to interactive: white paper • Interactive first: 50-item ‘infographic’
• We’ll cover: • The concept • The team, roles and skills • The project plan, timelines and effort
Our Typical Process (tip: In our case, Design & Build are collapsed into one step, because we use our software to create our interactive
content. If you have your interactive content coded by developers, separate this into two distinct steps in your project.)
STEP 1 Brainstorm
STEP 2
Concept Brief
STEP 3
Interactive Wireframe
STEP 4
Design & Build
STEP 5
QA
STEP 6
Launch
STEP 7
Review & Measurement
Brainstorm
Concept Brief
Interactive Wireframe
Design & Build
QA
Launch
Review & Measurement
There are two steps in our process we think are critical to our success—the concept brief and the interactive wireframe:
✓ Background ✓ Source content ✓ Traffic ✓ Success measurements ✓ Technical considerations ✓ Samples/examples
✓ Details ✓ Overview ✓ Content outline
✓ Data flow ✓ Marketing insights ✓ Sales insights ✓ Data hand off
✓ Next steps ✓ Additional opportunities
The Concept Brief The concept brief is an important part of our process. It provides a narrative and
outline of what we will build and ensures we all stay on the same page.
The Interactive Wireframe The interactive wireframe is a working experience without design elements or final content. It
demonstrates functionality & user experience. An interactive wireframe is created before every build. Once approved, we add final content, design and images. This makes our build step go very quickly.
Here’s an example of how we did it…Transforming a static PDF white paper into an interactive white paper
Interactive White Paper SnapshotOBJECTIVE:Provide an engaging content experience that encourages un-gated content consumption and continues to drive leads. Capture visitor behavior to surface warmer lead to sales. This approach works well for our content. Check out this link to learn more: http://www.ioninteractive.com/blog/ungated-and-unbridled AUDIENCE:Prospects (content marketers, direct marketers, online marketers)MARKETING PROGRAMS:Social, email marketing, paid social, paid search, organic site traffic
PLANNED INSIGHTS:For marketing: aggregate topic interest, bounce rate, conversion rateFor sales: individual visitor topic interest
Justin Executive Sponsor
Justyn Web Designer
KatherineSenior Web Designer
Paige Content
Marketer
RachelContent Marketer
The TeamProject Lead Concept, Design & Build Consultation, Proofing/QA
Justin • Executive SponsorEnsuring the initiative meets our business goals and stays on track
How They Worked Together
Justyn • Web DesignerBrainstorming & planning
Katherine • Sr. Web DesignerDesign & build
Paige & Rachel • Content MarketersDoes the interactive content structure work? Proofing and QA
The Project LeadKatherine • Senior Web Designer ✓ Brainstormed with team best ways to
add engagement and interactivity to the experience.
✓ Created an interactive wireframe based off the original white paper.
✓ Designed & built the experience in the ion interactive content platform - using graphics and content from the original pdf.
Timeline
Brainstorm Time Spent: 1.5hTime Elapsed: 1d
Concept BriefTime Spent: 1h
Time Elapsed: 1d
Interactive wireframe
Time Spent: 3h Time Elapsed: 3d
Design/BuildTime Spent: 5h
Time Elapsed: 5d
QA Time Spent: 2h
Time Elapsed: 7d
Review & Measurement
Ongoing
Launch Time Elapsed: 7d
Total: 13 man hours, 7 days elapsed
The Original Content• PDF white paper used to generate leads.• Driving traffic from site, paid search and email. Visitors land on a single page and complete the form to download the PDF.• Strong performance– meeting goals for leads gen.
Download PDF
Rotator with Sneak Peak of PDF
Lead-Gen Landing Page
The Situation• The PDF drives high volume of
leads but it is “pass/fail”. • Are people reading it? • How can we ensure the content
is helping sales have better conversations with warmer leads?
• More on info on “pass/fail” content: http://www.ioninteractive.com/blog/heres-why-i-am-so-passionate-about-the-digital-dialogue
The Opportunity• Expose the content to a broader audience by ‘un-gating’ it.• Bring the content out of the PDF, and into an engaging interactive experience where user behavior can be measured. • Offer the PDF version within the interactive version to drive leads.
Interactive White PaperResponsive Content
Include interactive featuresTabbed Content
Add in fun or educational quizzesQuiz
Use animations and interactivity to draw attention to the most important elements
Includes Animation
Un-gate the content, but provide an option to download the PDF for lead gen
Asset lead-generation lightbox
Offer a ‘contact sales’ option to generate hot inbound leads for your team
Contact Form
Tag user behaviors behind the scenes so marketing can evaluate content consumption and sales can meet the lead at the point of interest
How we use it in our marketing: Social, email, organic, paid search
Here’s another example of how we did it…Creating content, “interactive first”
Interactive Infographic SnapshotOBJECTIVE:‘Show” rather than ‘tell’ the advanced features of our software (demonstrate the feature within the experience itself, rather than writing copy about the features)AUDIENCE:Prospects (content marketers, direct marketers, online marketers)MARKETING PROGRAMS:Social, email marketing, paid social, paid search, organic site traffic
PLANNED INSIGHTS:For marketing: aggregate feature interest, bounce rate, conversion rate, average scoreFor sales: individual scores, as tallied by number of ‘features’ viewed
The Concept
• Create an interactive ‘product’ marketing brochure showcasing key features of our product and service.
• A massive “info-graphic”-style interactive content experience that includes 50 unique items, grouped by categories of content
Justin Executive Sponsor
Matthew Art Director/
Designer
JayProduct Specialist
Paige Content
Marketer
RachelContent Marketer
The TeamProject Lead Concept, Design & Build Copyediting, Proofing/QA
Justin • Executive SponsorEnsuring the initiative meets our business goals and stays on track
Matthew • Art Director Conceptualize, Design & Build
Jay • Product SpecialistBrainstorming, Planning Technical Copywriting
Paige & Rachel • Content MarketersDoes the interactive content structure work? Copywriting & editing Proofing and QA
How They Worked Together
Project LeadsJay • Project Specialist ✓ Identified the 50 key platform features ✓ Organized features into a workable outline ✓ Wrote copy for technical content ✓ Provided product guidance for advanced features
Matthew • Designer ✓ Using Jay’s outline - conceptualized
the visual flow and layout of the experience directly within the platform
✓ Created all graphics / animations ✓ Built the experience without code
Timeline
Brainstorm Time Spent: 4h
Time Elapsed: 1d
Data Flow Design
Time Spent: 1h Time Elapsed: 1d
Interactive wireframe
Time Spent: 10h Time Elapsed: 7d
Design & BuildTime Spent: 23h
Time Elapsed: 23d
QA Time Spent: 1d
Time Elapsed: 25d
Review & Measurement
Ongoing
Launch Time Elapsed: 25d
Total: 46 man hours, 25 days elapsed
Responsive
Flow & multi-step formsMulti-Step Rotator Include a Form
Include video Include video
Show vs. Tell
Add wowVideo Backgrounds
Social sharing
Social sign-on
Lead-Generation
Tag user behaviors behind the scenes so marketing can evaluate content consumption and sales can meet the lead at the point of interest
1+ 1+
1+1+ 1+
Score each of the 50 features (increment +1 for every feature visited) behind the scenes so marketing and sales can gauge level of engagement with content.
How we use it in our marketing: Social, email, organic, paid search
Here are some tips & tricks for planning your own interactive content…
• Confined by the content: Creativity in re-purposing is key
• Content editing • The content often dictates the
modality & presentation • Content and presentation are
conceived separately • Content team can be separate from
design & build team
• No pre-defined guardrails: Concepting is key
• Content concepting & writing • The desired interaction dictates the
modality & presentation • Content and presentation are
conceived together • Content, design and build teams
work closely together
vs
STATIC FIRST INTERACTIVE FIRST
Considerations
• Brochure = Interactive lookbook
• Whitepaper = Interactive white paper, assessment, interactive infographic
• Pricing sheets = Calculators
• Product sheets = Solution finder or product configurators
• Factoids = Game or quiz
Ideas For Scaling Static Content Into Interactive Experiences
How to uncover strategic opportunities for interactive content from content you already have:
• What content do you already have, and how you can make it more useful and engaging for your buyer?
• Meet with sales or the field to determine gaps in your buyer experience—what information do you have that needs to be surfaced more effectively?
• Understand the conversations that sales and/or customer support are having today—what static documents are they using in their communication with customers and prospects?
• Use the ion solution finder to provide ideas to scale your existing content: http://apps.ioninteractive.com/site/solution-finder/interactive-content
• What does your buyer need to help evaluate or make a purchase decision?
• Meet with sales or the field to determine gaps in your buyer experience
• Understand the conversations that sales and/or customer support are having today
• Scour the web for inspiration and ideas (or just call us!)
Considerations forInteractive-First
Want to see these two interactive experiences in action? Check out:
http://www.ioninteractive.com/examples
We help transform static content into engaging, educational, useful interactive experiences. web: www.ioninteractive.com twitter: @ioninteractive email: [email protected]
