Guide to Experiential Content 2nd edition

Digital marketing in 2020 is warfare. The landscape of social platforms, advertising channels, algorithms, and tech conglomerates vying for your attention and budgets continue to grow every single day. Marketers somehow need to stay on top of the shifting sands and create lasting value for their prospective and existing customers. No easy task.

Digital Content Transformation

Adding to this - engagement rates across organic social media posts have been declining, and more users are opting to detach themselves from social media altogether. One of the primary driving forces of content distribution is becoming a true battleground for attention. Not to mention Google, the de facto search engine for discovery and organic traffic, has made several changes that keep eyeballs on their own results pages instead of diverting that traffic to brands’ websites.

1. It’s harder than ever to gain the • attention of your target customer

What We know

It’s no longer enough to roll-out cookie cutter content strategies and take an, “if we build it they will come” mentality. It’s imperative that marketers transform the way they think about creating content, and re-engineer the kind of content they actually create.

Next Page: Defining Experiential Content

2. It’s harder than ever to keep that • attention once it’s acquired

2nd edition

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Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

What We know

The Guide to Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Scaling Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

Defining Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Digital Content Transformation

It’s time for marketers to embrace experiential content.

Often, when marketers hear the word “experiential” the first image that jumps to mind is an event, installation, or activation. Opportunities where true connections can be made between individuals and brands. Nowadays however, experiential is no longer just for in-person interactions, but also for digital touchpoints. Understanding experiential content starts with defining what we mean when combining those two words, “experiential” and “content”.

Defining Experiential Content

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This doesn’t explore what truly makes experiential content… experiential. For that, we need to peel back the layers of what makes up engaging digital content.

The 5 Layers of Engaging Content

Narrative

The underlying copy, script, text, data, and other story components.

Visual

The visual framework of the story which includes images, graphics, photos, videos, and other visual components.

Integrated

The integration of third-party tools like forms, maps, chat services, and other apps.

Interactive

The components that respond to user actions, like click states.

Immersive

The components that add depth to visual content like triggered animations, sounds, and other dynamic layers.

These layers can be used to construct the exact type of experience you are looking to create and trigger the specific actions or feelings you are hoping to elicit. The combination of these layers can transform ordinary, static content into truly memorable, experiential content.

Experiential content is digital content that is purposefully designed to create a memorable experience for its consumers. By encouraging active participation through interactive and immersive elements, experiential content aims to form deeper, emotional connections between the consumer and the brand or creator.

Create more immersive digital content.

Looking to stand out from the competition by creating memorable, immersive digital experiences? Ceros can help.

Get Started

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Scaling Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

Defining Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Next Page: Creating Experiential Content

Click to interact

The components that add depth to visual content like triggered animations, sounds, and other dynamic layers.

Immersive

The components that respond to user actions, like click states.

Interactive

The integration of third-party tools like forms, maps, chat services, and other apps.

Integrated

The visual framework of the story which includes images, graphics, photos, videos, and other visual components.

Visual

The underlying copy, script, text, data, and other story components.

Narrative

The 5 Layers of Engaging Content

Go to defining experiential

These tactics will help you create more engaging, experiential content that visitors love to interact with. Making experiential content a significant part of your operations, however, requires a detailed plan of attack and a clear understanding of how to bring this type of initiative into your organization.

Consumers engage with content differently today than they did even five years ago. They are used to getting information on-demand and in bite-sized chunks. Brands need to adapt to this new normal or risk their content getting relegated to the obscure corners of the internet.

Some key points to keep in mind:

1. Content should to be written with the user, where they can dictate the terms of consumption 2. Content should be an active, two-way conversation between the brand and consumer 3. Content should be aligned with, and optimized for, the medium in which it’s being consumed

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Creating Experiential Content

Storytelling

User Experience

Design

Your story is your foundation. Understand what makes a good story work and use those mechanics to your advantage. It doesn’t matter whether your content is for business professionals or consumers - human beings connect with stories.

Key Take-aways:

Use relatable language: Speak like your audience and tell stories they relate to. Period. Add twists and conflict: Every story needs tension to keep the audience’s interest. Resonate emotionally: Use emotion and tug at visitors’ heartstrings when appropriate.

Storytelling

Copywriting

How you present your story through copy has an immense impact on the experience someone has with your content. Long, in-depth paragraphs will tire out visitors and disconnect them from the story. Understand how people read online content and format your copy accordingly.

Key Take-aways:

Less is more: Use less copy and more visuals to make important points stick. Get creative: Entertain your audience quickly and write in memorable sound bites. Tell the truth: Don’t trick your audience, tell them the truth - then make it interesting.

Copywriting

Good user experience is foundational to ensuring your audience understands how to engage with your content. The principles of impact, efficiency, and psychology are especially important when asking an audience to make decisions and interact with an experience.

Key Take-aways:

Start with structure: Use logic and structure to design your user’s journey upfront. Align your strategy: Define your goals, key messages, and distribution strategy. Focus on usability: Make sure your content is visually clear and easy to understand.

User Experience

Strong visual design not only enhances the narrative in your story, it provides logic and cues visitors into what they should focus their attention on. Good design improves clarity and comprehension in a way that’s difficult with text alone.

Key Take-aways:

Establish a hierarchy: Typography and image choices should clearly create hierarchy. Vary up your visuals: Use photos, videos, and animations to keep viewers engaged. Add effects tastefully: Animations and interactions are great... when used sparingly.

Design

User Experience

Copywriting

Storytelling

Design

User Experience

Copywriting

Storytelling

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Key Take-aways:

Storytelling

Key Take-aways:

Storytelling

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Scaling Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

Defining Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Key Take-aways:

Storytelling

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

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Next Page: On-Boarding Experiential Content

Press play to watch webinar

Go to defining experiential

Competitive brand differentiation.

Product and features alone aren’t enough to make your brand stand out. Bespoke digital experiences tailored to your audience will separate you from the pack.

Here are the three biggest benefits of using experiential content to engage audiences:

Types of skills needed

Doing experiential content well requires both a certain mindset, as well as certain skill sets. While these don’t each need to be individual roles on your team, it’s important to have knowledge and experience in these areas:

Copywriting

The underlying copy, script, text, data, and other story components.

Graphic & Web Design

A keen eye for layout and design help structure and draw attention to visual stories.

Demand Marketing

Demand generation experience helps craft content that converts visitors into subscribers or leads.

Web Development

Custom experiences may require javascript or CSS to deliver certain functionality.

Just as important as having the right skills, identifying the right tools, resources, or partners is vital to delivering memorable digital experiences. The main consideration is whether to hire an agency -or- create experiential content in-house. There are several tradeoffs for each of these that we’ll explore further here:

In-House

Agency

Pro

Con

Toggle to see pros and cons

In-depth product and business knowledge

Full creative control over delivered product

Resources become more efficient overtime

In-depth creative expertise

Able to apply learnings from other clients

Highly scalable with increased spend

It’s also important to evaluate what technologies can help you achieve your experiential content vision. An experiential content platform like Ceros can take the development burden off your team, putting full creative control into the hands of the designers and allowing them to push experiences straight to the web.

Ultimately what mix of skills, resources, and technologies are right for you will depend on your business, your budget, and your ability to execute. With these steps figured out, you’ll be well on your way to scaling your experiential content program across the customer journey.

Allocate Resources & Fill Your Toolbox

The benefits of experiential content are many, and usually determined by the use-case and type of organization creating the content. There are, however, certain benefits that any team can expect when creating and deploying experiential content.

Need to create interactive, immersive digital content but don’t have a full-time developer or know how to code? Ceros can help.

Get Started

Create experiential content at scale.

Strengthened brand experience across digital touchpoints.

Prospects have many digital interactions with your business before they decide to buy. It’s vital to create memorable experiences at every one of these touchpoints.

Improved marketing and sales metrics.

Experiential content drives increased engagement, longer dwell times, and higher conversion rates compared to traditional content types and promotion methods.

Pro

The Value of Experiential Content

Creating a singular project can prove the power of experiential content. One project, however, won’t automatically transition into a full-fledged content program. On-boarding experiential content as a strategic initiative requires clear goals, an understanding of how to communicate the value, and a plan on how to resource and fuel your experiential output.

On-Boarding Experiential Content

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Pro

In-depth product and business knowledge

Full creative control over delivered product

Resources become more efficient overtime

In-House

Con

Steep learning curve when beginning

Requires specialized resources or tools

Scaling requires more headcount

In-House

Con

Not experts in your product or business

Cost per project can be higher

Extensive back-and-forth to get it right

Agency

Competitive brand differentiation.

Product and features alone aren’t enough to make your brand stand out. Bespoke digital experiences tailored to your audience will separate you from the pack.

Web Development

Custom experiences may require javascript or CSS to deliver certain functionality.

The underlying copy, script, text, data, and other story components.

UX Design

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Looking to stand out from the competition by creating memorable, immersive digital experiences? Ceros can help.

Get Started

Create more immersive digital content.

Toggle to see pros and cons

Pro

Con

Allocate Resources & Fill Your Toolbox

Pro's

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Scaling Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

Defining Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Next Page: Scaling Experiential Content

Go to defining experiential

Experiences can be defined on a couple of different levels. The interaction a visitor has can be a discrete experience they have with a brand. That visitor can also look across every interaction they have had with that same brand and let that inform their broader perspective, or experience, as the sum total of those interactions. Which is why it’s so important for marketers to think about the specific interactions they are crafting for their visitors, as well as the full brand experience that a visitor will have with their company. They need a holistic view of the customer journey and how experiential content can be deployed across that entire journey.

Scaling Experiential Content

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Experiential Content Across the Customer Journey

Experiential content can take many forms and be used for entirely different purposes depending on where along the customer journey the visitors are. These examples provide an idea of the types of experiences that can be created across that journey.

Whether B2B or B2C, there are countless opportunities to improve the experience for your audience with experiential content. Deploying experiential content across the entire customer journey, however, takes a lot of time and effort- so it's important to identify those first key use cases and then scale out from there.

Business-focused audiences are used to engaging with tried and true content types, like:

· Ebooks

· White papers

· Reports

· Sales decks

By playing on those familiar formats but layering in surprising interactions, animations, or embedding rich media, marketers can provide a superior business content experience.

View B2C Examples

Create memorable touchpoints at every stage of the customer journey to close more customers and keep them engaged.

Get Started

Unify your customer journey with experiential content.

AWARENESS

By playing on those familiar formats but layering in surprising interactions, animations, or embedding rich media, marketers can provide a superior business content experience.

Blog posts, articles, and thought leadership are meant to build awareness and drive traffic. By making them more experiential you can engage that traffic for longer and convert visitors into fans, subscribers, or leads.

Editorial

Not all stories need to be lengthy. Adding small-format interactions or other immersive microcontent, you can keep readers on a page for longer, improving overall content performance.

Microcontent

Ebooks are a staple of B2B content marketing programs, but many marketers have no idea whether their audience actually consumes their content. Experiential ebooks better engage readers and provide deeper analytics on reader behaviors.

Ebook

Reports and data visualizations help build understanding around a story, product, or need. Making reports more experiential through interactions and animations help put a deeper narrative into your reports.

Report

Case studies put your most successful customers front and center for the world to see. Create more engaging customer stories with experiential layouts and help those stories connect with a broader audience.

Case Study

Any sales professional using decks in their pitches would benefit from interactive formats that allow for non-linear presentations that follow the flow of conversation, not lock prospects into an irrelevant talk-track.

Sales Deck

Organizations that create proposals can more scalably deliver custom packages to their prospective customers. Those using experiential proposals have improved win rates and seen increased revenue from the same services due to their premium packaging.

Proposal

Newsletters keep customers engaged throughout their lifecycle, delivering important information and resources to help make them more successful. This opportunity to increase advocacy is amplified through experiential formats.

Customer Newsletter

Some of these formats are already more interactive than their business-focused counterparts, but by integrating content with inventory to create shoppable experiences, marketers can create effective digital destinations.

Consumer goods audiences expect different types of branded content, including:

Experiential Content to B2C

· Event pages

· Editorial

· Lookbooks

· Quizzes

View full experience

Experiential Content to B2B

View B2B Examples

AWARENESS

By playing on those familiar formats but layering in surprising interactions, animations, or embedding rich media, marketers can provide a superior business content experience.

Business-focused audiences are used to engaging with tried and true content types, like:

Experiential Content for B2B

· Ebooks

· White papers

· Reports

· Sales decks

Experiential Content for B2B

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Need to create interactive, immersive digital content but don’t have a full-time developer or know how to code? Ceros can help.

Get Started

Create experiential content at scale.

View B2C Examples

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Scaling Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

Defining Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Not all stories need to be lengthy. Adding small-format interactions or other immersive microcontent, you can keep readers on a page for longer, improving overall content performance.

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

ADVOCACY

Create memorable touchpoints at every stage of the customer journey to close more customers and keep them engaged.

Get Started

Unify your customer journey with experiential content.

Next Page: Conclusion

Click to interact

Go to scaling experiential content

Experiential content can also take different forms depending on whether the audience is consumer - or business - focused. The types of content that the audience expects can influence the forms of experiential content marketers create.

Experiential content can also take different forms depending on whether the audience is consumer- or business-focused. The types of content that the audience expects can influence the forms of experiential content marketers create.

This guide delved into the concepts around experiential content, it’s underlying structure, and how it manifests for different types of audiences. Understanding what experiential content is is a critical first step on the journey to transforming your digital content program.

Conclusion

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It’s also important to:

1. Make sure you have the skills (or a good partner) to creat experiential content 2. Figure out how to effectively on-board an experiential initiative in your organization 3. Identity touchpoints across the customer journey to deliver memorable experiences

From microcontent to microsites and everything in-between, design and publish interactive, immersive digital content at scale with ease.

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Create immersive, experiential content without code

Experiential content is the future of digital marketing content, delivering a more memorable, immersive, and interactive experience for your audience. The perfect cure for declining engagement across marketing channels and lack of differentiation from brand to brand. Marketers - it’s time to get started.

Check out our other resources

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Need to create interactive, immersive digital content but don’t have a full-time developer or know how to code? Ceros can help.

Get Started

Create experiential content at scale.

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion

Scaling Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

Defining Experiential Content

Digital Content Transformation

The Guide to Experiential Content

2nd Edition

Digital Content Transformation

Defining Experiential Content

Creating Experiential Content

On-Boarding Experiential Content

Scaling Experiential Content

Conclusion