Advocating for interactive content starts with earning the trust of your colleagues. Here's how to win them over.
Build a team
of
allies
Making the case for a new software purchase at your enterprise company is a lot like Ocean's Eleven.
Stick with me for a second...
This mission isn’t one you can accomplish on your own. You need a team. Like the ragtag group of characters in Ocean's Eleven, the team might not seem perfectly aligned; each member brings different motives, priorities, and philosophies that affect how the team functions. When the team succeeds, it’s because of trust. Each member operates from a place of understanding, a mutual acceptance that everyone’s in this together. And in each case, you’re taking on a tough task, whether it’s a set of dismissive developers, a skeptical CFO, or an intricate security system.
Of course, implementing interactive content is not quite like pulling off a high-stakes heist in Las Vegas. But sometimes, it can feel that difficult! Allies make it easier. You need the approval and cooperation of a number of different stakeholders, each of whom have their own things that they care about. Getting everybody aligned, totally in unison, is daunting. But again, trust makes it all work. When that trust is established, it’s easier to see how interactive content can benefit every department at the company. Cody Dennison, the creative director at logistics software company Extreme Reach, prioritizes that trust in his relationships with different departments. “Any purchase for creatives is going to be an uphill battle—when you get into legal, material vendor assessments, budgets,” Dennison said. “The relationship has to begin with trust on all fronts.”
So, by leading with trust (and the insights from this helpful guide), here’s how to appeal to your company’s stakeholders to find allies and go interactive.
But first… who are you?
Before we consider who you might need to win over, let’s first establish who you are. If you’re someone with a bit of seniority and credibility within your organization—say, a content marketing manager or a creative director—you’re in a good position to bring this potential tool to other departments, because, chances are, you’ve proven the value of great content before.
That’s not to say an entry-level employee can’t be the one to champion a new purchase, but without decision-making power or a budget of your own, it’ll be awfully hard to make things happen internally.
So, if you're not one of those two types of people, a good first step could be to talk to one of your team members and get them on your side. Get them to understand the value of an interactive content strategy, and the idea might have some legs.
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Creative
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Marketing
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Executive
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Product
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The dev team
"One would think that the conversation starts with the editorial team,” says MaryGail Pezzimienti of Healthline Media, which is using interactive content in its editorial efforts, “but where it really starts is with the product team.”
Even though creative interests and dev interests often seem at odds, they don’t have to be. When you approach the dev team with a new tool that you’d like to purchase, don’t antagonize. Don’t get defensive if a developer starts to ask questions. Understand their concerns, and then address them from a place of compassion.
"Our web team’s daily task list is in the 170s,” said Troy Parks, a senior communications specialist at architecture firm HDR. His company creates interactive content because it aligns with the cutting-edge work that the company does in the field. Parks approaches conversations with developers with patience—first because he understands how busy they are, but also because he knows they both want the best for their company.
"It’s all about relationships,” Parks said. “We don’t fight each other, we’re having conversations about what we need to do to make it happen.”
You can make things easier for yourself and a curious developer by having all of the proper documentation ready. Depending on the type of company you work at (an old-school bank won’t look for the same documentation as a nimble tech startup), that could include a number of different topics:
Security & the cloud
Compatibility
Accessibility
What data is stored, and where? How is the content hosted? What security measures are in place to prevent a breach? That’s especially important if you’re in an industry that handles sensitive personal data, like finance or healthcare.
Your company already probably spends a good chunk of change on other MarTech tools. How does this new purchase integrate with your CMS (content management system, like Wordpress or Drupal), your CRM (customer relationship management, like Salesforce or HubSpot), and other pieces of existing infrastructure?
Modern digital content should be available for all to consume, regardless of physical ability. In many countries, including the U.S. and Canada, there’s legislation in place to ensure that companies act with inclusivity in mind. How will the content that comes from this new purchase accommodate those that have visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments?
Marketers generally have balanced and varied interests—they care about outside-the-box creativity, algorithms, business goals, and storytelling in almost equal measures. To make the case to a marketer, consider their specific job title and which of those interests might lie closest to their heart. Ultimately, marketers only really care about one thing: standing out from the crowd. So, presenting a case that shows how interactive content helps a brand cut through the noise might be most effective.
A marketer would likely want to hear about how interactive content can help them generate leads. So tell them: According to a recent survey by DemandGen Report, 42% of buyers said they are most willing to register and share information for interactive content. Interactive content has the power to instantly hook viewers, capturing their attention right from the get-go.
The marketing team
" To make the customer experience as frictionless and engaging as possible, I’m not even sure you could put a price on that."
Matt Field, Ceros user
Matt Field is the creative director of ROAD iD, a company that makes safety identification tags for runners and cyclists. He uses interactive content across his company’s site, including on the home page, to make it easier for potential customers to explore the product and make a purchase. To him and his bosses, interactive content is invaluable for driving more business.
"To make the customer experience as frictionless and engaging as possible, I’m not even sure you could put a price on that,” Field said.
But marketers also care about presenting the brand in a sleek, savvy way. So don’t be afraid to drop some of those right-brain buzzwords: storytelling, creativity, uniqueness. Any brand’s interactive content can (and should!) look different than anything else on the web. Every aspect of the experience can be customized to the brand publishing it. It helps build a brand that’s recognizable, and it gets eyeballs on the stuff that marketers spend a lot of time crafting.
Execs want to know what interactive content means to their P&L—what’s it gonna cost, and what’s it gonna do for us? So get right to the point here, and focus on the most important benefits.
Interactive content leads to higher engagement rates and improved brand loyalty. It gives its creators smarter insights on audience behaviors and habits, so that future content can be personalized in a more tailored way. It’s more than a standard digital experience, and it shows greater care for the individuals consuming it.
If your boss still isn’t sold? Try to hammer the point home by referring to a piece of interactive content that one of your competitors have created. Keeping up with the Joneses can be a strong motivator for the people in charge.
And, in addition to the cost of the tool itself, consider the ramifications of not going interactive. Say that your CMO loves the output of the software that you’re interested in, but balks at the price. Maybe the alternative to the tool is hiring a new designer and developer who can create that sort of content in-house… and whose salaries could easily soar past $150,000 combined. The cost of the tool might look a little different in that light.
Stay tuned—a later piece in this series will focus entirely on building a business case for interactive content!
The executive team
When you discuss with your creative team (which is crucial since they'll be using the tool daily), connect with their ambitious and independent spirit. Appeal to their drive and creative freedom.
What’s the benefit of an interactive content tool to a graphic designer? Cooler designs, for one! These tools let creatives build rich, engaging, immersive pieces of content without having to write any of the code on the back end. It’s a whole new dimension with which a designer can play, and it doesn’t require passing off anything to a developer.
Imagine the frustration a designer must feel when they envision a compelling interactive piece, but when they receive the finished product from the coder, it looks totally different than what they imagined. They’d fix it themselves, but they can’t write the code to make the changes. With an interactive content tool, the designer gets to own the process the whole way through, from establishing the concept to publishing. The finished product can look exactly as they envisioned it in the beginning.
In interactions with all stakeholders, lead with empathy above all else, and trust them to share in the responsibility to do what’s best for your company. “Keeping a level-headed approach, understanding we’re all trying to do this together, that we’re not going to fight or argue, made it work,” Parks said.
The creative team
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Admit it. You're ready to get interactive. Click now to access the full guide.
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What is interactive content?
part 1
Build a team of allies
part 2
Anticipate your design needs
part 3
Make a business case for better content
part 4
Build, track and scale interactive content
part 5
This five step guide gives you everything you need to introduce interactive content to your organization.
Get interactive:
the complete series
Request a demo
Read more
What is interactive content?
part 1
Read more
Build a team of allies
part 2
Read more
Anticipate your design needs
part 3
Read more
Make a business case for better content
part 4
Build, track and scale interactive content
Read more
part 5
This five step guide gives you everything you need to introduce interactive content to your organization.
Get interactive: the complete series