With everyone churning out more and more content, how will your story be the one that stands out? How will you be the one that’s attended to? Remembered? And acted upon? You’ll learn how unique interactivity can separate your brand and story from the pack. And you’ll see examples and inspiration of other brands making it happen.

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Digital Differentiation
Using interactivity to separate your brand from the pack

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What’s Inside
• What is differentiation
• Why it matters
• The digital differentiation problem
• Creating differentiation with interactivity
• Examples & inspiration!
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differentiation?
what is

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Differentiation
The result of efforts to make a product or brand stand out as
a provider of unique value to customers in comparison with
its competitors.

5. WHY does differentiation matter

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“Brands that are
perceived as being
different have a much
higher potential for
growth than do other
brands.”
- Millward Brown research firm

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So, differentiation is important, especially
digital differentiation as more and more
of our customer touchpoints start online.

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But there’s one major problem.

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Online marketers are heavily investing in content to
differentiate their brand.

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Content Marketing Is
The Top Marketing
Investment For
The Next 12 Months
Demand Metric Lead Generation
Benchmark Report
30% Of Budgets Are
Allocated To Content Marketing
CMI, 2014 B2B Content Marketing Survey
30%
93% Surveyed Use
Content Marketing
CMI, 2014 B2B Content Marketing Survey
93% 73% Of Marketers Are
Producing More
Content Than They
Did A Year Ago

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We’re all racing to churn out content. But when everyone is
doing the same thing, nothing stands out.

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As marketers, it is not our job to join the
stampede. It is our job to stand out. To
be remarkable. To differentiate.

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Let’s Be Honest…
Even when your content is amazing—is it differentiated?
!
Is it a competitive advantage?
!
Is a whitepaper going to differentiate your brand?
!
A webinar?
An infographic?
!
A video?

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Probably not…

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Only 42% Of Marketers Say Their
Content Marketing Is Effective
42%
CMI, 2014 B2B Content Marketing Survey
85% of marketing leaders say their
content activity isn’t linked to
business value.
- 2014 Forrester Research, Compare Your
B2B Content Marketing Maturity
!
Only 14% of marketers surveyed
say their content delivered value
back to the business.
- 2014 Forrester Research, Compare Your
B2B Content Marketing Maturity

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Is your online content truly differentiated
and delivering business value?

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How To Differentiate
Your Content Online

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Do what others aren’t doing
!
How: Turn your static content
into modern digital experiences
1.

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Typical white paper offer, just like every other
white paper offer out there

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Transform the white paper offer into
an interactive experience.

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This interactive assessment
uniquely engages visitors through a
series of highly visual questions &
personalized results.
!
http://apps.ioninteractive.com/site/
assessment/demand-metric-content-

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Create opportunity for effortless
exchange of value
!
How: Provide insights, gather insights
2.

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Interactive marketing assessments like this one can allow you to make the
registration optional, while still collecting behavioral data from visitors.

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Give visitors control over their
experience
!
How: Simple, clear choices
3.

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FrontPoint provides an excellent example of giving
simple, clear choices that attend to the visitor’s needs.

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Make your experience incredibly useful
!
How: Youtility. Create digital
experiences that are helpful.
4.

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Letting visitors configure their car & search inventory is helpful.

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A self-service assessment experience, with personalized recommendations,
helps the visitor solve their problems.
!
http://paths.ioninteractive.com/apps/site/score-your-landing-pages

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Tell a unique story
!
How: Create storyteller experiences that
immerse your visitor.
5.

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IDEO created a digital experience called
“A Cafeteria Designed For Me” that
offers an incredible interactive journey,
illustrating their story in a modern and
graceful way.

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With interactive facts, animations, social sharing icons…

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…embedded videos,
continuous scrolling,
and educational links,
IDEO differentiated
their story through
interactivity and
engagement.
http://www.ideo.com/stories/a-cafeteria-designed-for-me/

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Is your content a competitive advantage?
Is it differentiated? If not, try these 5 tips…
1. Do what others aren’t doing
2. Create opportunity for effortless exchange of value
3. Give visitors control over their experience
4. Make your experience incredibly useful
5. Tell a unique story

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Helpful Resources
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Create Distinction by Scott Mckain
• BrandStrategyInsider.com
• IonInteractive.com/blog
• @scottmckain
• ioninteractive.com/examples

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ion can help!
!We help customers concept, create and launch
differentiated digital experiences.
www.ioninteractive.com
@ioninteractive
info@ioninteractive.com