Enhancing experience through content

This blog is dedicated to providing insights into how to get the most out of your webinar program but this post is going to be a little different.  When I am not contributing to this blog or presenting on the topic of webinars I am out on the street meeting with marketers promoting what I firmly believe is the most effective Webinar platform in the world for moving buyers through the marketing funnel  – Webcast ELITE

Part of the reason I believe this of ELITE is that the user experience from registration through the live event is really second to none. Often time this is the icing on the cake due to all the other great aspects of the platform but one comment I often hear is “those are all nice to haves”

So ….enhanced user experience is a nice to have?

One time on the interweb …..I had a bad user experience

This month BELL launched their Netflix alternative CraveTV.  As the President of a streaming company it probably comes as no surprise that I cut the cord years ago and have been getting all my home entertainment online. As such I was very excited last July when BELL announced they would be opening up CraveTV to all of Canada on January 1st I went on a waiting list so I could be informed and sign up right away.

Why was I so excited? CONTENT

CraveTV through the deals BELL Media had made years ago had access to content that I could not get anywhere else (without piracy) namely the HBO back catalogue and the ShowTime back catalogue. All told about 500 titles that are not available to Canadians without a cable subscription.

Then I signed up for my trial and planned to start to binge on that great content!
I signed up for my subscription on the train ride home one day, told my friends it was live as well. This is where my issues started. The sign up process was a little buggy and to this day I cannot sign in on my iPhone. When I got home and fired it up on my PC the experience in chrome was also buggy with navigation challenges (these are all things that I am sure they will work out) but what I was most shocked about was the actual user interface and all it lacked…..

  • No way to hover over a title and learn what the show was about
  • Limited categories including a very unhelpful A-Z listing
  • No predictive suggestions
  • No auto play or next episode prompt when a show concludes (how do they expect me to binge watch!)

Then I got really annoyed

Once I got past the limited user experience and figured out how to best use the interface I started to have actual functional issues. I would click on a show title try to go to the next episode and be 10 minutes into the show and realize randomly I had jumped to episode 8.  All the while I was commenting to my friends on social media about what  joke this was and hearing about additional bugs they were experiencing.  Eventually I just went back to Netflix and watched an episode of House of Cards.

So when does a “nice to have” become an necessity

In the end CraveTV works.  It streams HD content I don’t have currently, contains a bunch of really great content I cannot get anywhere else and is priced in-line with competitive streaming services but as much as I was really looking forward to powering through Deadwood I turned it off. The user experience, glitches and bugs were too much for me to deal with. When I went back to NETFLIX I really appreciated the features I had taken for granted and the intelligence of the platform. So much so I consumed content I had already seen and didn’t plan on watching.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah User Experience Matters!

In the cluttered and never ending world of content marketing experience matters! Having great content is a must but how you showcase that content can be just as important to maintaining your audience’s attention and keep them coming back for more.

Responsive, mobile enabled, visually appealing, customizable, interactive… are not buzz words and certainly not nice to haves in this market – they are a must if you are going to create a following and get people to binge on your great content.

I think that Yoav Shwartz said it best when he visited our Toronto studio last year

“It doesn’t matter how delicious a Pina colada is ….if I serve it to you in a cold, dark, wet basement your probably not going to drink it. If I serve it to you on hot sandy beach you’re going to drink it up!  The experience in which you consume content matters.

Matthew Ley

Matthew Ley

Matt Ley is the current President and co-founder of The Streaming Network. Starting his career in virtual events in 2007, Matt is an industry veteran that is passionate about helping customers stand out in their industry with compelling virtual events that people want to attend. The driving ambition for Matt is that virtual events are not a utility for information distribution but an opportunity for firms to create a competitive advantage. Matt is an accomplished speaker, moderator and a sought-after thought leader.

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