Ion Interactive vs. Spotify for Podcasters

I don't give 9 ratings easily. Anyone wanting greater user engagement would benefit from ion interactive. I can slap together a simple interactive tool for a social post easily. I also have a plan selector with complex logic built in that would have cost me $50k to build without ion. Now I'm able to duplicate it and make adjustments to use it for various other applications. We've created a couple dozen fun interactive tools for social posts and now we simply re-purpose them easily to create new ones frequently. I just created a new page for our website that we'll want to be fluid; so the site developers suggested we simply embed an ion tool to give us real-time flexibility. Marketers in other divisions are jealous when they see all the fun stuff we're doing--they're gradually becoming ion converts

Incentivized

Anchor is great for getting started with podcasting. It makes getting started in the space really accessible to anyone with a smartphone. It seems to work great for individuals and small businesses. There are probably better options for more established brands out there, as Anchor does limit some of your options, but for those getting started or those that don't have needs beyond Anchor's limitations, I would highly recommend it over the competition.

Incentivized

• I love that ion interactive autosaves. So many of these platforms leave me terrified of disconnection or closing my laptop.
• This WYSIWYG actually works. I've yet to have a translation or code glitch.
• Fast load times are a huge bonus, as well as mobile-optimized display.

Incentivized

• Podcasting Hosting and Distribution Solution: Anchor offers a great solution for hosting and distributing podcasts to various platforms and provides you with the RSS Feed which you can add to supported platforms.
• Recording Facility: Anchor has features to help you record podcast episodes without any special equipment or much technical knowledge. It even allows guests to record together remotely.
• Editing: Anchor has a workflow available that allows arranging various parts and recordings of the podcast and allows adding elements like advertisements, music, sound effects, etc.

Incentivized

• no revert option/revision history if you make a bad mistake
• some simple styles that should be just there for you have to be made through custom CSS
• some of their template options have some pretty bad designs and are not usable beyond a basic functionality level/have to be completely reskinned

Incentivized

• The editor has a lot of room for improvement, especially in terms of adding effects, modifying the sound, etc.
• It would be useful to have A/B testing for cover art, similar to what YouTube offers.
• I miss a clear system for content positioning through keywords.
• It would be great if they added a cleaner way to highlight links, for example, to the website, a lead magnet, etc. The current links are hidden in the episode descriptions.
• El editor tiene mucho margen de mejora, especialmente en cuanto a añadir efectos, modificar el sonido, etc.
• Sería útil tener pruebas A/B para las portadas, igual que ofrece Youtube
• Echo de menos un sistema claro de posicionamiento de contenidos a través de palabras clave
• Sería interesante que añadan una forma más limpia de destacar los enlaces, por ejemplo hacia la web, un lead magnet, etc. Los enlaces actuales quedan invisibilizados en la descripción de los episodios.

Incentivized

Because unless I find something better to replace it with, we're probably going to renew our contract. Ideally, Ion interactive can update Liveball so it's easier to use, more functionality that includes forms and javascript options currently not in place

Usability is straightforward, with extensive documentation and tutorials provided to ensure landing pages are built to specifications and can be optimized for performance. Built-in platform funnels give insight into customer dropoff, success/failures, and conversions (at a glance). Setting up a landing page can be done quickly and easily, with numerous integrations (CRMs like SalesForce, for instance) supported

Incentivized

It's intuitive from the moment you log in until you publish. The only reason I'm not giving it a 10 is because some sections aren't translated into Spanish, and while it's not a problem for me, it's something that could be improved. Furthermore, the design is very clean and doesn't feel overwhelming with options. Everything is where it should be, and the process for publishing episodes is clear. Es intuitivo desde el momento que entras hasta que publicas. Si no le pongo un 10 es porque hay ciertas secciones que no aparecen traducidas al español, y aunque no me supone un problema, es algo mejorable. Además, el diseño es muy limpio y no da sensación de "saturación" de opciones. Todo está donde debe estar y el proceso para publicar los episodios es claro.

Incentivized

Sometimes the editor can be a little slow.

The ION support team is amazing. There has not been a single issue they they could not solve for me. If there is a feature or request that they do not have, they have even, on occasion, created custom scripts for our team. *Update 6/5/17 - ION has continued to delight on multiple occasions. I appreciate their attention to detail and ability to solve whatever issue I have. After 3+ years of use and support, ION still has my full endorsement.

Incentivized

They offer a great amount of online training, videos, articles, etc. There is usually an answer available if you run into an issue. I would recommend taking advantage of the online training they offer. I wish I would have done it sooner.

Incentivized

There were a lot of things we learned about the tool once we really got in and got our hands dirty. Being hands-on was essential for our team to be able to utilize ION in the most effective manner.

Incentivized

I haven't had a lot of experience with templated CMS systems and was not involved in the original selection, though I was part of the renewal discussions. Most of the templates I've used have been html and created in house on an as-needed bases

Incentivized

We selected Anchor because of the known branding with Spotify and the built-in audience. It was also one of the first search results when trying to learn about producing a podcast, which made it easy to find and get started. We don't even need to use GarageBand to capture audio with the Anchor app and other resources for getting podcast content ready to go.

Incentivized

Separate client portfolios enable scalability, however, some elements are still grouped for all accounts so it's difficult to scale for an ad agency with multiple clients. Would prefer totally separate sections of the platform for all clients with each element housed separately.

Incentivized

• So far the impact has been positive, but as we are new to the platform that opinion is based on relatively few interactive assets.
• There hasn't been any negative reactions or impact from Ion as of yet, but as I said before it's still early for us in terms of usage (less than a year).
• We do really appreciate the level of complexity and customization available in the platform.

Incentivized

• Minimize the time our clients require to find the resources and help they are looking for.
• Maximize my support teams' time by having users self serve themselves with the information in our audio files.
• Free usage of the service, via both web and mobile apps.
• Excellent audio quality and streaming support.

Incentivized