Work with the grain, or spend lots of time.
Updated January 09, 2018

Work with the grain, or spend lots of time.

Annie Koelker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with ion interactive

We're an advertising agency using ION primarily for our largest client. Our goal using Ion is to easily create interactive content without the time and expense of a developer. We're also able to re-purpose existing content by putting it into an Ion experience. And from there, we can quickly pull pieces from within ION and use it for additional experiences. The tracking is also extremely helpful in providing a tangible ROI calculation to our clients.
  • It's easy to add images or video.
  • Applying a theme to any template is super quick and easy.
  • The reporting is wonderful!
  • It is difficult to hyperlink text within body copy, which seems to be an easy concept.
  • There is no way to undo an action unless you delete content.
  • It's impossible to consistently, vertically center type.
  • It's extremely trackable, which is great.
  • By not having to pay a developer, we've saved money.
  • The ability to customize content and be creative "if this, then that" scenarios makes for a more positive user experience.
It is extremely intuitive if you don't have a specific design to replicate. For example, an infographic that is a printed piece WILL not look the same in ION. If you try to replicate, you will go insane. However, if you have a quick, down-and-dirty experience where you can utilize the templates - without a ton of modification - you will have tremendous success!

Ion, by Rock Content Feature Ratings

Ideation
7
Forms / Gated content
7
Embedded CTAs
10
Content distribution
9
Content promotion
9
Content automation
9
Closed-loop tracking and reporting
9
Content performance analytics
9
Campaign optimization dashboard
8

Using ion interactive

6 - At our organization, it's mostly designers that utilize ION. However, we have another user who uses ION mainly to review the data and analytics. She is then responsible for gathering reports for our account managers. Since ION is so large, we've found that it's best to have a larger team trained, and everyone sort of "specializes" in something different. It's helps streamline our process.
6 - ION is a wonderful program, but it requires someone who is technically savvy, and who is a quick learner. However, because of the large library of templates, I don't think that users need to have super refined graphic design skills. In fact, I'm not sure you need any at all!
  • Adapting your interactive experience to other devices is relatively simple in ION.
  • There is a vast library of templates to use. Whether you're a designer or not, they're great starting points!
  • ION eliminates the need for an outside programmer, which speeds up the project and keeps costs down.
  • The ION platform makes it very easy to create and monitor several projects at once, even when they're being worked on by multiple people.
  • We've been able to tailor content to the user, giving them answers to questions only pertaining to their industry.
  • We have had several needs for small microsites or landing pages that are only live for a short time. This was perfect.
  • Through the platform, we've been able to do many more campaign-specific landing pages or experiences where in the past, a traditional web experience wouldn't have been cost effective.
  • We'd love to do even more AB testing.
  • The conditional properties of content is extremely interesting. You can show different content based on just about anything!
  • We have done a couple quizzes, but would love to do more.
It's proven to be a very useful tool for us and our clients. For the most part, it's easy to identify the ROI, especially with all of the tracking and reporting. The more we use it the more we find unique uses for it and different ways we can re-purpose creative that we're developing.

Evaluating ion interactive and Competitors

ion interactive Implementation

ion interactive Support

The chat support has been wonderful. The folks at the help desk are always willing to help. I feel like I've really gotten to know them, and they've helped me out more times than I can even count. Also, after every chat, a documentation of your chat is emailed to you – this is very helpful, and I have referenced these chats many times afterwards!
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes! I can think of one time in particular that I was working on a very difficult project. They helped me out every step of the way by providing me reference links to places within their support site, logging into my creative to help me troubleshoot, and discussing things over the phone, if needed.

Using ion interactive

It's an extremely robust program that can give you some incredible results. However, it's also very in-depth and can require a hefty amount of training. But with the knowledgeable support team, it's definitely doable for just about anyone, just make sure you give yourself enough time to do the appropriate training in the "academy". Overall, you can make something that looks pretty awesome and not have to spend a ton of money on a programmer.
ProsCons
Like to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Convenient
Feel confident using
Slow to learn
Lots to learn
  • When starting with a template, everything seems to work extremely well!
  • Applying themes to designs is such a time-saver and works very well.
  • Linking your experience up between pages is very simple to do.
  • Adding links within body copy is tricky.
  • Sometimes adding videos can be tricky, especially if you want the playhead/controls hidden.
  • There is no undo – there were a couple times that I wish there was!