Brad's Blog

As a general practice, we don't post press releases to the SDL Tridion Blogosphere.  The IHS story is an exception becuse it is a perfect example of a company moving beyond basic online content management and selecting a next generation web content management system as the foundation for their online marketing strategy.

IHS To Implement World-Class Web Sites With SDL Tridion

"We've had several substantial acquisitions at IHS in recent years," says Kevin Spiller, director of Web development and strategy at IHS. "This created a difficult situation for getting people to the right information or demonstrate the full value of IHS. We knew that it was integral to reorganize our Web content in a system that helps to maintain a robust global presence. Starting with 14 different WCM systems, we whittled the selection down to three. SDL Tridion was the best fit for a company like ours with a wide range of customers."

The IHS Web site reaches users and customers across a diverse array of business units. From engineering, geology and oil prospecting to supply chains, military, security and financial analysis, its goal is to provide potential users from many industries with an ideal experience across the site. IHS plans to accomplish this by using SDL Tridion's workflow, translation management and website personalization features. As Spiller explains it, IHS wants to implicitly understand where users are coming from and what they are seeking.

"We're planning on using SDL Tridion to ensure that our Web experience flows seamlessly across all channels," says Spiller. "Whether we are providing data or taking more of an advisory role, it becomes important that users and customers understand the breadth and diversity of our business solutions. SDL Tridion provides a personalized user experience that will accomplish that goal while protecting our brand and localizing updates. This allows more flexibility on a bigger Web site that meets all of our governance needs."

"SDL Tridion is very pleased to welcome IHS as a customer," says Jan Jaap Kolleman, CEO of SDL Tridion. "In many ways, the IHS site is an exemplary case that demonstrates the scalability of our enterprise web content management system. Our software will help them streamline their Web presence by transforming marketing sites into a large, global Web presence that reinforces the IHS brand. Now, a subject matter expert in Europe can update content directly for local users in a specific industry while sharing design, layout and branding elements with the rest of the Web site. For a company that's rapidly expanding such as IHS, this capability becomes an invaluable tool for growth over multiple years."

About IHS (www.ihs.com)
IHS is a leading global source of critical information and insight dedicated to providing the most complete and trusted information and expertise. IHS product and service solutions span four areas of information that encompass the most important concerns facing global business today: Energy, Product Lifecycle, Security, and Environment, all supported by Macroeconomics.

• How are our websites performing with respect to traffic and conversions? 
• What is the flow of content from creation to delivery? 
• What are the WCM roles of business, marketing, and IT?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our online channel?
• How long does it take to roll out a new online campaign?
• How is content translated and localized?
• How is consistency of brand and message maintained across multiple channels?
• What is the web experience of our online visitors?

• Strategy
• Tactics
• Timeline
• Budget
• Metrics

What is the sound of website traffic?

At first glance the question seems utterly absurd. It is. Read on, however, and I think you’ll find that the absurd can sometimes reveal a truth.
 

What possible relationship could there be between Zen and web content management? On the surface, nothing. Look a little deeper, and, well, everything. This post is the first of a series that will explore enterprise web content management through the eyes of a Zen student on the path to marketing Nirvana.

A brief Introduction to Zen

For those unfamiliar with Zen or the practice thereof, I offer this brief introduction.

Zen is a form of Buddhism that emphasizes paying full attention to the present moment.  It’s an extremely practical philosophy that suggests if you are cold and have a wooden statue of the Buddha- you should burn the Buddha to keep warm.

The goal of Zen is to attain enlightenment, a state of absolute awareness, or “oneness” with All That Is. Although enlightenment can be a sudden happening, most often it is not. It comes over many years (lifetimes according to myth) in a series of epiphanies, or “ah ha!” moments.

Over the centuries, a number of practices have been developed to assist masters and students on their journey. Two of the most common are Zazen, a form of seated meditation designed to still the mind and Koans, paradoxical riddles designed to scramble the mind.

Zazen works on the premise that sometimes the best way to think is to not think. How many times have you thought really hard on a problem or situation and the more you thought, the more confused you got?  Then, after “forgetting” about the topic for a while, the solution comes to mind suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue?

A koan, on the other hand, is a riddle to ponder on that has no logical solution. It functions like a bridge to help the mind transcend pure rational thought so it can think “outside of the box”. One of the most well known koans is “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

So, Then, What is the Sound of Website Traffic?

If you are a B2B or B2C business, it should be KA-CHING! The Ka-ching that comes from revenue generated by converting website visitors into sales leads or closed business.  The louder the Ka-ching the more successful the business.  If you have little or no traffic to your website the sound is silence.  If you have a lot of traffic to your website but the visitors don't convert (do what you want them to do) the sound is also silence.  Needless to say a silent website is bad for business.
 

The New Art of WCM:  Driving Traffic and Increasing Conversion Rates

• Improve the customer experience (44%)
• Improve website traffic (35%)
• Improve overall return on marketing investment (33%)

Aberdeen found that "Marketers are looking for technology that will empower them to deliver impactful, engaging customer experiences online.  Therefore, improving the customer experience is a top pressure driving the adoption and use of web content management.  This is followed by a desire to increase website traffic and increase the overall return on marketing investments by improving the productivity and processes surrounding web properties".

Increasing Conversion Rates

It stands to reason that if you improve the online experience, you will convert more visitors into leads and sales.  The question is, how do you improve the customer or visitor experience on the web?  Personalizing online content is one answer.  Another answer, agreed upon by most WCM and CMS experts, is to deliver rich, engaging content that is relevant to your target audience.

Download the Entire Aberdeen Report Free of Charge

If you are in the market for an enterprise web content management system or looking for solid data to help with justifying web content management, you will find the Aberdeen report a most valuable resource.  Download the report by clicking the link below, compliments of SDL Tridion, a recognized leader in enterprise web content management solutions and technology.

Abdereen Report
Maximize Business Results Online
How Web Content Management Technology is Transforming Digital Marketing

1.  Implement and Maintain Current Web Content Management (WCM) Technology

It wasn't that long ago when a basic function calculator could be purchased for $9.99.  Today, walk into any drug store and you can purchase the same calculator for $1.99 or buy a super deluxe scientific model for $9.99.  With most technology products you get more for less over time.  The same principle applies to enterprise web content management.

The web content management market and industry has changed considerably over the last few years and continues to evolve at a rapid pace.  Best-in-class enterprise web content management systems are now at the core of successful online marketing strategies and do much more than simply manage online content.  These systems now include interactive tools that will help you achieve online marketing objectives, such as increasing conversion rates.

To keep your organization ahead of the game and maximizing business results from your online channel, plan on upgrading WCM technology every three to five years.

2.  Frequently Update Website Content

Adding fresh content on a regular basis to your website will improve your search engine rankings plus has the extra benefit of keeping customers coming back for more.   Use dynamic content to deliver an enhanced visitor experience, build brand loyalty, and drive conversions.

3.  Personalize Website Interactions by Using Landing Pages

One of the quickest and easiest ways to increase the personalization of your online channel is to incorporate the use of more landing pages.  Landing pages should generally be directed at one target audience with one message and have one call to action.  By segmenting your target audiences you can channel them to the landing pages with content that best fits their profile.  Personalized content increases conversion rates.

4.  Conduct A/B Testing of your Website Content

I am the first to admit that marketing is as much an art as it is a science.  And while there are best practices for virtually every marketing tactic, the truth of the matter is that we never know for sure what will work and what won't work.  That is until we've tried it.  When you find out what works, do more of it.  A best-in-class enterprise web content management system will have A/B testing with functionality that makes this kind of testing simple.

5.  Use Old School Segmentation for Target Audience Marketing

Segment your Target audiences into groupings that make sense for your business and deliver persuasive content tailored to each group.  Best-in-class enterprise web content management systems will have this capability.

6.  Personalize the Website Experience

Website personalization is very similar to Segmentation, however here you are personalizing the web experience for individuals rather than groups.  Next generation web content management systems have the ability to deliver personalized content to individual website visitors based upon explicit and implicit behaviors.

It’s certainly no secret that in the current harsh economic environment marketing professionals are having a difficult time justifying technology spending -- and enterprise web content management systems are no exception.

The justification for this major investment might seem hard to make, but delaying the purchase or piecing together an in-house solution can cost you more in the long run and severely impact your brand. Here are four concrete tips and explanations to help you make the business case for an investment in an enterprise web content management system (WCMS).

1.  A Web Content Management System Increases Revenue.

By streamlining and centralizing content creation, a new or revamped WCMS boosts your revenue by allowing content reuse and re-purposing across multiple websites,  channels, and, if you're a global enterprise, in multiple languages.  Additionally, a WCMS simplifies workflow and provides robust analytic measurement capabilities to keep you focused on the timely updates of content that makes you money rather than wasting it.

A best-in-class enterprise web content management system will also have an integrated suite of online marketing tools that will help you achieve important business objectives, like increasing conversion rates. Here are a few examples:

• Brand management tools
• Email campaign tools
• Target audience marketing
• Website personalization

2. A Web Content Management System Decreases Operational Costs.

With the right WCMS, you will spend less money on updating your website and avoid the inefficient practice of copying and pasting content across various pages. Centralized design elements and templates can be created once and then instantaneously integrated across your website. WCM helps you save money on labor, protect your brand and get it right the first time.

Most enterprise web content management systems are easy to use.  One of the major reasons organizations invest in web content management is because it empowers content creators (marketing teams, for example) to create, manage, modify, and publish content themselves- without IT involvement.  Consider the savings of hundreds of IT hours on an annual basis, not to mention the increased efficiency.

3. Create an honest ROI calculator.

Due to the economic environment, the concept of ROI is on the tip of everyone’s tongue when discussing technology investment. Don’t worry: an best-in-class enterprise web content management system almost always provides a sizable ROI. In addition to saving costs and boosting your revenue, a good WCMS interface comes with a high degree of usability. This means you can accelerate and simplify projects such as site development, implementation and content creation.

4.  Save 70% - 80% by Purchasing an Enterprise Web Content Management Solution

Gilbane found that site development based around a content management system saves a company 70-80 percent on cost when compared to in-house development.

Content creation in a WCM system looks and feels like standard applications such as Microsoft Word™ and blogging platforms. Gilbane found that this ease-of-use cuts training times by up to 90 percent. With an out-of-the-box commercially available enterprise web content management system, updates don’t get bogged down in IT departments. Marketers and other communicators can create and re-purpose content as easily as making or editing a Word document.

Beyond ROI

In addition, a WCMS can provide benefits that supersede ROI.  Next generation web content management systems can really help to protect brand equity online and across multiple channels.  For large companies, branding remains one of your most important assets and good customer perception is integral for continued success.  A next generation WCM system allows you to build and maintain your brand with minimal hiccups. Even if you come up with initial ROI figures that are lower than you want, maintaining your brand equity and providing the ideal user experience across multiple channels is enough to make the business case for updating your WCM strategy today.

For more information about justifying web content management and building a case to purchase a new enterprise web content management system, SDL Tridion produced an excellent whitepaper titled ROI for the online channel.  Please feel free to download free of charge by clicking on the link.

• Web Content Management Reviews
• Web Content Management Vendors
• Enterprise Web Content Management System
• Global Web Content Management
• Best Web Content Management

• Current offering
• Strategy
• Market presence

• Must have features
• Important features
• Nice to have features

Selecting An Enterprise Web Content Management System

To state the obvious, selecting an enterprise web content management system begins with selecting an enterprise web content management vendor.  While there is no set process for doing so, it’s definitely wise to begin by doing a little research to come up with a “Short List” of similar vendors most likely to meet your specific needs.

Assuming that you have:

• Done your research
• Set project objectives
• Made a plan
• Received executive approval
• Established a budget
• Assembled a team
• Decided on some basic "must have" web content management features

it's time to do an RFI (request for information) from your short list of web content management vendors.  Generally, the enterprise web content management system RFI is used to gather enough information about the vendors themselves and their proposed solutions so you can trim the list to only those from whom you want a demonstration.

Download Your Free Sample RFI Template Here

To help you select the best web content management system for your needs, SDL Tridion has developed a vendor neutral template to get you started.  Please feel free to modify and use it however you like.  Here is the link to where you can download:

Enterprise Web Content Management RFI Template

Other Considerations

A word of advise: Choose your web content management vendor very, very carefully.  Even if a solution has a lot of fancy whistles and bells that you absolutely "must have", you want to be pretty sure that the providing vendor will be around for the next 3-5 years with the ability to provide support. 

I also suggest that you give more weight to the benefits of web content management than you give to the features of a particular system.  In the end, it's about results and ROI- especially in today's economic climate.  So when evaluating WCM solutions, you might want to determine which one will best help you achieve business objectives such as increased conversion rates and improved online brand management.

Increasing Conversion Rates and Numbers

SEO is one of the hottest topics circulating in the online marketing and online content management communities- and rightly so.  Most organizations have online business objectives that include increasing conversion rates, but if you have low traffic you will still have low conversions.  So, obviously, a key requirement of increasing conversions is to increase traffic.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the most effective way to increase website traffic.

Avoid the #1 Traffic Killing SEO Mistake

A common misperception, even in enterprise level organizations, is that once a website is optimized, it's optimized and will stay that way.  Wrong.  As content is added and modified over time a lot of things can happen including:

• Misspelled words
• HTML errors
• Meta data problems
• Broken links
• Improper key word usage

Enterprise and global organizations want to present their brand, image and vision clearly and consistently. But with thousands of pages, in dozens of languages, for many different brands and products, this may seem like an impossible task. The good news is it doesn’t have to be.

Safeguard is a web content management software tool for SDL Tridion’s Enterprise Web Content Management System. It’s a powerful solution that provides website quality and compliance management- with just a few clicks of a mouse. This means you can deliver consistent, high-quality websites that comply with your own internal standards, industry best practice standards, and regulations.

To learn more about Safeguard and how it can simplify online brand management and improve the quality of your online presence visit: www.sdltridion.com/products/web_content_management/safeguard/ 
 

The Challenge of Website Management

Effective online communication requires the orchestration of many different factors. Ask yourself these questions:

• Is all published content accurate, up-to-date and search engine optimized?
• Do all of your sites have consistent branding and messaging?
• Do your websites meet accessibility and legal requirements?
• Are local websites presented in the right language?
• Are digital assets managed according to company rules?
• Do your websites comply with global and regional standards
• Are you tracking and bench marking site-wide performance?

Safeguard monitors your entire web presence, in any country or language. Easy-to-use dashboards provide detailed information on your online performance, reporting any quality and compliance breaches so you can fix them and maximize your online business results.

About SDL Tridion

SDL Tridion is a recognized leader in web content management and has received top rankings by leading industry analysts.  In addition to enterprise web content management systems, SDL Tridion is also an online marketing solutions company that provides:

• Brand management tools
• Interactive marketing solutions
• Email marketing software
• Website quality and compliance software
• Global web content management tools
• And much more

Global Web Content Management

Organizations face many challenges when creating a network of global websites. They need to maintain brand consistency while allowing for variations that reflect local cultures. Creating truly localized websites can be a daunting process in which corporate and local marketing teams need to collaborate to provide relevant information to different target audiences.

BluePrinting™:  A Unique Web Content Management Feature

BluePrinting is a unique technology from SDL Tridion that allows organizations to manage their networks of websites. The separation of content, layout and other website elements enables organizations to adapt these elements separately to match the needs of local audiences.

Organizations can manage localization by cost effectively using an inheritance model that allows multiple Web sites to use consistent structure, branding and content while allowing for localization of content, as needed.

Free Website Globalization Resource

SDL Tridion has produced an excellent whitepaper to assist companies who are seeking to improve their global online content management.  It provides examples of how organizations can use BluePrinting technology to achieve a smooth, global Web operation- and how they can combine enterprise web content management with translation technology for even greater efficiency.  Click this link to download free of charge:

http://www.sdltridion.com/downloads/white_papers/managing_global_websites.asp

Beyond Web Content Management

Successful global target audience marketing requires more than web content management and localization of content.  It requires a global marketing solution with tools for interactive marketing, multichannel marketing, email campaigns, and online brand management.

Global Web Content Management Vendor Selection

If your in the market to globalize your websites and purchase a new global web content management system, carefully review each vendor's offering and look beyond basic  features and technology.  Your best bet is to select a vendor that best meets your needs by offering a fully integrated global marketing solution.

Full Disclosure: I am a technological dummy and could not code my way out of a paper bag.  And I'm fine with that.  As a marketing professional, I could care less about "technology".  That is, at least, technology for technology's sake.  But I do care about the benefits of technology and the results it can help deliver to the bottom line.

Take, for example, this Blog.  I have no clue what's under this user-friendly interface. Probably a bunch of HTML mumbo jumbo and all kinds of this code and that code.  What I do know, with a reasonable degree of certainty, is that if I use this Blog according to best practices I will:

• Have greater visibility to search engines
• Communicate our corporate message to more members of our target audience
• Drive increased traffic to our website
• Generate more leads for our sales force
• Deliver an acceptable return on investment (ROI)

Believe me, these things I REALLY care about.  In fact, my job depends upon it.  I bet yours does too, if you are a marketing professional like me and have online marketing objectives that must be achieved.

As for this Blog, the same goes for enterprise web content management- the technology of a system is far less important than how it will help me achieve my assigned objectives (and thereby keeping me gainfully employed).

Admittedly, when I started working for SDL Tridion I did not know much about enterprise web content management, nor the underlying technology.  I still don't know much about the technology, but I have become an expert on the benefits of web content management and how a well deployed system can help me reach my business goals, like, for example, increasing conversion rates.

In addition to providing the benefits listed above, the best-in-class web content management system I use helps me do my job better and faster by providing me with:

• An online brand management solution
• An integrated multichannel marketing system
• Interactive marketing tools
• Email campaign tools
• Easy website personalization and target audience marketing

The more I work with the solution I am using , the more I realize that this is "not my fathers web content management system"... clearly it is something much more... probably better described as an integrated online marketing solution than an enterprise web content management system.  Quite frankly, I am less concerned about managing online content than I am leveraging it.  It's the leveraging of online content that produces the results.