Personalizing Online Content

Web Engagement Management: Converting Prospects into Lifetime Customers

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 by JanJaap Kolleman

For the last year, the Web Content Management (WCM) category has faced the perceived threat of becoming a commodity. Social Media and the proliferation of mobile devices have fundamentally changed the way we all engage with our customers. Organizations can no longer simply create and manage content in a vacuum and then publish it blindly to a global audience.

Today, companies must build strong, mutually beneficial and high-value relationships with their customers. First, unknown visitors must understand the value of becoming your customer and taking the time to engage with you. Second, customers must genuinely become evangelists for your brand, based on a relationship of trust, value and genuine enthusiasm.

As it’s now defined, can WCM expand to encompass this broader promise? I don’t know. And in truth, it doesn’t really matter. Success is based on actions not words. Web Engagement Management (WEM) now seems to be the new acronym or buzzword used to define the crucial concepts I outlined above.

But I like to think of it in simpler and more pragmatic terms. Remember the old saying that there are three kinds of people?: Those that make things happen; those that watch things happen; and those that ask “what happened?”

What kind of person do you want to be? Be honest. Ask yourself these hard questions:

What are you doing right now to increase the value of customer engagements (as measured in loyalty, customer satisfaction, revenue, brand equity, etc.)?

•        Do you have a strategy in place that includes content optimization, social media monitoring, sentiment analysis, Web and social media analytics, personalization, targeting to specific segments, and effective eCommerce engines?
•        How successful have those efforts been?
•        Can you measure them?
•        Do you even realize that you are managing customer engagements?

Engaging with existing and potential customers is like any two-way relationship—online or off. Sometimes you need to talk. Most times you need to listen. But if no one in your organization is truly engaging with customers through the Social Web, you’re creating huge liabilities to your reputation, your brand and your bottom line.

SDL has been in the business of engagement management for a long time. In fact, I’m proud to say (with all humility) that we helped pioneer it. It’s fundamental to our vision of how we enable our customers, ensure their success, and define the solutions we create.

Our clients are uniquely capitalizing on the rise of Web Engagement Management. They’re actively leveraging multiple-channels, devices, analytics, profiling and personalization tools to create engagements that match their customers’ interests and goals—not their own.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll blog in more detail about these necessary components of an effective Web Engagement strategy. In the meantime, I’d welcome your comments and ideas.

Web Content Management (WCM) and the Expansion of the Content Universe

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by Gavino Gonzalez

Traditional Content

Content is king and will continue to be king for the foreseeable future. Content is everywhere we go. Content has many faces it can be the huge billboard across the street, the stationary on your desk, it can even be the small ads in the magazine or newspaper that you read this morning.

Online Content

Content is all over the internet. It’s everywhere, from banner ad’s to blog posts, Tweets, Youtube, Linkedin, emails, presentations, ratings, customer responses, tags and comments. The amount of online content that is produced daily is astonishing and it will continue to grow at an expediential rate.

Mobile Content

Ever contemplate that your mobile device is content? Yes, you’re Blackberry, iPhone, Nexus One, iPad- all capable of producing and mobile receiving content. Your mobile device will handle text messages, applications, mobile ads, uploading images and videos to Facebook. You can even participate in mobile campaigns, for example text a phrase to ‘#####’ to receive special updates and promotions. Mobile content is already showing promising signs, people can bank at their fingertips, get weather, transit and travel updates via their Smartphone also. One can assume that mobile content in its infancy has already created a major impact in our daily lives and will continue to do so for many years ahead.

Challenges that lie ahead for Mobile Content

The expectation has been set for mobile content to experience significant year-over-year growth. We have begun to fulfill that expectation, people tweet, update their facebook status on smart phones, but have not reached its full potential, yet. There are many issues to work out before mobile becomes a force to be reckoned with.
Mobile browser support – There is no universal screen size for a smart phone, every smart phone varies in multiple shapes and sizes. If you visit a website on a smart phone there is a chance that the site will recognize that it’s from a mobile browser and will automatically scale it to size, but may be a little difficult to see.
Updating Mobile Content (Websites) – Many companies today are having enough difficultly in maintaining their mission critical websites. A Considerable quantity has begun to incorporate personalization and web 2.0 applications, but many are still lacking today.

Solution: Next Generation Web Content Management System

Deploying a best-in-class enterprise web content management system can help you achieve your business objectives. The SDL Tridion Solution allows you to simply display relevant content on your website through personalization. The Tridion Solution also allows you to simply manage multiple website (including mobile websites).
SDL Tridion is positioned as a “Leader” by both Forrester and Gartner. SDL Tridion ushers in next generation web content management by integrating a suite of ROI focused online marketing tools.

Micro-Site – Maxi-Impact: Optimizing and advertising your microsite

Saturday, March 13, 2010 by Sonja Keerl

The coolest microsite is not of much use if nobody finds it in the first place. Similarly, if visitors are not driven to your key call to action, your campaign will not be successful.

SEO related tasks

Don’t forget to analyze customer care words before you create content for the microsite, to ensure that your site speaks your audience’s language. Optimizing content for your keyword strategy is just as essential for microsite content as it is for corporate content. Make sure you also spend time on your metadata, especially for your main pages.

Navigational SEO tasks should be covered by the Web Content Management System at large, but make sure you do not forget to generate an XML Sitemap and make it known to search engines. Similarly, a RSS feed helps to bring you up in the search rankings. With SDL Tridion 2009, topics like friendly and localized URLs are done automatically, but with other systems you might have to watch out for this one too. Don’t forget to put up a banner on your corporate sites as well!

Social Media

Activating Social Bookmarking will make it easy for your visitors to share your interesting content with their peers and drive traffic to your microsite. But don’t forget to promote your content yourself via social channels, such as twitter, facebook, linkedin etc. Status alerts - especially to premium content, webinars and downloads – will direct a constant stream of visitors to your microsite.

SEM and Third Party Websites

Don’t forget to set up SEM campaigns and ads on third party websites to ensure consistent traffic over the lifetime of your microsite. This can also mean featured articles, interviews or blog contributions on those sites that are frequented by your target audience. If your budget is low, try to think outside the box.

Cross Channel Thoughts

If you have a newsletter, customer or prospect email list, don’t forget to send them a mailing about the launch of your site. The more personalized and targeted you make a mailing, the better your click-through rates will be. Any additional events, such as webinars, should be coupled with personal invitations to your known audience to spread the word.
If your microsite is part of a large cross channel campaign, which is also advertised on radio, TV and print, you can use different entry points to monitor the success ratio of each media in your analytics solution.

Analytics & Testing

Do not forget to continuously monitor the performance of your website and where your visitors are coming from, so you know which levers you have to pull to optimize your campaigns. Monitor clickstreams and conversion rates and test with A/B versions or multi variate testing, if you are unsure about best practice approaches.

So much for my thoughts on successful microsite projects. The list above is not intended to be exhaustive, but it covers the essentials.

When I set up my microsite, I could see clearly that the magic bullet was SDL’s unique BluePrinting technology. The concept of inheriting functionality, content and layout makes it incredibly simple to just pick and chose the right bits for your new site. Having the integrated Email Marketing Solution as part of the SDL Online Marketing Suite, made sending out mailings to our customers and prospects a walk in the park.

How to Justify the Purchase of a New Web Content Management System

Thursday, February 18, 2010 by JanJaap Kolleman

In today's economic environment business and marketing professionals are having a difficult time justifying technology spending- and that includes the purchase of a brand new web content management system.

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 rock solid points to help you make the business case for an investment in an enterprise web content management system (WCMS).

1. Demonstrate Increased 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 business objectives, like increasing conversion rates and building brand loyalty. Here are a few examples:

Brand management tools

Email campaign tools

Target audience marketing

Website personalization

Another revenue generating benefit of a top-rated WCMS is faster time to market. Imagine launching a multichannel marketing campaign or a new product in just a few days, rather than a few weeks or even months. What would this mean to your business in terms of increased sales or leads/

2. Demonstrate Decreased 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. Calculate Probable ROI

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. Think 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.  

Web Content Management - 10 years on has anything changed?

Friday, December 18, 2009 by Maria McCann

Approaching the beginning of another decade gives me the chance to indulge my nostalgic tendencies and look back over this one.

I’m fortunate to have a dual perspective on online marketing solutions. I’ve been marketing (and consulting on) website content management systems for the past 10 years and have also experienced using more than a dozen in anger throughout this period as a marketing user.

I’m often asked “what’s changed and has marketing online got any better or easier?”.

The answer is lots and a resounding yes.

Then –

IT ruled the roost. They owned the technology and their word was law. It didn’t matter about the business user’s (my) experience in terms of ease of use, time to market. The multiple week/month lead times for creating a new landing page or rolling out a new country site was hampering my ability to respond to changing market conditions. But that didn’t matter.
Re-using content meant copying and pasting web pages in the admin view. The result was a maintenance nightmare – change one word on 16 different instances of the same page, and inevitably, miss some completely.
We spent weeks learning new tools and understanding HTML instead of actually doing marketing and adding value.
We changed our processes to fit in with how the software thought we should be doing things. Or, waited for the IT and development teams to code something for us and then had to stick with that for the next few years.
Personalizing online content was talked about a lot but wasn’t something mere marketing mortals could achieve.
Every channel (and the content) was created separately - web, mobile, email, print etc
Rolling campaigns out in more than one region at the same time required lots of resource and time, not to mention epic project management skills.

Now –

Marketing own the web and online marketing channels. We chose solutions that are easy for non-technical users to master and enable us to publish content, pages and even whole sites on demand.
Re-using content means we can have one instance of copy, change it once and it will change through-out the website. No more out-of-sync messaging!
Changing content is easy – we can all browse web pages. Horray for in-page editing. Adding new content is easy too - we all know how to write a word document.
At last, we can work in the way that suits us and our business.
Website personalization has never been easier. Marketers can control exactly what content can be seen for each audience profile.
Thanks to next generation web content management incorporating multichannel marketing systems, the same content can be used everywhere. Truly create once, publish many.
Global campaigns are as fast and easy to manage and implement as single region campaigns.

Here's to the next decade and further evolution and innovation!

Collective Intelligence: Wisdom of crowds, ignorance of masses?

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by Remco van Rij

Collective intelligence is a form of intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and is closely related to crowdsourcing (Wikipedia)

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. (Wikipedia)

It all begins with the principle that ‘WE’ is smarter than ‘ME’. The first digital natives now joining the workforce (them who grew up with Internet and an always on lifestyle) understand this much better than their previous generation, which are the current decision makers. Collective Intelligence is a disruptive trend as it deeply impacts an organisation’s traditional way of doing business.

Companies are busy with streamlining and improving their team collaboration via web conferencing and and instant messaging. On the other hand they are investigating things like Wiki’s, blogs and feeds to stimulate interpersonal productivity and interaction.

Consumer social software (web 2.0 stuff) becomes part of our mainstream workplace. We want to have access to all information, but of course only the relevant content. Internet will have to focus more and more on personalizing online content.

Collective Intelligence deals with these four topics:Internet Centric Computing, because systems must be accessible over the internet; this also implies specific architectures (like SOA) to gain access to business applications.

Internet Centric Computing, because systems must be accessible over the internet; this also implies specific architectures (like SOA) to gain access to business applications.
Portal technology is necessary to provide a uniform interface with data from different sources.

Collaboration technology is obvious.
Business Process Management to streamline the various processes, as these processes go beyond the company walls they must the chaos-tolerant.

Companies have to design a strategy to find and involve their target groups and offer them persuasive, profiled and personalized content. With SDL Tridion’s Global Web Content Management System many of these topics can be addressed. It is your product, your service and the world is waiting for it. Start increasing conversion rates!

Five steps to make it personal

Thursday, December 10, 2009 by Maria McCann

All visitors, even anonymous ones, want information that relates to their interests. If they don’t find it on your website, they will look elsewhere. If they do, they'll keep coming back.

According to Gartner (source: a Framework for Creating the Future Customer-Centric Web, Feb 2009) by 2012, organizations that lack customer-centric web strategies will soon trail competitors that have them.

I'm often asked how you should you go about implementing website personalization. So here are my top 5 tips.

Know your audience
It is vital to address specific customer needs, but content needs to be manageable as well. Segmenting customers into groups with matching characteristics will address both of these requirements. You can match these segments or target audiences with products and services that meet their needs.
Target audience marketing can be tricky. It is important to identify the unique requirements of each target audience. If you want to reach a global audience, for example, the best conversion will be found if content is presented in the right language and relevant local information is served (e.g. customer case studies from the region).
A next generation web content management solution will help with mapping target audiences to a global business model. It will provide a method of organizing content and managing multilingual variations intelligently and easily.
Profile your visitors
Marketers recognize that the success of their marketing campaigns depends upon delivering the right messages to the right people at the right time. Relevancy is king. The marketing team must profile audiences according to meaningful criteria and tailor communications to the attributes of each audience.

The most successful profiling is based on rich, detailed demographics of targets, so that recipients feel you are addressing them directly. To serve your target audience with specific content that relates to their interests, you need to identify what these interests are. Building visitor profiles is the basis for personalization.
Match your content to the visitor
Profile information should be used to provide your website visitors with tailored content that is appealing and persuasive, whether they are registered users or anonymous. Cookies can be used to store information about an anonymous user’s interests for future visits. Previous searches can be used to route relevant information to the visitor.
If a visitor signs in, you can take advantage of explicit profile information that they have given you directly, such as their contact details, areas of interest, location or demographic information, to present relevant information.
Closing the loop
Closed loop marketing is a form of interactive marketing where customer responses and behavior are used to direct and refine marketing strategy and tactics. There is a ‘closed loop’ when collected customer data (from surveys, promotional entries, coupon redemptions etc.) and browsing behavior or a purchase are used to build a customer profile. These profiles provide the basis for further marketing initiatives. The recipient profile is enriched and adjusted, based on responses to the campaign and the campaign is consecutively adjusted to the recipient profile – there is a feedback loop.
Implementation checklist
Before you rush into implementing a personalization solution for your online marketing communication, it is wise to consider some related factors:
- Privacy policy – do you clearly state that you are collecting implicit and/or explicit information about visitors and how you will use this information? Have you complied with the legal requirements for all the geographies in which you operate?
- Security – do you have security measures in place to protect personal information?
- Integration – does your website communicate with your CRM and other customer information sources? Do you have a central place that holds a single view of your customers, their interests and their behavior?
- Analytics – do you have an overall view of all your offline and online marketing activities in one place? Can you drill down to uncover what works and what doesn’t, which content is read and which isn’t? Our survey found that only 53 percent of companies always measure ROI.
- Infrastructure – a website must be reliable to evolve as the preferred channel for any type of customer centric interaction. Is your platform stable, responsive, convenient, easy to navigate, consistent and proactive?

WCM Allows Company To Provide Ideal User Experience On Global Scale

Friday, November 13, 2009 by Brad Davis

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

IHS, a leading global source of critical information and insight, has selected the SDL Tridion enterprise Web Content Management system (WCMS) to manage its global network of websites. With full implementation planned for the second quarter of 2010, IHS is undergoing a massive online overhaul that will merge 45 business unit-specific sites and domains into a single enterprise-level Web experience.

"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.

Evolution of Websites and Online Content

Friday, November 13, 2009 by Gavino Gonzalez

In the beginning…

Pay careful attention as this question as may allow you to win a bet some day, When was the Internet founded? The answer is 1958. I am not going to go that far back as the Internet was kept under government use only for many years, but I will start sometime in the last 15 years.

Sometime over the last 15 year we were all introduced to the Internet. The Internet then was mostly filled with pages of text only content. There was very little online content, only a few websites had images. Preliminary Internet chat was made by typing text on a page and clicking ‘refresh’ to ‘post’ your remarks. There was no music or videos to listen to or watch. There were no fancy online tools, no ecommerce, no Google or social media.

As time went on…

For general users, the Internet evolved and presented new opportunities with the proliferation of online content. Music, videos, live camera feeds, webinars and of course almost real time status updates. For businesses, this presented a double edged sword.

Pro:

•    Businesses are ‘always’ open
•    Brand management
•    Website globalization
•    Reduced time to market
•    Reduced operational costs

Con:

•    Brand management (See Web Content Management (WCM) and Social Media post)
•    Satisfying demand of relevant content

What lies ahead…?

As the Internet continues to evolve into the future we must ask ourselves the following questions:

•    Who will be the audience?
•    What will websites look like?
•    What kind of online content will be demanded?
•    How quickly can you adjust to change?
•    How will you manage online content?
•    How will you support your website?
•    What is your online strategy?

Looking forward I think we can safely assume the following:

•    Online content will continue to grow at an expediential rate
•    Demand for personalized content will continue to expand
•    Social Media channel will continue to increase
•    Growth in demand of mobile content
•    Globalization of websites will become the standard

Are you ready?

A best-in-class enterprise web content management system can help you ‘future proof’ your website(s). SDL Tridion solution is fully scalable and will allow you to adapt to whatever the future may hold.

About SDL Tridion

SDL Tridion is provider of best-in-class enterprise web content management systems. Positioned as a "Leader" by both Forrester and Gartner, SDL Tridion ushers in next generation web content management by integrating a suite of ROI focused online marketing tools.

Online marketing needs to catch up with offline. And fast.

Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Maria McCann

A key element of online marketing is personalization. It seems that everywhere I read in the marketing press, businesses are failing their audiences and simply not getting it right online.

It is no secret that retailers, such as Tesco and Boots, have led the UK market in monitoring customer preferences through their respective loyalty schemes and using this data to target them with relevant, unobtrusive offers. It has been over ten years since the Clubcard and Advantage Card were launched and, in this time, these retail giants have built up profiles of their customers that rivals envy and the industry holds in high regard.

So it seems bizarre that businesses are not replicating such proven marketing tactics online! Yamaha’s website is a great example of personalization based on behavioral viewing patterns and preferences. It encourages repeat visits and the holy grail of visitor stickiness. The commercial value in this is obvious!

We've just carried out some independent research in the UK to see what customers really want from their online browsing and shopping experience. The result? 66% of internet users expect to view content specific to their interests and needs. Furthermore, 41% say that they would be more inclined to shop online with a supplier that allowed them to create a personal shopping profile that stored information on browsing habits and purchases.

So what is stopping organizations from personalizing online content? It certainly shouldn't be their web content management systems.

It is easier to profile customers online because you do not need to know their true identity or glean various personal details. Next generation web content management makes it possible to profile anonymous visitors based on how they got to your site and what they're up to and looking at when they are browsing it. This will enable you to offer them relevant, personalized content, based on their previous visits, without being intrusive. The end result remains the same - it encourages the interested party to convert to being a customer and improve stickiness.

And this brings me back to my opening point about personalization. Having become estranged from customers in the online world, it is high time businesses reconnected with their audience. They need to turn the notion 'Are you talking to me?' into 'You are talking to me!'.

With such gains to be had, it's imperative that corporate websites take a strategic approach to online marketing. Consumers are tech savvy and will know if a website and its content is an afterthought. Get it wrong and you won’t convert anonymous visitors on your website into valuable contacts and customers. Get it right and you’ll create a loyal group of customers who want to come back time and again.

Zen and the Art of Web Content Management (WCM) Part 1

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Brad Davis

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

Best-in-class web content management systems have evolved and transcended the basic task of managing online content. The enlightened ones will align themselves with business drivers and provide tools and functionalities that will help organizations achieve their online marketing objectives. Next generation web content management systems make websites go KA-CHING.

Business Drivers Matched to Next Generation WCM Functionalities

Business Driver: Increased Website Traffic
WCMS Functionalities: SEO/SEM and Email Campaign Tools

Business Driver: Increased Conversion Rates
WCMS Functionalities: Website Personalization and Interactive Marketing Tools

Not All Web Content Management Vendors Have Evolved to the Next Level

Select your enterprise web content management vendor with great care, as some are not as evolved as others. While Zen philosophy teaches that All are on the path to enlightenment, you can be assured that some get there much faster than others.

SDL Tridion: An Enlightened WCM Vendor

SDL Tridion is provider of best-in-class enterprise web content management systems. Positioned as a "Leader" by both Forrester and Gartner, SDL Tridion ushers in next generation web content management by integrating a suite of ROI focused online marketing tools.

The Future of Web Content Management: Evolution or Extinction

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 by JanJaap Kolleman

"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
- Mark Twain

What will a future enterprise web content management system (WCMS) look like? What kind of features will it have? What business solutions will it offer? Or will web content management go the way of the Dodo bird and the dinosaur, doomed to extinction?

I think it's pretty safe to say...as goes the web, so goes web content management. So what will the web look like in 5, 25, 50, or 100 years from now? To even begin to explore this question, we must first look at what the web is made of: Content. Content is the life blood, the very essence of the web. And one thing I am quite certain of is that Content will never become extinct. That is, as long as human beings continue to exist.

My crystal ball tells me that the web and web content management (WCM) will not become extinct. Rather, they will evolve into new creatures that look completely different than their predecessors. What won't change, however, is the concept of Content. Content will always need to be created, delivered, managed, and leveraged to achieve business objectives.

To Much of a Good Thing?

There was, of course, Content long before the web. Lot's of it. But the world wide web of the Internet let the genie out of the bottle and Content has gone viral, growing at an exponential rate. Today virtually everyone, consumers and business alike, are creating and publishing content to the web. With the meteoric rise of easy-to-use web content management systems, Web 2.0, user generated content, and social media, the quantity of Content is growing faster than the national debt.

The shear volume of "noise" emanating from the web poses significant challenges to business trying to market their products or services... and the noise is only going to get louder.

(Relevant) Content Is Still King

In both B2B and B2C marketing, Content is what we use to convince our target audiences to buy what we are selling. Success requires that we filter the noise and be heard. To be effective, Content must be A. Persuasive, and, B. Consumed by those most likely to purchase our products and services. These are two very real business needs driving the evolution of web content management.

Two basic tenets of the theory of evolution are "Adaptation" and "Survival of the Fittest". What makes a web content management vendor fit? Many factors beyond basic financial stability, including the ability to align enterprise web content management solutions with business needs and drivers. Web content management vendors who fail to evolve and stay fit are doomed to extinction.

The Art of Persuasion

Best-in-class enterprise web content management systems will provide tools that increase the persuasiveness of Content. An example would be functionality for website personalization. Personalization of online content is a surefire way to get more members of your target audience doing exactly what you want them to do. It breaks through the noise and makes them feel like you're speaking directly to their needs.

Marketing to your Target Audience(s)

Target audience marketing is delivering persuasive content to those most likely to purchase your product or service. But first you have to find them and secondly you must get to know them. Enterprise web content management systems at the top of the evolutionary chain are well prepared to assist with these tasks by providing a platform that includes a suite online marketing capabilities. Examples include search engine optimization (SEO) and interactive marketing tools, an integrated email marketing solution, and functionality for gathering visitor intelligence.

Next Generation Web Content Management

Best-in-class web content management systems are evolving into online marketing platforms with the ability to deliver content across multiple channels. The good news is that you don't have to wait for a next generation web content management system, they exist today. Evolution is an ongoing process, so be sure to select a WCM solution that is fully scalable and "future proof", meaning a system with the genetics to adapt and evolve with your changing business needs.

About SDL Tridion: SDL Tridion is provider of best-in-class enetrprise web content management systems. Positioned as a "Leader" by both Forrester and Gartner, SDL Tridion ushers in next generation web content management by integrating a suite of ROI focused online marketing tools.

10 Ways to Improve Website Performance

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Brad Davis

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.

7. Integrate Web Content Management with Other Systems and Platforms

A best-in-class WCM system should easily integrate with CRM's, ERP's, email campaign tools, and other software and solutions. Integrating your enterprise web content management system will significantly improve efficiency, help marketers deliver more relevant content to their target audiences, and assist with website optimization, testing, and analysis.

8. Establish a Social Media Presence with Cross Links to Your Website

Develp and execute a social media strategy. At a minimum, set up Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In accounts with links to and from your website. Post relevant content to these social media sites on a regular basis.

9. Engage Customers Across Multiple Channels

While the website is at the center of the interactive universe and effectively managing online content vital to success, it pays to reach out to customers and prospects across multiple touch points including email, print, mobile, and RSS. Leverage multiple channels to drive traffic to your website. The best enterprise web content management systems will have online interactive marketing tools as well as multichannel marketing functionalities.

10. Measure, Analyze and Improve Website Content on a Regular Basis

I read somewhere that "whatever it was that made you successful today will not make you successful tomorrow". I'm not sure if that quote fully applies here, but I like it anyway :) Regardless, in my humble opinion, quality is an ongoing process, not a final result.

Use website analytic tools, learn from the reports they provide, and take concrete steps to improve your metrics. Measure, Analyze and Improve on a regularly scheduled basis (like monthly or quarterly). Oh, did I mention that the SDL Tridion enterprise web content management system provides an excellent set of website analytical tools?

The Business Case for Web Content Management

Saturday, October 24, 2009 by Brad Davis

Justifying Web Content Management (WCM)

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:

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.

Forrester Reviews Top Web Content Management Vendors and Systems

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 by Brad Davis

Searching for an Enterprise Web Content Management System? Start Here.

In an earlier blog post, I suggested that you begin the web content management vendor selection process by doing some research and developing a "short list" of vendors to evaluate. If you're like most organizations, you will probably begin with a Google search using phrases like:

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

Search on a WCM related phrase and you'll get a mind blowing number of results-over 184,000,000. And most of these will be from WCM companies who want to sell you their wares. Of course that includes your friends at SDL Tridion :)

Want Factual, Unbiased WCM Research? Go Straight to Forrester.

Forrester Research, a renowned web content management industry analyst, publishes a report that evaluates leading enterprise-class web content management vendors and their solutions. Their latest report is "The Forrester Wave™: Web Content Management for External Sites, Q-2 2009". The detailed report is used by many organizations to develop their "short list".

About the Forrester Report

Forrester evaluates 10 web content management vendors across approximately 115 criteria, which they grouped into three primary categories:

Current offering
Strategy
Market presence

Results are summarized in a clear concise manner with easy to read charts, diagrams and tables. If you are looking for a best-in-class enterprise web content management system from a leading web content management vendor, this report is definitely a "Must Read".

Download the Forrester Report for Free

Click here to download the web content management reviewed report by Forrester, compliments of SDL Tridion, a leader in enterprise web content management and online marketing solutions.

Selecting the Best Web Content Management System

There are hundreds of web content management products, systems, and solutions on the market today from hundreds of different vendors. Hopefully, you will find the Forrester report helpful in narrowing the playing field and developing a short list of enterprise web content management vendors to evaluate.

Which enterprise web content management system is right for you and which vendor should you select? This depends upon the specific needs of your organization. In any case, be sure to select a financially strong company with the ability to provide excellent web content management support and service.

Beyond Web Content Management

In addition to looking at the features and benefits of different web content management systems, I would also suggest that you take a look at how they will help you achieve your online marketing objectives, such as increasing conversion rates. Look for web content management software tools that will assist with online brand management, target audience marketing, email campaigns, and website personalization.

The bottom line: Top web content management vendors will help you do much more than basic online content management. They will help you realize the many benefits of web content management, the most important of which is ROI.

Five Ways To Persuade Your Target Audiences

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Gavino Gonzalez

The Communications Challenge

Global and Enterprise Organizations need to communicate with an increasing number of target audiences in different regions and across different channels. The challenge is to balance the need for localization and personalization with the need to maintain constancy of brand and message.

The Communications Solution

The best solution is an integrated technology that will enable organizations to manage brands, globalize websites, deliver targeted messages across multiple channels and to create mirco-sites for specific campaigns or projects. One solution is BluePrinting technology, a proprietary solution provided by SDL Tridion, a leader enterprise web content management and Online marketing solutions.

Communicating With a Connected World

In today's connected world, a well-managed, persuasive web presence is essential for any organization to achieve success. The Internet provides unprecedented opportunities for border-free communication and is by far the number one medium to reach a diverse group of target audiences. One of the keys to maximizing results is to localize and personalize Online content.

Personalizing Online Content Across Multiple Channels

Personalizing Online content echoes customer and prospect needs and interests, builds relationships, and creates brand loyalty. Ideally, organizations should provide personalized messages that reflect market conditions and the needs of their individual target audiences. Of course, this must be accomplished within the framework of an enterprise wide Online brand management and communications strategy.

To effectively address and persuade a collection of diverse target audiences, an enterprise requires a strategic solution that will help them address five main communication requirements.

•    Web site globalization
•    Online brand management
•    Target audience marketing
•    Multi-channel marketing
•    Micro site rollout and management

A Resource To get Started: Free White paper from SDL Tridion

SDL Tridion has produced an informative White paper "Five ways to persuade your target audiences" that discusses communications issues and presents BluePrinting technology as an cost effective solution that can be deployed enterprise wide. Download free of charge:

Five Ways To Persuade Your Target Audiences

10 Features a Best-In-Class Web Content Management System Should Have

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Brad Davis

Features versus Benefits

Yeah, I know. People (and organizations) buy benefits not features. And, of course, the benefits that a top rated enterprise web content management system can deliver are far more important than a collection of whistles and bells. That said, it is features that deliver benefits and properly employed functionalities that help achieve online business objectives.

"Must Have" Features & Functionalities

So, your an enterprise-class organization shopping for a best-in-class web content management system. What key WCM features should you be evaluating on the solutions being offered by the vendors lucky enough to make your short list? Here's a list of ten, that, according to my research, many WCM & CMS experts feel are mission critical:

1. Content Creation & Publishing Tools

Functionalities for tempalting, creating content components, and managing changes. It should be simple to build new websites, web pages, micro sites, and templates. The system should also make it easy to share and reuse content across multiple websites, and ideally, across multiple channels.

2. Editing Tools
A set of tools for editing content that are easy to use, including a WYSIWYG editor.

3. Automated Workflow & Approval Process
The ability to manage the content creation process from start to finish with an automated workflow and approval process.

4. Content Preview
The ability to preview content and check for errors prior to publishing to the live website(s).

5. Centralized Content Repository
The content repository should make it easy to upload, store, manage, and deliver different types of content, files, and digital assets.

6. Enterprise Ready Technology
Web content management software should be scalable and upgradeable with minimal effort. Modules that add additional functionalities and updates should be easy to install.

7. Check-in & Check-out
Secure library-type tools that allow for easy check-in and check-out of items with version control.

8. Integration & Connectivity
An enterprise web content management system should "play nice with others". Meaning that it should easily integrate with other technology and platforms, like, for example, CRM systems, Web 2.0, and social media applications.

9. Online Marketing Tools
Web content management is evolving and "next generation" web content management systems will offer integrated online marketing capabilities that will help users achieve online marketing objectives, such as increased traffic and conversion rates. Examples include website personalization for target audience marketing, interactive marketing, and online brand management.

10. A Solid Company Behind the WCM Solution
Web content management vendors should be evaluated very carefully and due diligence given to your finalists. Will your selected company be around for the next three to five years to provide service and support?

To be sure, there are other features and functionalities that you will want in an enterprise web content management system. Indeed, considering the number of solutions on the market, you will have, quite literally, thousands of features to choose from. Therefore, you might want to consider having three categories of features as you evaluate WCM solutions and vendors:

Must have features
Important features
Nice to have features

One final thought: Enough about web content management features. Don't forget about the benefits!

Web Content Management for Dummies- Part 1

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Brad Davis

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.

I'll leave the technology to the technical gurus. As for me, I'm happy being a web content management dummy. What I really want is an online marketing solution that will help me achieve my online marketing objectives. And that's what I've got.

The Evolution Of Web Content Management

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 by JanJaap Kolleman

Hmmm... let me see. SDL acquires Tridion. Autonomy acquires Interwoven. Open Text acquires Vignette and RedDot. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that something’s up, but it might take one to gain some insight as to what it all means. And, while these acquisitions have certainly been game changers, they are only one piece of a much bigger puzzle.

Best-in-class enterprise web content management systems must now do more than simply manage content. According to the Forrester Wave™: Web Content Management for External Sites Q2 2009:

"WCM EVOLVES INTO A KEY COMPONENT OF PERSUASIVE CONTENT ARCHITECTURE"

"Web content management (WCM) has come of age. Enterprises continue to invest in WCM projects, but they no longer use it to merely store content and publish online. Instead, they want to accomplish specific business goals, such as increased sales conversion rates and improved customer service."

Forrester makes an excellent point, however specific software functionalities are required to achieve the goals they refer to. To stay on the leading edge of the wave (pun intended) it seems to me that a "smart" web content management company would offer solutions that include:

Online brand management
Multichannel marketing
Website personalization
Target audience marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO)

Why? Because these marketing tools align with drivers that help organizations achieve real business objectives like:

Increased website traffic
Increased brand loyalty
Increased conversion rates

At the end of the day it's results that count. It seems to me that when evaluating web content management vendors, one of the key questions to consider is "How well will they help us achieve our online marketing objectives?".

So, if enterprise web content management is evolving what is it changing into? And what is the future of the WCM industry, market, vendors, products, and solutions? My crystal ball is just getting warmed up. How about yours?