Web Content Management Software Tool

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.

Micro-Site – Maxi-Impact: Flexible Wireframe

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Sonja Keerl

If you intend to roll-out microsites more often, it is smart to create a wireframe for it. This contains a set of features and functionality that you can then pick-and-chose in your actual sites.

Functionality Switches
Make sure, you can switch functionality on and off on site level. Some handy functionalities to have triggers for are:
- Show Navigation
- Show Breadcrumb
- Show Language Selector
- Show Search
- Show Social Bookmarking
- Generate XML Sitemap
- Generate RSS Feed
- Direct feed into CRM System
Configurable Elements
Make sure you can configure a number of elements yourself without having to involve your IT department. If you are using our Web Content Management System, you can easily define items such as:
- The analytics IDs for your microsite
- Where your form actions go
- Campaign IDs for your CRM for downloads and registrations
- Design elements
- Redirects
Layout Considerations

Last but surely not least: Micro-Site – Maxi-Impact: Optimizing and advertising your microsite

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 (WCM) and Closed Loop Marketing

Monday, December 21, 2009 by Gavino Gonzalez

All the Time in the World…Not!

According to research companies, it has been estimated that we see nearly four to six thousand messages per day. The number of websites has doubled year over year and our attention span has dropped considerably. We only spare some extra time for something truly relevant.

Reading the Tea Leaves to Increase Conversion Rates

Engaging in the practice of closed loop marketing can lead to a significant increase of conversion rates on your website. Applying lessons learned from customer responses and behavior to future marketing strategy and tactics can yield positive campaign results. We can learn from our customers by leveraging the following tactics:

Completed Surveys
Promo Code Redemptions
Purchase/Browsing behavior
Email Response rates
External Blogs
Comments posted on Corporate blogs
Social Media ( Twitter, Facebook, Tagging, Ratings)

Closing the Loop

By constantly adjusting future strategy and tactics based on interpreting the messages that our customers are leaving can we increase conversion rates and close the loop. Following the loop will provide the following benefits:

The following examples are tactics that can be leveraged to increase conversion rates for your campaigns:

Deliver relevant content to website visitors
Personalize emails
A/B Testing

Following the loop will provide the following benefits:

Increasing Conversion Rates
Brand Loyalty
Long Term Growth

Start Increasing Conversion Rates

Deploying a best-in-class enterprise web content management system can help you achieve your business goals. SDL Tridion allows you to build brand awareness by optimizing SEO to help you increase your website traffic. The Tridion solution also allows you to display relevant content on your website and email campaigns through the use of personalization to meet the customer demand of specific content. For more information about Closed Loop Marketing download the complimentary Whitepaper.

Seven Sins of Website Translation

Friday, December 18, 2009 by Sonja Keerl

Today, I had to do some research on the web. As I surfed in this sea of information, I put on my consumer glasses and had a closer look at the translation features of these sites. Working for a global Web Content Management vendor, I was surprised by what I saw. And because I did not get far with my intended research, I decided to at least share with you what to me are the Seven Sins of website translation:

Sin One: Don’t translate at all
If you want to go global, you must translate your website, especially if your native language is not English. If you want to reach minorities in your country, you have to translate at least the relevant parts of your content. Looking at latest research, there is no doubt about it: Visitors prefer being addressed in their mother tongue. And not only that – it makes them see that you care and will most definately lead to increasing conversion rates. In addition to that, you will also do a lot for your Search Engine Optimization, because people tend to search for their native language terms. Managing online content is not difficult anymore, even when it is multilingual.

Sin Two: Machine translation
Although I must admit that I am impressed with the latest automated translations, they are still nowhere near human translations. Especially when you have language rich content, such as articles, you want to make sure that you do not end up with literal translations, but with contextually correct ones. Or do you know what “Morning hour has gold in its mouth” is trying to tell you?

Even more important than idioms and context however is the tone of voice and the message you want to bring across. No machine translation can do that for you, because there is no “conservative” vs. “cheeky” translation alternative. So, make sure every piece of content you care about is really translated by a human translator. Ideally one, who is aware of cultural differences and keeps a consistent brand image. Machine translation by itself is

Sin Three: Translating half of the story
The other day I tried to figure out a train connection in the Netherlands and found myself faced with a websites that had literally half Dutch half English content. Unfortunately, in case of the FAQs, the questions were in English but the answers in Dutch. The contact form had Dutch labels and English tool tips… it was just plain annoying. If you want to do it, do it right.

Sin Four: Auto routing based on location
There are a couple of ways to find out a preferred language for a visitor. The simplest way is to ask them directly upon their first visit and store the information, for instance in a cookie. If you want to go a bit more sophisticated, you can read out the system language automatically.

And then there is the option to check based on location. Oh, how I hate that! I am an expat living in the Netherlands and by now one in three websites decides I must be Dutch. What do I do? I go to the competition and hope they try to be less smart.

This gets even worse when you are travelling though. Earlier this year I was in Japan on business and I tell you, trying to find your way around a Japanese website IS a challenge… which leads me directly to the next sin…

Sin Five: Translating the language options
So, I am on this Japanese website, I detect the usual language switch dropdown (at least I assumed, cause it was in the upper right corner… not that it actually indicated so)… and then… well, a lot of kanji that leave me puzzled. Who would do such a thing? Unfortunately, most of the websites! You want to give your audience the opportunity to find their own language, because they might not understand yours… and the you do not translate the option itself? That does not work :)
There are two valid options online today:

Leave everything in English. Even if your visitor does not speak English, the words “language” and their local language most people have learned by now.
Even better: use the local language. So, English is English and German is Deutsch and French is Française, no matter which version you are on.

Both options make sense, help your audience and save you translation cost too. Don’t forget: Localizing and translation are two very different things.

Sin Six: Inconsistent translation
A very confusing phenomenon is when you browse through a translated website and same terms are translated differently where ever you go. The German word “Untersuchung” has for instance over 20 different translations in English – and it does make a difference if you translate it into “inquisition” or “exploration” when meaning “research”. (“Our latest inquisition has shown that…” might just not put your organization in the right light.)

There are a number of solutions out there today to prevent such inconsistencies by utilizing a Translation Memory System. Briefly what it does is that any translation you have approved will be stored in a Memory System. Whenever the same or a similar translation is requested afterwards, the previous approved translation will be given to the translator as a suggestion. This means, you can keep your choice of terms consistent. Also, it will allow you to work with different translators without getting different tones of voice or messages into your content, because the style of your translation will become clear from the suggestions already. Of course, translation memories can be used organization wide, so that you can make use of the cost and time savings for all your channels, not only online.

Sin Seven: Forgetting other channels
So, you took care of all the above and give me the option to read your content in my native language. I am happy and engaged and decide to register on your website. Eagerly I await the confirmation link email and find it in... English. Just as the following newsletter and reminder to get my 20% off coupon. My initial joy is met by an equally high disappointment. Reusing content across multiple channels and reusing the translations for all channels is no rocket science with a proper multichannel marketing system.

(P.S. “Morning hour has gold in its mouth” is the German equivalent of "The early bird catches the worm")

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!

The Impact of Social Media on Web Content Management (WCM)

Thursday, December 17, 2009 by JanJaap Kolleman

Managing Social Content

Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave, LinkedIn, FriendFeed – the list of sources of social content is never-ending. It wasn’t long ago, when organizations didn’t take social content seriously, let alone tried to manage it efficiently and productively.

Not anymore. Having realized the impact of social media on their businesses, some organizations have chosen to manage their social content in the same way they manage their business content. Some do it with the same enterprise web content management system (WCMS) they use for managing their corporate websites, intranets and extranets. Others use separate applications. The bottom line is social content must be effectively managed... lest there be consequences.

Regardless of how you approach this, the fact is that social content is everywhere and it cannot be ignored. Social content is very dynamic and changes rapidly, not at the same rate as your other content. However, if you use your WCM system to manage social content, there are several advantages to this model. A next generation web content management system will have this functionality, along with other interactive marketing tools.

Advantages of Using an Enterprise WCMS to Manage Social Content

One of the advantages of using an enterprise web content management system to manage social content is workflow and approvals. It is undeniable that social media may be a bit of a scary beast to many organizations. Using your WCM system to filter user-generated content is possible, while not always effective. Your social content workflow may be different from others you employ in the company, but it will give you the desired safety and comfort when dealing with social media. As a result, you’re not falling behind the social media curve, but all your content is safe.

Archiving and compliance is another reason for using a web CMS for managing social media and social networks content. It may not be stored in the same repository/database as your other content, but having a strategy and tools to archive your content is crucial, especially in environments with heavy legal and other regulations.

Social media may be treated as one of your publishing channels, just like web, print, mobile, etc. If you already use an enterprise web content management system for publishing to those channels, you may as well consider using the WCMS for social publishing.

While social and web publishing are still moving along the separate tracks, I think in the near future we’ll see them merge, and social content will be managed the same way as any of your other content (web, documents, digital assets, etc.).

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?

Turning unstructured content into a corporate asset

Monday, November 23, 2009 by Remco van Rij

Unstructured content (e.g. Documents, Web pages, XML components, audio, video, medical images, scanned images, engineering drawings, enterprise reports, records, presentations) is growing overall by over 200% per year - 35 billion emails per day, Word content doubles every two months. Structured content is growing at only 4%.

Most business executives consider unstructured content to be an asset, yet few believe that it is properly managed like an asset. The majority of corporate unstructured content is not really managed as an asset at all, but instead is just needles of value in a haystack of shared drives, mailboxes and more systems than organizations know what to do with.

Unstructured information assets that are uncontrolled and unexploited do not support the implementation of corporate strategy and communication; in fact, they hinder it. Instead of reducing risk, they increase it.

And much of this content is brought to the outside world via the internet. If you want to maximize the value of your content (instead of treating it as a cost), trust it to a platform that manages your content in a way you can use it for all your channels.

SDL Tridion is market leader in Global Web Content Management, and by offering integrations with digital asset management systems and collaboration software, it supports the full life cycle of one of your most valuable corporate assets: persuasive content! Your content becomes fuel for target audience marketing, brand management and email campaigns. Only imagine...

The New Definition of Multichannel Marketing

Monday, November 16, 2009 by JanJaap Kolleman

How would you define multichannel marketing? I define it as the use of multiple media pathways to reach and influence a target audience. Traditionally, multichannel marketing includes some combination of the following pathways, aka channels:

Online (Website & Email)
Direct Mail
Telemarketing
Broadcast Media (TV, Radio, etc.)

Like an apothecary mixing a potion, the Marketer will select the right mix of channels to achieve the desired results. The savvy Marketer will select the channels based upon campaign objectives, business type (B2B or B2C), the product or service being offered, and the characteristics of the market segments and audiences being targeted.

Today, multichannel marketing can certainly include any of the above, however the channels to choose from have not only increased in numbers, they have evolved. What has emerged are two very distinct species; one surviving, the other thriving:

Offline Marketing
Online Marketing

The Ascension of the Online Marketing

It wasn’t that long ago that the typical corporate website functioned a lot like a digital brochure. Not anymore.

For many organizations the website has become the center of the marketing universe and a primary driver of corporate revenue (directly and indirectly). The website has evolved from a “channel” into a “platform” for online marketing... a hub for emerging channels that exist almost entirely within the online realm:

Email Campaigns
SEM & SEO (Search Engine Marketing & Optimization)
Directory Listings (free and paid inclusion)
Banner Ad Campaigns
Whitepaper Syndication
RSS Feeds & SMS
Mobile
Blogs
Social Media & Networks

New Tools for a New Era

The evolution of web content management is being driven primarily by the evolution of online marketing. As a result, next generation web content management (WCM) systems are entering the market.

Next generation web content management systems are essentially becoming online marketing platforms. In addition to managing online content, they will also support multichannel marketing. Moreover, they will align with business drivers and include functionalities geared toward achieving marketing objectives, such as increasing conversion rates and building brand loyalty.

A best-in-class enterprise web content management system will include:

Brand management tools
Interactive marketing tools
Email campaign tools

Rethinking Multichannel Marketing

The term “Multichannel Marketing” does not necessarily need to be redefined. Rather, it’s our collective perception of what multichannel marketing consists of that warrants redefinition. No longer does a campaign require both online and offline media to be considered “multichannel” - successful multichannel marketing campaigns are now being conducted 100% online.

SDL Tridion is a leading provider of enterprise web contentent management systems (WCM) and online marketing solutions.

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.

Web Content Management (WCM) and Social Media

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Gavino Gonzalez

There are basically two types of social media campaigns

1. Those that you can control

The type of social media campaign that you control are initiated by your own organization, provided you have the necessary tools. A best-in-class enterprise web content management system will integrate with commercially available social media software and tools.

For example, a blog run by your company would require a workflow moderator to approve posts and comments before they go live and the same applies to corporate sponsored wikis.

In addition to using a best-in-class enterprise web content management system there are other brand management tools to help deliver brand consistency online. One of those tools is SDL Tridion's Safeguard. Safeguard is a powerful tool that will help protect your brand online with a few mouse clicks. This ensures that you will deliver a consistent content that protects your brand and its value.

2. Those you can’t control

If a customer or a prospect becomes upset and decides to slam your organization on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, quite frankly, there is not much you can do about it. You can however; monitor social networking sites and keep an eye out for disparaging campaigns. Should one arise you would then be prepared to take swift action to mitigate potential negative effects.

Contact SDL Tridion today to request a demonstration or to learn more about enterprise web content management systems or brand management tools like Safeguard and how they can protect your brand.

How cheap is open source in the real world?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Remco van Rij

As closed source software vendor, SDL Tridion is of course not blind for the trend within companies to add open source software to their short lists. If it is either as part of a dictated policy (e.g. governmental organizations) or for financial arguments. But for both reasons it is essential to get insight in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to make fair and wise decisions in the end.

In many blogs, on websites and in articles, you can read academic studies on this. But the real proof of the pudding is of course in the eating! And the taste is not always as sweet as expected... Therefore I would like to share with you some real life experiences you can take notice of.

When starting with Open Source, and coming from a closed source enterpise product like SDL Tridion Enterprise Web Content Management System, then you need to deal with at least one of the following habits in your organization.

Your business and IT people are used to:

work with fully supported and 'fit for purpose' Web Content Managements products
get good and timely answers on their requests, issues, changes and enhancements
be able to get experienced consultants on-site when necessary

And what did your people experience during the open source implementation? They found out that:

Former standard functionality has to be customized (like SDL Tridion's BluePrinting)
support is not (timely) available
experienced consultancy is scarce and certainly not for free
Motivation drops after first enthousiasm at the start

Already before go-live of the new open source solution, the TCO advantages that were predicted are dissapeared. And what is left is a demotivated organization with a sour IT project that cannot execute its plans and actions to fight competition via the web.

My advice: Let the functionality and flexilibity that you need to gain business advantages lead the way in your decicion making. And then start evaluating the price and benefits of your futureproof Enterprise Web Content Management System!

An Introduction to Web Content Management (WCM) Strategic Planning

Monday, November 9, 2009 by Brad Davis

Strategy without tactics is inertia.
Tactics without strategy is chaos.

3 Questions to Ask Before Starting a New Web CMS Project

Sometimes it's a good idea to return to the basics. Here are three fundamental questions I have found most helpful when tasked with developing a strategic plan, web content management or otherwise:

1. Where are we now?
2. Where do we want to go?
3. How are we going to get there?

Sounds simple, right? Maybe, but these three questions can form the foundation of a very complex web content management plan.

Where Are We Now?
Assess the current situation

Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your online marketing operations from your website design to methodology for managing online content. Start by asking the right questions, worry about answering them later.

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?

If you know exactly where you are, it's much easier to get to where you want to be.

Where Do We Want To Go?
Set well defined objectives

Sure, you want a cool looking website that does really cool things. More importantly, however, I bet you want a website that will help you achieve online marketing objectives, like increasing conversion rates. Be as specific as possible.

How Are We Going To Get There?
Develop a plan

Before looking at web content management vendors and technology, craft a step by step plan that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. Standard elements of a strategic plan include:

Strategy
Tactics
Timeline
Budget
Metrics

When the time comes to look at web content management products and solutions, consider how well they will integrate with your strategic plan. Give more weight to WCM features and functionalities that will best help you achieve your defined objectives.

The selection of an enterprise web content management system and vendor should be a very deliberate process. The WCM industry is currently undergoing rapid change, from both technology and vendor landscape perspectives.

For more information about WCM planning and solutions, please feel free to contact 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.

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.

How Much is Your Brand Worth?

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Gavino Gonzalez

Brand Value

Ever ponder how a best-in-class web content management system (WCM) can influence brand value? The answer is a lot! If you are managing online content manually across your website (or network of sites) then you are placing your brand at risk. There are many potential risks (or more) , everything from accidentally coping over a piece of code to inevitable errors such as typos and punucation. What if you placed a banner on your site in the wrong language? What if offensive language some how was published live? How many of your customers will be forgiving? Better yet, how long would it be before you can put up the correct banner? The bottom line is, your brand and it's value has taken a hit... Ask yourself, how much is my brand worth and what am I putting at risk?

Playing it safe

A Best-in-class web content management system will help protect your brand's integrity and value. It will simplify your online content publishing process. Benefits of a properly deployed best-in-class web content management system include:

Maintaining consistency of brand and message
Reduced time to market
Increased conversion rates
Reduced operational costs

Online Brand Management

In addition to using a best-in-class web content management system there are other brand management tools to help deliver brand consistency online. One of those tools is SDL Tridion's Safeguard. Safeguard is a powerful tool that will help protect your brand online with a few mouse clicks. This ensures that you will deliver a consistent website that protects your brand and its value.

Contact SDL Tridion today to request a demonstration or to learn more about enterprise web content management systems or brand management tools like Safeguard and how they can protect the value of your brand.