contentmanagement

Marketing meet Landing Pages

It really shouldn't be a secret to most that e-commerce sites are usually very good, if not persistent search marketers. But what was a little surprising to me is how bad traditional brick-and-mortar (BAM) retailers are, as measured by a Retail Search Presence Study I found on Marketing Charts. [As an aside, I take all things with a grain of salt on Marketing Charts...because as we all know 35% of all statistics are wrong.] There are some other interesting points in the article, but what I think this underscores is the loss that some companies still feel in how to adapt their strategies to ever changing marketing channels.

Search is a great example here, because I wouldn't exactly consider it a new marketing channel, but it's definitely one that personifies the overwhelming, getting out of it what you put into it cliche. So what should you put into it? Fortunately their is an easy, single word answer that will solve all your marketing problems. Content. Ok, it's not really that easy, but it is the place to begin.

In my previous post I talked about content marketing and creating a single piece of content and then distributing and reusing to multiple channels. Great for boosting your search presence both for paid and organic search. But what I didn't talk about was how you can use landing pages as an easy way to increase your content footprint for your single most important online channel, your website. Landing pages are just basically orphaned pages that aren't usually navigable directly from your website, but rather are specific destination pages from marketing activities like PPC campaigns, email, event registration, direct mail, etc. So benefit number 1, the more of them you have the bigger your site looks to Google. They are meant to be nimble pieces of content that can be quickly optimized based on their performance which means they should be getting updated a lot more frequently than your normal brochure site, so benefit number 2, the more relevant your site looks to Google. Finally because landing pages can be specific to campaigns or individual activities you can deliver relevant messages, specific calls to action and bottom up reporting, benefit numbers 3, 4 and 5. And with benefits like that who needs to throw around statistics.

Recycling Doesn't Just Mean Going Green, Part 2

A quick recap of the first part of the article I posted earlier this week: Content marketing is a cheap, fast and effective marketing strategy as your budgets start to shrink - although I would argue that it should be a part of your strategy in any scenario. And it can also serve as a pre-qualification tool if you tailor your content to be relevant to prospect needs at certain spots of the buying cycle. So let's move on to practicality and some examples of how you can actually use this through various channels.

Since I used a whitepaper example earlier in Part 1 let's continue with that as our content creation starting point. Oh, and I'm also make some basic assumptions here, not the least of which is that your whitepaper has a certain level of quality. So now we're ready to distribute:

Post it to your Website. This should be your starting point, your Website should be the hub of your online marketing. Also as we go through this keep in mind that you should be getting something for your premium content. Make prospects register and provide some information to you before they can download your assets, they're getting value in return.

Reap the SEO benefits. The number one thing you can do to increase your SEO is to constantly create new, relevant content. Getting that content out into other places and then linking back to your site helps your cause immensely.

Use it in an SEM campaign. Create an ad with a specific call to action to download your FREE whitepaper. Remember that landing pages are important here, to pay off the ad and provide an next stop click to the form from the ad creative.

Post to collateral distribution sites. Some of these are free and some have guaranteed lead programs, regardless they are a good way to get your content in the hands of target audiences. A lot of these sites are vertical, or catering specifically to IT or marketing audiences. As a side note on the pay per lead program, these guys are dealing right now, don't be afraid to bargain down your CPL.

Seriously, Web 2.0 works. Leverage social marketing to get your content out in blogs, forums and social networks. Take an interesting or controversial point in your whitepaper and tweet about it, or update your Facebook, LinkedIn or myspace status'...with links of course. Start the conversation on a relevant blog or forum, even consider commenting on your competitor's blog. Also I know we're focused on a whitepaper in this example, but don't forget the rich media and bookmarking sites like YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, Authorstream, Stumbleupon and Digg. Yes, this can be a huge time suck, but applications like ping.fm can help distribute these from a single interface.

Email. Include it as a download in your next prospect email or customer newsletter. Keeping your opt-ins fresh with new content makes you look like you're a thought leader as well as putting you in the evoked set come shopping time.

PR. If it's relevant have your PR team pitch it to media and/or analysts. They should be able to take the nugget and run with it. This obviously isn't right for everything, but definitely consider it in the mix.

You get the idea. The list is endless, but I hope this gives you some programs to think about, a place to start, and a general direction to go after that. Remember this is about experimentation and most of these are free or very low cost allowing you to save some green.

Recycling Doesn't Just Mean Going Green, Part 1

As with most online marketers my budget has been dwindling quarter by quarter, but expectations by sales, management and the board for results remain as high as they ever were. Yes the "do more with less" cliché of the dot bomb is alive and well in the waning half of the decade as it was in the first half. But looking for a silver lining, one thing these little exercises are good for is a reset, to make us look at what we're doing and how we can make it better. And an easy place to start is with your content marketing strategy.

Yes, as my pithy title suggests, reusing content is more than using post-consumer recycled printer paper, but rather recycling your whitepapers, press releases, product demos, case studies, video testimonials through multiple channels to get the most out of each. And the beauty part of using content to market is that you can actually do some level of lead qualification based on what type of content a prospect, customer or partner is actually viewing. For example, if someone has downloaded a "Feature/Function Comparison" whitepaper, you can probably assume that they are in an evaluation phase, midway through the buying cycle. And we can probably make some assumptions about this person based on that content...they probably have a project, speeds and feeds are important, and they are probably pretty educated about the space and your competitors.

Sorry, I digressed a little there, back on topic. 70% of content marketing relies on process - distribution and measurement - while the remaining 30% is content creation. The hard part is definitely the process, distributing that information through your channels into the hands of people who will find value in it. Different technology can certainly help automate, like a good CMS, lead management systems, your CRM, analytics, email, etc., but you still have to set up the processes within each, and almost always among each, to make sure your content is where it needs to be and that you can measure their response.

Because I hate blogs that spew general advice without any practical application, in Part 2 we’ll look at a sample scenario of how we can create once and reuse many and what this means for your strategy.

WCM Is Growing - Forrester Said It's True So It Must Be...

I was pleased to see on Fierce Content Management that Forrester is predicting that web content management will continue to grow despite the present market conditions.

Their take is that it's because it's an investment that companies need to make in order to remain competitive. 

I've not read the entire report - but I would counter that one of the biggest drivers for web content management in this market is how marketers can do more with less.  

The web site is now the hub of online marketing - and a good, well managed web site increases SEO, and allows online marketers to exchange messages, while - optimizing landing pages and microsites to be relevant for online campaigns.

Forrester found that 72% of their respondents said they plan to increase their web content management spending, while approximately 20% plan to keep investments the same.  And, when asked "why" a majority (64%) said that they were trying to improve the customer experience.

That, to me, says marketing marketing marketing.

Ever-more I see WCM and Online marketing blurring to the point of becoming a combined process.

Technology is not the problem and it's not the answer.

I just finished the first day, or rather half day...you've got to love executive events, of the DMA Agency Winter Executive Briefing, focusing on "Profitability, New Media and the Shifting Landscape." And I'm struck by three things. The first, it's raining in San Diego, golf boondoggle canceled. The second, economy bad, agencies of all sizes are starting to feel it, especially B2C. And third, the assumption that technology is the answer to all my social marketing problems.

My second and third points beget each other a bit, in that in a recession more budgets are shifting to online marketing, oddly enough at about equal parts agency recommendation and client direction, and the understanding that a product or products are the way to make online marketing work. This was most obvious as the discussion inevitably turned to social marketing. There's a lot to do here, a lot of options...blogs, social networks, RSS, twitter, wikis, etc., and then the mobile aspects of all of those. The question was asked, "well where do I start", and the answer was "start with your vendors." Being one of those vendors, I was more than happy to chime in with a yes, definitely, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, that's not how I would want my agency to answer that question. 

The fact is, technology will solve about 10% of the problem, the other 90% is going to come from the agency and the client. It takes about 4 mouse clicks to set up a blog, even less to set up a twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook account, the point is that technology is the easy part. The strategy before and the process after that technology is the hard part. And in case you haven't picked up on it yet this is exactly what we typically hire our agencies for. The opportunity is right there, shooting up flares from a sinking ship and everyone seems to be looking for the widgit that makes the boat go faster.

Of course technology is important, and vendors are a great resource for information to take back to clients and build into marketing plans. But ultimately it's the agency that is being hired as the subject matter expert not the vendor. The agency and the client both need to understand that a blog isn't a single post by the CEO on the day of its launch, it's the conversation, good and bad, back and forth. Process and strategy make this work, make social marketing work...and get agencies work.

Your Content Mobility Ability

When I say Mobility – most of the time the conversation goes to publishing content for mobile technologies…. And certainly much has been made of publishing for Mobile Phones - and I certainly don't disagree that this is a coming trend… However, what I also believe is that the smartphone technology is outpacing our thirst for wanting to publish content to it… What that means is that browsers on this generation’s iPhones and Blackberry’s now look at regular old web sites – with regular old browsers…. And Text Messaging through social networks a la Twitter is also proving popular… So, having to strategize about specific formats such as WML or WAP is outdated…

 If any of you have ever gone through a content migration from one content management system to another - you know that...well there's no other way to put this - content migration sucks...    By Mobility in 2009 what I mean is Content Mobility - and that really comes down to two elements... the first is the content *WE HAVE*   Meaning we have content and  we need to publish it to many different devices – including our web site and, yes, mobile phones and blackberrys, but also kiosks and televisions and cars and XBOXES and Facebook etc…    And the second is content “WE DON’T YET HAVE*.. And that means supporting your needs in ever-expanding content management...  Basically, we don't even know all the content we're going to need to manage...

When you’re next designing your web site, or your micro-site or landing page program - remember you're building an online marketing platform – not an end product.  The solution you pick to support that management process should be flexible enough to format your online content for what you need... But also change as your web strategy changes.... Here’s an examplem, if not maybe overly-lofty goal for you…. Make this the last re-design you ever do… The perfect web site / cms / online marketing tool implementation means that you can make incremental changes to your site bit by bit as you determine success, so that six months from now, your site looks completely different… A redesign that happens by process, rather than project.

EMC Acquiring Source Labs - Maybe Not So Baffling After All

EMC acquired open source vendor Source Labs last week.  There have been few details about the reasons - or even the acquisition itself - and this has left more than one blogger a little mystified as to the reason.

Source Labs is an open source vendor.  They currently (and this apparently wasn't part of the sale) run a community site called Swik.net - which is a resource for various open source tools.

A few folks have speculated that because Source Labs main customers were in the financial services industry, that they may have been ailing a bit - as that entire industry has well.... I think we all read the papers.

In any event, I certainly have a guess at why EMC would acquire Source Labs.  Again, some have speculated (I think correctly) that it's definitely the software, and not the community site that EMC is after - but I would suspect that there's a few things beyond the immediate benefits of a great search system and the software's ability to intelligently search massive amounts of application data and issues that are attractive.  The main reason is that in this kind of economy, that capability (the technology) combined with the benefit of adding smart people who have the ability develop that kind of technology would certainly be attractive to any company who's tag line is "where information lives".

All CMS's Are Puppies

So, there's been some great back and forth on a recent blog posting over at Interwoven.  In that posting, Interwoven's Annie Weinberger makes the argument that Open Source is Free like a Free Puppy is free. 

Once again, the Open Source fans yell that this isn't fair and someone trots out the original quote in the Free Software Movement mantra that Open Source was meant to be free as in "Freedom" not "Free Beer". 

Seth Gottlieb (as he almost always does) gets it right in his reply here.

The truth is that the metaphor is just clumsy.   ALL CMS's are like Puppies - some you buy and some you get for free.  They ALL require care and feeding.  And let me tell you from personal experience that TeamSite is like a stubborn male Pug when it comes to the care and feeding (it eats alot and goes where it wants to go).

But I owned a Pug and absolutely loved that dog.  And, so too, can you "own" a CMS and have it be successful for you; whether that CMS is an Open Source or Commercially Licensed product.

The question isn't whether the CMS choice is like a box of puppies - some you buy and some you get for free.  But, rather, it's whether you should have a dog in the first place - and what breed is most appropriate for you.  If you live in a small one bedroom apartment and are single, a Bull Mastiff probably isn't the best choice (oy this metaphor is getting tired already).

The key here is (and maybe this is the point that Annie is really trying to make) something that we've been saying for a long time.    The reason to acquire an Open Source CMS should not be because you think it's "free".  There are many reasons to choose Open Source CMS products (flexibility to customize, access to the source code, community etc...)  But a low ("free") licensing cost is not one of them.

To use another clumsy metaphor.  The licensing cost of ANY CMS product is like buying a sailboat.  It's the smallest part of the cost equation.  It's the ongoing management and maintenance of that solution that will become the biggest cost-factor.  And your thirst for that piece is what should be a guiding principle in your decision on a solution.

Come See Us At Gilbane

Well, it's here again - and we're back - the fifth annual Gilbane Boston conference kicked off yesterday.  The theme of this year's conference is "where content management meets social media".  Many of the breakout sessions are focusing on how you can manage all these different types of content that will be coming from disparate locations.

There's about 50 of us "vendors" breaking the quiet of the conference.  And, if you're interested in seeing what they're all up to, you can check out this posting of the press release on Fierce CIO.  If you're in Boston, be sure to come see us at the CrownPeak booth.

Content Migration - It's Not All Sour Milk

Yesterday on CMSWire, Gerry Mcgovern, certainly one of the more preeminent experts on content management had an interesting post on web content migration.

If I read the post correctly, the point Gerry makes is that all content migration projects are doomed to fail if you don't focus on the quality of your content. Moving old content into the new CMS is like pouring spoiled milk into a new, shiny jug.

In concept, I definitely agree with Gerry. Focusing on the quality of your content is an absolute must if you expect your web site redesign, or new CMS to affect the results of your web site. At CrownPeak, we've seen the best re-designs fail because of a lack of focus on content.

However, we would respectfully also point out that this is a bit more nuanced challenge than Gerry points out in the post. Having been a part of hundreds of CMS and content migration projects for more than seven years - our experience is that some times re-editorializing content comes at the expense of success.

We've seen a few examples of content that may not be the best written, or adhere closest to the brand - but because of a "happy accident" of keyword density becomes one of the most highest ranked pages from Google's perspective.  Then, when that page is removed and/or changed - losing all its page rank glory.  Similarly, especially with Government and Non-Profit sites - we've seen so much attention time and effort paid to putting an inventory of content together - that the entire project gets out of hand.  Or, similarly, we've seen old content get removed because of "quality" issues and  just simply confuse users of that content.

Sometimes, we have to say, content is just content - and just like the crazy old uncle that you've come to live with - your old content may be kind of embarrassing - but it may serve a very particular purpose.  

So, as anyone familiar with our CMS Pocket Guide and our webinars realizes - we are the first to agree that content migration projects - well quite simply - suck.

But, while I absolutely agree with Gerry that "taking your old intranet content and migrating it into a new software system [can be] doomed to failure", I would just add a helpful safety tip.   Don't just take an inside-looking-out approach before determining quality.  Make sure that you also take an outside-looking-in approach as well.  It might surprise you just how many people don't see sour milk in your jug - but rather see sour cream.