Business Strategies for Content Management - Part 1: Evaluating Content Management Solultions

Business Strategies for Content Management Part 1 of 4 Evaluating Content Management Solutions

Our Team Today Who Background Mark Boisvert Account Executive

10+ years in technology, marketing, & professional services

Particular focus on content management solutions and master data management

TJ O’Connor Principal Consultant

Extensive experience in the development of advanced web content management solutions

Expert in Web 2.0 technology and solution integration

Speaker at technology events and trade shows

About CrossTech Partners

Strategy, Integration, and Managed Services for New Marketing:

Social Media

Event Technology

Web and Integrated Content Management

Mobile Delivery

Digital Media Delivery

Master Data Management

Confidential - CrossTech Partners Delivering Second Circle Marketing Innovation

What is Content Management?

Referred to CMS or WCMS

Software or software-as-a-service/on-demand

Enables marketers to create and manage online content

Suites of tools for powering interactive experiences

Things like forms, landing pages, video, SEO, social tools, feeds

Web 1.0: Functionality Focused

“ It’s not too late to capitalize on the web’s potential. Business owners who invest time, energy and a modest sum into creating an online business with ecommerce can raise their company’s profile, make themselves more accessible to potential customers and clients, and ultimately boost sales”

- SmartMoney Magazine 1999

Web 2.0: It’s All About Marketing

The “brochure” site is much more vital to our marketing strategy

2008 introduced Web 2.0 – that left us confused about where we should really focus our efforts

Today’s technology makes it less complex for us to launch new micro-sites and landing page programs

We shouldn’t have to bother IT with complex technology projects in order to launch content marketing efforts

We need fast, nimble programs that enable us to experiment without a herculean effort from IT

The Promise of CMS

Website Owners

Marketers manage content

Sites get updated

IT backs off

Sites more dynamic

More interactivity

Workflow streamlines process

Website Visitors

Sites more findable, relevant

Interactive experiences

Personalization/customization

Search/find content

Social Networking

Direct channel back to you

Key Challenges

Choosing a web content management solution (CMS) can be challenging, as the marketplace has grown rapidly with the entry of many new products

In addition, they need clear business processes that define how content is managed and governed

To be successful, companies must integrate their web content management strategy within their overall information architecture

Our clients are asking us to help map their business and technical requirements with available solutions

Marketing budgets quickly shifting

Internet time waits for no one

Today’s Agenda

What does a CMS do?

Choosing an Environment

Hosting Options

Features To Look For

Next Steps

Q & A

What does a CMS do? DISPLAY ENGINE Template Content CSS Styles SQL XML

Choosing An Environment

Environment is the set of hardware and software on which your CMS platform will run

Keeping an open mind will give you more options when choosing a CMS

Open Source vs. Proprietary

Open Source

Advantages

Low/No Cost

Community driven

Reviewable code

Disadvantages

No 24/7 Support

Community driven

Mostly LAMP based

Proprietary (Closed-Source)

Advantages

Tech Support

Responsibility

Disadvantages

Licensing Fees

Upgrade Fees

No Access To Code

Slow Bug Fixes

Hosting Options

None Local server and supported internally

Hosted Server in data center and supported internally

Hosted & Supported Server in data center and supported by vendor

Software as a Service No hardware, pay for use of CMS

Can I Host My Own CMS?

Is this an intranet or public facing site?

Do you have an existing technology platform?

Do you have technical resources to perform server and platform updates?

How does a CMS Work? DISPLAY ENGINE Template Content CSS Styles SQL XML

Features To Look For

Display Engine

Dynamic Navigation

Content Creation

Content Syndication

Workflow Optimization

Search Content

Search Engine Optimization

Website Analytics

Integration

Display Engine

Valid, standards compliant markup

Cross-browser

Separation of style and content

Ability to include Feeds, Stylesheets, JavaScript

Dynamic Navigation

Ability to use dynamic menus

Generate dynamic sitemap

XML Sitemap

Custom error pages

Content Creation

WYSIWYG Editing

Office Toolbar

HTML Editing

Preview Changes

Apply styles

Time-based Publish

Time-based Expire

Meta Tagging

Content Syndication

Publish content as feed (RSS/Atom)

Allow users to subscribe to news, events, search results, etc..

Helps with SEO

Repurpose feeds as widgets, newsletter, etc…

Workflow Optimization

Assign tasks

Staging area

Email alerts on expired content

Rollback to previous versions

Search Content

Search document library

Search tags and metadata

OpenSearch Support

Search page content

Search Engine Optimization

Ability to update meta-tags

Ability to update page header

Navigation must be crawl-able

Generate XML sitemap

Analytics

Report Types

Web-based

Printable (PDF)

Excel, etc…

Report Delivery

Pull (Download)

Push (Email)

Integration

Google Analytics

Web Trends

Reporting Dashboard

4 Key Takeaways

Don’t think CMS is a silver bullet; it’s an enabling tool

Align marketing & IT for CMS selection

Seek CMS vendor who speaks marketing, not just tech

CMS is a technology; content management is a discipline

Contact Information

Get a FREE Content Management Analysis & Demo here: http://www.crosstechpartners.com/demo

We can't always address every question in our one-hour timeslot, so all the remaining questions will be answered here: http://blog.crosstechpartners.com