1. BMC Case Study
How to take a content-first approach and measure
the success of your content strategy
Mark Fries
Principle Strategic Marketing Manager, BMC Software
@mark_f
Derek Phillips
Director of Content Strategy, ISITE Design
@digistrategist
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

2. AGENDA
① Where We Were
② What We Did
③ How It’s Working
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

3. 1 Where We Were
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

4. The Five Challenges
① Inconsistent representation of the brand story
② Too product-centric, not reflecting customer needs
③ Cumbersome and overwhelming UX
④ Lacking content direction
⑤ Needed scalable technology and infrastructure
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

5. Inconsistent representation of the brand story
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

6. Too product-specific, not reflective of customer
needs
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

7. Cumbersome and overwhelming UX
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

8. Lacking content direction and governance
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

9. • 200+ products
• 5 separate business units
• Moving to centralized content management and editing
• New commitment to testing and optimization
• Plans to expand global footprint
Needed scalable technology and infrastructure
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

10. 2 What We Did
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11. The Five Approaches
① Defined specific business goals and aligned them to
touchpoints
② Defined the customer needs
③ Aligned pages to personas
④ Defined the content components: think modular
⑤ Mobile first, mobile always
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

12. Defined specific business goals and aligned them
to touchpoints
We asked the questions:
• What is the purpose of this page to
our business?
• What are the KPIs we’re measuring?
• What is the primary call to action?
• More importantly: What role is it
targeting? Strategic vs. Functional
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

13. DEFINING SPECIFIC
NEEDS AND IDENTIFYING
CONTENT TO MEET THEM
ENABLED OUR MODULAR
APPROACH
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

14. Defined the customer needs
We made some assumptions and then tested them with customers.
Assumptions
Prototype
& Test
Adjust
Some key insights learned:
• Users commonly have specific
products in mind, or a specific
functional need
• Users prefer functional categories
• Product/solution features preferred to
high-level benefit statements
• Data sheets are a highly valued
content asset
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

15. Aligned pages to profiles
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16. Defined the content components
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

17. Designed in the browser
Some key benefits:
• Working with real content to better
inform design
• Could see the mobile experience and
break points
• Foundational FED mark-up sped up
development time
Jumping quickly to building a site, vs. building pictures of sites
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

18. Strategy applied to the copy
Translated to copy
decks to speed
production and ensure
alignment.
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

19. Reused the content components
Think modular…
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

20. Mobile first, mobile always
Concise
Actionable
Focused on task completion
Contextual
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

21. Mobile first, mobile always
Also made defining hierarchy easier
• Lead with most important
• Stack in order
• Provide paths
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

22. LET’S CIRCLE BACK ON A
FEW KEY CHALLENGES
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23. The Three Specific Challenges
① Streamlined and intuitive UX
② Comprehensive content direction and governance
③ Scalable technology and infrastructure
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

24. Bottom-up experience:
Ensuring visitors entering directly
on product/solutions pages (most
visitors) are given appropriate
context and options to continue
engaging
Streamlined and intuitive UX
Top-down experience:
Giving visitors who enter on home
page or category level pages
simple choices to disambiguate our
offerings
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

25. We have a clear POV and strategy behind how our site is
constructed
• Makes conversations with the business easier
• Eases optimization since learnings in one area can be
deployed in multiple places
Comprehensive content direction and governance
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

26. Remember this?
Scalable technology and infrastructure
The Intelligent Content
Approach was key to our
getting there:
• Atomized the content
• Established coding
standards
• Enabled utility of the
CMS
• Proved the design
worked
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

27. 3 How It’s Working
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

28. The Four Big Payoffs
① A framework for optimization
② Increased content creation efficiencies
③ Overall engagement is up
④ Contacts – UP! (And that means money)
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

29. Our goal with optimization: never “redesign” again
• Highly structured infrastructure makes it possible to
get experiments up and running quickly anywhere
• Findings from experiments can easily roll out across
the site
A framework for optimization
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

30. NEVER REDESIGN AGAIN.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

31. A framework for optimization
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

32. @mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent
1. Headline & Customer Logo
• Top level benefit/result of engagement with
BMC
• Customer Logo
2. “At a glance” data points
• Up to 4 key statistics that communicate either
benefits/outcomes of the customer’s
engagement with BMC or key stats on the
customer’s organization
3. Video (if available) or customer quote
• Real stories from actual business leaders and
user
• Focus on benefits and outcomes BMC brought
to the business
4. Body
b. Challenge
• Brief description of the business problem
• Can be in sentence format or bullet, may
include in-line links to more information
c. Solution
• Brief description of how the problem was
solved through partnership with BMC
• Can be in sentence format or bullet, may
include in-line links to more information
d. Results
• Brief description of business impact
• Can be in sentence format or bullet, may
include in-line links to more information
5. Next steps
a. Contact BMC CTA
b. Related products
• list with links to learn more/try
c. Related Resources
• White papers/reports/videos related to
the challenge (2-3 max)
3
4
2
1
5
Mobile first hierarchy
Visitormindset
Doesthisrelatetomychallenges?HowcanIlearnmore?Whatarethedetails?
5a
5b
5c
4a
4b
4c
Increased content creation efficiencies

33. 10% MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC (YOY)
50% MORE DATA SHEET DOWNLOADS
200% INCREASE IN TRIAL STARTS
67% INCREASE IN CONTACT ME REQUESTS
Overall engagement is up
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

34. +67%
Contact Sales
Requests
Revenue!
+67%
Marketing Sourced
Pipeline associated
with requests
=
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent

35. Derek Phillips
Director of Content Strategy
ISITE Design
@digistrategist
Mark Fries
Principle Strategic Marketing Manager
BMC Software
@mark_f
@mark_f @digistrategist • #intelcontent