Now that 2012 has begun I am sure you are turning your attention to how you actually execute those plans you drew up in your Q4 planning cycle. There is no doubt that scaling the web opportunity is a major priority for virtually all marketing organizations.
But do you have tools in place to execute against that vision? Or does your Q1 priority look something like this: “Research and procure a web content management system to begin deployment in Q2 and drive improvement in Q3/Q4.” Or maybe like this: “Redesign current web site and deploy updated CMS as part of re-design deployment.”
If so, that means you are going to spend all of 2012 scraping along with whatever online tools you have in place today.Can you really afford to wait to Q3 or Q4 to have a new platform in place? Do you really want to wait out the redesign process before you have a better content management process?
The faster you can get your new content marketing software technology selected and deployed the faster you will be able to break through online.
Adjust your 2012 goal to go faster. If you can deploy your CMS a quarter earlier by focusing on products rather than platforms, what would that mean for your business? Why not get your CMS in place BEFORE your redesign? Read here how Lancaster Bible upgraded their CMS in 45 days and how you can bring that experience to your own web initiatives.
Go ahead, add six weeks from today’s date. How much MORE could you accomplish this year if you were rolling that much sooner?
Related links:
White Paper: Four Models For Making Your Winning Business Case for Web Content Management
Fresh, relevant, engaging content.
Without it, your web site is boring, stale and completely ignored by Google, prospects and customers. We all know this, we hear it over and over again – it’s that “content marketing” thing - so why am repeating it here? Because even though we all know it, we still struggle to do it. Even here at Percussion, and we are in the web content business.
In fact, respondents to the Marketing Profs annual content marketing survey stated that producing content is their biggest challenge:
- Producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers- 40%
- Producing enough content- 21%
Unfortunately, there is no tool out there that will create content for us. Technology is a wonderful thing, but content creation is a creative process, and creative processes require people. People AND time – something that most marketing teams don’t have a lot of.
But there are things you can do to make developing content a little easier. Here is some advice from the experts:
Remember that content marketing is more than white papers, collateral, and case studies. Not everything has to be the great epic.
- WebInkNow: Photographs as compelling content marketing
- Content Marketing Quick Tips: CMI Contributors Share Their Favorites
- Content Marketing Institute: Content Marketing Playbook 2011 – 42 Ways to Connect with Customers
Extend your content team to include folks from other parts of the organization. You work with a lot of smart people, encourage them to share what they know.
- BtoB Oline: Six ways to start subject matter experts thinking like content marketers
- Content Marketing Institute: Content Marketing: Customer Relationship Management Begins at Home
Re-use/repurpose content - but do it right!
- Savvyb2bmarketing: The Dos and Don'ts of B2B Content Reuse
- Content Rules-Chapter 5 (by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman): “Reimagine; Don’t Recycle”
In short, the key is to just get started, but be prepared for sustained effort.
PS: Need help preparing your business case for content management? Download our free tools and frameworks for a winning web content management business case here.
