reuse content to reduce costs and raise efficiency

Reuse Content to Reduce Costs & Raise Efficiency

The pressure to publish more content, faster, is challenging online marketing teams to keep the quality high. Content reuse offers a strategic approach to answer the challenge. Reuse also reduces costs and raises efficiency for continuous process improvement that creates more profitable online customer experiences.

This Business Solutions Guide presents an approach to content reuse that will help create more consistent customer experiences, showcase products in more appealing ways to different customer segments and introduce a modular approach to publishing content faster and more efficiently.

Part One in a Four-part Series on Content Reuse

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BUSINESS SOLUTIONS GUIDE: CONTENT REUSE 1

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BUSINESS SOLUTIONS GUIDE: CLOUD

CONTENT CREATES CHALLENGES FOR B2C MARKETERS

Content is the fuel for digital marketing and eCommerce interactions. It creates engaging online experiences that result in customers doing business with our brand. While driving Web traffic to increase direct sales remains a top goal for B2C marketers, the rise of more channels, increasing customer demands and limited resources is raising the bar to difficult heights. It’s time for marketers to take control of content and create the results they need with a more efficient and cost-effective approach.

Content claims 28% of B2C marketing budgets and is climbing as more channels, formats and demands for information grow. In fact, the average B2C marketer uses 12 tactics for content execution. In a 2013 benchmark survey of B2C marketers, Content Marketing

Institute and MarketingProfs found that the top challenges with content, after budget, are the ability to produce enough content and the need to create engaging content. The speed of change, social media and the relative ease of publishing have combined to push marketers into a “quantity” mindset, often at the expense of the quality content that their customers are anxious to find.

When the need to produce more content becomes the top priority, online marketers are faced with increasing costs and struggle to gain efficiencies in content development, governance and management. With only 32% of B2C marketers agreeing that they are effective at using content, it’s time to take control of the process to drive higher website and eCommerce performance.

The first thing to consider is the role that technology plays in easing the strain of using content to create engaging customer experi-ences. Creating more content to keep pace is not the only answer. Content reuse is an

approach that cuts time, cost and pressure while capitalizing on the content investment already made. High-quality content offers many more opportunities for reuse than mediocre content pushed out to meet a publishing schedule. A Web content management (WCM) platform is a necessity for companies that depend on eCommerce revenues to drive growth. The right WCM will enable online marketers to effectively reuse content to:

JJ Reduce time-to-content to increase efficiencyJJ Benefit from a modular approach for content reuseJJ Apply repetition and context to create higher levels of engagementJJ Increase ROI from investments made in content


The average B2C marketer uses 12 tactics for content execution, according to a 2013 report courtesy of the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.

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Reduce Time-to-Content

Creating compelling content is expensive. Even if your company creates content internally, there is considerable expense for the expertise and time committed to content creation. In the race to keep up publishing schedules that are being accelerated by the real-time, live-stream pressures of social media and consumerism, the quality of content developed can suffer.

Because content is representative of your brand’s voice, tone, style and customers, it’s imperative that online experiences are engaging and profitable. And this means that your Web marketing team must be able to publish content quickly and in new ways to meet constantly changing customer needs and preferences.

Consider the idea that, instead of creating one content asset, every project should create at least five. As an example, consider that you’re selling dinner-ware. Content could include pictures of each piece, description copy for the set and for each piece. Pictures using the dinnerware in different settings with copy describing the event and any additional, complementary products used. Recipes for what to serve on the dinnerware can inspire engagement by helping customers visualize using it. The history of the type of dinnerware could be interesting. Perhaps you’d create a video with a chef preparing one of the recipes and serving it on the dinnerware. A blog post about easy entertain-ing could be written using one of the setting pictures — or you could create a series that uses all of them. The ideas and combinations possible for this set of content are many.

The point is that efficiencies are gained when all of the research is done at the same time. Additionally, the voice, tone and style will be similar ensuring that the content will all work well together in different combinations. Where it would take considerably longer to create each of these content assets at different times, developing them at the same time comes easier because of the focus applied. It’s easier to write about the same concept in different ways than it is to switch to completely different topics during the same span of time.

With a WCM that is object based, rather than oriented to page templates, different content assets can be combined quickly in different ways across different areas of the website — or even used on both the main site and specialized microsites without need for content duplication. Should updates to the copy or graphics be needed, the content is updated and the changes roll out to wherever the content is published automatically. For example, once the product has garnered reviews or comments, they can be incorporated into the blog posts or feature displays. Create once, use many times should become the mantra for online marketers.


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Take a Modular Approach

Reusing content is something that’s been done in technical writing for years. This is because the content is often standardized, such as “Turn off phone when replacing batteries.” That sentence can be used time and again in device manuals or FAQs on Web pages because it’s not specific enough to warrant rewriting for each context or use case. The problem with marketing content is that much of it is not developed to this type of standard. If it was, your content would be dry and boring, limiting the quality of the customer experience — unless they’re trying to change the batteries on their phone.

However, retailers can benefit from modular content based on the different ways in which they display content. Different presentations or grouping of products doesn’t diminish the need to showcase each product displayed for purchase. Likewise, reviews, comments and social sharing about products can also be repurposed for inclusion with product displays.

A WCM platform that enables metadata and tagging structures to allow content managers the ability to search for, find and drag and drop related content into new page displays improves efficiency in the creation of new customer experiences — without the need to create new content. Even higher efficiencies can be gained when WCM platforms allow for the automated display of content to known visitors on your website — based on browsing or purchase history. This real-time responsiveness makes the modular approach very appeal-ing for creating more engaging and relevant customer experiences that produce improved revenue streams.

When content can be reused quickly and new pages or promos published in minutes — rather than hours or days — retailers can capitalize on trends identified through social media channels or purchasing behaviors. Sometimes, tomorrow is just too late.

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS GUIDE: CLOUD

CoreMedia 7 enables metadata and tagging so content managers can search for, find and drag and drop content into new page displays quickly and efficiently. The process can be also be automated (as illustrated) through content queries.


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Repetition and Context Drive Engagement

The idea to buy something usually requires repetition of the idea for it to take hold and motivate action. This doesn’t mean pushing the same content to the same visitor repeatedly; it means that the idea must be presented often for the subconscious mind to latch on. Depending on the customer, there are different angles of an idea that will inspire them to engage or buy.

Going back to the dinnerware example, the customer could be entranced by the design on the dinnerware, itself, or need to see it in a setting with a context that appeals to them to motivate the intent to purchase. Perhaps the customer is younger and new to entertaining and needs to gain an understanding of how to host a particular type of event before she’ll be confident in buying. Or, perhaps she wants the perfect recipe and the video of the chef cooking the meal and showing it off to perfection on the plate is what it takes. Finally, it can be the combination of all of these things that results in the purchase for the hardest-to-convince consumers. Repetition creates acceptance and confidence in our decisions.

Creating many content assets around one theme or topic provides the opportunity to present ideas to customers to meet differing needs and preferences. Learning how people come to your website — search terms used, for example — can help to develop content to meet a variety of contexts for how your website visitors find your content. Context sets expectations. Meeting them is made simpler and more consistent with a WCM platform designed to enable personalized and contextual content presentation. It should go without saying that when expectations are met, engagement increases because the experience is providing value recognized by the visitor.


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Extracting Higher Payoffs from Content

Twenty-eight percent of your marketing budget is a lot to invest in content. It’s imperative that the content deliver as much value as possible, but it’s also prudent to reduce the effort it takes to manage, govern and use it to do the job it was designed for — to drive business. To use content only once is to do it — and you — a disservice. Or, it means that the ideas used to develop content are too shallow if possibilities for reuse aren’t readily apparent.

Instead of creating new content whenever a new idea for a promotion or product feature occurs, developing a library of content assets that can be mixed and matched to generate new displays can ease the pressure on your Web communications and marketing team. As customer engagement is evaluated over time, the ability to update once and have changes applied to the content in all its uses streamlines the opportunity for continuous improve-ment to the online customer experience.

Gaining an increase on the return on investment requires both a strategic approach and the support of technology that enables the efficient management of content on a massive scale. Content reuse not only reduces time-to-content, but enables the development of content that provides consistency in brand messaging that both sets and meets customer expecta-tions. Planning from the start will yield plenty of opportunities to reuse the ideas in original content development, but WCM platforms that enable content managers to find content easily and use it quickly will create new ideas for displays, promotions and content use that occur in hindsight as new opportunities arise to drive revenues.

CoreMedia Studio helps online teams work smarter, with a create once/publish anywhere approach that lets editorial staff treat their content as a valuable corporate asset, working it hard and gaining maximum value by optimizing content reuse and leveraging numerous presentation options.


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About CoreMedia CoreMedia is a leading provider of Web Content Management (WCM) software to organizations demanding engaging, context-driven online experiences for their customers regardless of channel or touchpoint.

The company’s WCM suite offers unique business value by seamlessly integrating digital and social media assets, increasing editorial productivity and accelerating time to market in complex environments. As a result, businesses can more effectively execute their online strategies to engage users, build customer loyalty and ultimately drive greater revenue and profitability.

Established in 1996, CoreMedia is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, with offices in San Francisco, London, and Singapore. CoreMedia’s clients include global brands, such as the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Bertelsmann, BILD, CLAAS, Continental, EPCOS, Deutsche Telekom, Internet Broadcasting, JD Group, Tchibo, Telefónica Germany and ZDF.


Germany, Switzerland, AustriaCoreMedia AGLudwig-Erhard-Straße 1820459 HamburgGermany

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For more information, please visit our website: www.coremedia.comEmail: [email protected] 2013. CoreMedia AG. All rights reserved. (0713-BG-EN-CRU002)


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