Stop Being A "Data-Driven" Marketer - Part 3 of 3

In yesterday's part two of three - I outlined why I thought becoming a "content-driven" marketer was important - and the challenges of the technologies that are available to us to become this kind of marketer.  

In this last of three posts - I'm posting what a framework for this solution might look like.  Whether we as marketers assemble this from myriad solutions, or find a service that provides this holistically - these are three things that I believe are the critical points in becoming a "content-driven" marketer.

• A strategy and process for managing web content

• An effective way to derive insight and measurability for the effectiveness of that content

• Both automated and manual ways to optimize and target that content for our constituents

Let's look at each:

The Content Management Process

To solve the web content management challenge, there are literally hundreds of choices, from Open Source solutions to full, enterprise-class content management solutions. In short, any professional WCM system can manage web site content. However, choosing a WCM as an easy-to-use interface for managers to update the web site provides only a partial online marketing solution. To fully realize the online marketing benefits of a WCM system marketers should employ a WCM technology strategy that focuses on how the web site will be an online marketing engine. To this end, marketers should consider a WCM that:

• Focuses On SEO. At the most basic level, marketers should be able to easily change the content on their web pages to add, change and optimize keyword densities to correspond to their chosen core keywords for those specific pages. Ideally,marketers should consider web content management solutions that give them full control over all aspects of meta data including the ability to publish XML sitemaps for Google.

• Easy creation, editing and managing of landing pages & microsites. Launching a new micro-site or landing page program should not be a huge IT intensive project but rather a small, lightweight project to design, implement and roll out on a frequent basis. A recent Marketing Sherpa study found that marketers received a 40%+ increase in conversion rate by constantly testing and tweaking their landing page content.

• Content Marketing. In the Aberdeen Group study that I mentioned before, it was determined that best-in-class online marketers (those who achieve greater than 100% return on marketing investment) update their site once a day or more. Producing a large amount of expertise content is critical to transforming an online brochure into an online marketing engine.

And perhaps the most critical trend in todays online marketing content management arsenal is the ability for online marketers to manage content beyond the bounds of their web site. More than ever, micro-sites controlled by divisions, third-party web sites, social networking sites, email campaign management systems, directories and banner ads are all being driven by the online marketer. The content that resides beyond the bounds of the web site is often outdated, inaccurate or (at worst) impossible to change.

Capturing And Measuring Data

The marketing “brochure site” has seen somewhat of a resurrection over the last two years. The web site is certainly the destination for the online marketer employing Search Engine Marketing strategies (both SEM and SEO). But it has also become the destination for deeper content, as well as measurement, against other tactics as well – including email campaigns, print and even television.

In 2008, Beagle Research Group published its paper “Marketing Finds Its ‘A’ Game” – which concluded that lead management/nurturing programs – and closed loop marketing accomplished three things:

• Kept the sales process moving – by tracking leads and being able to know where they are in the sales funnel and maintaining communication

• Reduced costs – by determining the most effective campaigns and “tagging” leads by those campaigns – thus being able to track leads from click to close.

• Improved lead quality – by being able to more effectively target leads to the appropriate sales teams at the right time – as well as identify “soft” buyers as well as “hard” leads and have a more-informed sales process about what the prospect is interested in

But this goes even beyond simple lead management. Other extraordinarily valuable data is coming into the marketer’s web site, and isn’t currently being captured. Consider:

• Content that’s being generated by users of the web site – that’s currently going unused, ignored or just isn’t re-generated because the ability to capture it isn’t available. Or because the method to capture that data is being handled by a third-party web site or blogging tool.

• Ratings or polls that can be used as data to formulate marketing strategies and tactics – or even additional content to be published out to the web site.

• Data that lives beyond the bounds of the web site. Content from social networking sites, blogs, or third party feeds that can be pulled in and re-published to the web site – measured – and republished as static content so that it actually benefits the web site from a search engine standpoint

Content Optimization – Manage, Segment and Target

As an online marketer, it’s a pretty safe bet that your consumers are overwhelmed with information. When your prospects are searching for a solution – it’s not only that they have many more choices – it’s that even among the choices they have, the staggering amount of information available makes it hard to digest.

In short, the technology that has made it easy for us as marketers to publish anything and everything, has made it more difficult for the consumer to find what’s relevant to them.
In order to engage an online audience – you’ve got to optimize content to be relevant for their needs. As a marketer you’ve got to identify which calls to action, which content is going to compel a prospect, customer or partner to act. In short, you’ve got to be able to use all the data and analytics you’re tracking from your web content to optimize that content for your users.

Certainly, the most prevalent example of this is A/B Testing and Multivariate Testing.  But beyond the control you have managing and publishing specific offers; this same philosophy should drive other elements of your web content. In short, take the welcome banner message on your web site. If it’s a known visitor – perhaps it should be targeted to an aspect of that visitor that you know – “welcome back, if you’re interested in trips abroad, click here…”

Putting It All Together

In the end, there are three fundamental components of online marketing; Strategy, Platform and Insight. The technology platform is a promise; a potential to leverage web content, measure its success and optimize it to facilitate a compelling, engaging conversation with prospects and compel them to become customers.

But a platform, just like any other tool, is just a more efficient way of doing something. A web content management tool is just a simpler and more efficient way of managing content. Analytics and conversion metrics are just a more meaningful way of aggregating traffic. And optimization tools are just more efficient ways to refine your message based on those analytics.

The key to fueling the platform is insight. Insight is more than just data. Its the interpretation and application of analytics into a process that continually feeds upon itself transforming the online marketer over time into a finely sharpened success generating machine.

In HD Marketing 2010: Sharpening the Conversation a study produced by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the authors pointed out the convergence of technology and advertising is changing the landscape. In order to stay competitive, the marketer must adapt and change and know which capabilities to keep in-house and which is better managed by external partners.

Todays digital marketer struggles with a seemingly conflicting set of expectations vs. capabilities. The expectation for proof and ROI is coupled with a desire to engage and converse. We can measure and test everything including (as Google did) the 41 shades of blue on a web page. We lament the lack of scientific templates or more precisely maps - that we can simply follow to achieve success; but also strive for the unique, creative message that will differentiate our product or service. As being data-driven becomes more and more pervasive in our lives the yin and yang balance between the art and science of marketing seems to become more imbalanced.

However, there is an ancient Chinese proverb that says a crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind. And so, we now find ourselves riding that wind. I believe that if we move from being "data driven" to being "content driven" we will find that wind at our back.