Choosing a Web CMS That Hits a Home Run With Marketing and IT

Choosing a Web
Content Management System
How do you choose a CMS that hits a home run
with both Marketing and IT?

F R E E e B O O K

Content Management System

» Web Content Management System. This is the technology system that companies use to
manage all of their websites’ content (text, photos, videos, PDFs).
» Content Management Systems (CMS) are extremely popular; allow internal teams to
manage their own web properties.
» This helps foster efficiency, speed, and accuracy.

Introduction

» Historically, IT has managed technology decisions and budget
» More and more, Marketing and the business areas are driving interactive technology
initiatives and overall spend
» A CMS is a critical need for interactive technology initiatives
» Marketing is the primary user of a Web CMS in activities around:
» building brand awareness
» launching email marketing campaigns
» driving personalized web experiences
» increasing lead generation

Introduction

» Historically, IT has managed technology decisions and budget
» More and more, Marketing and the business areas are driving interactive technology
initiatives and overall spend
» A CMS is a critical need for interactive technology initiatives
» Marketing is the primary user of a Web CMS in activities around:
» building brand awareness
» launching email marketing campaigns
» driving personalized web experiences
» increasing lead generation

So
So…

The Question

How do you choose a Web
CMS that hits a home run with
Marketing and IT?

Factors to Consider

» Price/Performance
» Return On Investment (ROI)
» Search Engine Optimization
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» Ease of Use
» Grows With Your Business
»I t
Integrates With Analytics
t A l ti
» Technology Platform
» Flexible Licensing
» Application Integration
» Implementation
y
» Scalability
» Infrastructure Compatibility

Price/Performance

Watch out for that new car smell
» The more features you add, the more expensive the CMS is likely to be (this is true with
most software).
» Make sure you don’t get oversold on a lot of bells and whistles your users won’t
need
» Don’t neglect annual maintenance fees (typically range from 18% to 20% of the base
price).
» Another cost to consider is IT labor. Programmers have to write hooks to loosely
connect the CMS with other applications – and that incurs charges for IT labor.

Return On Investment (ROI)

Make sure there is light at the end of the tunnel
» Implementing a CMS can be a significant investment. According to Forrester
Research, organizations should be spending 75% of their online budgets on content
and 25% on content management.
» But a CMS can more than pay for itself in both improved Website performance and
increased SEO as well as time savings for content authors, reviewers, and approvers.
» Ideally, the ROI from your investment in a CMS should pay back the cost of
implementation in 2 years or sooner.

Search Engine Optimization

A website without visitors isn’t much of a website
» Editable Page Title and Metadata
» SEO-Friendly URL stems
» XML Sitemaps
» 301 Permanent Redirect Automation

SEO: Editable Page Title and Metadata

» Page Titles are one of the most important pieces of SEO
» Search Engines place considerable weight; UX effect as well
» While meta keywords have gone extinct, meta descriptions are still important
y g , p p
» Ability to edit these is imperative

SEO: SEO-Friendly URL Stems

» Important factor in engines understanding page relevancy
» Page URLs are a great area to populate target keywords
» Easier on site users; more memorable than a random string
; g
» CMS should have intelligent, automated method to generate SEO-Friendly URLs

www.acme.com/products/red-oven-mitts www.acme.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PC-11122

SEO: Sitemaps (XML)

» XML Sitemaps are standardized files that search engines utilize to better understand
pages on your website
» They are not required for your website to be crawled
» Very helpful for new websites and those with dynamic content
» CMS should automatically generate XML Sitemaps

SEO: 301 Permanent Redirect
Automation
Nikon Digital Cameras | Acme Liquidators
Shop Acme Liquidators for Closeout Prices on Digital Cameras. Popular Brands
Include Nikon, Canon, and More…
www.acme.com/electronics/nikon-12-1-digital-camera-1a.aspx
g p

» Let’s say this is your webpage. Search engines have ranked this webpage for “Nikon
Digital Camera”.
Camera
» The engines have given this page a certain rank or “weight”.

SEO: 301 Permanent Redirect
Automation
Shop Acme Liquidators for Closeout Prices on Digital Cameras. Popular Brands
www.acme.com/electronics/nikon-12-1-digital-camera-1a.aspx
g p

» Let’s say this is your webpage. Search engines have ranked this webpage for “Nikon
Digital Camera”.
» Th engines h
The i have given this page a certain rank or “ i h ”
i hi i k “weight”.
» After the redesign, the page name changed, but search engines are trying to reach
the page from the link above
» Engines will drop you for your lucrative “Nikon Digital Camera” phrase

Shop Acme Li id t
Sh A Liquidators f Cl
for Closeout P i
t Prices on Di it l Cameras. P
Digital C Popular B d
l Brands
www.acme.com/prods/closeout-elec/nikon-camera-1674a.cfm

Ease of Use

It should be so easy, a caveman can use it
» Without an easy to use system, you won’t get adoption of the system by your most
critical stakeholder groups: Website and content administrators.
» CMS must be simple to use and contain a set of tools and functionalities empowering
users to easily perform content authoring, approval, and posting tasks.
» Users should be able to access the CMS from any computer (Windows or Mac) via a
familiar web browser.
» Ideally text can be entered, formatted, and previewed in a manner similar word
processing software – no HTML knowledge should be required.

Grows With Your Business

A CMS should adapt to your evolving business
» What if you need an online store? A CMS should offer eCommerce capabilities or at
least have an easy integration path with 3rd party tools.
» Will you be able to keep in touch with your customers with an integrated Marketing
module?
» As your marketing needs evolve, can the CMS support Multi-Channel Marketing?
» Will the CMS easily integrate with Web Analytics?

Integrates With Analytics

Web Analytics should be smarter than you
» Any CMS can integrate with 3rd party analytics tools – but those frequently put the onus
on you to make decisions based on historical data.
» Natively integrated Web Analytics can provide actionable intelligence to help drive
smart content decisions.
» For example, a smart Analytics tool should help guide you with suggestions
that can improve conversions on a page
» A natively integrated Analytics program can eliminate the need for things like complex
page-tagging.

Technology Platform

Make sure the club you’re joining isn’t too exclusive
» Many CMS are closed proprietary platforms and can’t be modified by the user,
leaving th
l i them without any extension possibility.
ith t t i ibilit
» Look for a CMS built using industry standard platforms, popular databases, and
open architectures, so you can modify the CMS inhouse.
» Systems built on mature technology platforms are also highly robust and resilient,
minimizing downtime.
» A CMS should be able to use standard authentication protocols available in the
platforms upon which it is built, enhancing control and security. Use of standard
protocols also makes it easier to integrate the CMS with external applications or
data.

Flexible Licensing

Don’t let the hosting environment limit your options
» The CMS vendor should offer users their choice of either a Software as a Service
(SaaS) licensing model or a t diti
(S S) li i d l traditional perpetual license option.
l t l li ti
» SaaS allows users to spread their licensing costs over several years.
» It also eliminates the responsibilities of supporting the required back-end
infrastructure.
» A traditional perpetual license permits users to bring the CMS application inhouse if
desired.

Application Integration

It’s important that everyone can get along
» Ask the vendor how easily their CMS can be integrated with new and existing
applications.
» The CMS architecture should be based on open standards such (XML and Web
Services), with internal programming based on .NET, Java or other industry standard
platforms.
» You can achieve integration with your other Web applications with prebuilt
connectors, custom wrappers or connectors, proprietary APIs, Web Services, or an
open or standard development language.
» Another option is to implement a CMS that is part of an integrated suite of web
applications. Deeply integrated software suites eliminate the time and cost of writing
your own connectors.

Implementation

The relationship shouldn’t end when you sign the purchase order
» Does the CMS vendor’s involvement end when they sell you a license or will they
work with you to get it up and running?
» Can the CMS vendor resolve all technical issues?
» Does the CMS vendor have strong services capabilities, whether their own or
through partners?
» Talk to some of their customers to determine whether they have a track record of
smooth implementations.

Scalability

A CMS should be able to accommodate your growth
» Look for a flexible infrastructure that allows you to place some CMS components,
such as administration screens and databases behind your firewall for enhanced
databases,
security.
» A scalable CMS can be load balanced in a server environment, use external
storage devices, and h dl d t b
t d i d handle database clustering. With d t b
l t i database clustering, you h
l t i have
multiple servers that act as a single server; if one fails, the system keeps running.

Infrastructure Compatibility

More than likely, you’re not starting from zero
» The CMS must work with existing hardware and software while conserving IT
resources.
» Content objects should be placed in RAM or on the local drive to cache data, ensuring
that dynamic pages assemble and serve rapidly.
» Keeping the content separate from the presentation templates allows content to be
stored in databases for fast and easy dynamic access.

About Bridgeline Digital

About Bridgeline Digital
» A developer of powerful web application management software and award winning
Interactive Technology Solutions

We help organizations achieve or exceed their interactive marketing and
business initiatives by leveraging web based technologies
» Maximize revenue
» Reduce operational and administrative costs
» Improve customer service and loyalty
» Enhance employee knowledge and productivity

Expanding market presence
» We have over 700 customers with an expanding geographic presence

Over 1,000 Success Stories and Counting…

Thank You For Reading!

» You can revisit this presentation on Bridgeline’s slideshare account:
» http://www.slideshare.net/bridgeline

» http://www.bridgelinedigital.com
» http://twitter.com/bridgeline
» 800.603.9936

Choosing a Web CMS That Hits a Home Run With Marketing and IT

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