Content management for better productivity

Content is king

Content management is the process of collecting, managing and publishing information in any form or medium. The term is often used in relation to the administration of the digital content lifecycle, from creation to storage or deletion. With the ever-growing digital market, it is vitally important that businesses manage their content in the best way possible.

With a clear understanding of your objectives, the right content management system and internal practices, Serenity Digital can ensure you see positive returns from your investment.

What could good content management do for your business?

• Enable the production of regular content
• Regular, good quality content will boost your SEO
• Ensure the different types of content complement each other
• Increase awareness of your business
• Increase traffic to your website

Streamlining processes

One of the biggest issues marketing teams face is not having full visibility and control over the content published for the organisation. It therefore becomes very difficult to establish what content is resonating with an audience, and where improvements can be made to increase engagement with your users and ultimately increase revenue.

If the content is managed centrally it enables a business to coordinate different communications and ensure they all work together effectively.

Businesses publishing 16+ posts a month get almost 3.5 times more traffic than businesses publishing zero to four articles. Content management can make this achievable. 

What we’re seeing

Content management and its associated tools are essential ingredients of most marketing recipes, but we often see prospects who have fallen foul of one (or more) of the following pitfalls.

LACK OF RESOURCES & TIME

Marketing teams spin a lot of plates and for those who publish content across multiple channels, it becomes difficult to optimise all the various messaging. Finding the budget for ongoing content development or assigning the time to manually manage content can be incredibly time consuming.

NO REPORTING INTEGRATION

Businesses all too often underestimate the power of integrating their existing reporting platforms with their content management tools to see how people are interacting with individual pieces of content, and refine accordingly.

NOT USING ONE PLACE FOR ALL CONTENT

When content is spread, it can become very confusing to track what’s being used and when. If there are multiple staff members responsible for handling content within the same organisation, content can go unused. Spending time searching for the content you want to use also means a dip in productivity, and therefore profitability.

INCONSISTENCIES

Without a good content management process in place, staff are often forced to create their own style. There are no guidelines to follow and no permission needed. This can lead to a damaged brand where templates don’t adhere to brand guidelines. Customers can quickly disengage from your brand, feeling confused and disillusioned.

ZERO STRATEGY

Content written must deliver on what your audiences are going to be interested in reading. Significant time should be spent “getting into the head” of your audience, understanding their motivations and what influences them. What do they need solving? What insights can you provide which will help? What are they searching for online? These common questions are often forgotten, but having content specifically written to target these requirements will help your site perform better on search engines and will achieve higher levels of engagement when your audience is on your site.

Future proof strategy

When used in combination with a well-developed website, robust integration, and watertight guidelines and policies, a content management system can deliver a great return on investment. Here are our tips for a successful content management strategy.

1. ACKNOWLEDGE THE BENEFITS

Otherwise known as a CMS, a content management system has an array of benefits, including automating content for your website, reducing the need for internal staff to code from scratch, and creating a unified look and feel that will inevitably garner the best results.

2. SET UP SEO FRIENDLY URLs

A good content management system allows you to customise website links to create a stable, SEO friendly set-up to improve your website’s search engine visibility. This is just one example of how content management when done properly can improve results across other marketing channels.

3. REMEMBER TO INTEGRATE

Combining your marketing platforms with your content management system or analytics account can provide a wider and more detailed view of how visitors to your website are interacting with your content. This alone will enable you to test and refine your approach to suit your users and tap into what sees the best return.

4. SET UP PERMISSION SYSTEMS

To protect the brand you’ve invested so much in already, set up permission systems if you have different people dipping into a content management system. This can ensure they only use specific templates or have a set of guidelines they must use when building a template themselves.

5. INVEST IN STAFF CMS TRAINING

Should you decide a CMS is a good investment to manage the content for your website, it’s imperative you invest the time to train those who will be using the system. This will ensure all staff are on the same page in terms of its capabilities and they can also ask any questions that others in the group may not have considered.

6. DEFINE SUCCESS

It’s important to take the time to evaluate how your CMS is performing. Look at how users are interacting with your pages and don’t be afraid to re-prioritise.

7. NEW CONTENT

Search engines are constantly on the lookout for new and updated content so investigate ways your team can add further fresh content to keep your site relevant and engaged with its users.

8. AUTOMATION

Automating publishing days and times in your CMS allows greater flexibility across your website. Launching or expiring content helps you keep up with your competitors even though your priorities might be elsewhere.

9. CONTROL SOCIAL CONTENT

Your content needs to be promoted on your social platforms. Your CMS (and integration with other systems) should allow you to manage, schedule and post your social content across a variety of platforms. This enables you to have a wider picture of engagement with your audiences.

10. A BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Not only does managing your web content in a CMS create a more consistent user experience for customers, the content management system allows you to have a far wider overview of how your content is performing, all at the click of your mouse. And, don’t forget to utilise your analytics!

In a nutshell

The need for content management has become even more crucial since content marketing has become such a large piece of the marketing jigsaw. However, small to medium companies may feel ill-equipped to manage their content across multiple channels and platforms. Content is only relevant if it’s presented in the right way to your target audience.

To learn more about how our content management service can help you work towards achieving your content marketing targets and wider business objectives, please get in touch.

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