As we examined in our recent whitepaper, content is becoming the lifeline B2B marketers need to break through the clutter and make meaningful connections in an increasingly complex environment. And for many companies, their website is the main platform for disseminating this content.
For many of the websites we have developed recently, clients across the board – from financial services to nonprofits – are clear on what they want when it comes to content: MORE! They want to be able to add new content ad hoc and store as much content as they can create. And absolutely, they need to be doing this to stay alive online. The problem is that they often underestimate the resources needed to get that content ready for their new website, resulting in a considerable delay in launch.
The most successful clients are those that gain internal buy-in early on in the website development process and have a dedicated team or team member in charge of finding, developing and converting all content so that it maps to the new website. Now, this is nothing new. Most website development books talk about content mapping (finding what content you need to create, what content you have, and mapping it to the requirements of the website) and content “normalization” (converting content to a standard format).
What we are emphasizing is that all of this takes time. Even if you’re not developing new content, existing documents need to be opened, reviewed, edited and normalized to fit the new website, particularly for a Content Management System (CMS). The CMS may require a title, a summary, body text, meta description, title tag and links. Your existing content may have none of these elements. And its not a small task to accomplish. Even if you have an agency partner helping you with development, you will need to dedicate resources internally to this task.
New content is critical to the success of your new website. But the hard work of content preparation is often ignored until it delays launch. By embedding content development in your website planning and committing adequate resources to it, you can be sure your content will be ready to deploy on time.
In a recent article from TheAtlantic.com, staff members discuss the recent redesign they undertook to update the website, making it more aesthetically pleasing and more accessible to its readership. Bob Cohn, editor of Atlantic Digital, writes,“Midway through the process, in fact, we sought to avoid referring to the project as a redesign at…
A revolution is brewing in the world of B2B marketing. Lack of differentiation, fragmented media, complex regulation and brutal competition has turned decision making into a Rubik’s Cube for corporate buyers of enterprise products and services. This whitepaper examines how smart marketers are leveraging content to break through the clutter and make meaningful connections with customers and prospect.