Data Driven WCM – The Next Big (Brain)Wave!
Right now there’s a web content storm building around Mobile, Cloud, Big Data, Social, and Internet of Things. Add to this Marketing Automation, Personalization, Contextualization, Data Sovereignty, Security, Anonymization, and Analytics then throw in a little Net Neutrality and Content Delivery Networks and you have quite a tornado!
How WCM software handles these challenges is central to how the web experience develops for us all. Who wants a CM that won’t run in the Cloud or on Mobile? What’s the point of content that can’t be presented to individuals in time, place, and context? What happens when sensitive content leaks out to search results? How important is it to minimize delays for different audiences in different territories?
What makes all of this possible is data management within the WCM application framework. This is Data Driven Content Management. The results for user experience are pervasive yet often transparent.
Data Driven WCM is the combination of collating data, rapidly analyzing it and gaining insights, and then bringing those insights to the web and defining content interactions tailored to what’s relevant for customer experience and web users. It centres on creating value by engaging customers effectively.
At its core, Data Driven WCM recognizes that the customer or end-user is at the center of all effective content transactions and seeks to understand the customer in depth to ensure that their goals and the goals of the organization are aligned. It’s a two way street, non-linear, and listening, refining, learning and auctioning.
These are five stages of Data Driven WCM delivery:
- Collect Data Content. Data abounds; web data, customer data, public data, sales and CRM; collect it. Collect external data; social, web trends, keyword research and correlate this data with the content to be delivered.
- Clean Content Data. Data cleansing is time consuming but vital. Outliers, missing data, errant data. Clean data is important for effective decision making and content definition.
- Analyze Content Data. What are customers after, and how can we respond? What clusters are there and how many? Are these accurate and relevant for the business? What behavioral traits do they share and why? How can these be used to enable us to better serve these customers and potential customers with relevant content?
- Use Content Data. Draft and publish your content within the framework of your data driven content management system. Create content around clusters and interests. Review against targets, engagement, reaction and conversion.
- Rinse, Refine & Repeat. Collect, clean, analyze and action. Repeat until perfected.
Data Driven WCM is already happening. Most enterprise grade WCM applications have embraced data and analytics in depth. Gut feeling still has a part to play but in more and more scenarios, the data-brain is driving content message!