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It is now recognized fact that Web sites can play a crucial role in the growth and transformation of a business. No sales call or marketing brochure is complete without the ubiquitous URL. And no conventional marketing or sales effort can reach target segments in the way that a Web site can. Going online, however, is not exactly a piece of cake. Even the best-run Web sites have problems. A Lot to Lose Businesses spend millions of dollars to ensure their Web sites are not just current but also delivering the best possible user experience on a click-to-click basis. A badly planned Web site delivering a less-than-ideal user experience can very quickly - and even permanently - lose business to competition. Given that this is supposed to be common knowledge, it is surprising to find that some companies still treat their Web sites like pamphlets or brochures. A Web site is obviously a lot more: it is a constantly evolving organism that has very specific business goals for its very existence. Getting a company’s Web site to deliver on its promises is not about buying the latest technology – it is about strategically aligning the Web site with the business’ measurable goals. Beware the Quick Fix It is very easy for individuals or teams within an organization to feel that one piece of new technology, or a new solution that is being aggressively marketed will be the magic ingredient in galvanizing a badly functioning Web site. Such ‘quick-fix’ solutions for Web sites are sold forcefully, with the promise of turning a poorly performing Web site into a phenomenal customer conversion engine. The need to revitalize your site may be great; but is this really credible? Think about it – if the vendor is guaranteeing conversions and showcasing colorful Excel sheets with jaw-dropping numbers without understanding your business first, you know something is not quite right. Any solution that fails to tell companies to get down to the basics first - like streamlining content and keeping it up-to-date – is very likely shooting in the dark and naming anything it hits a ‘target’. Raise the hood and dig deeper. Ask a few questions: * Does the solution consider the strengths intrinsic to my business and my business pains or is it guised as ‘universal super glue’ for all online businesses? * Does the solution understand what it is that brings customers to my business, and does the solution care about what my customers care about? * Does the solution provider understand the importance of the content being configured right? Does the solution provider deliver the solution after standing in my customer’s shoes? * Finally, does the proposed solution bring revenue or is it another red herring to generate excitement and impressive-looking results while distracting the management from the lack of revenue inflow? For example, some solution providers might promise greater Web traffic from search engines; this can be achieved by tweaking the tags to match more popular searches. These promises are met too easily and the traffic is generated, but the people who do go through your Web site as a result of the alteration in all probability, might not have found what they were looking for. From a short term perspective the solution can prove effective, but from a long-term revenue generating perspective, the effort is most likely in vain. And what’s worse the ‘quick fix’ solution has just increased the number of dissatisfied people who have visited your Web site and in all probability they may never pass that way again. The problem was that the solution did not bother to understand the business: it was just providing specious Web traffic. CMS: Does it Help? A Content Management System (CMS) has no magic potions to make your business invincible but it does come with the doable deliverable of making your Web site a growing and interactive showcase for your business. The right CMS will enable your content owners, your marketing team and your non-technical personnel to take ownership of the Web site by breaking down the official procedure of running everything through the technology team. Content on the Web site is there for a purpose: the CMS enables the company to evaluate and maximize the reach and relevance of the content. The human element in the success of a Web site is irreplaceable. Badly written content will not be better received just because you have a CMS in place. What the CMS can do is ease the process of having better written content by empowering content owners to make updates on the fly, in the face of ever changing business needs. The CMS can also provide logs of where in the buying cycle the enquiring customer dropped off. The CMS will measurably track the growth of your online business and when integrated with the right analytics, it can position your Web site just where you want it. The SaaS Advantage In the context of handling the content on the Web site of a small and medium sized business, Hosted or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) can be a breath of fresh life. SaaS is characterized by ease of use and pre-integrated online marketing solutions that are scalable to grow with business needs. All of the technology and services needed to manage and deliver Web sites is provided by the service provider. Some things to ask yourself while evaluating a SaaS vendor: * Is the timeliness of updates to landing pages easy and free of technical complexity? * Is the solution scalable in the face of constantly changing online marketing needs? * Do the reporting interfaces determine a truer ‘revenue related’ picture of marketing ROI with solutions to manage Web content? * Does the Web site search deliver results by examining Web traffic patterns? * Does the overall solution integrate with both simple and sophisticated email campaign management? * Are the leads managed through the Web site integrated with the existing CRM systems and online communities? Some things to know about Hosted CMS: * Tier 1 data centers tend to be better managed and supported. Multiple levels of Web hosting provide a plethora of permutations and combinations, ranging from basic, shared hosting, to highly redundant, highly managed options. * Most search systems simply create an index of the Web site’s content; the better searches work to understand the content by recognizing each piece of content and also figuring out the relationships between the content pieces. If the application and all of the data lives entirely in memory, it makes search results incredibly fast. * The easiest-to-use and easiest to manage site search system available will be one that does all of the work to set the system up, and then manages and supports the system over time. Conclusion In closing, there are no easy ‘Quick Fixes’ to a Web site’s performance, and implementing just any CMS will not do the trick. A CMS that requires you to buy additional hardware and software is usually not worth the deal. A platform-independent hosted CMS that understands your business goals and streamlines your online presence in the right configuration that delivers the right results can turn your business and your Web site around for the better.
By: Bob Rose
This article is contributed by Rob Rose - Vice President of Crownpeak.A good Content Management System (CMS) can really make a difference. With the right CMS, it becomes simple to publish, track and optimize content to maximize conversions.
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