To date, digitization has only been anchored in the business strategy of less than every second company (43%) – this was the result of a recent study by the market research company tech consult on behalf of Adobe.
Initial approaches and investments are already available almost everywhere, but these range from simple “digital applications” to the development of new business models.
A lack of resources and established processes are the main obstacles to faster ones Implementation and introduction of new technologies. But the potential is great, especially in the areas of marketing, sales, and corporate communications. A lot of manual administrative work is still being done there, which could be significantly reduced through synchronized and automated processes. Not to mention the other benefits that modern content management systems bring.
7 areas in which companies are already active in terms of content management (Image: “Content Management as an Enabler for Digitization”, tech consult/Adobe¹)
This results in a concrete need for better content management, not least because customer segments (through the requirement of a personalized address) are becoming increasingly fragmented. Covering the information needs of potential customers along their customer journey – through content – leads to more trust as a result of a positive customer experience. And that is an integral part of their CX strategy for almost two-thirds of all companies.
Table of Contents
What advantages does content management offer? What goals are companies pursuing with this?
More than ever, customers expect holistic, personalized, and relevant content offers and experiences along their customer journey and in real-time. Many companies … regard the topic of content as a central factor in their business strategy in order to be able to ensure future competitiveness.
This competitiveness is primarily the result of direct customer contact across all business-relevant channels. Accordingly, content distribution is a focus of content management. In addition, content management creates a “closed loop feedback”: Based on content, companies can analyze the consumer behavior of (potential) customers and, on the one hand, incorporate the findings into the content strategy and, on the other hand, optimize the content for specific target groups. In the long run, this leads to better content and better content experiences.
The goals of content management, including the technologization of this area, are among other things and above all:
- Design of personalized content experiences
- Increased speed when publishing content
- Efficient production and distribution through conscious “content portfolio management” (including the ability to dynamically customize and assemble individual assets)
- Automation of content and marketing processes
- These “operational” goals in turn influence economic key figures such as costs (reduction), productivity, sales or customer loyalty (increase in each case). In this way, we can evaluate the return on investment in content management as a process and technology relatively well. The study makes it clear how well this already works in companies today: almost every second company is dissatisfied.
Companies are dissatisfied with the current implementation of company-related challenges in the area of content management (Image: “Content Management as an Enabler for Digitization”, tech consult/Adobe¹)
Technological challenges in Content -Management
Data protection, scalability, in particular through the use of artificial intelligence, and integration into the existing system landscape – are all factors that present a challenge to those responsible.
There is basically no way around cloud-based content management systems because they offer important advantages Share:
- The Development and delivery of content and campaigns are within a very short time and also possible without the cost-intensive development or expansion of the IT structure.
- There is a central content source, through which a quick adjustment for the different channels is possible; there is no need to edit individual assets, which saves designers and marketers a lot of time.
- Work processes between IT, business, marketing, sales, service, and other areas are linked, optimized, and even (partially) automated with the help of artificial intelligence.
- The systems are always up to date so that IT resources can be invested in innovation projects.
Conclusion
I can’t say it much better than the authors of the study put it:
“The advancing digitization and the ever faster-changing market conditions, especially in times of crisis, require that companies have to change. However, this change will not be possible with the old IT systems that have grown over the years. Classic systems are too rigid and too inflexible. New considerations are needed to lead companies into a promising future. Only those who can use transparent, up-to-date, and complete company and customer data for decision-making in order to be able to better understand the needs of their customers will gain a real competitive advantage. Classic silo thinking prevents that.” And further: “Customer centricity must be corporate culture, strategy, and philosophy in one.”
If content management as a common denominator and content management system as a common platform lead to exactly that, then in my opinion that is the strongest argument for corresponding investments.