Kristina: Why is content management so important for a business now?
Peggy Chen, CMO, SDL: Forrester recently released a report which found that 80 percent of business leaders believe that content challenges prevent them from meeting and delivering on their business objectives. Content has never been more important than it is now because this customer messaging guides consumers along their journey with a business. Content is at the heart of every touchpoint and if these experiences are not positive for a customer, then the business will suffer. By creating a powerful content management strategy for today's evolving customer landscape, businesses will ensure that the information being provided to customers is both consistent and accurate.
Kristina: How has content evolved in the past 5-10 years?
Peggy: We've seen a migration from long form print - like product manuals - to digital, bite-sized content that's engaging and easily consumable. Of course, we've also seen a drastic rise in video content. For consumers, one-size-fits-all, generic content no longer works. Customers are inundated with a constant flow of information, therefore the demand for personalized, relevant and contextual content is significantly higher than ever before. The challenge for brands in addressing this demand is scaling their content operations within their budget and time constraints. The new content landscape requires iteration and variation, accounting for every language and channel, as well as preferences and situational context.
Kristina: How is the digital transformation era changing content?
Peggy: There's not a single area that digital transformation hasn't touched when it comes to content production and management. With product reviews, online blogs and social media, everyone is a content creator - inside the business and out. Content is everywhere, with countless silos. In order to actually digitally transform, these content silos must be broken down and integrated so that processes can be operationalized. For instance, auditors in one of the Big Four accounting firms was struggling to find the information they needed from the vast ocean of regulations and professional materials that are in multiple languages, which are always involved in an audit. By using a web content management system, the Big Four firm auditors were able to break down the content silos and easily access the information they needed, even if it was from another part of the world.
There is also an automation aspect. In the past, humans were a lot more involved when it came to content. Once that content went online, many businesses became trapped when the volume of content increased, because its accuracy and consistency decreased. Our mission is to humanize the digital world and focus on ensuring that all content is understandable, relatable and consumable at scale. With AI and ML entering the industry, we believe that in order to get the best of both worlds, you need a partnership between humans and machines. Through this collaboration, businesses can manage the content accurately, as well as humanize and optimize the results of the machines.
Kristina: What should a business be thinking about when it comes to a global content strategy?
Peggy: In today's world, consumers are flooded with content and marketers struggle to create enough content to supplement all of the different languages and channel variations.
Content drives the digital experience, so a business' focus should be on which messages across which channels are engaging and converting customers. Questions to ask: do you know what content the audience interested in? Are you aware of the types and formats of content that will actually help convert customers?
Once you have these pieces together, you then need to develop a global content strategy that delivers an effective and optimized operating model, scaling your content operations from a people, process and technology perspective to deliver the ideal context mix to improve customer engagement.
Kristina: How will content change in the future?
Peggy: We believe there will be five future states of content:
1. Content will be able to create itself
2. Content will become agile
3. Content will be able to organize itself
4. Content security will be secured
5. Content will ultimately become a business' best salesperson
By adopting the latest developments in technology and understanding more about how and what content customers consume on a human level, brands can capture a market in motion. In doing so, they will be able to meet the speed and volume of future content requirements both locally and globally, while complying with the most stringent security requirements and regulations.
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