Content First | A Case Study Mark Fries Principal Strategic Marketing Manager, BMC Software @mark_f Derek Phillips Director of Content Strategy, Connective DX @digistrategist
The story: BMC Software & Connective DX
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Where We Were What We Did How It’s Working
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Where We Were:
Five Challenges 1. Inconsistent representation of the
brand story 2. Too product-centric, not reflecting
customer needs 3. Cumbersome and overwhelming UX 4. Lacking content direction 5. Needed scalable technology and
infrastructure
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Inconsistent representation of the brand story
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Too product-specific, not reflective of customer needs
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Cumbersome and overwhelming UX
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Lacking content direction and governance
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Needed scalable technology and infrastructure
• 200+ products • 5 separate business units • Moving to centralized content management
and editing • New commitment to testing and
optimization • Plans to expand global footprint
@mark_f | @digistrategist
What We Did:
The Five Approaches
1. Defined specific business goals and aligned them
to touchpoints
2. Defined the customer needs
3. Aligned pages to personas
4. Defined the content components: think modular
5. Mobile first, mobile always
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Defined specific business goals and aligned them to touchpoints We asked the questions: • What is the purpose of this
page to our business? • What are the KPIs we’re
measuring? • What is the primary call to
action? • More importantly: What role
is it targeting? Strategic vs. Functional
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Defined specific business goals and aligned them to touchpoints We asked the questions: • What is the purpose of this
page to our business? • What are the KPIs we’re
measuring? • What is the primary call to
action? • More importantly: What role
is it targeting? Strategic vs. Functional
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Aligned pages to profiles
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Defining specific needs and identifying content to meet them enabled our modular approach.
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Defined the customer needs
Assump9ons Prototype & Test Adjust
Some key insights learned:
• Users commonly have specific products in mind, or a specific func9onal need
• Users prefer func9onal categories
• Product/solu9on features preferred to high-‐level benefit statements
• Data sheets are a highly valued content asset
We made some assump9ons and then tested them with customers.
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Defined the content components
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Designed in the browser Some key benefits: • Working with real content to beLer inform design
• Could see the mobile experience and break points
• Founda9onal FED mark-‐up sped up development 9me
Jumping quickly to building a site, vs. building pictures of sites
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Strategy applied to the copy Translated the model to copy decks to speed produc9on and ensure alignment.
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Reused the content components Think modular…
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Mobile first, mobile always Concise Ac9onable Focused on task comple9on Contextual
Let’s circle back on a few key challenegs.
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Three specific challenges: 1. Streamlined and intui9ve UX 2. Comprehensive content direc9on and governance 3. Scalable technology and infrastructure
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Streamlined and intuitive UX Bottom-up experience: Ensuring visitors entering directly on product/solutions pages (most visitors) are given appropriate context and options to continue engaging
Top-down experience: Giving visitors who enter on home page or category level pages simple choices to disambiguate our offerings
Bonus: Lim
it fights for
space on th
e homepage
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Comprehensive content direction and governance
We have a clear POV and strategy behind how our site is constructed • Makes conversations with the business easier • Eases optimization since learnings in one area can be
deployed in multiple places
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Scalable technology and infrastructure Remember this?
The Intelligent Content Approach was key to our geYng there: • Atomized the content • Established coding
standards • Enabled u9lity of the
CMS • Proved the design
worked
@mark_f | @digistrategist
How’s It Working?
The Four Big Payoffs • A framework for optimization • Increased content creation efficiencies • Overall engagement is up • Contacts – UP! (And that means
money)
@mark_f | @digistrategist
A framework for optimization Our goal with optimization: never “redesign” again • Highly structured infrastructure makes it
possible to get experiments up and running quickly anywhere
• Findings from experiments can easily roll out across the site
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Never redesign again. Think about that.
@mark_f | @digistrategist
A framework for optimization
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Increased content creation efficiencies 1. Headline & Customer Logo
• Top level benefit/result of engagement with BMC
• Customer Logo 2. “At a glance” data points
• Up to 4 key sta9s9cs that communicate either benefits/outcomes of the customer’s engagement with BMC or key stats on the customer’s organiza9on
3. Video (if available) or customer quote • Real stories from actual business leaders and
user • Focus on benefits and outcomes BMC brought
to the business
4. Body b. Challenge
• Brief descrip9on of the business problem • Can be in sentence format or bullet, may
include in-‐line links to more informa9on c. Solu9on
• Brief descrip9on of how the problem was solved through partnership with BMC
• Can be in sentence format or bullet, may include in-‐line links to more informa9on
d. Results • Brief descrip9on of business impact • Can be in sentence format or bullet, may
include in-‐line links to more informa9on 5. Next steps
a. Contact BMC CTA b. Related products
• list with links to learn more/try c. Related Resources
• White papers/reports/videos related to the challenge (2-‐3 max)
3
4
2
1
5
Visitor mindset
Does this relate to my challenges?
How can I learn m
ore? What are the details?
5a
5b
5c
4a
4b
4c
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Overall engagement is up 10% MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC (YOY) 50% MORE DATA SHEET DOWNLOADS 200% INCREASE IN TRIAL STARTS 67% INCREASE IN CONTACT ME REQUESTS
@mark_f | @digistrategist
Revenue!
+67% Contact Sales
Requests
+67% Marketing Sourced Pipeline associated
with requests
=
Thanks! Derek Phillips Director of Content Strategy Connective DX @digistrategist
Mark Fries Principal Strategic Marketing Manager BMC Software @mark_f
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