Business Case for Content Management

I recently did a talk that focused on the business reasons for deploying content management system.

Maybe you have heard some of these complaints from your staff or clients:

"It takes Joe the IT Guy two weeks to post my content?"

"I need to create landing pages for our email campaigns and it costs me time and money every time I call our ad agency!"

"Our site doesn't show up on search engines, we need more  content and better content!"

"It would be great if each department could upload their own content and all I had to do was approve it, but they don't know  how to use Dreamweaver!"

All of these quotes (which are all actual statements from my clients) point to common issues that lead an organization to seek out a content managed solution:

• Updates take too long or don't happen at all.
• Website is in the hands of IT instead of content creators.
• There is a disconnect between offline marketing initiatives and  online marketing.
• Lack of a consistent UI or branding.
• No record of changes or way to track changes.

So what are some of the Bottom Line Benefits an organization can realize by deploying a CMS?

• Increased transactions
  Better content + up to date information = increased traffic and  opportunities to convert  
• Accelerate time to market
  New initiatives get online faster, benefits are seen sooner.  
• Integrate marketing efforts
  Offline initiatives no longer happen in a vacuum, but instead are supported online providing better and measurable returns. 
• Process efficiencies 
  Eliminate steps to getting content online = resource, time and dollar savings  
• Improve SEO
  content improvements + increased links + compliant technology =  improved rankings and traffic

An organization can also see Soft Benefits from a CMS system:

• The Website is a Marketing Asset
  Content creators are in control of the site.  It is no longer an IT asset, it is a  marketing asset.
• Brand Improvements
  Improvements will be seen in the type of content, depth of information, marketing  integration,  design integrity  
• Thought Leadership
  Position organization as a source of information through articles, case  studies, white papers, blogs  
• Improve agility
  Move more quickly on marketing initiatives   
• Improve record keeping All content is stored in the database with date and time stamp of updates  and history of who made changes.   
• Maintain site integrity
  System maintains site design and structure

Of course the reasons your organization chooses to invest in a content management system and the benefits you see may vary, but I'll bet some of these will be on the list.  If you have others let me know, I'd love to hear them.

If you're interested you can view and download the slide deck for this presentation here.

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