By Brad Davis, U.S. Marketing Director, SDL Tridion

 

 

 

 

 

It’s certainly no secret that in the current harsh economic environment marketing professionals are having a difficult time justifying technology spending -- and Web content management (WCM) systems are no exception.

The justification for this major investment might seem hard to make, but delaying the purchase or piecing together an in-house solution can cost you more in the long run and severely impact your brand. Here are four concrete tips and explanations to help you make the business case for WCM investment. We adapted these from a free white paper written by Tony White, lead WCM analyst at the Gilbane Group, which is available here.

1. WCM increases revenue. By streamlining and centralizing content creation, a new or revamped WCM system boosts your revenue by allowing content reuse and repurposing across multiple website channels in multiple languages. WCM simplifies workflow and provides robust analytic measurement capabilities to keep you focused on the timely updates that make you money rather than wasting it.

2. WCM decreases operational costs. With WCM, you will spend less money on updating your website and avoid the inefficient practice of copying and pasting content across various pages. Centralized design elements and templates can be created once and then instantaneously integrated across your website. WCM helps you save money on labor, protect your brand and get it right the first time.

3. Create an honest ROI calculator. Due to the economic environment, the concept of ROI is on the tip of everyone’s tongue when discussing technology investment. Don’t worry: WCM almost always provides a sizable ROI. In addition to saving costs and boosting your revenue, a good WCM interface comes with a high degree of usability. This means you can accelerate and simplify projects such as site development, implementation and content creation.

4. Gilbane found that site development based around a content management system saves a company 70-80 percent on cost when compared to in-house development. Content creation in a WCM system looks and feels like standard applications such as Microsoft Word™ and blogging platforms. Gilbane found that this ease-of-use cuts training times by up to 90 percent. With WCM, updates don’t get bogged down in IT departments. Marketers and other communicators can create and repurpose content as easily as making or editing a Word document.

In addition, WCM can supersede ROI. A new content management system protects brand equity. For large companies, branding remains one of your most important assets and good customer perception is integral for continued success. A WCM system allows you to build and maintain your brand with minimal hiccups. Even if you come up with initial ROI figures that are lower than you want, maintaining your brand equity and providing the ideal user experience across multiple channels is enough to make the business case for updating your WCM strategy today.

Bio: Brad Davis is the U.S. marketing director for SDL Tridion, a global leader in Web content management solutions. SDL Tridion enables organizations to deliver a consistent, interactive, highly targeted customer experience across multiple websites and channels. This How-To is based on a white paper sponsored by SDL Tridion and published by the Gilbane Group. A download of “The Business Case for Web Content Management: ROI & Beyond” is available for free online at The Gilbane Group’s website.