So, you want to run a successful Web Experience Platform. You’ll of course need the right technology. But perhaps more importantly, you need excellent content. Including the most attractive storytelling. Storytelling that is compatible with the lifestyle, ambitions, thoughts and feelings of your users. But, as a marketer, how can you manage your content flow across all your different stakeholders and channels?

The core painpoint?
Many marketers face the same, common challenge. In the past few years, the rules of the marketing game have changed. We’ve transitioned from a ‘brand’ and ‘campaign’ content game to a customer experience content game. Customer-centric content plays the leading role.

The biggest difference is that today’s content needs to be more relevant. It needs to offer an experience, so you can start engaging with your customers. To do so, you need an ongoing flow of content creation. You need to – regularly and frequently – provide new content to remain top of mind with your customer and entice them to come back. It’s like you are Anna Wintour and running your monthly edition of Vogue. But instead of a high-fashion publication, you’re putting out a new edition of your brand.

Where it goes wrong

To address this new playing field, our clients – and many other companies – often start creating massive amounts of content, mostly from a traditional (product) marketing and brand perspective. They put it out there on their own channels and start to measure it. In most cases, this leads to disappointing results. And those results don’t exactly encourage upper management to increase the content creation budget.

At OnModus, we believe that this pain point can be resolved. You really can build a successful content business case. But first, you need to change your content mind-set. Start practicing data-driven content creation from an outside in perspective. Remember that it’s not about the amount of content you create, but the context in which you create it.

Follow the map

‘At OnModus, UX Design is taken into account from the very start, so changing clients’ mind-set and aiming for data-driven content is part of the programme,’ says Lars Wisselink, User Experience (UX) Lead at OnModus. ‘We work with clients to create an experience map based on the customer journey, and then use the map to set up the content creation process.’

There are five steps to effective content creation:
• Collect
• Create
• Approve
• Publish
• Distribute

It’s hard to say how long it takes to complete each process step. A lot depends on the organisation, the level of product sensitivity, the type of communication, and more. The most important factor is buy-in. My advice is to set up this process with all relevant stakeholder(s) at the same time. Ensure clarity on the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. Develop an agile way of working and align processes to ensure smooth collaboration.

Easier said than done, perhaps. Traditional organisational silos may prevail. You may experience difficulties in your multidisciplinary team, such as negotiating the gap between content teams and digital teams.

But think about this: why do we have separate content specialist teams and a digital specialist teams in the first place? Why aren’t we creating one, single team of Customer Experience Experts? When each team member brings his or her individual skills to a table of equals with a common goal, everyone’s input is more valued, and more valuable.

Learn and adjust

Want to keep the good work flowing? Set up a KPI dashboard to measure your content’s performance. You’ll see where your content is performing best, and in which channel. This fuels and adapts the next ‘Collect’ and ‘Create’ phases for content. It is the best way to ensure you don't create stuff that is not seen or used. Most importantly, it allows you to offer your customers an experience. And that improves your ROI on content creation.

Effective measurement is also a crucial step towards building a business case, and proving your efforts are driving brand and business objectives. And that’s the best way to secure and approve new budget!

Modern consumers control the game. So, a Context Mindset matters. It’s the key to achieving your business objectives. The customer is King, but your content is the Empire. The rules of content creation have changed. But if you can change with them and put the right agile process in place, you can win the content creation game.

Curious to discover if you have what it takes to create an agile content creation flow? Want know more about Context Marketing? Don't hesitate to contact us.

OnModus is pleased to announce the addition of some fresh creative input to our team: Yannick Hoogervorst! In his final year as an Interaction Design student, Yannick will join us to do a very specific task. But before we get into that, please allow Yannick to introduce himself:

‘So, my name is Yannick Hoogervorst and I am 22 years old. I’ve been studying the ins and outs of UX design at the HAN University of Applied Sciences for four years now. I also picked up an interest in graphic design, and I travelled to the United States to do my graphic design minor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. During my studies in Mankato, I also worked as a designer at an on-campus organisation called B507. This is where I gained a lot of design experience working on promotional materials and internal projects. Working abroad really broadened my view of the digital industry and got me excited for the possibilities in my future.’

For OnModus, it’s a big plus if you have international experience. It’s one of the reasons we chose Yannick. But why did Yannick choose OnModus from among all the internship opportunities?

‘OnModus felt like the kind of company that could balance me and keep me motivated. During my first interview, I had the chance to meet the entire team. That quickly gave me a good overview of how the company connected and communicated with each other. I thought to myself: What a creative and motivated bunch of individuals! It’s the kind of company in which my thoughts and opinions would matter most in terms of improving professionally and constantly growing.’

As a last-year student, Yannick will have to perform a final graduation assignment with OnModus. This assignment will act as a validation of Yannick’s skills in the professional world. So we asked him how he could most effectively use those skills at a company like OnModus. Here’s what he said:

‘First of all, I would like to support OnModus in any way I can. That includes offering my UX knowledge to further deepen the customer experience the company offers and help OnModus with any design work that is needed. The primary focus of my internship will be a combination of these two, as I will be focusing on OnModus’ digital platforms and exploring how I could improve these to create more value for our clients. This involves setting up the customer journey of the current OnModus website, sketching and designing alternative options, eventually prototyping and testing these to get to the perfect solution. All in all, a lot of possibilities and excitement in my future.’

Please join us in welcoming Yannick to the team. And be sure to stop by and say hello the next time you’re in the OnModus office!