Now more than ever, organizations have realized they need a robust TechStack to deliver exceptional customer experiences on every channel.
They likely already have a Content Management System (CMS) for their downstream distribution processes and analytics so they can get campaigns and content into market and track engagement. But they also need to automate and connect all their upstream activities, such as budgeting, planning, creation, management, retention, and overall ROI of their content to enhance experiences.
A technology solution that offers these capabilities via structured workflows, content enrichment capabilities, structured repositories, and archiving helps organizations not only improve overall experiences, but also gain global visibility into projects, optimize resources, and improve speed to market.
The notion of utilizing such automation was on the minds of many attendees at the Sitecore Symposium 2018, held last week in Orlando.
Integrated upstream and downstream CX processes
Some organizations haven’t overtly sought out these technologies, but they are aware they have problems getting ideas into market and connecting workflows—as well as just managing all their assets. And they surely don’t want to risk the chance of putting expired or bad content out in the market and possibly loosing consumer trust.
That’s why Aprimo has a connector in Sitecore, to support those upstream processes such as:
- Ideation
- Planning
- Creation
- Management
- Retention
- ROI of content
Such integrated automation provides structured workflows, content enrichment, repository and archiving capabilities to provide an end-to-end solution for customer experience. Aprimo and Sitecore have already delivered over 20 successful integrations that offer enterprises global access and visibility into all their activities involved in creating great experiences. At the Sitecore Symposium 2018, Aprimo spoke with other organizations that also were interested utilizing such integration in the near future.
Consistent processes, experiences
Despite the availability of automation for upstream activities, many organizations, however, are still using manual, time-consuming processes. Utilizing email, spreadsheets, or basic collaboration tools for content ideation, planning, creation, and reviews, however, can result in slow to market content and campaigns.
Further, it can result in a heroic effort to get a single piece of exceptional, relevant content out the door—of which organizations may not be willing or able to repeat as frequently as they need to deliver personalized experiences on every channel, or adjust campaigns on the fly.
By automating upstream processes with DAM and Marketing Operations solutions, they will have an easier time creating consistent workflows and processes that can be repeated for future content and campaigns. It also will help them more easily locate existing content so they can tweak it for different channels, personas, or outcomes.
While such technologies may not have been top of mind for some organizations a few years ago, they now realize they are essential for automating and integrating the upstream processes involved in great customer experiences.
Enhanced content for each buyer persona
More and more, organizations are involving multiple stakeholders in technology purchases—all of whom have different requests and requirements from a solution. Automated upstream processes help organizations develop diversified content designed for each of these buyer personas.
Such personas can include:
- Project Managers
- Creatives
- Marketing Operations
- Ecommerce
- CX teams
- Procurement
- Marketing finance leaders
- IT leaders
Many organizations understand the profiles of these personas, but their manual upstream processes create a roadblock to creating a content strategy for each of them. Marketing Operations solutions help simplify the ideation and creation of such personalized content, while DAM solutions help organizations categorize and locate existing content faster so they can more easily tweak it for each of these personas, as well as get a better handle on your entire content library and lifecycle.
Ultimately, the automation of all the upstream activities involved in delivering exceptional customer experiences—combined with being able to integrate them with existing downstream automation also helps organizations streamline all campaign workflows and offers a better picture of ROI for all their content.