Perspectives on Web Marketing: The End User Still Steers the Ship — Part 1

Tracking the ebb and flow of trends in Web marketing can, in itself, be a full time job. So Communications Association of the Southern Tier (CAST),  an organization of Binghamton, NY-area communications professionals, recently invited four Web-savvy specialists in to provide some up-to-date insight into modern Web marketing. The most important lesson learned? Getting your service, data or product out into the world remains an interesting voyage—and the user, reader, or customer on the other end is still in charge.

The Promise of Content Management
Information is rarely used once. For example, a “what’s new” item about your business might be right for your Web site, your hard-copy newsletter, and for your corporate e-mail update. According to Robert Bullock, of Upstate Internet Services, guiding the same information to the right medium—in the right format—is at the heart of content management.

Bullock described the elements of content management as:

• Content: pure information devoid of any layout or presentation.

• Presentation: The implementation of presenting that content. “It could be content presented as a Word document, a PDF, a video…it could even be Braille.”

• Management: Organizing, categorizing, structuring and storing data in such a ways that you can publish it in different media.

• System: The actual software system that gives those managing the data an interface for working with it.

To see how it can all come together, Bullock pointed to RareVideo.com, for whom his company designed a Web-based content management system. RareVideo.com deals in not just videos, but also Hollywood memorabilia. “It takes a lot of information to describe his 20,000-item inventory,” said Bullock, “and it’s complex data… Titles, stars, studios, directors, the condition of old movie posters for sale….  There was no inventory management product out there that we could use that would be useful for his customers.”

So Upstate Internet Services built a custom database to describe RareVideo.com’s inventory in great detail. And they made it browser-based, so the company’s workforce—distributed across the country—can easily access it. “Employees basically sit at their home computers, log into his Web site, and add to and manage his inventory,” thus providing integration and ease of use that, says Bullock,  would not be possible with off-the-shelf software. “And because it’s in a structured format, we can publish it up to a variety of sales channels: eBay, Froogle, Yahoo, etc., with little or no additional work.”

Bullock says applications of Content Management extend beyond the Web. “You might be managing a newsletter. With conventional software, it’s only one purpose, one context. If you want to use it in another context, you have to cut and paste. With a content management system, once it’s in database or XML document, it can be flowed into different media–the newsletter layout, then an e-mail newsletter, PDF document for web access, and so on.”

When it comes to presenting content in a medium and format useful for the end user, the promise of Content Management is growing, says Bullock. “It’s the really hot thing right now.”

(Continue to Part 2...)

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