Development and testing of content
It is not practical to provide details of the methods of developing content since marketers do not need an in depth understanding of development technologies as they will use specialists for this. What marketers do have to know is the aspects of customer experience that can be affected by the tools and development methodologies used. Then, when selecting suppliers, they can ask questions so that the type of constraints on the customer experience described are accounted for. They can also test to make sure the systems have been built successfully.
Selecting the right content management system (CMS)
Is important to provide a good user experience and is also important for an efficient method of publishing content since the facility can be made available to people through out the company. Today there are two main forms of CMS, both of which are delivered as web services which can be accessed through a web browser. Enterprise CMSs can be used for large, complex sites (and other corporate documents); as well as the standard page creation and editing facilities these offer version control and review of documents through workflow systems which notify reviewers when new documents are ready for editing.
CMS for smaller companies traditionally lack workflow or multi-author facilities, but offer many of the other features to create content. However blogging platforms such as WordPress and Moveable Type are increasingly used by smaller businesses for managing their entire site since they have enterprise features.
Criteria for selecting a content management system
A professional content management system should provide these facilities:
● Easy authoring system . Editing of new and existing documents should be possible through a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) facility similar to a word processor which makes it easy to embed images and supports a range of markups necessary for SEO.
● Search engine robot crawling . The content must be stored and linked such that it can be indexed by search engine crawlers to add it to their index. Sometimes URL rewriting. To a search-engine-friendly format without many parameters is required.
The Google Webmaster pages describe the requirements: www.google.com/webmasters.
● Search-engine-optimisation-friendly markup. Some bespoke content management systems created by design agencies do not enable easy editing of the key fields, such as <title>, <h1> and <meta name = ‘description’ content = ‘page description’>.
● Different page templates. The design and maintenance of content structure (sub components, templates, etc.), web page structure and website structure. It should be possible to create different layouts and designs for different site sections or categories of pages.
● Link management. The maintenance of internal and external links through content change and the elimination of dead links.
● Input and syndication. The loading (spidering) of externally originating content and the aggregation and dissemination of content from a variety of sources.
● Versioning. The crucial task of controlling which edition of a page, page element or the whole site is published. Typically this will be the most recent, but previous editions should be archived and it should be possible to roll back to a previous version.
● Security and access control. Different permissions can be assigned to different roles of users and some content may only be available through log-in details. In these cases, the CMS maintains a list of users.
● Use of plug-ins and widgets. Mashups are possible through embedding widgets such as links to social networks or third-party applications.
But a content management system may not readily support embedding within the main content or sidebars.
● Publication workflow. Content destined for a website needs to pass through a publication process to move it from the management environment to the live delivery environment. The process may involve tasks such as editorial authorisation and the construction of composite documents in real time (personalisation and selective dissemination).
● Tracking and monitoring. Providing logs and statistical analysis of use to provide performance measures, tune the content according to demand and protect against misuse. It should also be possible to rapidly add tags to the page templates for web analytics tools such as Google Analytics.
● Navigation and visualisation. Providing an intuitive, clear and attractive representation of the nature and location of content using colour, texture, 3D rendering or even virtual reality. It should be possible to make changes to the navigation and containers holding content within the page template.
● Flexibility to test new approaches. It should be possible to test alternative designs and messaging using techniques such as AB and multivariate testing. Testing the experience marketing managers responsible for websites need to have a basic awareness of website development and testing. We have already discussed the importance of usability testing with typical users of the system.
In brief, other necessary testing steps include:
● test that the content displays correctly on different types and versions of web browsers;
● test plug-ins;
● test all interactive facilities and integration with company databases;
● test spelling and grammar;
● test adherence to corporate image standards;
● test to ensure all internal and links to external sites are valid. Testing often occurs on a separate test web server (or directory) or test environment, with access to the test or prototype version being restricted to the development team. When complete, the website is released or published to the main web server or live environment.
Post-launch, ongoing improvements to site effectiveness can be made through review of the web analytics and testing of different page layouts, messaging and offers using the AB.
For online retail site owners, merchandising is a crucial activity, in the same way it is for physical retail store owners. In both cases, the aims are similar to maximise sales potential for each store visitor. Online, this means presenting relevant products and promotions to site visitors which should help boost key measures of site performance such as conversion rate and average order value. You will see that many of these approaches are related to the concept of findability.
Some of the most common approaches used are:
● Expanding navigation through synonyms . Through using a range of terms which may apply to the same product, the product may become easier to find if a site visitor is searching using a particular expression.
● Applying faceted navigation or search approaches . Search results pages are important in online merchandising since conversion rates will be higher if relevant products and offers are at the top of the list. Faceted navigation enables website users to ‘drill-down’ to easily select a relevant product by selecting different product.
● Featuring the bestselling products prominently . Featuring strongest product lines prominently is a common approach, with retailers showing ‘Top 10’ or ‘Top 20’ products.
● Use of bundling . The classic retail approach of buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) is commonly applied online through showcasing complementary products. For example, Amazon discounts two related books it offers. Related products are also shown on the product page or in checkout, although care has to be taken here since this can reduce conversion rates.
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