We’ve been talking about the key components that make your content an experience for your readers. In case you missed it, we covered Social Sharing, Interaction and Media in our last post. Today, we’ll talk about Context, Search and What’s Next . . .
Context
We can’t talk about context enough. It’s the foundation of successful engagement and at the core of growing multiple revenue streams. Related content, products, events and directories can provide your readers with a complete resource that makes your site a go-to destination. They may have come to your site looking for one specific thing, but when they realize how much is there, and how relevant it is to what they need for their job, they stick around, engage and purchase more.
It can start with presenting related articles on article pages, but a robust CMS will give you the ability to do so much more—and present products, events and advertisements that give the reader a multi-layered experience and a wealth of knowledge where they are looking for it, when they want it.
There are numerous examples of publishers who do this well—through a marriage of an extensive taxonomy system, diverse products, interactive directories, secure eCommerce and an easy dashboard that helps them to manage it all.
Housing Wire provides a superior example of how to effectively use taxonomy tagging, to present the site’s offerings in deeper context than ever.
Natural Gas Intelligence presents a complete resource in one place on its Topic Pages, automatically associating an Overview, Maps, Price Data, Charts and Articles as they are published.
Workforce shows how a variety of products, including their unique Roadmaps offering can be presented in context, to make them the preferred resource for their HR readers. Sponsored events and webinars, videos, podcasts, a vendor directory, whitepapers and more are found easily through comprehensive topics pages and related articles.
Search
With the promise of audience behavior data it is inevitable that BtoB publishers will be creating more and more individualized experiences for their readers—to provide a more complete experience, increase engagement, boost sales and renewal rates and expand the value of leads. Right now, Search is one way to help move in that direction. Using the data you collect from individual searches, you can track what readers are looking for and when. You can then use your taxonomy system to present related content in search results.
BNP Media’s Security Magazine presents multiple assets in response to a search query. In addition to providing information about its readers’ content preferences, Search makes the site “sticky” by leading readers deeper and deeper into a wide range of assets and tools.
What’s Next: Giving, Wish Lists
In an age where the power of data can sometimes make consumers uneasy about their privacy, giving is a way to empower them with more control over what is known about them, so that they get the most out of their experience. It’s also a way to make the experience that much more personalized. Essentially, when a visitor registers or purchases on a site—whether signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource or ordering a product, they can share a certain level of personal information in order to receive valued content that is more relevant to them as an individual.
Wish lists are a particular form of giving that has proven effective for BtoC sites like Amazon. They even promote their wish lists with sweepstakes and special offers.
Employing these key components of your SaaS CMS will help you get further down the road of experience management—and your customers will be grateful for it.
