Why Your CMS Isn’t Driving Revenue

Whether content can propel revenue depends on user experience, guiding a user to take action.

Organizations often invest in content management systems (CMSs) and platforms in an effort to drive engagement, generate leads and ultimately increase revenue. Sadly, such efforts often fall flat, with the CMS ultimately turning into a content repository rather than helping the organization to grow.

The problem is not that a CMS platform cannot drive growth, but rather a disconnect between an organization’s business goals and the way that it is using its CMS platform.

CMS platforms are great for creating pages, managing content and publishing updates. The problem is that many organizations stop there. Using content to drive revenue depends on guiding users to take action while also taking steps to reduce friction along the way.

All too often, organizations create content in isolation rather than designing pages with outcomes in mind, and there is no clear conversion path that leads to a reader becoming a customer. In other words, organizations must resist the temptation to stop at mere content orchestration and focus on user experience (and behavior) orchestration instead.

Creating a Custom Experience

If an organization’s goal is to use CMS as a tool for driving revenue, then one of the best places to start is to custom tailor content to each individual visitor, based on what is known about them. Remember, showing the same content to everyone is really nothing more than broadcasting. Site visitors each receive the same generic experience, resulting in low engagement and even lower conversion rates.

A better approach is to use behavioral data to personalize content. This increases the odds that the visitor will find the content to be of interest and therefore spend more time consuming the content than they otherwise might. Increasing engagement in this way makes it easier to drive conversions.

Some organizations may be quick to point out that they are using personalization but are still not getting the results that they want. Oftentimes, however, it is the scope of that personalization that is lacking.

Personalization based on a handful of rigid rules is better than delivering a completely generic experience, but it’s unlikely to drive conversions. Organizations wishing to truly capitalize on their online content need to look for ways to shape the end user experience based on context (what the user is doing right now) and on subtle clues that signal the visitor’s intent. Additionally, the underlying algorithms need to make continuous adjustments, driving the visitor’s experience in real time.

The important thing to keep in mind is that for personalization to have value, it needs to drive outcomes. Otherwise, the personalization is just cosmetic in nature. It’s also important to adopt the right amount of personalization. If personalization mechanisms are too simplistic, then they won’t be effective. Conversely, if personalization efforts are overly complex then they will likely be abandoned at some point in the future, simply because they are too difficult to maintain.

Creating Connected Journeys

One of the single biggest reasons why CMS platforms so often fail to drive revenue is because there is a disconnect between systems, departments and outcomes. To put this into perspective, imagine a situation in which an organization is producing great blog content and attracting lots of readers. However, when a site visitor finishes reading a blog post, there is no clear next step. The site visitor effectively hits a dead end and is left wondering what they should do next.

The opposite can also happen. A visitor to an organization’s site might initially visit a product page but be left wondering if the product is right for them. Exposing relevant and compelling blog posts on product pages may help to convert an otherwise hesitant visitor.

The bottom line is that visitors should never be left wondering what their next step should be. Ideally, sites should be designed to guide the visitor based on their needs.

Take the Guesswork Out of Optimizations

Another reason why CMS systems sometimes fail to deliver the intended results is because of the guesswork that is so often involved in the optimization process.

Imagine a situation in which an organization’s decisionmakers are brainstorming ideas for optimizing online content. Someone eventually comes up with a good idea, but the idea is difficult to implement. By the time the IT department works through the development cycle, the opportunity has been missed. At this point, the organization might assume that, because their idea didn’t work, no idea can work and the CMS platform is a waste of time.

In reality, however, optimization efforts are rarely an overnight success. Instead, optimizations require testing and experimentation. The problem is that many CMS platforms make A/B testing far more difficult than it needs to be. Of course, if optimizations cannot be tested, then it is going to be difficult to improve content optimization. And if you can’t improve content optimization, then the content is unlikely to drive revenue. At best, conversion rates may remain stagnant.

Don’t Dismiss Performance as Being an IT Problem

While it might seem strange to mention site performance in a discussion centered around CMS platforms, performance is absolutely critical. By and large, people seem to be more impatient than ever before. If a site is slow to load, there is a very real chance that a visitor will click away. This, of course, eliminates any chance of selling to that visitor.

The same basic principle also applies to site design. If the site is cumbersome and difficult to navigate or if it fails to show visitors what they want to see right away, then visitors will likely leave rather than exploring the site.

The Bottom Line

CMS platforms do not drive revenue on their own. Revenue comes from aligning content, data and the end user experience. An organization’s goal shouldn’t just be to publish better content, but rather to learn about site visitors, adapt to visitor’s needs in real time, and then steer those visitors toward taking meaningful actions. The end user experience should be a journey that ultimately leads to a conversion.