Content lifecycle to drive content efficiency

What is Content Lifecycle?

By definition, the content lifecycle is the process that any piece of digital content goes through - it is the beginning, middle and end of data creation. Content lifecycle is dynamic and looks vastly different from one part of the content to the next.

Content lifecycle has four steps:

Planning & ideation - In this step, we cover editorial planning, the process of researching and identifying topics to create content, and the overall strategic planning.
Creation & optimization - In this step, we write and edit content, as well as execute the design, optimize for search engines, and execute production aspects of the finished projects.
Distribution - This includes the publication of content to any media property. This could consist of owned properties such as email, websites or blogs, as well as the promotion and/or reuse of content across other distribution channels (e.g. other blogs, websites, social media, mobile, etc.)
Performance tracking & audit - This includes the measurement strategy and process of looking at the performance of content, as well as auditing the internal processes of the effectiveness of the content strategy.

What is the content crisis in Content Lifecycle?

Find Ability - Can the user find the content? Most of the time, the user can’t find content due to the absence of Meta tags, Alt tag of the image, right format of content.

Brand Consistency - The content is created by different groups or departments; each group creates its own content. Later, they store and publish it in different mediums or channels, without any standard or brand tone.

Campaign Management - In traditional content management, all content is managed in a disorderly manner. Video, audio image PDFs, web content, have their unique creation, management and deployment challenges. Additionally, multiple pieces of content are often used to associate with a single campaign and need to be deployed together and available for future reuse.

Creativity / Collaboration - The process of creating content and collaborating through the review and approval process can be tedious, with multiple tools, disjointed systems, and convoluted processes and workflows. This hinders creativity and makes it challenging to come up with a quality- finished product when needed.

Usage Rights Management - When assets are created or purchased, these have to be controlled as to where and how they can be used. Marketers struggle with enforcing property rights and risk exposure when using the wrong asset or a piece of content unknowingly.

Scalability - Just the sheer volume of content needed to support personalization efforts across channels and touch points elevates this situation from mere annoyance to full-blown crisis.

How to address the content crisis in Content Lifecycle

To resolve the content crisis, marketers need to start working in synergy, not in silos:

They need to streamline their processes to strategize, plan, create, approve and publish content across all channels – and be able to manage these processes and workflows.
To support these streamlined processes, they need one unified platform (and not multiple, disparate, non-integrated tools that they are using today), so that time, energy, and resources are not wasted trying to locate the right version of the right asset that needs to be created, reviewed, approved, or published to the right channel at the right time.
They need to be able to work together, understanding what team member is doing at any given point of the project, not in a vacuum throwing content “over the wall” for someone else to work on
They also need to understand what content is working - and what isn’t - to better improve the strategizing and planning process for the next round of projects.

How to solve the content crisis in a Content Lifecycle

Sitecore Content Hub allows marketers to resolve the content crisis by setting up content creation and delivery as a supply chain.

Aggregating from multiple data sources within the organization, into the hub, and then publishing on the various channels is crucial.

Once the content is built and approved in the Content Hub, it’s ready to be shared in personalized and elevated experiences across all channels, through Sitecore Experience Platform, and also used to drive conversions using Sitecore Experience Commerce.

Data about how content is used, its effectiveness in engaging audiences and targeting segments is then passed on from the Experience Platform to Content Hub, where content planners and strategizers use this information to make informed decisions for creation of content.

Having a centralized content hub benefits everyone in the marketing organization and beyond: from content creators to digital marketers, to marketing ops, merchandisers, and even the IT department.