Webinar

Profitable Content Management

3 Smart Strategies for Leveraging
Content Assets in a Tight Market

10.22.09

1
aptaracorp.com
 Speakers

 Rahel Bailie
Content Strategist, Intentional Design, Inc.

 Mark Zecca
CTO, Mitchell 1

 Mark Witman, Moderator

Vice President, Aptara

2 Confidential. Not for distribution.

About Intentional Design Inc.

• Content strategist from a communications 
background  (aka business analyst, 
information architect, usability professional, 
customer advocate, writer)

• Providing strategies for better use of 
critical‐path content since 2002
Three Strategies to Get More from Your Content

1. Turn your content into assets
2. Use your content strategically
3. Maximize your content ROI
What’s content?

Content is 
human‐usable,
contextualized
data
Contextualized Data: 12
Context makes this 
piece of data into 
meaningful content Content:
• December
• A dozen
• Players on a team
What’s relevant 
content to us here?
Product information:
‐ Critical‐path
‐ Pre‐sales 
(decision support)
‐ Post‐sales 
(relationship support)
Three Strategies to Get More from Your Content

1. Turn your content into assets
Definition

In an information 
economy, content 
is critical on many 
levels
 Recognize that 
you are a publisher of 
corporate assets
Manage your 
content assets
 Use those
content assets 
to gain 
competitive 
advantage
Example: Content assets are re‐used in 3 areas (“triumvirate”) 

Support instantiation Training instantiation

TechComm instantiation
Three Strategies to Get More from Your Content

1. Turn your content into assets
2. Use your content strategically
Now, broken 
experiences can 
damage brands faster 
than ever. “Nothing can 
deter confidence 
quicker than 
a broken 
experience.”*
* Christopher Cashdollar, 
Creative Director, 
Happy Cog Studios
Premise

Turn your best 
content into 
high‐value assets
Value differences between content assets

Low‐value assets High‐value assets
• Pain point • Value‐add
• Treated as cost centre • Treated as corporate asset
• Single use • Multiple uses
• Not part of strategy or  • Investment is made in its 
development cycle creation & development
• Don’t worry about  • Managed with the care of 
accuracy, control, re‐use other corporate assets
• Sacrifice user experience  • Find ways to use it in 
to “economize” many ways to create value
Reality check

Exploit the power of 
content that can 
work for you
The power of convergence, integration, and syndication

• Integration: example –
inserting a size into a 
product description
• Convergence: example –
bringing together 
content from multiple 
sources for a single 
display
• Syndication: example –
sending content to 
interested parties
Example: Content is converged into a product portal
Reality Check

The quality bar 
is continually 
being raised.
Same content, two content strategies

1 “This Visa interface is

great. I can download
each statement, by
month, for the last year.”

2:00 PM
Same content, two content strategies

1 “This Visa interface is

great. I can download
each statement, by
2 “Vancity is great.
I can enter the dates
and download a whole
3 “Visa’s monthly download
is driving me bananas.
Why doesn’t Visa get it
month, for the last year.” year at a time, for the together?”
last two years – in a
single transaction.”
2:00 PM 2:15 PM 2:18 PM
Three Strategies to Get More from Your Content

1. Turn your content into assets
2. Use your content strategically
3. Maximize your content ROI
ROI check

5 basic ways to 
get ROI from 
your content
User experience goes hand‐in‐hand with content strategy

• For content to be able to:
– Converge (show content from multiple sources)
– Integrate (embed data into content)
– Syndicate (send content out on demand)

• Content must be:
– Standards‐based (XML for repurposing)
– Well‐formed (using predictable schema)
– Structured (for automated delivery)
– Semantic (searchable, sortable)
Content ROI / IRR

On the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) side:
1. Extend scope
2. Manage risk
3. Increase efficiencies

On the Return on Investment (ROI) side:
1. Build brand loyalty
2. Increase revenue
In closing

Where 
there’s a will, 
there’s a way.
In closing

Where there’s a 
strategy, there’s 
success.
 The Role of Content

We are Facing an Increasingly

Information-Driven Economy

However, like most popular and well

identified necessities, Information is
being commoditized

Content is now like CASH!

 What Mitchell 1 Manages
• 212 million files with a rate of 65K files
per year growth
• Lowest common denominator equals a
repair article (converted SGMA to XML)
• Articles are 1 to 200 pages
• Over 65 various sources
• Collection occurs as a monthly process
• Employs editorial, authorship, and content
servicing
 Mitchell 1 as Content Provider

After-Market Repair
Marketplace

OEM
Manufacturers

Mitchell 1 Information
Do-It-Yourself
Public
 Content as Corporate Asset

Content fed by
subscription is
like water from
the tap.

87K customers
in a market of 147K
possible doors
 Managing the Content Asset
• Content is capital even though it’s served up as a
commodity
• CMS’s are tools not strategies
• Content activities (and outsourcing) include:
– Content Collection
– Content Normalization
– Configuration
– Standardization Tools of the
– Re-Authorship Content Trade
– Editorial
– Provisioning
– Tracking & Metrics
 Content as Competitive Edge
• Leverage years of content
• Make the hard work of content maintenance
and growth, scalable/easy
• Requires market intelligence
• Understand competitors, competition
environment, competitive tools
• Make sure the asset is not an anchor
(understanding the value of leapfrogging)
 Meeting Users Needs

Push Content Pull Content

Print Web Portals
Digital Media Decision Portals
Web Info Answer Engines
Web Portal Answer-back Portals
 User vs. Corporate Needs
User Corporation
• Content on demand • Create system delivery
• Cheap content • Cost effective creation
• Related content • Relational systems
• Content tools • Search engines
• Extensive content • Answer services
• Content support • Decision engines
• Content growth • Target growth
(Maximize content acquisition for $)
 Power of Content
Converging Content
• M1 uses multiple sources
• Enrich primary content to extend value
• Focus content resources
Integrating Content
• Find & employ standards
• Look for the common denominators
Syndicate
• Leverage on-demand capabilities
• Employ multiple vending/provisioning methods
 Standards-Based Content

• Easier to collect
• Simpler to combine
• Increases support capability
• Allows more interactive capability
• Easier to change, improve, modify
• More available support tools
• Increases extensibility
 Content Lifecycle
Analyze
• Find sources
Analyze • Filter value vs. non-value content
Collect
• Standardized repository
• Standardize protocol
Deliver Collect Publish
• Determine output
• Provide vending solutions

Publish • Manage & measure

Deliver
• Push-Pull
•On-demand
 Content Creates Content

Internet
Pulling use
data to create
new content
Media Automotive
Repair Data

Computer-to-Computer
Interface

Source Source
Source
 Mitchell 1 Future
• Morph the content for better delivery
• Reduce common denominator from
articles to XML data fragments
• Target point-search to data fragments
(vs. Google search Boolean return)
• Add answer & decision engines and
eliminate search only strategies
 Contacts

Rahel Anne Bailie Mark Zecca

Intentional Design Mitchell 1

rabailie@intentionaldesign.ca mark.zecca@mitchell1.com
+1 604 837 0034 +1 858 391 5233

Mark Witman
Aptara

mark.witman@aptaracorp.com
+1 717 360 8837

www.aptaracorp.com

2 Confidential.
Confidential.
NotNot
forfor
distribution.
distribution.