January Podcast Focuses on WCM Market Trends for 2019
Let’s face it, ease of use and flexibility are what most companies want when choosing the right WCM for their business and these things are vital to any business's success. According to MarketWatch“the global web content management market will grow from USD 4132.1 million in 2016 to USD 12878.57 million by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.63%. The year 2016 has been considered as the base year, while the forecast period is up-to 2023.”
While attending many events in 2018, Laura Myers and I noticed that customer relationships were just as vital as the vendor relationships that were being formed. To add to this, Laura Myers had the chance to interview vendors from the Forrester Wave: Web Content Management Systems, Q4 2018 report and Dion Picco, VP of Product Management and UX at Progress had this to say “the most accurate source of information on any product, as we all know as consumers in 2018, is actual user reviews. When customer reviews are incorporated at volume, they provide critical and accurate insights into a product’s strengths and weaknesses. “
In our next podcast, Laura Myers and I are going to share our thoughts on the WCM market for 2019, the multi-channel customer experience, and why customer relationships are vital to your business's success. Also joining us in the conversation will be Loren Jarrett, CMO at Progress to share her thoughts on all the topics I've mentioned. I was actually very fortunate to hear Loren speak this past year at ProgressNEXT 2018 in Boston. It was my very first event that I attended that year and I was taken aback by the amount of inspirational insight that I was able to receive not only from the keynotes but also when speaking with a number of customers, partners, and industry experts, all providing us with insightful stories on industry trends and how they are utilizing the Progress Sitefinity platform.
The Shift from WCM to DXP
In the world today, digital experience is huge and moving forward, it’s crucial for these experiences to adapt to the technologies that are evolving around us today.
In a recent conversation from our time spent at ProgressNEXT 2018, Mark Troester, VP of Strategy at Progress discussed how how he thinks DXP is evolving with all the different types of devices and channels that are being created and how we can best approach the ongoing need for these experiences. “You need to take the experience to where they are” says Mark. “We have been stuck in this world that all we’re trying to do is get people to come to us and I think we need to flip that and we need to go to where they are.” Mark says it’s also important to think about the omichannel or multi-channel user experience and that “it’s really the digital channel that the user chooses to use which may change based on where he or she is.”
Mark also added that it’s just really thinking about the “entire user and customer journey and propagating it across all the right digital touchpoints." No matter where we turn, we are always surrounded by an experience and the demand for personalized, connected experiences rise when users expect information at their fingertips. Digital experience platforms essentially integrate the core business tools and provide a foundation for the future of digital innovation.
The Customer Relationship
Nowadays, it’s less about the vendor saving time and money and more about connecting with the customer and what they need. As I mentioned above, the relationships you have with your customer really sets the tone for your platform. Many platform providers are aware that not every organization that purchases their product has the digital capacity to utilize all the wonderful features it has to offer. To alleviate this, many are paying special attention to ensuring their customers get the most out of their platform, with this being echoed in the partner community as well.
We also had the opportunity to speak with Dion Picco at ProgressNEXT this past year to discuss the explosion of channels in the world today, whether it be mobile devices, Alexa or in-car systems and how those channels will continue to grow. Dion mentions that “customers on the other hand expect that their experience spans channels.” What he means is that when you start something on the web you can then continue it on a mobile device.
Dion also added that “instead of a content management system that’s really designed just for web, it’s a content management system that’s really designed to provide API access to your content so that any of those devices can both fetch content and report analytics that ultimately allows you to have consistency of delivery but more importantly harmonize and analyze customer journeys and customer experiences across all of those channels.”
I definitely agree with Dion. It’s so important for those experiences to be responsive across all channels no matter how or what device your customer is using to digest your content.
Choosing a WCM That’s Right for You
Customers need to be both inspired by and set the standard for every system on the market making it increasingly more difficult to choose the best fit WCM for your business. Your main objective should be focused on the customer touch-point, and what the particular platform you choose is offering.
As mentioned by my colleague Laura Myers “the importance of this decision however, should not be underestimated because your WCM system is arguably the core of your digital business, housing and disseminating the digital content supporting all of your needs in terms of brand presence, digital marketing, ecommerce and basically the entire experience you want to provide your customers.”
I’ll save the rest of this conversation for the podcast, so make sure you tune in in the weeks to come to hear all about the WCM market trends and what’s in store for 2019!
Gabriella Pirrone
Gabriella is the Digital Marketing Assistant for CMSC Media. She brings a wealth of knowledge from not only a CMS perspective but also content, SEO and eCommerce. She enjoys everything social media and staying ontop of the latest trends in the digital marketing world.