Issue 5 - May 2009
XML and Marketing Materials
By Ann Rockley, President, The Rockley Group
Organisations create a number of marketing materials for multiple channels (Web, print, mobile). Content is frequently created and recreated and recreated for each channel. Content is typically written in Word, converted and rewritten for the Web, and handed off to a creative group or outside vendor to attractively lay out the content for print publishing. All of this requires multiple authors and often results in significant costs. Marketing campaigns frequently rely on content being distributed via e-mail with little ability to track its use, manage versions or easily make updates. And personalised marketing campaigns usually require copious amounts of rewriting to address each need.
Marketing materials are always important, and in these difficult times, they are critical to the success of the organisation, and there are huge pressures to do more with less and for less money. Enter XML. XML is often perceived as complex, rigid and horrible to work with (geeky, technical) — anathema to the average marketing communications author. But this is no longer true. XML and the tools that support them have matured to the point where the XML is hidden, much in the same way rtf is hidden from the average Microsoft® Word author. Using XML for marketing materials provides considerable benefits, including consistent messaging, reduced time to create content, reduced costs to maintain content, reduced translation costs, and powerful multichannel conversion capabilities.
XML is creating a profound shift in the way we create, manage, deliver and control marketing materials. It is a shift that is resulting in significant ROI and increased levels of success. Using XML to create marketing materials impacts two major areas of marketing:
- Product marketing materials
- Marketing campaigns
Product Marketing Materials
Let’s take the example of a medical devices company which produces a blood glucose metre. Marketing content includes brochures for use in doctors’ offices and pharmacies, Web-based product pages, newsletters, customer letters encouraging them to upgrade to new metres, press releases, presentations, and product packaging. There are four variations of the metre; a standard version which can display the last 30 readings and a programmable version that can download content to the physician’s or patient’s computer to allow for detailed analysis of test results. Each metre comes in a regular size for at-home use and a smaller travel-size version. The content is translated into 40 languages.
This is the traditional process for creating these materials:
- The team responsible for the brochures creates the content and hands it off to an external vendor for layout in a high-end desktop publishing tool, where the content is further refined to fit to the space.
- The Web team develops the content for the Web. It, too, is crafted to fit.
- The packaging team asks for marketing content for the box. The key features and benefits information is written in a form that fits into the box real estate and is handed off for integration with the legal and regulatory information. Using a high-end page-layout tool they lay out the box “wrapper.”
- Yet another person crafts a letter and content for a coupon for existing customers to encourage them to upgrade.
- A public relations specialist creates the press release.
- And yet another writer creates sales training materials.
Throughout this process content is written and rewritten for multiple documents, refined, and styled for the particular channel. At each iteration of the content, the words are changed slightly to accommodate the media and by the preferences of each individual author. Reviewers review the same/similar content over and over. When it comes to translation, there are five information products multiplied by four products, times 40 languages, or one big bill!
Enter XML
Now take the same scenario using XML and a unified content strategy.
- Product marketing determines all the different content that is required to market the products in their entirety. In other words, all the messaging, branding, and core information is identified in the beginning. Common content between the different models is identified for reuse.
- A master document is written following an agreed upon structure that will guarantee consistency. Content is modularised; each piece of content, such as features and benefits, is written as individual chunks of information, and the chunks are created in a single document, just as they would have been written previously. “Under the covers” the content is saved as individual components.
- Content is written with best practices Web guidelines in mind. Well written Web-based content makes great paper-based content. Content is designed such that lesser or greater detail can be automatically extracted to meet the space requirements and best practices for the media.
- Based on business rules, content is automatically pushed out to each of the outputs: brochure, Web, letter, press release, and packaging and automatically formatted for each use.
- And the content is pushed into sales enablement tools, such as sales training guides and customer presentations and targets customer-specific product sheets.
In this scenario you write once, use that single source of information many times, and automatically format your content appropriately for multi-channel delivery — saving you time and money! And when it comes to translation your costs are significantly reduced; rather than translating 20 different pieces of information, you translate the core information and everywhere that core content appears it is already translated. And, significantly, you are automatically providing sales enablement tools to ensure your sales force is knowledgeable and has everything they need to speak with customers effectively.
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing campaigns can also benefit from XML. The key criterion for a successful marketing campaign is control, starting with a core source of information and managing that content through all of its iterations. A core document is typically created, then it is distributed via e-mail to multiple recipients. Content is modified for each channel, region, and audience. But when messaging changes there is no recourse but to send the content back out via e-mail, and there is no guarantee that everyone who needs it gets it or that the revised messaging is incorporated and consolidated.
With a combination of XML and content management, a core messaging document is created. Each of the messages within the core document is saved as a separate component, making it possible to rapidly update a single component as necessary. Content is not distributed by e-mail; rather it is accessed through the content management system (e.g., workflow). Every action on content is tracked (recipients, version, changes, and translation). At every point in the lifecycle content is controlled. You can ensure that messages are consistent in all channels.
Accelerating Targeted Campaigns
While marketing campaigns in general present challenges, targeted campaigns can create a nightmare of complexity. Campaigns targeted at specific groups typically require creating separate pieces for each unique group. When common information about the campaign changes, all of the individual pieces must be updated. This is error prone and time consuming. However, XML content has built-in meaning in its structure so that the content can be automatically assembled and published simultaneously in every instance in which it appears, creating effective, targeted campaigns.
Where’s the ROI?
There are a number of areas where return on investment is realised:
- Being in control of your content means you reduce the cost of time spent manually tracking, fact checking, and reviewing content.
- Writing once and reusing or adapting common content means that your authors can do more value-added work. Reuse savings often start at 25% and go up from there.
- You achieve faster time-to-market across multiple channels, increased marketing agility, and more consistent, relevant, and accurate messaging across channels.
- Content that is written once and used many times only has to be translated once. If you translate into four or more languages, ROI is frequently 60-70% of existing translation costs.
- You achieve more effective sales enablement through quick adaptation of content for specific sales needs, ensuring that your sales force has all the information they need, when they need it, and in the form they need it in.
Summary
XML is often perceived as technical and geeky, but XML and the tools associated with it have matured to the point that XML is in the background and standard, user-functionality is in the foreground. It is no more scary than rtf is in Word. And with XML we can do so much more with our content:
- Modularise content for ease of creation, management, and reuse
- Reuse common content across channels
- Publish to multiple channels
- Control our content at a granular level through the entire lifecycle
- Easily facilitate targeted campaigns
- And reduce costs!
Part 2 of this article will address the changes in the way we work when using an XML solution.
