Implementing the Optimizely Content Marketing Platform – Part 3: Advanced Features

As with any new technology, it’s important to follow the “crawl, walk, run” methodology when adopting Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP). As we have seen throughout our series, this phased approach ensures a gradual and successful implementation, maximizing the platform’s value and minimizing potential roadblocks.

The initial “crawl” phase focuses on building a strong foundation. Teams should familiarize themselves with the Optimizely CMP interface, grasp core functionalities like content brief creation, and establish basic workflows. During this phase, it’s essential to ensure all team members understand the core components of the platform from campaign planning to general processes, fostering a shared understanding and minimizing confusion.

The “walk” phase involves putting the learned fundamentals into action. Teams can begin executing real campaigns, using Optimizely CMP to guide their efforts. This phase emphasizes refining workflows based on initial feedback and integrating the platform seamlessly into existing content creation processes. By actively using the platform and demonstrating its value through tangible results, teams can build momentum and gain support from stakeholders.

Finally, the “run” phase leverages the advanced capabilities of Optimizely CMP. Teams can explore sophisticated analytics and reporting features, implement personalized content delivery strategies, and integrate the platform with other marketing automation tools. This phase is about continuous improvement and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with the platform. Just as a runner wouldn’t begin with a marathon, teams should avoid trying to implement every feature of Optimizely CMP at once. By following the “crawl, walk, run” approach, teams can ensure a smooth and successful implementation, maximizing the platform’s potential and achieving their content marketing objectives.

Now that you have implemented Optimizely CMP, and your team is masterfully using campaigns, workflows, and templates you’ve built, let’s explore a few advanced features to truly maximize your tool’s capabilities.

Library

Optimizely’s Library and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system serves as a centralized hub for marketers to store, organize, and manage all their digital assets. This includes everything from images and videos to documents, ensuring easy access and consistent usage across campaigns. A key benefit of this centralized approach is improved efficiency. Marketers no longer need to hunt for assets across different locations, saving valuable time and effort. The Library also supports version control, preventing the use of outdated or incorrect assets. This contributes to brand consistency and reduces the risk of errors in marketing materials.

Key capabilities of Optimizely’s Library include robust search functionality, allowing marketers to quickly find the assets they need using keywords, tags, and metadata. The system also supports collaboration, enabling teams to share assets and work together on projects seamlessly. Optimizely CMP’s image and video rendition feature automates the creation of different versions of your digital assets, optimizing them for various platforms and devices. By defining presets for size, format, and quality, you can generate renditions tailored to specific needs (e.g., website, social media, email). This improves website performance, reduces bandwidth usage, enhances visual quality, and streamlines workflows by eliminating manual editing.

Granular permissions control who can access, edit, and download specific assets, ensuring security and compliance. Furthermore, the Library integrates directly with the Optimizely platform, making it easy to incorporate assets into personalization campaigns and other marketing activities. This tight integration streamlines the workflow and reduces the risk of errors associated with manual asset handling.

Marketers configure and use Optimizely’s Library by first uploading their digital assets to the platform. They can then organize these assets into folders and add metadata, tags, and descriptions to make them easily searchable. User roles and permissions are configured to control access to different assets and folders. When creating marketing campaigns or experiments, marketers can then browse the Library directly from within the Optimizely platform to select the appropriate assets.

Brand Templates

Optimizely CMP empowers marketers to streamline content creation and ensure brand consistency through the use of templates. These pre-designed layouts act as blueprints, providing a framework for various content formats such as social media posts, blog graphics, presentations, and more. By utilizing templates, marketers can quickly create visually appealing and on-brand content while maintaining consistency across all channels.

Furthermore, Optimizely CMP allows for the creation of “brand templates,” which are specifically designed to enforce brand guidelines. These templates can restrict certain elements, such as fonts, colors, and logos, ensuring that all content adheres to the brand’s visual identity. This not only saves time and effort for designers but also helps maintain brand consistency across all marketing materials, enhancing brand recognition and strengthening brand equity.

By leveraging templates and brand templates within Optimizely CMP, marketers can significantly improve their content creation workflow, enhance brand consistency, and ultimately achieve more impactful marketing results.

Integrations

Optimizely CMP boasts robust integration capabilities, enabling seamless data flow and enhanced workflow efficiency across various marketing platforms. Key integrations include marketing automation tools like Eloqua and Marketo as well as CRM tools like Salesforce. This allows marketers to track content performance, understand audience behavior, and make data-driven decisions. With a Salesforce CRM integration, marketers can even begin to see how content impacts closed-won opportunities, fine-tuning their attribution models.

Optimizely CMP also integrates seamlessly with leading content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Drupal. This integration streamlines content publishing workflows, enabling marketers to easily transfer approved content from Optimizely CMP directly to their website or other digital channels. This eliminates manual data entry and reduces the risk of errors, ensuring a smooth and efficient content delivery process.

Marketers can also utilize Optimizely CMP integrations with social media and online platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These integrations allow marketers to easily schedule and publish social media posts directly from within the platform, saving time and effort. Additionally, these integrations can provide valuable data on social media engagement, enabling marketers to track the performance of their social media campaigns and refine their strategies accordingly.

Idea Lab

Optimizely’s Idea Lab is a powerful tool within Content Marketing Platform (CMP) designed to help marketers discover and create content that resonates with their target audience. It leverages SEO and social sharing information to provide valuable recommendations and insights. By analyzing search volume, cost-per-click, and keyword ranking, Idea Lab helps marketers identify high-opportunity keywords and topics that are likely to perform well in search results. This data-driven approach allows marketers to focus their efforts on creating content that has the greatest potential for visibility and engagement.

One of the key capabilities of Idea Lab is its ability to provide marketers with a comprehensive view of their competitive landscape. By analyzing competitor domains, marketers can gain insights into their content strategy, identify areas of opportunity, and discover potential content gaps. This information can be used to inform content creation and ensure that the content being produced is unique, valuable, and likely to outperform the competition. Additionally, Idea Lab offers a range of features to help marketers streamline their content creation process, including the ability to save research in a notepad or download the data in an Excel spreadsheet or as a PDF.

Marketers can configure and use Idea Lab by first setting their targeted keywords within the platform. This allows Idea Lab to generate recommendations for additional keywords that offer the best opportunity to rank higher in searches and drive traffic. Marketers can then explore these keyword options, research topics, and analyze competitor domains to inform their content strategy. By leveraging the power of Idea Lab, marketers can create a content strategy that is not only effective, but also aligned with their overall business objectives.

Analytics

Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP) provides robust analytics capabilities that empower marketers to track and measure the performance of their content across various channels. The Analytics section within CMP offers a comprehensive view of content performance, including key metrics such as page views, time on page, bounce rates, and conversion rates. This data helps identify high-performing content and pinpoint areas for improvement. By tracking the performance of entire campaigns, including social media, email, and paid advertising, marketers can identify the most effective channels and allocate resources accordingly.

Furthermore, Optimizely CMP enables you to measure the performance of your content across various channels, including website, social media, email, and paid advertising. This holistic view allows you to identify the most effective channels for reaching your target audience and optimize your resource allocation accordingly. The platform also empowers you to measure the ROI of your content marketing efforts by tracking key metrics such as leads generated, sales conversions, and customer lifetime value.

Finally, Optimizely CMP provides advanced analytics capabilities, such as measuring average attention time, engagement rate, and scroll depth. These metrics offer valuable insights into how effectively your content is capturing and holding audience attention. You can also generate comprehensive reports on campaign performance, providing a clear overview of your content marketing successes and identifying areas for improvement. By leveraging these powerful analytics features, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your content strategy and maximize the impact of your marketing efforts.

Jog Away

Optimizely CMP offers a powerful suite of tools for content marketers, enabling them to streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, and deliver high-quality content that resonates with their target audience. By embracing the “crawl, walk, run” approach, teams can effectively implement the platform and maximize its potential. Utilizing the most advanced features of CMP, such as Integrations, Analytics, Idea Lab, and the Library, give marketers the ability to make data-driven decisions and continuously optimize their strategies. Optimizely CMP is a valuable asset for any organization seeking to elevate its content marketing efforts and achieve its business objectives.

If you want to take your Optimizely CMP capabilities to the next level, Relationship One is here to help.