Content marketers within media organizations are in a particularly unique position today. They’re trying to grasp and adjust to the ever-changing consumption behaviors of consumers, while also continuously innovating in the digital space—and they’re finding themselves not only having to compete with each other but also competing with free user-generated content.
The good news? An omnichannel approach can help them overcome these challenges, allowing them to differentiate their content, more seamlessly connect with consumers across all channels, and nurture and grow new relationships with their target audience today and in the future.
Benefits of an omnichannel approach
Social media, cell phones, computers, tablets—the list goes on and on for the ways in which consumers are engaging with their daily stories, go-to shows and favorite brands. Multiple access points means that multiple channels need to be taken into account in any content strategy. This is where omnichannel marketing comes into play. It’s defined as a marketing tactic that aligns content delivery across channels, and it aims to provide a seamless and consistent experience throughout a customer’s journey.
According to Gartner, omnichannel allows for the synchronization of multiple channels such as mobile, desktop and store to bring a seamless purchase experience to the customer. Taking an omnichannel approach is the best way for a company to support the customer from discovery to conversion, through fulfillment and post-purchase. For example, a user might begin reading an article or searching for products on a tablet and finish it later on a desktop computer or phone, and the publisher must deliver the same experience on each device at the unique times the customer accesses them—or risk losing the customer’s interest.
This is especially important for media organizations today. Disney, for example, demonstrates the importance of an omnichannel approach, as it has to leverage high-quality assets through its various channels such as mobile apps, Disney Plus and streaming services. Media organizations must take note that consumers don’t think of a brand in terms of silos, and regardless of their various touchpoints with that brand, they don’t expect their digital experiences to be disparate.
Adopting an omnichannel communications strategy can eliminate any disconnect customers may feel in interacting with the company via different methods, providing a seamless, consistent experience no matter how they choose to contact them. The challenge here is ensuring the speediness of delivering this content across multiple channels without sacrificing the quality.
Without a well-defined workflow, content programs can quickly become complex and disrupted. Confusion about ownership, absence of a formal review process, and a bottleneck of deliverables at any stage can cause disruption and frustration among the team, and the consumer. To avoid this, and ensure success of the omnichannel approach, digital teams must create environments that can efficiently manage the content creation process and generate meaningful output without having to overcome workflow hurdles, and allow for the content to be distributed consistently and with quality through various channels.
Today, with most (if not all) of the workforce being remote, an efficient process for assigning owners, sharing feedback and publishing new content becomes even more important. By establishing easy-to-follow workflows, editors take greater control of the editorial process. If speed and quality aren’t guaranteed, media organizations will not be able to get the full ROI from their omnichannel approach.
National Geographic goes omnichannel
Let’s take a look at an omnichannel approach with Brightspot in action.
National Geographic’s iconic imagery and videos are the company’s hallmark, and online visitors expect to be wowed by the visual experience. So it was no small task revamping National Geographic’s online video capabilities to create a visually stunning new destination.
In just three months, Brightspot delivered a fully-responsive site, optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile. Within this new video experience, users can search, select, play back and share videos on all devices.
Learn more about how National Geographic is leveraging Brightspot CMS here.
It’s a Ferrari of a system. Brightspot has an incredibly fast, sleek front end, and the back end is intuitive, simple and effective. Basically, it helps us publish faster.
Connect with Brightspot today
It’s important for media organizations to partner with a CMS provider that’s capable of bringing a fast, efficient internal process to deliver quality and scalable content to the consumer, all to ensure maximum ROI on behalf of their omnichannel approach. Brightspot helps to create content development workflows that tackle the challenges associated with rapid content management and creation, allowing users to get the job done more quickly and efficiently, while also ensuring that the brand’s image stays consistent and true to form.
