Create Better Web Experiences with Marketing Automation and Web Content Management

The primary reason most organizations use marketing automation platforms is email marketing and its strength in this area is unmatched. The other area that marketing automation has a strong digital experience position is with data. Marketing automation platforms own the experience and transaction data needed to target customers. But using that data to deliver exceptional web experiences requires more than MA has on its own.

Some MA platforms have tried to nudge closer to owning the web experience. HubSpot offers dynamic CTAs (Calls to Action). These CTAs are customized based on location, source, device, persona, industry, language, and more, and likely work well for HubSpot customers who also use HubSpot for blogging and websites. But this isn't a game-changer for digital experience.

Websites are complex and high touch. This complexity requires a front-office perspective. Most marketing automation platforms are back-office, used internally by trained individuals. Web content management platforms are front-office; they both manage and deliver web experience. Greater alignment of these two platforms is what will drive better digital experiences. The best approach - align marketing automation with agile web content management.

Let's look at four ways you can integrate your marketing automation platform with your CMS:

With marketing automation platforms, email marketing campaigns are personalized based on customer profile data or customer segments. This email personalization is implemented so that when the customer clicks a link that drives them to the website, the website experience can be personalized as well for that segment or customer.

This adaptive personalization approach drives higher conversions because the customer or prospect sees content relevant to them and their needs. Because the link from the email can easily be coded using UTM parameters, such as Campaign, or by the referrer, a modern CMS can deliver targeted content based on the email content.

Marketing requires a mix of content assets, not just text-based content. But most marketing automation platforms don't deal with digital assets very well, if at all. However, there are CMS platforms that provide digital asset management (DAM) capabilities the marketing system can leverage.

Integration with the CMS for all content - text-based and asset-based - enables MA to employ a broad range of content in email campaigns and other activities and ensures all assets are well maintained and easy to update. This becomes particularly beneficial for global organizations that need to manage assets in multiple languages. Managing a source or "Raw" file in a CMS and then rendering the language variations for each campaign and country simplifies the process and allows for fast updates to assets.

Ingeniux provides a best of breed web content management platform that enables you to create, manage and publish content to a wide array of channels and devices. It comes with built-in integrations with key marketing automation solutions such as Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, Salesforce Pardot, and others.

The Ingeniux CMS focuses on enabling you to create and manage intelligent, reusable content for true mobile and multi-channel delivery. Your marketing automation system focuses on capturing and tracking prospects and leads. It manages the various campaigns you set up and provides an environment where you can monitor and move leads through the qualification process.

Essentially, marketing automation is the lead and campaign management backend, and the CMS is the experience delivery tier. Together, the two ensure your customer experience is consistent and engaging.

Tracking User Activity

Tracking user activity on the website is the lowest integration you can set up. To track user activity on the website, Ingeniux adds JavaScript to the Ingeniux DSS (Dynamic Site Server) site. Tracking user activity is base-level integration you must have in place to implement the next level of integration.

Landing Page Integration

Landing pages are created to capture visitor information in exchange for viewing or downloading a content asset. Through landing page integration, you can integrate form data between the marketing automation system and Ingeniux CMS. You can do this in one of three ways: create the form in the MA and add to the CMS, create the landing page in the MA and link in the CMS, and create the landing page in the CMS and push data to the MA.

Pre-fill Forms / Progressive Profiling

One way to improve the user’s web experience for landing pages is to prefill all or parts of a landing page form for a visitor who has already submitted the current form or another form for a different content asset. In this instance, the prefilled data is pulled from the marketing automation system using either server-side or client size script. This integration approach leverages cookies and uses either a JavaScript or server-side API from the marketing automation system.

Campaign Integration

Marketing campaigns often involve driving prospects to specific website pages and content. To track when a prospect visits a page linked in a campaign, Ingeniux tags content with Campaign IDs from the marketing automation system and then sends tracking data for that visitor back to the campaign in the marketing automation system. This integration approach uses either a JavaScript or server-side API from the marketing automation system.

Personalizing the Web Experience

Some marketing campaigns start with tracking visitors on the website. If a visitor views certain web content they are added to a campaign in the marketing automation system and potentially a visitor segment. As the visitor uses the website the CMS shows specific content targeted by the marketing automation campaign.