Content Marketing Software: How to Make Smart Choices

If you are involved in any shape or form with content marketing, you know what a big headache it can be for your organization. It extends beyond the Marketing department — Sales can’t get detailed, localized information to salespeople in the field. The social team needs more granular, atomized content produced multiple times a day. Customer service spends excessive time tracking down information to find that it’s outdated. And even HR seeks out relevant content in its battle for top talent. And rarely is there a centralized group that leads a coherent content strategy for the organization.

Against this backdrop is a dynamic, ever-changing landscape of vendors — hundreds of vendors with more emerging every day.

My Altimeter colleague Rebecca Lieb has been researching the evolution of content marketing and recently published a report on the Content Marketing Software Landscape. Today, she’s releasing a new report and customizable RFP template that organizations can use to select the right software.

The goal of the report was to provide a more detailed answer to the question, “What content marketing software should I choose?” The right response is “It depends” and with this report, we’re trying to systematically help companies figure out the dependencies.

One important finding from the report is the need for organization input into the software selection process. As I describe above, content marketing transcends the Marketing department and impacts the entire organization. That means integration into technology platforms (CRM, marketing automation, sales support, customer support) as well as processes is crucial.

You can learn more by reading the report — a synopsis and other resources are below. Also, please join Rebecca on an upcoming webinar on September 11, 2014.