Before and After: Content Experience Makeovers
I love before-and-after shows. Seriously, who doesn’t love a good makeover? Whether it’s basically anything on HGTV, Netflix’s Queer Eye, or Snapchat’s Face Forward, there’s something about seeing transformations that’s not only inspiring but totally drives the point home.
At Uberflip, we’re in the business of transforming so-so content marketing hubs into world-class content experiences. And one of our favorite tools for looking at those “befores” is the Wayback Machine. If you haven’t played around with it in the past, I highly encourage some exploration. We used it to check out what our Content Hub looked like in 2013. Beware though… it’s pretty cringe-worthy.
(Click and drag your mouse from side to side on the image below to see the before and after versions of the Uberflip Content Hub.)
Poor content experiences don’t just lack in the aesthetics department, they can seriously affect content performance and engagement, decrease the likelihood that a visitor takes that next action, and desecrate your conversion rate. They can cause frustration and friction in the buyer journey and deplete trust between your company and those reading your content.
Meanwhile, optimized, personalized, beautiful content experiences breed engagement. They promote that next action, and they generate real marketing results.
Our customers get it. And to show you, we’ve put together six amazing before-and-after examples from real B2B marketers and some key lessons you can learn when implementing your own content experience makeover.
Neverfail
Neverfail is a cloud-hosting and business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solutions business based in Austin, Texas.
Before their content experience makeover, Neverfail was listing their marketing literature under a resources tab on their website. Their content was parsed out by type (blogs, recorded webinars, data sheets, etc.) and didn’t reflect how users actually search for information.
Now, all of their marketing resources are in one place and live in a visually engaging experience, complete with CTA tiles, featured resources, videos, ebooks, and articles. What’s more, their new Content Hub allows for personalized search—prospects can find answers to their questions and solutions to their problems by clicking on “I Want To Learn How To…”
Their slick new hub is an educational resource optimized for content discovery and sprinkled with opportunities for prospects to convert.
Western Computer
Western Computer is a Microsoft Dynamics reseller based in Oxnard, California.
Before optimizing their content experience, the team at Western Computer were text linking to their resources on their website. Upcoming webinars, on-demand webinars, white papers, and blog articles were siloed on an uninspiring page, and beyond a few splashes of blue and orange font, there was little branding.
The team at Western Computer opted for a full content experience makeover and their new Content Hub is a great example of what’s possible. Beyond using banners and blog tile images to create an engaging branded environment for their content to call home, their new hub allows visitors to search by industry, product, content type, and topic, and highlights success stories in the top navigation bar.
By categorizing their content and offering more ways for prospects to search, they’ve upped both content discoverability and performance, all in a well-branded and immersive experience.
Quorum Software
Quorum Software offers a portfolio of finance, operations and accounting software for energy companies of all sizes.
Before rebranding their resource center, Quorum Software’s Marketing Team would spend hours creating separate landing pages for each piece of gated content.
With the launch of Quorum’s rebranded new website in October 2017, they wanted to create an engaging resource hub that would provide web visitors with an optimized content experience where they could interact with multiple pieces of content easily.
Quorum Software’s sleek new Content Hub strategically organizes articles, videos, webinars, infographics, and white papers by product, platform, and type. This reorganization of content provides visitors with an enhanced content experience making it easier to find and engage with content in a single destination.
Now Quorum Software’s Marketing Team can easily gate content within their Hub to generate inbound leads. To date, they’ve tripled the number of leads generated with 60 percent of all web leads stemming from the resource hub opt-ins, which they attribute to an improved content experience.
EMA Design Automation
EMA Design Automation is a leader in product development solutions ranging from electrical CAD tools, data management and PLM systems, services, training, and technical support.
Before their content experience makeover, their resource library was a little lackluster. Except for a banner image, it was completely text-based and grayscale.
Their new Content Hub shines not only visually but from a user experience perspective. Structurally, content formats like videos and articles live within the same experience and are grouped by topic making their content easily accessible to their prospects and internal teams.
Their hub is optimized for conversion with CTA tiles that link out to their free trial page and curated #TipTuesday social posts are interspersed to lengthen the life of their tweets and promote community engagement.
Lytx
Lytx is a global driver risk management company located in San Diego, California.
Prior to their experience makeover, Lytx had their blog linked in the top nav of their website. They had tiles for each blog post and front-end tags so visitors could see the topic category of each post, but no other resource types.
After their content experience makeover, Lytx’s content found a home in their brand new Content Hub. Their hub is a great example of how the experience can be personalized for the visitor. Content is organized by topic, industry, and role for maximum discoverability and so visitors can search the way they want to and marketers can optimize the experience based on persona. Talk about a well-branded, engaging experience.
ABILITY Network
ABILITY Network, a leading healthcare technology company, provides a comprehensive suite of care coordination and workflow services to help simplify the complexities of administrative and clinical processes.
Before reimagining their resource center, ABILITY's world-class content was stuck on a single, uninspiring page that was negatively impacting engagement and conversions.
ABILITY's new Content Hub is an amazing example of how a needs-based content experience can foster dramatic increases in engagement. By structuring their Resource Center experience based on persona-driven statements such as "I work at...", "I want to learn more about...", or "I want to read/watch...", ABILITY is able to help visitors find the content they’re looking for faster.
Content experience makeovers aren’t for show. Focusing on the experience around your content can amplify your inbound and demand generation efforts and produce real marketing results.