Crisis drives rapid change. Across industries, we’re grappling with a communication challenge in real time. Commerce leaders face a unique need to keep a mountain of content current – all while their content teams work from home. You and your content team may feel it’s impossible to respond fast enough. But refining the way you use your content management system (CMS) can add speed and agility to content workflows.
Commerce companies are doing an amazing job of delivering needed content to customers.
For example, cosmetics retailer Lush provides prominent links to COVID-19 information on its homepage. Plus, it connects customers with a handwashing how-to article from its homepage. The article even includes an overview of how soap works.
Mecca – we’re stuck on skincare and cosmetics here – now uses its homepage carousel to link to COVID-19 FAQs about store closures, newly launched virtual services, shipping and return information, and more. Customers used to an in-person experience get fast information about the retailer’s online shopping experience.
Behind the scenes, many commerce teams that contribute content are struggling to keep up. Marketers, PR and merchandisers all have more to share than ever. And executive approvers have more to review. They’re all facing an unprecedented need to keep customers connected to the latest product, shipping and return information.
Getting content published – even a straightforward return policy update – can take many steps and approvals. During a time of crisis, are you trying to carry out too many steps at a faster pace than ever before? Streamline some of the CMS-based processes you use to create and share content, especially product and other customer-facing content.
Use these five tips as a starting point.
If your content flows through more than one CMS or requires a frontend developer to publish, you might be thinking the above steps don’t apply. They do – you just might need to tweak them to your systems and capabilities. Just reducing one approval cycle or increasing the reuse of content (even if you have to cut and paste between systems) can save days.
Content is the conversation you’re having with customers. Understanding your CMS can help you make the conversion smoother and allow updates to happen in near real-time.
For more advice and expert how-tos for leading your businesses or team through COVID-19, check out the ‘Leading through Change’ series.