How does content distribution support the customer journey?

The way in which a brand uses content is intrinsically linked to how future and current customers view its image. And whilst the message is paramount to its success, how it is delivered is also incredibly important for establishing and maintaining a link between customers. 

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Here we speak about how the distribution of content is an important factor that marketing and communication teams must consider and a vital part of the customer journey. 

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An optimised user experience

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In order to ensure high-quality content is delivered to a brand’s audience, it is more and more necessary to adapt content for each channel that a brand uses. What is posted on LinkedIn for example is not the same as what will be published on Instagram. Not only might the tone or images change, but the format and dimensions of an image can be different. 

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For marketing teams having to manage multi-channel and possibly multi-brand and multi-location communication strategies, having to adapt content for each platform can be time consuming and costly. 

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It is therefore necessary for brands to have content that is scalable, and able to be changed to work on different channels, all whilst avoiding spending significant amounts of time producing and modifying different assets. 

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With a system like Wedia’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) and its Media Delivery & Digital Experience product, a brand’s assets are automatically adjusted depending on a number of factors, including the device being used, the quality of the network and the focal point of the image. 

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How does content distribution affect the choice of the customer? 

How content is delivered can play an important role in a customer’s decision to buy a product or engage with a brand. 

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Think for example of how a food delivery company displays its dishes, which are fundamental to whether people choose to order from them or not. If, for example, the images are of poor quality, the customer is less inclined to order from them. This instantly breaks the customer journey, they have come as far as connecting to your website or mobile application but unconvinced by the content they find there, drop off before making a purchase. 

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The same logic applies to customers looking for furniture online. Furniture needs to fit into specific areas of a home and therefore customers need exact information relating to measurements and the shape of furniture. Not only does the content need to be accurate and clear but the images need to be enhanced in order for the customer to imagine how this specific piece of furniture will fit into their home. By enhancing how the product is displayed, possibly with a 360° view of the product and multiple, high-quality images, the content acts as the final stage of the customer journey before a purchase takes place and a potential customer becomes an established one. 

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The strength of content therefore lies in its ability to reassure before a purchase is made. It also goes further, nurturing a customer to become a regular one. How to do this? Through initiatives such as how-to videos which provide information on products that a customer has already bought. 

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The strength of your site

It is worth noting that 70% of users state that their desire to buy depends on the speed of a website (source: Unbounce) 

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This idea may be further heightened if a user switches to a competitor’s site, where their experience is much easier and a transaction is carried out without long loading times or website problems. 

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How then to ensure that a brand’s site runs as smoothly as possible? 

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Working with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is one way to provide an optimised user experience. Content is delivered to users based on their nearest server, which means that loading times can be boosted. 

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With Wedia’s Media Delivery & Digital Experience solution, CDN is built into the service and even goes further with multiple CDNs that act as backups if one fails and which can be deployed across the world, including China where certain legal constraints must be taken into account. 

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Automatically adjust your images

For brands who target multiple markets, the amount of assets needed to provide targeted communications can be substantial. Add to that the time and cost needed to reproduce marketing materials for different countries, and teams find themselves with heavy workloads. 

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Wedia’s Media Delivery & Digital Experience solution provides a way of streamlining the process of content creation. For example, marketing and communication teams can build new backgrounds from an existing image. A car manufacturer who has already carried out a photoshoot in the mountains with their latest car, now wants to market the same model in an urban environment. Instead of having to ask their creative teams or an agency to rework the original image, the background can be changed directly from within the DAM environment. This not only speeds up delivery times of assets, but reduces costs and improves collaboration between various internal teams.

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The effectiveness of working with customised backgrounds has been demonstrated by the advertising agency, Seedtag. When they used Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a campaign for a car company, they were able to use deep learning to adapt the background behind the car depending on the context and desires of the user. Carrying out this approach for various clients across the beauty, automobile and consumer goods market, Seedtag saw clicks rise by 20-60% and the attention rate by 20 points. 

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Centralised KPIs: the key to truly understanding your audience

When delivering different types of media across multiple platforms and across various countries, it is imperative that marketing teams understand how it is performing. Tracking the changes that are made and whether or not they are successful, will therefore be key to assessing the performance of content and whether it actively helps to ensure engagement (and purchases) with a brand. 

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With a DAM solution like Wedia’s, a detailed KPI dashboard ensures that marketing teams can track all of their content and assets, understanding how it performs in different locations, for different audiences and in different formats. By being able to make detailed assessments, marketing teams are able to better understand their audience and build up strategies which work to better serve them. 

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Limiting legal risks

With large companies, the amount of content that is being published can be significant. This can mean that it is hard to track when content becomes outdated or certain regulations have changed. This can be particularly crucial for industries such as pharmaceuticals, where product information must be accurate and respect laws and regulations depending on the country. Using Wedia’s DAM solution, companies can set alerts for when information must be modified or content becomes expired. 

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What’s more, copyright issues are streamlined through features such as reverse search where marketing and communication teams can check where and how an image is being used in order to make sure there is no copyright infringement. 

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A fully-rounded approach to content delivery

How content is distributed is of the utmost importance to how customers view a brand, and goes far beyond the text that is used or how it is translated. Brands must now be able to adapt to different markets and customer behaviour, delivering content that is tailor made and seamless. 

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By working with a DAM system and the Media Delivery & Digital Experience solution, various teams are able to collaborate on one centralised workflow, ensuring that the legal team has the right copyright attached to assets, the creative team has control over how assets are changed and marketing is able to accurately publish the right content to the right platform and track how it performs. 

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Working with such systems means carefully considering the customer or client and understanding how the right content, delivered correctly, is going to influence how and for how long they interact with your brand. 

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Find out more about the benefits of Media Delivery.

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