In order to deliver the right content in the right place, at the right time, organizations need to be able to deliver content anywhere (and in any format) their users want to access it.
As technology and communication platforms continue to evolve, the seamless integration of content across both physical and digital experiences — “omnichannel” content — is increasingly morphing into a multiexperience content journey, extending beyond traditional “channels” like web and mobile to encompass a wide range of touchpoints, including chat bots, wearables, virtual assistants, AR/VR, and more.
Keeping Up with Expanding Delivery Channels
According to recent research conducted by Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), people searching for product help expect to be able to find information on more than a dozen unique digital channels, from Google and YouTube to chat bots and social media platforms.
And therein lies the challenge – how do you take the same piece of content and make it not only available, but easily accessible and consumable, in an array of ever-expanding formats, channels, and other touchpoints?
The key is building a content strategy designed for omnichannel — and ultimately multiexperience — content distribution.
Create Content that is Flexible & Reusable
First, start with creating a content strategy centered around building content in individual components, and designed to support content reuse.
Reusable content can’t be trapped in a PowerPoint presentation, Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate file, or PDF document. It can’t be buried within an exhaustive document covering a wide range of topics. And it can’t be created specifically for a one-off use case.
In order to efficiently deliver content experiences across a wide range of channels and touchpoints without creating a content maintenance burden of endless duplicated copies, organizations need to rethink their content processes and begin creating content that is flexible, concise, and format agnostic — content that is inherently reusable. It has to start with content strategy.
Build Personalized Experiences with Adaptable Content
Once content is reusable, it can be repurposed to create any number of unique content experiences, tailored to the intended audience and customized to meet each unique business need.
The ability to efficiently create and maintain a wide variety of personalized content experiences is crucial to implementing effective omnichannel and multiexperience content distribution strategies.
Omnichannel distribution simply means being able to deliver content across a wide variety of channels, from internal content tools like learning management systems (LMSs) and learning experience platforms (LXPs) to business platforms like CRMs, help desks and knowledge portals, to home-grown apps and public channels like email campaigns, social media platforms and external sites.
Multiexperience content delivery takes omnichannel delivery to the next level, beyond traditional channels to innumerable possible touchpoints.
Future-Proof Content for the Long Term
In order to support an effective multiexperience content distribution strategy over the long term, it’s imperative that content is built to be format agnostic. Xyleme’s Component Content Management System (CCMS) accomplishes this by storing content in XML to ensure it can be repurposed in any format our customers may need.
This not only supports both omnichannel and multiexperience distribution strategies as we know them today, it also future-proofs content, ensuring it will be equally accessible via new formats, channels and touchpoints as they emerge.
But with an ever-expanding array of content touchpoints available, it’s extremely difficult for organizations to effectively create reusable content and implement a successful omnichannel — let alone multiexperience — content distribution strategy without the right technology to support it.
