The original height has changed. Websites have developed a variety of areas designed for many more target audiences than only customers over time. Websites for the website, feature sections for dealers to log in, media libraries with corporate movies, download areas for product files, and specific neighbourhoods with logos and branding rules. Not to mention a press room for journalists, of course. Therefore, marketing teams are discovering that traditional websites by themselves restrict their ability to communicate with their stakeholders satisfyingly as B2B firms collaborate with several stakeholders.
Understand stakeholder symmetry: Strike the right balance between conflicting claims from diverse stakeholder groups. Warren G. Bennis
What is Difference Between Content Portal and Website?
Each stakeholder group needs its specific content.
Websites quickly reach their capacity, particularly when you have to provide many stakeholders with diverse content. Think of the US hub, where the team is expected to work with different content assets or brand guidelines from the European hub. All you need to get over all the difficulties this setting presents for you is a quick and simple user authentication method. Or think of your numerous dealers in distinct nations across the globe. It makes sense that only some people need the same product documentation or branding content.
Your corporate design: do you like it?
Building a branded site with a DAM, PIM, cloud storage, or ECM in the back takes a lot of work, even in design. Have you ever sent someone a file-sharing link that was displayed in your corporate format through your content source? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could publish your content with only one click while adhering to your brand guidelines? But what if, concurrently, it remained simultaneously without uploading any materials to another content source? How might that impact the way customers interact with your brand and the morale of your marketing team?
The trap of the content silo
Lastly, content needs a good content management system above all else. Nothing is more annoying, most marketers will agree, than having to update your marketing website with corporate information regularly. Because a sentence in the PDF document was changed, it must be replaced throughout the entire website. Wait, again, where did I save that? You get what I mean, yes?
Or, to make matters worse, think about the various storage facilities we must utilize daily. Your content management gets more difficult as the number of content silos increases as you collect dozens of photos, folders, and videos from different content sources like DAM, PIM, ECM, or cloud storage. One of our customers uses five (!) other DAM platforms. That implies that various teams store their content in multiple systems. Someone who can keep track of it all is undoubtedly brilliant.
The benefits of content portals
Now being used in the B2B sector is something that many in the e-commerce industry are already accustomed to. Decoupled architecture refers to separating the front- and back-ends, which are nevertheless linked by an application programming interface (API) or a plugin. Sounds challenging? The exact opposite is true!
With a focus on use cases that exactly address the needs of the many stakeholders and always intending to be a simple solution, this new generation of content portals is finally enabling the playout of a significant number of content sources, connecting various sources. The best part is that marketing teams can quickly and effectively decide which stakeholders view which content is owing to advanced permission functions – without challenging coding or system modifications. But always in line with the brand, with a fantastic UI experience.
According to my marketing and branding expertise, the question is not if but rather when businesses will embrace content portals to interact with their stakeholders.
