Episode transcription 

Voiceover:        Content Lifecycle Management. A new spin on an old concept, or a brand new category? Jaron Rubenstein, a long-time marketing and technology expert, or a new visionary in search of an audience? Tune in and find out in this edition of RubyApps Insight.

Alexander Kotler:          Hello, dear listener. We had some technical difficulties during the recording of this episode, so the audio isn't perfect. It's a short episode, so hopefully you'll be able to make it through. We're also writing some thought pieces and hosting some upcoming events, so we promise we will make it up to you in future episodes and through future touch points.

Alexander Kotler:          Jaron, welcome to RubyApps Insight. It's amazing to have you back.

Jaron Rubenstein:         Thank you. I am as amazed and enthralled as you are at this topic.

Alexander Kotler:          (laughs)

Jaron Rubenstein:         This is an exciting conversation I am looking forward to. Thanks, Alex.

Alexander Kotler:          Content Lifecycle Management. Let's talk a little bit about that. Can you break it down for us and tell us what it is?

Jaron Rubenstein:         Absolutely. So, the idea behind Content Lifecycle Management, or CLM, is that today's brands and, and- and businesses communicate to their audiences across a wide array of channels. And those channels include multiple venues and formats and you know, everything from websites to social media, to events to direct mail, to in-person messaging, collateral, and- and this, all of this can broadly be referred to as content.

Jaron Rubenstein:         And, content really begins with... begins with an idea. Because, often, there's a marketing strategy or content marketing strategy behind it all, and from there you- you get an idea, you get content having to be developed, formatted, and refined, and refined some more, perhaps approved.

Jaron Rubenstein:         It has to be, at some point, shared and broadcasted, or published and syndicated. And then, a decision has to be made to save it, or to archive it, or to keep it up-to-date, to change it, to do more with it, to repurpose it in new channels and new areas. And that journey from inception to decision is effectively the content lifecycle.

Jaron Rubenstein:         And as the brands, as firms, as organizations have turned more to this idea of content marketing, thought leadership and- and that as a mechanism for purveying their expertise and their value in the marketplace, the amount of content, and the complexity of that content has all just continued to increase exponentially. And- and the teams that are tasked managing that, I think are- are- are really uh, put to task, (laughs), trying to capture all of that. And so, the idea of thinking about things not just as- as- as a blog post, or as a social media, or- or as some sort of communication, but rather as content that needs to have that- be carried through that full life cycle.

Alexander Kotler:          Let's target some of the phases of the Content Lifecycle, of which you referenced in your last response. But I'd like to touch on each one, starting with the creation of content.

Jaron Rubenstein:         Content creation is- is where it all begins, for sure. Uh, you know, this- this varies between organizations. This may be... There may be a single person that does a lot of the content development for an organization. There may be a theme. And depending on which it is you know. Ultimately, I think it always comes down to one person drafting the initial brief or outline, or- or the doc- content itself.

Jaron Rubenstein:         And then, they're ultimately gonna wind up, most likely sharing it with other team members to review, possibly other team members or management for approval, or compliance, or things like that [inaudible] legal requirements. And creating that content you know may... Again, may take many different formats.

Jaron Rubenstein:         And there are some organizations, there's some content format, social media post, or one where it may be a lot more fluid, a lot more rapid fire. Others may be created and revised, and implemented over a period of- of un- [inaudible 00:05:01]. Uh, and so, how those digital assets get managed where they get stored, whether there are libraries of images, pre-approved or otherwise, whatever that format is, it- it- it it needs to take place in an environment where it's created and- and curated.

Jaron Rubenstein:         And there are pain points throughout all of that I [inaudible] where all the content creators. And really, I think the biggest struggle for most is in in- in- in the- the technology and pooling getting in the way of content. The idea, the infor- [inaudible] really what's most important.

Alexander Kotler:          After creation comes management.

Jaron Rubenstein:         You know, so you have these content aspects now, and have them [inaudible] them, some version, some- some version... Let's say it's it's ready for approval, or maybe it's been approved. Whatever that process may be, there's likely some twisted workflows involved. You know, some organizations will use more uh, platforms that can help with these things, like, you know, Box, Drop Box, Google, even Microsoft. But there's a lot of organizations, too, that prohibit the use of those platforms for [inaudible] from security to data privacy concerns.

Alexander Kotler:          Do you have a take on the interplay between the Content Lifecycle and the tools used across it?

Jaron Rubenstein:         Often if... you know, often there's a- there's a marketing plan, and there's a plan for distribution for delivering that content. And for example, let's say that there's a blog post that's going to go on to the- their organization's website. I think often what happens is as a result of that plan, everything is kind of oriented around that, those blog posts, their quickness, or whatever a blog do, it's going to distort a format, distort a voice, and [inaudible 00:06:53].

Jaron Rubenstein:         And... But I think that's actually one place where the delivery technology and mechanisms get in the way of thinking more holistically. Well, this is a content type that we are- are going to be able deliver across multiple platforms. And we don't want to be restricted by the technology, or by the format, that one platform might have.

Jaron Rubenstein:         So for- for instance you know, social publishing platforms, like you know, they push Snackable Content out, push social media network. And they, you know, in- in return, going back, you're often thinking, "Well, you know, what's this short content going to be? What's this short form going to be?" And it's going to live on its own. And it may not even be associated with the longer form content that perhaps they're trying to promote via that- that mechanism via that delivery, uh channel. And so, I think that having a more holistic view of the content, I'm thinking about it as a particular kind of content, particular marketing packet, that is then going... sent out to all of these different channels.

Alexander Kotler:          All right, let's skip to the end of the Lifecycle, where things get interesting, about making actionable decisions for your content. And that, in particular, focuses on analysis.

Jaron Rubenstein:         More and more marketing is driving business, and business value, and sales. The way to show that return is obviously through math, and to analyze the results of your marketing strategy, your marketing effort. You know, business intelligence tools, if they're replete with analytics and dashboards, visualizations, can provide insights that, insights into marketing and sales initiatives and how they're performing. But on the flip side they... Some of those tools tend to be a little bit overly complicated require really more of a technician to manage them. The core idea here is that when you're developing content or planning pub- You need to know what metric you're seeking to- to effect, before you public. There are you know there are a lot of insights that you can get from analytics these days. If it's something like a website, it's actually relatively easy.

Jaron Rubenstein:         You have things like visitor and, uh... And you can review uh, you know, the- the customer, or the client engagement with your content on the web, or on social media, or- or open um... But beyond that, it gets a little... And that's also where having a view that engages, really, that- that- that encompasses the entire content lifecycle allows you to think about things from the beginning, and see how all that content could be about your...

Jaron Rubenstein:         So maybe it's not about visitor analytics. Maybe it's about how often a particular service descrip... uh, you know, description of lender services that confirmed by organizations by how often is that being used in internal uh, lateral, right? How often is that being used in pitches and proposals? How often is it being pushed out to social media? How often are those, you know, pulling it out through their entrance?

Jaron Rubenstein:         And so being able to tie all of those pieces of content together, and analyze for all, help you provide a better- better internal ROI of not just the sales, not just the dollars that are coming in based on that market- the marketing effort, and the- and the content that you're developing, but also the internal benefit.

Alexander Kotler:          For people interested in learning more about RubyApps and about the Content Lifecycle, can you share a little more detail about this year's RubyApps Dev Camp?

Jaron Rubenstein:         Yeah, I- I- I cannot wait for this year's group camp that's coming up uh, shortly. And the... The combination of of marketing, technology, thought leadership, and thinking, you know, how with with the hands-on training within RubyApps itself and- and as well as the opportunity to get feedback from some of our most prolific views really accomplished that I love. And I know that like both that attended the last one at an amazing part, (laughs), across the board in several are returning. And I'm sure many more will be joining us uh at camp. But it is, it's an opportunity for for our firm leadership here at RubyApps, for our- some of our engineers, some of our team leads, and we actually have representation across the whole organization.

Jaron Rubenstein:         So, we have someone from each of our reels. So that each of our functional teams will be attending for- from the RubyApps side that will have both from our quality assurance time, from our- from our project team, from our hearing team, from our core product column... Our cap, or, core product column.

Jaron Rubenstein:         So, having a- a cross section in this organization, for us, give us some great internal, first hand uh-uh feedback from-from users of the syst-. And ideas about where You know, where we can evolve our roadmap going forward um. But then, the folks, the users that join really get to hear from us first hand, what that roadmap looks like, what we're plan[inaudible 00:12:09]. It's really, really exciting uh, I hope that our listeners will join us. I hope that uh, they will be able to make it and there's a URL I presume you'll share about to-

Alexander Kotler:          Absolutely-

Jaron Rubenstein:         How to get into RubyApps DevCamp.

Alexander Kotler:          Jaron Rubenstein, frequent guest, visionary, president, founder of RubyApps, thank you for joining us for Ruby Apps Insight.

Jaron Rubenstein:         Thank you so much for having me, Alex.

Alexander Kotler:          RubyApps Insights is recorded at Studio 55 and is hosted by Alexander Kotler. For more insights and details on RubyApps and enterprise software developed by Rubenstein Tech visit rubyapps.com. Until next time, have an awesome every day.