When BMC Software relaunched its website, every content and design decision mapped to one goal: increasing marketing-sourced pipeline. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how a customer-centric, content-first approach is driving measurable success.

1. Content
First
|
A
Case
Study
Mark Fries
Principal Strategic Marketing Manager, BMC Software
@mark_f
Derek Phillips
Director of Content Strategy, Connective DX
@digistrategist

2. The story:
BMC Software & Connective DX

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Where We Were
What We Did
How It’s Working

4. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Where
We
Were:
Five Challenges
1. Inconsistent representation of the
brand story
2. Too product-centric, not reflecting
customer needs
3. Cumbersome and overwhelming UX
4. Lacking content direction
5. Needed scalable technology and
infrastructure

5. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Inconsistent representation of the brand story

6. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Too product-specific, not reflective of
customer needs

7. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Cumbersome and overwhelming UX

8. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Lacking content direction and governance

9. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Needed scalable technology and infrastructure
• 200+ products
• 5 separate business units
• Moving to centralized content management
and editing
• New commitment to testing and
optimization
• Plans to expand global footprint

10. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
What
We
Did:
The Five Approaches
1. Defined specific business goals and aligned them
to touchpoints
2. Defined the customer needs
3. Aligned pages to personas
4. Defined the content components: think modular
5. Mobile first, mobile always

11. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Defined specific business goals and aligned them
to touchpoints
We asked the questions:
• What is the purpose of this
page to our business?
• What are the KPIs we’re
measuring?
• What is the primary call to
action?
• More importantly: What role
is it targeting? Strategic vs.
Functional

12. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Defined specific business goals and aligned them
to touchpoints
We asked the questions:
• What is the purpose of this
page to our business?
• What are the KPIs we’re
measuring?
• What is the primary call to
action?
• More importantly: What role
is it targeting? Strategic vs.
Functional

13. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Aligned pages to profiles

14. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Defining specific
needs and identifying
content to meet them
enabled our modular
approach.

15. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Defined the customer needs
Assump9ons
Prototype
&
Test
Adjust
Some key insights learned:
• Users
commonly
have
specific
products
in
mind,
or
a
specific
func9onal
need
• Users
prefer
func9onal
categories
• Product/solu9on
features
preferred
to
high-­‐level
benefit
statements
• Data
sheets
are
a
highly
valued
content
asset
We
made
some
assump9ons
and
then
tested
them
with
customers.

16. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Defined the content components

17. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Designed in the browser
Some
key
benefits:
• Working
with
real
content
to
beLer
inform
design
• Could
see
the
mobile
experience
and
break
points
• Founda9onal
FED
mark-­‐up
sped
up
development
9me
Jumping
quickly
to
building
a
site,
vs.
building
pictures
of
sites

18. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Strategy applied to the copy
Translated
the
model
to
copy
decks
to
speed
produc9on
and
ensure
alignment.

19. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Reused the content components
Think
modular…

20. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Mobile first, mobile always
Concise
Ac9onable
Focused
on
task
comple9on
Contextual

21. Let’s circle back
on a few key
challenegs.

22. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Three specific challenges:
1. Streamlined
and
intui9ve
UX
2. Comprehensive
content
direc9on
and
governance
3. Scalable
technology
and
infrastructure

23. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Streamlined and intuitive UX
Bottom-up experience:
Ensuring visitors entering directly
on product/solutions pages (most
visitors) are given appropriate
context and options to continue
engaging
Top-down experience:
Giving visitors who enter on home
page or category level pages
simple choices to disambiguate our
offerings
Bonus:
Limit
fights
for
space
on
the
homepage

24. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Comprehensive content direction
and governance
We have a clear POV and strategy behind how our site is
constructed
• Makes conversations with the business easier
• Eases optimization since learnings in one area can be
deployed in multiple places

25. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Scalable technology and
infrastructure
Remember this? The
Intelligent
Content
Approach
was
key
to
our
geYng
there:
• Atomized
the
content
• Established
coding
standards
• Enabled
u9lity
of
the
CMS
• Proved
the
design
worked

26. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
How’s
It
Working?
The Four Big Payoffs
• A framework for optimization
• Increased content creation efficiencies
• Overall engagement is up
• Contacts – UP! (And that means
money)

27. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
A framework for optimization
Our goal with optimization: never “redesign”
again
• Highly structured infrastructure makes it
possible to get experiments up and running
quickly anywhere
• Findings from experiments can easily roll out
across the site

28. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Never redesign again.
Think about that.

29. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
A framework for optimization

30. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Increased content creation
efficiencies
1. Headline
&
Customer
Logo
• Top
level
benefit/result
of
engagement
with
BMC
• Customer
Logo
2. “At
a
glance”
data
points
• Up
to
4
key
sta9s9cs
that
communicate
either
benefits/outcomes
of
the
customer’s
engagement
with
BMC
or
key
stats
on
the
customer’s
organiza9on
3. Video
(if
available)
or
customer
quote
• Real
stories
from
actual
business
leaders
and
user
• Focus
on
benefits
and
outcomes
BMC
brought
to
the
business
4. Body
b. Challenge
• Brief
descrip9on
of
the
business
problem
• Can
be
in
sentence
format
or
bullet,
may
include
in-­‐line
links
to
more
informa9on
c. Solu9on
• Brief
descrip9on
of
how
the
problem
was
solved
through
partnership
with
BMC
• Can
be
in
sentence
format
or
bullet,
may
include
in-­‐line
links
to
more
informa9on
d. Results
• Brief
descrip9on
of
business
impact
• Can
be
in
sentence
format
or
bullet,
may
include
in-­‐line
links
to
more
informa9on
5. Next
steps
a. Contact
BMC
CTA
b. Related
products
• list
with
links
to
learn
more/try
c. Related
Resources
• White
papers/reports/videos
related
to
the
challenge
(2-­‐3
max)
3
4
2
1
5
Visitor
mindset
Does
this
relate
to
my
challenges?
How
can
I
learn
more?
What
are
the
details?
5a
5b
5c
4a
4b
4c

31. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Overall engagement is up
10% MORE ORGANIC TRAFFIC (YOY)
50% MORE DATA SHEET DOWNLOADS
200% INCREASE IN TRIAL STARTS
67% INCREASE IN CONTACT ME REQUESTS

32. @mark_f
|
@digistrategist
Revenue!
+67%
Contact Sales
Requests
+67%
Marketing Sourced
Pipeline associated
with requests
=

33. Thanks!
Derek Phillips
Director of Content Strategy
Connective DX
@digistrategist
Mark Fries
Principal Strategic Marketing Manager
BMC Software
@mark_f