You can make your site work better for your business TODAY. Read on to learn why you should rethink your redesign strategy and get started with web content management first.

1. Percussion Software, Inc. • 600 Unicorn Park Drive, Woburn, Massachusetts 01801 • @ percussion • www.percussion.com • Tel. 781 438 9900
A White Paper by Percussion Software, Inc.A White Paper by Percussion Software, Inc.
Challenge the Orthodoxy:
Launch your WCM before your Redesign

2. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 2
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................... 3
Susan’s Web Site Snafu ............................................................................... 3
Linking WCM to Site Redesign:
Why it Doesn’t Make Sense......................................................................... 5
What to Look for
in a WCM Product........................................................................................ 7
Conclusion.................................................................................................... 8
Three Things to Do Now to Accelerate
Your Web Initiatives...................................................................................... 8
About Percussion Software ......................................................................... 9

3. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 3
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
By deploying
the right content
management system
now—before your
redesign—you
can get a much-
needed jump
on meeting your
most critical online
business objectives.
Executive Summary
Your web content management (WCM) system can have a huge impact on your business,
for better or worse. It can make the difference between a stale, rigid and largely
ineffective site, and one that delivers the value your company needs.
Most people think that WCM is inherently complicated, fixing it must be an ordeal, and
any changes to the WCM system are best tied to site redesign projects. Not only isn’t this
true, but buying into this notion is risky: you’re likely to waste a lot of time and lose out on
valuable leads, conversions, revenue and branding opportunities. By deploying the right
content management system now—before your redesign—you can get a much-needed
jump on meeting your most critical online business objectives.
You can make your site work better for your business TODAY. Read on to learn why you
should rethink your redesign strategy and get started with web content management first.
Susan’s Web Site Snafu
Even the savviest marketers fall victim to the myth that web content management is so
complex and unwieldy that they must wait for a big website redesign to fix it. Take Susan’s
case, for example.
Susan needed to kick off a new campaign but held off because of her company’s website.
It wasn’t delivering adequate SEO results, and Susan’s marketing team couldn’t add new
content often enough, create landing pages or include the social components that would
improve SEO rankings.
The WCM system was at fault. Because it was too difficult for anyone without specific
technical expertise to use, marketing had to wait for IT to make any content or structural
changes. Susan needed a better WCM system. She also felt it was time for a site redesign.
Assuming that it would be more cost effective to do everything at once, she found a firm
that would deliver a newly designed site with an intuitive WCM system.
The design firm’s optimistic project plan showed everything would be done in 12–16
weeks. That was more time than Susan wanted, but feeling that she had no other choice,
she moved ahead.
Reality Trumps Good Intentions
Guess what happened to Susan’s website? Copy and design took much longer to
turnaround than expected. Instead of the few days allocated on the project plan, review
cycles took several weeks. Then Google+ and Pinterest took off, and, by the time that
integration was added to the design and into the web framework, another two weeks had
passed. Meanwhile, campaigns kept getting pushed out, the SEO rankings were anemic,
traffic and leads were drying up, and sales was blaming marketing for missed numbers.
The executive team was pressuring Susan to turn things around.
© Copyright 2012 Percussion Software, Inc.

4. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 4
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
Finally, eight months after the project kicked off, a newly designed site and WCM system
were delivered. The site looked great, campaigns finally went out, SEO started improving
and leads began trickling in. Although they were on the right track, one thing was glaringly
obvious, not just to Susan but also to sales and the executives: the damage had been
done. Susan’s company had lost months of potential business. “If I started this sooner, our
business would be much further ahead now,” she thought.
Susan’s Problems Are All Too Common
Susan was not meeting her goals because of an inadequate WCM system and a
prolonged redesign effort.
zz Your site is dark on search engines so you’re not driving enough traffic. You’re not
able to take steps to help your ranking.
zz Your marketing team doesn’t have the technical WCM skills or time to update
content or make the technology changes needed.
zz Your current WCM system is very hard to use, and you can’t expand your pool of
content contributors because you don’t have the time or resources to train and
support additional users.
zz To add new features you have to rely on IT staff at your company or pay an outside
agency or consultant.
zz You have to decide whether to put off replacing your ineffective WCM system until
you’re ready to redesign your site.
Are you grappling with any of the following challenges that Susan’s team faced? By
waiting out the redesign process, you are delaying when you can get started fixing these
major challenges.
Planned
Actual
May 25
July 29
Planned
Actual
July 14
Sept 9
Planned
Actual
August 12
Sept 30
IA SPEC
& REVIEW
UX DESIGN
& REVIEW
WIREFRAME
DEVELOPMENT
Planned
Actual
May 25
July 29
Planned
Actual
July 14
Sept 9
Planned
Actual
August 12
Sept 30
IA SPEC
& REVIEW
UX DESIGN
& REVIEW
WIREFRAME
DEVELOPMENT

5. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 5
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
Linking WCM to Site Redesign:
Why it Doesn’t Make Sense
Although marketers tend to link WCM replacement and site redesign efforts,
they are separate projects. One shouldn’t depend on the other. Here’s why:
1. Site redesigns take much longer than you think. Your design firm may give
you a best-case go-live scenario of 12-18 weeks. In reality, it very often takes
much longer due to the length and number of review cycles. If you link the
two efforts, your new WCM system won’t be available until your updated site
goes live.
2. Business benefits will be pushed out. Because of the inevitable delay in the
redesign, you’ll have to wait even longer to get the business outcomes (more
brand awareness, support of new markets, better leads and conversions,
more revenue) that drove you to change your WCM system and update your
site in the first place.
3. Improved SEO rankings can’t happen overnight even once the
redesigned site is running. In today’s search world, SEO is all about
content—engaging, interactive, and fresh content. While you are waiting
for your mutually dependent site design and WCM system to launch, your
SEO rankings are treading water, and you can’t execute on your content
strategy until you have a better WCM in place.
4. Site functionality may be compromised. To keep the go-live date from
slipping, you mave to trade site functionality for time—dropping some
features or pushing them into phase two or three of your implementation.
This means that out-of-the-gate, you’ll be missing key functionality, and
that will impact your ability to meet your goals.
5. You may end up with a custom WCM system that doesn’t live up to
its ease-of-use promises. Without an intuitive WCM, you can’t add content
contributors, which means you still have a bottleneck when it comes to
updating your site. You have waited this long, and you still can’t execute
your content marketing strategy effectively.
6. You’re back to “wait or pay” for site updates and new functionality.
Chances are that you’ll be trapped by the limitations of the new, proprietary
WCM system and, inevitably, you’ll find yourself back at square one. It
will be hard to make the changes you want, keep up with new web/social
technologies, and meet your evolving business objectives. Once again,
you’ll have to rely on—and wait for—your developer or pay your design firm
to make changes, and then hold off on any substantive WCM enhancements
until you get budget for your next big redesign. Once again, the agile,
efficient online marketing required today will remain just a dream.

6. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 6
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
Why not get
ahead of the game?
Make your site
work better for
your business now.
Deploy a New WCM with Your Current Site
If Susan had realized how easy it is to decouple WCM from site redesign—and got
started right away replacing her WCM system—she would have reached her online
goals months earlier. Since, like Susan, you’ll be saddled with your existing design for
the three to five months that your redesign project requires, why not get ahead of the
game? Make your site work better for your business now.
With a full-featured, easy-to-use WCM product, you can apply new navigation and
update the content, social media and tags on your current site in a way that boosts
targeted traffic, engages visitors and drives conversions. Instead of being limited by
an outdated site, you can apply changes, test alternative navigation and social
approaches, and start realizing benefits in just a few weeks.
A Few Tangible Scenarios
Imagine what you could accomplish by deploying a more effective WCM now, with
your existing site, while you’re waiting to start (or finish) your redesign. Here are just
a few examples:
zz Create deeper engagement with prospects and customers
The more directly you speak to your targets’ needs and desires, the more likely
you’ll be to get them on board. Begin engaging with communities and publishing
fresh content now!
With the right WCM product, your marketing team can create better, more
substantive engagement today. Advanced blogging, tagging, categorization,
metadata and commenting functions will make it easy to enhance interactions.
And by using simple widgets, you can quickly add new social channels, such as
Facebook and Google+, to drive more connections.
zz Speed launch of new products/services
Waiting for your redesign before introducing a new offering or launching new
marketing campaigns means your company loses the opportunity to drive new
leads, customers and revenue.
Implement a new WCM system now that makes it easy to change the architecture,
add new content and create new landing pages for launch campaigns. Instead of
watching your launch date slip along with the redesign, you can speed it up, getting
to market weeks—if not months—sooner.
zz Accelerate business in new geographies
Localized sites are critical to raising awareness in other geographies. In-country
employees, armed with an easy-to-use, feature rich WCM can manage country
specific sites and campaigns without the need for technical or IT resources.
Deploy a new, robust WCM solution now to accelerate your company’s plan to
expand in existing regions or launch into new regions. By establishing localized
online presence now, you can attract new prospects and revenue streams months
earlier than if you put off WCM improvements until your big redesign project
is done.

7. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 7
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
What to Look for
in a WCM Product
Deciding to decouple content management
fixes from your redesign process is the first
step to speeding your time-to-benefits. The
next one is just as important: choosing a WCM
product that provides the right levels of flexibility,
simplicity and functionality. Instead of complex
frameworks that require massive customizations
and costly, ongoing support, look for a WCM
product that enables these key capabilities:
zz Substantial out-of-box functionality­—
to speed deployment and get you to
results fast. This includes visual navigation
editing and wysiwyg template creation.
zz Flexibility—so you can keep up with the
fast pace of change on the web. Select
a vendor that releases new features and
functionality frequently
zz Control and Ease of Use­—to empower
your marketing team to make updates
and enhancements themselves. Look for
integrated blogging, form-based editing,
and reusable assets
zz Affordability—your WCM should not
break the bank. Select a product that
provides a full set of features right out
of the box, with frequent product updates
to deliver new functionality, without the
need for expensive service contracts
to build core functionality. Beware of
products that require additional service
contracts or IT resources to add new
features or enhance existing functionality.

8. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 8
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
Conclusion
Your web site is key to driving your business’ growth. If it isn’t delivering the traffic, leads,
conversions or revenue you need, the WCM may be at fault. If your WCM is too hard for
marketing to use and too inflexible to allow for the rapid changes needed to keep up
with the web’s fast pace, don’t wait until your next redesign to fix it. When it comes to
WCM systems, the sooner you get the right product in place, the better for your business.
Don’t wait! Visit www.percussion.com to learn how Percussion CM1 can get you
started today.
Three Things to Do Now to Accelerate Your
Web Initiatives
Do you want to fix your WCM issues and get to those business benefits faster?
Do the following three things now:
zz Adjust your web redesign project plan. Make the timeline reflect reality so
you know what you’re up against.
zz Choose a WCM product with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, that gives
your marketing team the flexibility and functionality they need to own their
content marketing initiatives and manage their websites.
zz Begin tackling key content challenges while you are going through the early
design stages, this will rapidly accelerate your time-to-value and enable you
to achieve your online goals sooner.

9. © Copyright 2013 Percussion Software, Inc. 9
Challenge the Orthodoxy: Launch your WCM before Redesign
About Percussion Software
Percussion Software’s products enable you to take control over your web content
management and content marketing strategies to increase traffic, drive revenue, improve
engagement, and create compelling online customer experiences. Delivered in a highly
usable and affordable product package, hundreds of leading companies, education
institutions, and government agencies are using Percussion to lower the costs of their
content strategies and gain the flexibility to address “What’s Next” on the web. Leading
customers include vegas.com, weather.com, AutoTrader.com, Rentokil, Watchguard
Technologies, Lancaster Bible College, Sunoco, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
the City of Corpus Christi, Saba Software, the U.S. General Services Administration, and
the U.S. Department of Health Human Services.
To learn more, visit percussion.com.
Corporate Headquarters
Percussion Software, Inc.
600 Unicorn Park
Woburn, Ma 01801
Main Phone: 781 438 9900
Website: percussion.com
Or Email us: sales@percussion.com
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