At Knowmad, we have been building websites for over 10 years. Our Website Redesign Handbook is one of our most popular downloads for both small and large businesses alike who are looking for ways to improve the outcome of their website design projects. In it, we share the pitfalls to avoid and the keys we've found to successfully launch, on-time and on-budget.
However, over the last decade, we have moved into the age of personalization (think Amazon, Netflix and Pandora; even your coffeepot, TV and thermostat can be personalized to meet your schedule). As your prospects and customers come to expect a more personalized customer experience, the traditional model of website design begins to show its weaknesses -- whether you've visited the website once, twice or a dozen times, your visitors are presented with the same content, over and over and over.
As a comparision, there would be little value in a sales person or service rep who tells your customers the same thing no matter whether he is a new visitor, a prospect who is thinking about buying or a long-time customer. HubSpot is now letting us personalize our visitors' website experience based on what we have learned about them. Let's take a quick look at what's coming.
With HubSpot + COS, no longer do you have to manage a website that is separated from your landing pages and content offers. Now, it's integrated into a single platform with a common set of tools for managing, publishing & tracking the impact of your online marketing program.
Key features of the new platform include: mobile optimization, tighter integration of website & marketing, content personalization, social search, and optimized performance. All of these features are designed with the goal of helping you to reach, engage and convert prospects into visitors.
This capability is part of the Inbound Experience -- the goal of putting people at the center of the focus.
“The Content Optimization System is the first integrated website, blog and landing page system to recognize the unique needs of visitors and optimize content for each person looking at it.” – HubSpot
As designers and developers, we tend to select an open platform like WordPress which allows us the ability to customize solutions that fit the unique needs of our clients. And, while we recognize that every website is unique, not every site needs to be highly customized.
If the Content Optimization System lives up to its promises, it really increases the value of the HubSpot platform and simplifies the implementation while adding new capabilities and a better experience for your visitors (which is just good business). We'll be watching the development of this new CMS closely!
What are your thoughts? Will the COS change the way we do website design or marketing?