Many enterprises feel squeezed on both sides: having both too much content and not enough of it. And content teams in many enterprises can’t keep pace with changing requirements. One of the biggest reasons this happens is because their current content is “frozen” in web pages, instead of being flexible where it can be used anywhere. CaaS provides a different approach to managing content and can unlock content resources so they are kept up to date and can be used for many purposes.

How Content Gets Locked in Web Pages

Many content teams follow a familiar script. When they need new content, they’ll start drafting a new web page that will appear on a specific website. But creating content for a specific website isn’t very efficient. 

The truth is, writing something for a specific web page will only be useful as long as that web page is around. When teams create web pages, the value of the content often diminishes soon after it’s published. It quickly becomes “stale”. And the web page may not be around very long, because updating the information on it can be a tedious process. Often, content teams decide that creating a new web page is easier than trying to update an old one and, as a result, more new web pages get created.

This basic problem arises when content is tied to web pages and lacks a reusable structure.

When content teams focus on creating pages for specific websites, it limits how easily they can use content in new ways later on. The web pages are designed in a specific way, and the text is locked in those pages. Even a modest redesign of a web site can wreak havoc on the content. If you want to use the text elsewhere, on a different website or in a mobile app that has a different design, you may be out of luck.

How Content as a Service Is Different

CaaS doesn’t rely on “page templates” that control the organization of content based on how it appears on a website. Instead, content is structured according to what it means and that allows all the created items to be used in different ways. 

When content is created for a specific web page, it is tied to a single specific purpose and can’t be easily utilized for other projects.

By adopting a Content-as-a-Service approach, organizations create content that can be used in many places; it is no longer restricted to a single web page. 

Most content teams will be familiar with the idea of being able to display the same image on different web pages. CaaS takes that idea a big step further, so that any kind of content, text and data as well as media assets, can be reused—no matter what page or app someone wants to use it in. 

The foundation of CaaS—structuring content into sections and using an API to deliver sections of it wherever they are needed—provides flexibility unavailable in traditional CMSs that focus on creating web pages. 

Benefits of Unlocking Content Using CaaS

With CaaS, teams create content that can be available to support a wide range of initiatives and projects.

• A content item can now be utilized in different scenarios, not just within a single web page.
• Content is no longer trapped by a web page template that might have been used when it was created.
• Instead of creating web pages that quickly turn stale, content items can become renewal resources, available for future needs.
• Content teams can boost their productivity by being able to reuse their resources.

Using CaaS means being able to plan and create content according to its long-term value. Teams can consider content in terms of where else it could be used, and who else might benefit from it. They can create content that can be reused to support different customer journeys or different marketing campaigns. CaaS opens new possibilities for using your content and achieving your goals. 

Our next blog post in this series will explain how CaaS enables collaboration through structured content.