London, Tuesday 8th February – Research from Templafy, the leading next gen document generation platform, pioneering the content enablement space, reveals the business and brand cost of relying on poor infrastructure to enable content. A central factor of any brand’s identity, inefficient and inconsistent content damages brand perception. Whether you’re dealing with legal documents, social media marketing materials or a customer facing deck the visual and written representation of any organisation is the brand bedrock a business is built on. Yet, the survey of over 2,000 employees at enterprise-level companies globally revealed outdated content management processes that are error-prone and waste time are still rife.
Greg Sheppard, CMO at Templafy, says: “Your content directly informs how the world thinks about and interacts with your brand – incorrect or outdated information will only hinder these relationships. Healthy brands are constantly changing and evolving guidelines for content but if the infrastructure is lacking and there is no consistency to roll these updates out to employees, you risk damaging brand integrity.”
A staggering 60% of global employees blame work delays and bottlenecks on poor content processes. 48% of employees say lags occur mostly during the creation, and the review, 52%, phases of a project. These bottlenecks are hard to avoid when every piece of content is reviewed by four different people on average in the UK, undergoing four revisions before it is external-facing. It’s even worse in the US, where content goes through 10 reviews. And even after these reviews, errors slip through the cracks – 94% of employees still find errors in content after it’s been approved.
Reviewing content is an essential part of day-to-day routines, 76% of UK respondents (63% globally) confirmed, with 44% saying it is the most important component of their job. To make things worse, 33% consistently feel overloaded and have more work than they can complete. Instead of relying on brand managers to police content, organisations need to create an infrastructure to support employees in content creation. At the moment little is being done by companies to improve, simplify and speed up reviews.
Reviewing is only made harder by the proliferation of bad content creation habits. 41% of UK workers have said they have used Google to search for company images or logos to put into a piece of content or presentation. This is unreliable and wastes time, and is caused by either not being able to find the right content (23%) or believing their desktop versions are better, 43%.
Ensuring proper content management processes are in place is even more important when undergoing a rebrand. In fact, 72% say updating all the company content would be the most challenging aspect, with the lack of tools or resources causing 24% to put off rebranding.
The business cost of poor content management is clear. Small errors in the final content can damage both client trust, 88%, and employee trust, 76%. Meanwhile, 88% say bottlenecks and delays in the content pipeline negatively impact company revenues.
Greg continued: “In the digital HQ everything is content, from sales presentations to email signatures to product one-sheeters, meaning every single employee generated document has the power to activate your brand.
But this data clearly demonstrates enterprises lack the infrastructure needed to enable this content and preserve the power of their brand. To fix this problem, businesses need to consider centralising, standardising, and automating their content infrastructure. This will make it easier to stay on-brand, allowing brand leaders to carry out more impactful work instead of policing content.”
Wanda Rich has been the Editor-in-Chief of Global Banking & Finance Review since 2011, playing a pivotal role in shaping the publication’s content and direction. Under her leadership, the magazine has expanded its global reach and established itself as a trusted source of information and analysis across various financial sectors. She is known for conducting exclusive interviews with industry leaders and oversees the Global Banking & Finance Awards, which recognize innovation and leadership in finance. In addition to Global Banking & Finance Review, Wanda also serves as editor for numerous other platforms, including Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune.