In the B2B side of internet marketing, web content management system (Web CMS) technologies have clearly advanced the management and maintenance of websites.  It has allowed a new generation of marketers and web designers to build SEO friendly web pages and improve management and control of their web sites that has had some credible productivity gains and ROI. As a subscriber to the “crossing the chasm” philosophy, compared to other emerging technologies like marketing automation or video spokesperson, Web CMS has hit main street, see below

Web CMS search trend compared to other B2B web technologies

Further, according to Forrester,  88% of online business have adopted some form of Web CMS that range from enterprise class products such as Content Server,  Rhythmyx, TeamSite, or open source options such as  Joomla! (formerly Mambo), drupal, or TYPO3 to solve usability and technical hurdles.

So where is the next step? What is going to give vendors an edge over the competition?

Over at CMS Watch, their speculation seems to be more of the same, maybe a little Web 2.0 thrown in to keep the masses happy but no great leaps forward.

I will argue that personalization, in both anonymous (segmented) and one to one forms, should be the next evolution of content management. For both types, content would be selected from a specific group or tagged repository and dynamically served the to visitor either by segmentation rules for anonymous types or user profile preferences for the other.

But personalization only works if the right message is delivered at the right time to the right person (or segment).  In order to accomplish this, the outcome must be measured and the message’s success or failure – be it text, picture, document, flash etc. – to persuade the visitor to the goal associated to the message.

Google AdWords optimized ad rotation

So each message should carry a score, much like a lead score in marketing automation. Success-based systems would only give credit or increase the content score if the desired outcome is performed.  There are limited examples of this in place today: Google AdWords has a option to selectively show better performing ads based upon their click through rate.

By unburdening message rotation and outcome-based selection, marketers can focus on what they do best: create relevant and engaging messaging to entice their web visitors into the desired actions.  But success-based content management need not stop there, the final piece in the puzzle would be to integrate into partners such as eCommerce merchandise engines or marketing automation system.

Now that would be game changing.