Item: Optimizely Content Marketing Platform
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Optimizely Content Marketing Platform

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The way that we use it is to manage campaigns efficiently for the marketing team. So for example, if you have an email automation request, instead of doing it via the normal Word brief, you would send a brief via Optimizely. The relevant personal team would get that request. For example, if it's email automation in customer insights, which is a Microsoft tool, I would get that request and it would say email type design, everything associated with the brief and how that email should look, including the delivery. We would want to manage that all via Optimizely so that it's clear what all the tasks are when we need to meet them. And then we include approvals as well. It's about automating our workflows so they're all contained in one system and we can manage those requests, prioritize them, and make sure that we have a one stop review of everything that's going on in marketing. But the email automation was just one example. You might have a request for a brochure or for a social media post or a web post. We've got a whole range of requests that marketing have, but the content management platform is a way to host the brief for each type.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It allows the user to create as many briefs as they want for different type of requests. So if you are a team that wants to break things down into lots of different pieces and you want to request for everything, it does that. Or you could group things under four categories and then that's enough. It just gives you that flexibility to design plan and deliver that's suitable to the team and to the firm.

Cons

At the moment, whilst there's flexibility for designing briefs and workflows for a financial services firm, there isn't on the other side enough restriction and controls. I want to be able to control the list of approvers so that only certain SMEs can approve a brief that comes through. At the moment, that request goes to a whole group of people instead of individual. I've seen other tools where you have a dropdown of people you can choose from and at the moment optimizely does not have that flexibility. I would say that overall we need better ways of using data and governance specific to the firm to have more controls around those workflows. It's great for collaborating and managing campaigns, but when it comes to controls, I think there's definitely lack there. Hence why our particular project has been brought to a halt and we can't meet a deadline for November. I think if the tool had more flexibility around that, then it'll be great.
At the moment, I think Optimizely is, it seems to have a generic setup for every type of firm versus honing down on, right? If you're a financial services type of firm, you probably want these requirements and this kind of setup, if that makes sense, because you are going to get clients who want to refine and customize workloads and campaigns specific to their use, but they don't want it on a request basis. They want it to be available from the get go. And there's a misunderstanding that Optimizely already offers that and that's not so clear. I think on a high level, yes, it does offer great things, but when it comes to the finer detail, it needs more work compliance. I think compliance and approvals is the biggest question mark that I've seen at the moment.

Return on Investment

I think the main setback has been these constraints, strengths, the fundamental one being around governance and controls. And we were very excited to launch in November alongside another vendor, which we've now gone into contingency unfortunately. So we've got to work on a backup model, which is not ideal. And I think it just validates the skepticism, which is a shame for me because I need to, with Optimizely in some ways, resell the, and so actually was a good decision to implement. So it does take us a few steps back, but hopefully a few steps back is 10 forward and maybe I think this kind of interim period is good for everyone because there's been so much question around the workflows and a lot of confusion around what this tool can actually do, but sometimes I think we get lost in the detail, so hopefully this interim period will help us just reset and look at the bigger picture.

Usability

I would say an eight. I did some UAT testing recently live with my project team recently, and navigating was relatively easy actually. I was able to navigate, I was in the driving seat quite easily, so I think that the design is really good. The idea, like I said, it is got so much potential. So yeah, I'd give it a name for usability.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Dynamics 365

I use mainly Microsoft Dynamics, CRM, customer insights, journeys for marketing, email automation or marketing automation. I use Seismic. We're looking to launch an events platform, which I'm not using yet, but that will be a tool that I will want to integrate with the other systems I'm using. Customer Insights Journeys is probably the biggest other tool that I use that I'm trying to be an SME in.

Key Insights

Do you think Optimizely Content Marketing Platform delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Optimizely Content Marketing Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did Optimizely Content Marketing Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Optimizely Content Marketing Platform go as expected?

Would you buy Optimizely Content Marketing Platform again?

Likelihood to Recommend

A 7 only because I think there's question marks around customization. However, I've seen very similar tools in the past where stakeholders have been skeptical, but as you get to know it and use it, you'll find actually you realize those benefits. I just think Optimizely could help its stakeholders and clients see those benefits early on versus later on. However, that's not to say it's not possible, so a 7 at this stage, but I think it's got potential in future. If you are a marketing firm who wants a centralized system for managing workflows and campaigns, it's great. It does that. However, there are better competitors fill in some of the gaps better than optimized leaders does. It could do better. I think for me, visually when I see, when I create a workflow or a campaign, I can see all the tasks associated with it and I've seen the way that our parent company uses it. It's just a list of all the tasks you see in one view. I think visually it needs improving. However, the purpose that it serves fundamentally, it's got potential, if that makes sense. It's going in the right direction, but I think competitors are doing some of it better than Optimizely is. I think they, like I was saying earlier, if they really want to realize the benefits of the product visually there needs to be some improvement. And then the controls element that I mentioned earlier as well, hopefully that answers both of your questions.

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Optimizely Content Marketing Platform Review