Cisco Systems owns the enterprise router and switches markets, garnering between 60% and 70% of segment sales. In order to drive growth, the company recently added the small and midsize business segment to its focus, and created SMB-centric Web content. The site's language has changed, too; it's now more business- than technology-oriented.
Still, the Web site makes liberal use of high-tech elements to give site visitors personalized content, said Michael Metz, senior director of Web marketing and strategy.
"Content is filtered through a set of business rules based on personalization. It's an `If this, then that' methodology," he said. "If we know someone is paying attention to wireless content and is in the legal vertical industry, we might put together certain pieces of content to create a page for that visitor."
Cisco's personalization efforts are paying off. Session durations are two times longer for those presented with personalized content—about one-third of the site's visitors—Metz said, and people are going deeper into the site.
Collaboration is also amped-up. The company recently added click-to-chat capabilities, as well as WebEx collaboration tools that match Cisco partner resellers with potential customers.
"We've built into the Web site WebEx Connect, which enables sharing in collaborative spaces," Metz said. "Once the handoff takes place, the partner and customer can share Web pages, PowerPoints [and] white papers, and open up a collaborative space together."
Cisco determined that visitors who view videos stay on the site longer and come back more frequently, so it has posted a significant amount of video content.
Rounding out the site's offerings is a My Cisco feature that gives users the
ability to bookmark the most useful pages, and provides a place for partners
to store content for their customers, Metz said.
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Expert 2¢
Aaron Kahlow: One of the things Cisco is trying to do is give
you quick access into the depth of a very large, intricate site. I like that
it's very action-oriented and engaging. Design components are strong. Each subsection
is set up like a home page, and there are bullets that let you scan pages quickly.
And testimonies really help. Cisco also does a great job of using video. They
have it all over the site, and they are using it appropriately.
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