Metadata Whitepaper From Optimity Advisors
Optimity Advisers, who count a number of DAM luminaries among their staff (including, David Lipsey and John Horodyski) have recently published a whitepaper Metadata Matters. They have decided to call them ‘Orange Papers’, presumably because everyone else uses ‘Whitepaper’ and their logo is orange too (fortunately the text is not on an orange background). The document is written by John Horodyski and covers a number of areas within the wider metadata subject:
- Introduction to metadata
- Related metadata concepts
- Metadata governance
- Common metadata challenges across different industries
- Developing metadata strategies to reduce the risks of enterprise information loss
- How to start formulating metadata strategies
“Metadata is the foundation for your digital strategy. It is needed to deliver an optimized and fully engaging consumer experience. There are other critical steps to take as well, including building the right team, making the correct business case, and performing effective requirements gathering – but nothing can replace an effective metadata foundation for your digital strategy. As previously stated, you want your assets to be discovered; they want to be found. Content may still be king, but the user is also worthy because if you have great content and no one can find it, the value of the content is as good as it not existing. Metadata will help ensure that you are building the right system for the right users.” [Read More]
The paper requires registration, but the sign-up form is just a few basic fields. The length is a little on the short side at seven pages, but it has not been padded out with filler and the information is reliable, accurate and I could not find anything to argue with. There is some moderate advertising for Optimity in the copy, but not a great deal and it is free, so if you’re not planning to become an Optimity client then you can just skirt around that bit.
One further point in their favour. I accessed this paper about a week ago, to date, I have not been contacted by sales people with pressure questions about when/if I am likely to engage Optimity’s services. I downloaded another paper from a vendor (not one we have featured on DAM News too much before, I should stress) and within 20 minutes, emails were being sent asking if I was in the market for a DAM system and what my purchasing timetable was etc. A tip for anyone using whitepapers as a marketing method, ideally don’t allow the sales people anywhere near the download lists and keep it to a pull rather than push marketing strategy where the prospects contact you if they are interested. If you have one of these sales and marketing bosses who talks a lot about ‘the numbers game’ and insists on getting the front-line personnel to ‘warm call’ anyone who registers, at least give people a chance to read the paper first (i.e. wait a week or so). I still think that technique is a bad one, however you do it, but the real tragedy in this case was that the paper itself was pretty good and if I had been contemplating buying some DAM software, I might have been more assured they were a safe pair of hands and worth making a note of when/if some requirement presented itself. As it is, all that effort acquiring trust and authority was blown apart by the premature contact from the sales person.
It’s a point that has been made numerous times here on DAM News (and elsewhere in more general terms) but DAM is nearly always a consultancy oriented purchase, whether it is products or expert services being procured. Both buyer and seller are going to spend a decent amount of time in each other’s company learning a lot of detailed information about the other party. For that reason, it’s about education and trust first and foremost. If people think you know what you are doing and they genuinely need to buy something you sell, they probably will contact you themselves. I’m sure these pressure tactics can work in other markets (which is why people still use them) but for DAM, they definitely do not.
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I haven’t yet had a chance to read John’s “orange paper” but, c’mon, it’s John–you know it’s going to be great stuff.
I more wanted to back you up on what you’re saying about trust and education. In my 16+ years in this business, I can say that I’ve witnessed so many seedy practices from DAM vendors that it no longer surprises me when people value vendor people with the same esteem they have for street corner drug dealers. I’ve seen them buy Twitter followers and YouTube views, and I’ve seen them tell customers they have a “cloud solution” when, in fact, they didn’t. (And still don’t, by the way.) And I can’t count the number of times I’ve read phrases from my own book pop up in the blogs, white papers and posts of other vendors.
The fact is that our industry is overrun with people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Or worse, they just regurgitate what they’ve heard others say and pretend it’s their own.
The very notion that someone is downloading an educational white paper suggests that she or he is *not* yet ready to have a sales conversation. But why wouldn’t the sales team act? After all, the thugs at the DAM vendor down the street are probably peddling the same regurgitated content in one of their white papers, and their sales team certainly isn’t going to wait.
“We have to get in there early,” is what I have heard from sales teams forever. And they’re completely correct. But the point they miss is that “get in there” doesn’t mean asking about budgets and timelines. It means providing valuable resources that demonstrate that you’re not just a moron hungry for cash.
But this, of course, requires, you know, experience and knowledge. And who the hell has time for that? After all, there are DAM ROI and “business case” infographics, “super excited!” tweets, and other such fiction to produce.
Because our industry remains in the shadows of CRM, CMS, Marketing Automation and other sexier fields, we tend to get the runts of the litters when it comes to sales and marketing people. And it shows.
Fortunately, I think it’s getting easier for people to be able to tell who our industry’s true experts really are. Just because many DAM vendors have (finally) realized that it’s time to start focusing on DAM education doesn’t mean they can. I am so thankful just to know that someone like John has written a white paper because I know it’s something I can recommend to others, even if I haven’t read it. By contrast, I recently attended the first in a new series of “educational webinars” from a DAM vendor whom I knew would be unable to deliver on anything that wasn’t a restatement of someone else’s content. And I wasn’t disappointed there either. You can’t fake knowledge unless you’re reading from a script. And when you are reading from a script, chances are that’s evidence that you lack the knowledge you claim to have.
So, I think this is all great. Vendors *should* produce more white papers (that they author themselves), and they should also provide as many “best practice” webinars as they can. Because through all of these “educational” materials, and through the business process follow-ups, the entire market will get a much clearer sense of who’s here to do some good and who’s here because they didn’t get that job at Salesforce.
David Diamond
Director of Global Marketing
Picturepark