Content marketers create and accumulate a lot of industry information. But one of the challenges they face is how to present all of this information in a way that helps users find the content they want, when they want it. One option is to create an online resource center or a resources page — a well-organized list of basic information and helpful links that your users can turn to whenever they have a specific content need.
Even though content marketing has become standard in the marketing toolkit, resource centers are not as common as you might imagine. If you do not have a resources section or have not assessed your current offerings for a while, you may wonder why it’s worth the investment. A dedicated online resource center can really make a difference for your customers. Here’s why:
It enables customers and prospects to easily find the information they seek.
It encourages serendipitous discovery of content. When prospects look on your resource page for one product line or in a particular market segment, they may also notice content that addresses other questions they have.
It increases “stickiness” of your website. Customers are likely to stay and browse when visiting a resource center, and they know where to return to find updated content.
It helps spread your influence. When content is easy to find and interconnected, people are more likely to share your links and recommend your content to their colleagues and clients.
Here are three B2B companies that do a nice job with their resource centers. Review them as a guide to help you make improvements to your own resource center. At the end of the post, I’ve shared some suggestions for incorporating their strengths into your own resource centers.
Pegasystems
Pegasystems is a provider of business process management and customer relationship management software. Their resource center home page features a list of documents and a search form.
Pros:
Their resources link is easy to find in the site’s main top navigation bar, which is available across the site.
Users can search by keyword, industry, topic, type of content, and type of document.
Search results are sortable by date, document type, and popularity.
Users have the ability to “like” documents.
Blog posts are searchable from the resource center.
The link to Pega’s blogs is easy to find above the top navigation bar, which is available across the site.
Users can save content from their own libraries on the site to share or access later.
They offer a separate community page with links to content such as forums, blogs, podcasts, and content related to the PegaWORLD conference.
Their community page provides access to social media —Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Xing, etc., — and the ability to sign up for RSS feeds or emails via their Follow Us link.
Cons:
The resource center home page does not display all recent content; you must search and sort if you are looking for all new content in any format.
The search bar is difficult to find, as it is located below the “Refine Your Results” navigation box.
The results list does not display number of hits per article.
The results list doesn’t prominently display the search term, though the search term remains visible in search bar.
Users cannot search by the date the content was posted.
Other than access to user forums, the community page is not optimized to provide content that is significantly different from what’s given on the resources page.
Motorola
Motorola is a provider of technology, products, and services that enable companies to stay connected.
Their resource library home page is a search form; no documents are visible.
Pros:
Motorola’s resource library link is easy to find from above the top navigation bar, which is available across the site.
Users can search by keyword, business needs, document types, industry solutions, or products and services.
The results list displays search terms and number of hits per article.
The search form includes an option to see popular searches.
Cons:
Results in the document list usually contain only a title, without a description or date, so you have to dig to understand the results or to find the newest content.
There’s no way to sort results in the document list.
Users cannot search by the date the content was posted.
Users cannot “like” or rate documents.
There are only a limited number of document types (case study, white paper or brochure).
Blog posts are not searchable, and there are no links to blogs or other social media sites from the resource library or navigation bars.
EMC
EMC is a provider of products and services that enable businesses to manage data and information.
Their resource library home page is a search form, so no actual documents are visible there.
Pros:
The resource library link is easy to find from above the top navigation bar, which is available across the site.
Users can search by keyword, resource type, language, solutions, product or service.
The results list displays the search term and number of hits per article.
There is a separate community page with easy to navigate tabs: blogs, forums, and social media (YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and FriendFeed), as well as the ability to sign up for RSS feeds.
Cons:
There’s no way to sort results in document list.
It’s not clear how often new content is posted.
Users cannot search by the date the content was posted.
There’s no ability to “like” or rate documents.
Blog and social media content are not searchable via the resource library.
There are no links to blogs or other social media sites from the resource library or navigation bar.
Each of these resource centers does several things quite well, but as you can see by the “cons” for each, there is room for improvement.
Key takeaways for B2B resource centers
Users have high expectations for internal search engines such as those used in resource centers. To keep them happy — and returning to your website — it is best to make it as easy as possible for them to find, download and share the valuable information you created. So providing direct links to social media sites and services is a strong benefit to include in your resource library.
Here’s a list of tips for a good resource center. The anchor page
Display recent and/or popular content to allow users to see some content without first having to do a search.
Arrange navigation so the link to the resource center is available for every page, so users can find the page from anywhere on the site.
The search function
Enable searches by keyword to allow users who know what they are seeking or know the subject that interests them to find information quickly.
Enable searches by criteria like industry, product or content type to encourage browsing.
Let users search by date to help them find recent content or content created at a specific time.
Provide the ability to narrow results by a number of criteria to minimize frustration with a large number of results.
Viewing results
Display the search term and number of hits clearly on the results page to help with navigation and enable users to better understand the results.
Display the content title, a short description, and the date it was posted to clarify the results, enable scanning and improve users’ ability to select relevant content.
Sort the list of results by criteria, including date and relevance, to enable users to narrow the results more easily.
Content to include
House all content across services, industries, market sectors, and content types to make it easy to find any content you produce.
Make social media and/or blog content searchable in the resource library to ensure a strong connection with other marketing efforts.
Include links to social media and/or blog content to encourage other forms of engagement.
Include the ability to “like” documents in order to promote social sharing.
Are there other features you think are must-haves for a B2B resource center? What are some nice-to-have features? What are the definite no-nos for a B2B resource center? Any what other B2B resource centers do you love? Let us know in the comments!
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