In this day and age, we seem to have more of everything. As consumers, we have more gadgets, products, and services than we know what to do with. As businesses, we rely on more and more content than ever before to communicate with our audiences. And the data, ohh the data! Keeping digital experiences updated with on-brand materials, relevant content, and accurate information is enough to drive anyone in circles.  With all this “more” piling up, how do you keep your content and information organized and accessible for the people, teams, and partners that need it most ..read more

Consumers today expect relevant, meaningful, consistent experiences at each and every intersection with a brand. If a buyer purchases a product via an Instagram ad, they don’t want an email days later pushing the same item. They want smart communications, personalized content, speed, and an all-around reliable and cohesive brand experience.  The problem is this caliber of experience isn’t easy to deliver. Marketing technologies address different pieces of the omnichannel puzzle, but stringing solutions together to work as a cohesive, data-driven marketing technology (martech) stack is o ..read more

Standard content management systems (CMS) power your website content. But enterprise organizations often need more robust content management features to run their whole operation. If you manage everything from product content to secure financial records, it’s time for an upgrade to an enterprise content management (ECM) product.  It’s crucial to choose the right features in ECM software if you want to get the most out of your investment. You can use an ECM system to increase productivity and efficiency, give global teams access to the same content, and automate content processes. Let’s ..read more

Managing all of your product information and content is one of the most complex challenges you can face as an organization. Typically, this vast amount of information is managed across fragmented silos and systems, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The right enterprise information management system (EIM) can help you manage documents, content, and product information (including extensive product catalogs) for all of your company’s needs. Using an EIM tool can help you get the most value from your information, secure it, distribute it, ensure compliance, and make it easily accessible to the ..read more

With paper almost extinct, your vital company documents and information need to be digitized, stored, and used in a way that supports transforming processes, workflows, and business goals. Enterprise content management (ECM) systems make it possible to rethink how you manage your enterprise content and choose more interactive ways to work with information across your organization. Chances are, you use a digital asset management (DAM) system to handle your customer-facing content for products. But do you have centralized management for your internal documentation, invoices, training materials ..read more

The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving in the digital asset management (DAM) community, and rightfully so. AI-powered tools support metadata creation, a time-consuming process that’s often one of the biggest pain points for DAM software administrators and users. This is why these tools are no longer merely a nice-to-have. As digital libraries expand and AI becomes more sophisticated, image recognition and auto-tagging tools have become a must-have for any enterprise DAM solution.  The adoption of AI tools in the Widen Collective® has kept pace with this ..read more

Anyone who has worked in digital marketing knows that marketing and technology go hand in hand. Successful marketing strategies rely on a variety of tools to evaluate data, connect with audiences, and create engaging content. With thousands of martech tools to choose from, the key is determining the right ones for your team.  ..read more

Imagine that your marketing team has the ideal technology stack. The customer experience is seamless across every device and channel. Your analytics give you insight into every touchpoint of the customer journey. All your software is integrated, redundancies are eliminated, disconnects are connected, and bottlenecks are gone. It’s a nice dream, right? With the right marketing technology team, you can bring a lot of that dream to life. Probably even more of it than you think. Assembling an effective group of martech heroes takes some work, but you can do it. Just like you would map out the id ..read more

It’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the new marketing technology (martech) tools. Just look at the 8,000 solutions that show up on the 2020 ChiefMartech marketing technology landscape, which grew 13.6% from the previous year.  While understanding the functionality and benefits of all  these technologies would be overwhelming (to say the least), you can still make learning a priority for you and your team. Well-rounded marketing technologists develop a habit out of experimenting with new systems and technologies, seeking out martech training, and talking with technical experts ..read more

Martech, short for marketing technology, is about much more than your technology stack. While one part of the martech equation is the technology, the other part is the people who use it. You need a team of unique individuals with the right balance of traits and skills that interplay to create success.  Marketing technologists with the right competencies can seem like mythical creatures. Thankfully, they’re more like butterflies than unicorns — they actually exist. However, it’s easier to find them when you adopt a marketing competency framework to guide your hiring decisions and team de ..read more