According to British morning daily Guardian: “Content marketing is nothing new, but brands are realizing that it is increasingly a great way to hold the attention of their customers”.
Brian Solis of Altimeter and Deanna Brown of Federated Media discussed the same matter and defined that businesses now understand that the consumer behaviors are changing. Today their consumers are more connected, empowered and demanding. And, if a brand wants to engage these connected and socially aware consumers, the only way to is inspire them with fresh, timely, relevant and entertaining content.
WordPress has become one of the major content management platforms in past five years as it powers more than 60 million websites. It is the most popular tool for the companies and the digital agencies running content marketing campaigns.
We contacted Jan Wong, a Certified E-Commerce Consultant and proud owner of a Digital Media and Branding Agency named OpenMinds Resources. He also teaches as part-time lecturer at Asia Pacific University. He is an online strategist armed with a Masters degree in Technology Management.
Jan answered some extremely important questions about WordPress as an important tool for business and what are the different essential things to consider using WordPress as a business content platform.
Cloudways: Why do you think so many businesses are turning to WordPress for powering their website?
Jan Wong: Unlike before, many companies today prefer managing content internally instead of outsourcing to a web company. This allows them to have much control upon the content that is to be released from the perspective of timing and accuracy. The increased rate of tech literacy may have also contributed to this decision, especially with the rise of simpler CMS such as WordPress.
Cloudways: Do you think businesses are finding WordPress easier to use than other CMS solutions present in the market?
Jan Wong: Most definitely. WordPress’ interface is straightforward as it can be and avoids most jargons that non-tech people have problems with. Take Joomla for example end users sometimes really do not care (or rather, they do not have the time to care) how to add links into a navigation bar via HTML. WordPress makes it more intuitive.
Cloudways: How do you see WordPress being used by bigger companies in the future?
Jan Wong: The WordPress platform really is flexible. I personally know of companies that are using it to handle Intranets, social networking platforms, event management, video farms, eCommerce systems and really, the possibilities are virtually limitless with the aid of the WordPress community. In fact, a recent survey on VentureBeat reported that 19% of the websites globally are on WordPress. That’s a LOT!
Cloudways: How important is it for businesses to consider investing into reputable hosting for WordPress?
Jan Wong: Assuming ‘reputable’ also means reliable, a good hosting provider is vital. After all, you would want a provider that not only meets your technical requirements and budget, you want a service that is consistent and prompt. I’ve dealt with many providers to date and many (even popular ones) fall short in the area of service.
Cloudways: Do you suggest business owners to self-host a WordPress site, or managed hosting for WordPress is a better option?
Jan Wong: It really depends on whether the business owner wants / is capable of managing a self-host site. If one is just starting out, managed hosting for WordPress would be a good platform to get warmed up towards the CMS.
Cloudways: Do you think the WordPress security and backing up the data is very important for a business or a digital agency that holds client details on site?
Jan Wong: For sure!! Neglecting security and backup while on WordPress is a serious offence in my opinion (really!). As with all popular softwares, scripts, CMS and etc, it easily becomes the target of hackers and the basic WordPress security won’t cut it. As for backup, it really is a no brainer unless you intend to lose everything in a single mishap 😉
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Cloudways: What WordPress plugins do you personally use or recommend;
Jan Wong: These are some essential WordPress plugins I really like;
- For SEO: Yoast
- For Security: WP Security, Limit Login Attempts,
- For Social media & Engagement: AddThis, DiggDigg
Key Takeaways from the Interview:
WordPress helps in controlling the content that is to be released from the perspective of timing and accuracy. Tweet this
WordPress CMS is straightforward. It avoids most jargons that non-tech people have problems with. Tweet this
Assuming ‘reputable’ also means reliable, a good WordPress hosting provider is vital. Tweet this
Managed hosting for WordPress would be a good platform to get warmed up towards the CMS. Tweet this
Neglecting security and backup while on WordPress is a serious offence! Tweet this
If you any questions, please share with us in comment section.
You can also download our Free Guide “10 killer tips to optimize WordPress for peak performance”.
Saad Khan
Muhammad Saad Khan is a Director of Product Marketing at Cloudways (by DigitalOcean), a Growth Hacker extraordinaire, and a force to be reckoned with on the table tennis court. He's spent a decade building innovative customer-led growth strategies that helped Cloudways grow from 0 to 89,000 customers & is a regular at WordCamp events worldwide.
