Contentful & Optimizely Create an Experimentation Solution
Earlier this month, Contentful, the enterprise headless CMS platform, made their new Optimizely application public. In case you haven't heard of it, Optimizely is a SaaS solution that promises high returns and conversion rates. It offers a platform to run experiments on content and marketing efforts. By running tests with Optimizely, departments can glean data on how well certain functions or content will perform before it goes live. Tests can reveal an early signal, in a matter of only few days, of just how successful a change may be versus traditional analytics that could take weeks for a department to decipher and determine a conclusion.
Contentful is a pre-eminent 
CMS with an impressive who’s who customer base including Spotify, Red Bull Music Academy, Paypal, Lenovo, and Nike. You can be sure that a company that boasts such a notable clientele aims to offer a seamless content management experience. Contentful heavily markets the speed of the platform which efficiently cuts down development and delivery time by enabling editors and developers to work simultaneously. The software also allows its customers to create new experiences for their users quicker and more frequently.
This Optimizely application fits right in with Contentful’s need for speed. With the empowerment to take advantage of Optimizely’s tools without leaving the platform, customers will be able to run experiments and tests on marketing content quickly and effortlessly and work seamlessly together to allow for content experimentation without needing a developer.
The opportunity for content experimentation has proven to be beneficial to the customers of Optimizely.
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High profile customer HP reported a $21 million incremental revenue impact which they attain to the almost 500 campaigns they have run through the platform.
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The global mess media mogul Discovery Channel saw a 6% increase in video engagement through testing with Optimizely.
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After using the platform to run experiments and seeing positive results, meal box delivery brand Blue Apron is now using Optimizely in all of their departments.
Optimizely’s tools for running experiments on content before it goes live sparked some interest, and I wanted to know more about the benefits to Contentful customers. I was able to connect with Kevin Zellmer, VP of Partnerships at Contentful, to gain further insight.
Why is it important to run experiments on marketing content before it goes live? Is this something your customers have been asking for?
“By testing a few variations of your content, you can measure the results, and iterate. The benefit? You can deliver better digital content faster and can base your decisions on what’s actually bringing you results.
Now, instead of switching between multiple apps, all experimentation runs directly in Contentful. This addresses a major customer complaint of endless context-switching, where editors and marketers lose steam on their projects by switching between interfaces or asking for developer help.
This integration also gives developers the flexibility to build complex experiments, and because experiment decisions are made server-side without additional requests, variations render in less than 200 milliseconds.”
The Optimizely app is now available to those with an Enterprise Contentful plan. What industries do you predict will use and benefit the most from the integration of the Optimizely app?
“The fastest path to growing a digital content-driven business is A/B testing: learning quickly from customer responses and adapting. This avoids wasting time and money on tactics that just don’t work.
Any company with a marketing team can benefit from experimentation, from eCommerce business to travel sites to financial services. We believe conversion-driven industries — whether the conversion point is buying, subscribing, or signing up for a service — will feel the effect of this integration most significantly.
The applications of this tooling are limited only by your creativity. Businesses will see results both in top-line revenue and in bottom line efficiency, because they’ll tailor investments of people, time and money to digital content that produces the greatest results.”
This isn’t the first time that Contentful and Optimizely have collaborated. Last year, you joined forces for the Digital Experience Stack (DXS). What has happened with DXS this year, and did the creation of that stack lead to this partnership?
“The Digital Experience Stack Alliance includes founding members Optimizely (experimentation), Contentful (content), Atlassian (collaboration), AWS (DevOps/LaaS/PaaS), Tealium (customer data management), Amplitude and Fullstory (analytics), and New Relic (performance monitoring).
In the past year, we’ve collaborated with Optimizely not only on technology integrations, but also on joint presentations at industry events and comarketing opportunities. We’ve also worked closely with other DXS alliance members, such as earning AWS Digital Customer Experience Competency Status which is a validation of both technical proficiency and customer success.
Our partnerships team is also expanding significantly — with recent senior hires and a planned launch of an expanded program in Q1 2020. Expect to see more technical and solutions partnerships, and a host of new user interface and app integrations in the year ahead.”
Ending Thoughts
All customers with an Enterprise Contentful plan will have access to Optimizely from within the platform allowing even more companies to feel the benefits of experimenting.
As these types of partnerships continue to be prevalent, it is clear that access to multiple tools and technologies within one platform is a valuable benefit to users. The addition of the experimentation tools of Optimizely to Contentful’s platform is certainly no exception.
Erika Jones
Erika Jones is a Tech Reporter and Content Marketer with CMSC Media. Erika enjoys combining her creativity with her technical skills through graphic design. She has a background in communications and marketing and has a flair for social media and content creation. Erika is an avid traveller and enjoys seeing firsthand how technology connects us all in business and pleasure.