Content caching: Why the CTO is the CMO's new best friend

Digital media content plays an important role in today's mobile, social, and web environments for global enterprises. The enterprise that delivers quality content the fastest wins the lion’s share of business. The enterprise that delivers digital content the slowest gets left in the dust.

Because content quality is now determined by substance and delivery speed, a strong connection must exist between two leaders in the company -- the CMO and CTO.

The CMO is responsible for how digital content is perceived while the CTO is responsible for how it’s delivered. If the perceived value is high and the speed of delivery is poor, the overall experience is poor. Essentially, how well digital content performs is largely dependent on how quickly it’s delivered.

For instance, 40 percent of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. And consumers are as quick to abandon slow-loading web pages as they are slow-loading videos, games, and audio. For this reason, enterprises are investing in more technology to ensure perceived quality isn’t ruined by slow delivery.

Gartner predicts that by 2017, CMOs will be spending more on technology than the traditional IT department. This is because enterprise business leaders are challenged to manage the explosion of digital media content globally.

Now, CTOs are being called upon by the CMO to champion agile technology solutions like content caching that can quickly scale to support new product launches and accelerate media-rich content worldwide. This is a tremendous opportunity for the CTO to be a key player in driving critical business initiatives for the enterprise.

Think Globally and Act Locally

For a content-driven company to succeed, the CTO and CMO need to collaborate on the shared needs of the enterprise’s digital strategy. Large enterprises have an ever-increasing inventory of digital media and web content that needs to be distributed across several media outlets in multiple time zones around the globe.

The CTO can be a true partner of the business in architecting a content caching solution that smartly distributes the company’s online content in key local geographies where marketing forecasts anticipate demand. Combined with dynamic content tracking and reporting, the CTO can provide real-time content performance data to the CMO and make recommendations to maximize the enterprises’ profit.

The 'Need for Speed' Drives Revenue

Sales from e-commerce sites that are content-driven are forecast to increase nearly 20percent to reach $1.47 trillion. It’s also well known that consumers have a very low threshold for waiting to access web content (as mentioned earlier). The proliferation of content portals, feature-rich media, access devices, and a global audience has challenged enterprise networks to keep pace.

Often, content acceleration is best achieved through the use of a content delivery network (CDN). CDNs efficiently cache web content at the edge of a global network that is closest to the customer, thus offering maximum speed in accessing content. The use of a CDN accelerates company websites to grow revenue and transact business from any device worldwide.

The New Digital Consumer is Mobile

According to Demand Gen Report’s 2014 Content Preferences Survey, more than 85percent of B2B buyers agree that mobile-optimized website content is a requirement. It’s also no secret that the majority of buyers use mobile phones to access business-related content. With the proliferation of mobile website usage and shifts in content consumption preferences, many marketers have begun revamping their content marketing efforts and experimenting with their mobile content.

ESPN is the most recent major brand to undertake a major redesign, officially launching its new mobile-optimized website in Spring 2015 in celebration of ESPN’s 20th anniversary. Expanding its shareable and relatable content will be the main aim of the move, and it’s success will depend on content quality and delivery speed. ESPN recognizes this and is one of thousands of enterprises that rely on content caching and CDNs.

Content + Caching = Cash

The explosion of media-rich content is forcing technologists and marketers to collaborate on delivering an accelerated online experience for enterprise customers. Today, an enterprise digital content marketing strategy is what connects CTOs and CMOs to drive online revenue.

All this results in a simple equation, ready to adorn office walls in poster form and hug the chests of CMOs and CTOs alike.

Content (CMO) + Caching (CTO) = Cash ($$)

Photo credit: Basar / Shutterstock

David Henzel is Co-Founder and VP of Marketing at MaxCDN, a next-gen content delivery network. Originally from Wiesbaden, Germany, David moved to Los Angeles in 2009 after selling his e-commerce business and joining the MaxCDN team. His passions include marketing, e-commerce, startups, personal development and web speed.