These companies were forced to enter to the CMS model due to three major reasons:
1- Explosion of popularity of CMS concept – Business people begun to see the benefits in terms of integration and solid data management
2- Growth of SE Marketing – Evolution of Internet as a new business channel. Web presence required fast response to market expectations and effective dynamic content management
3- Evolution of crawlers to Web 2.0 - Adaptation of the dynamic CMS structure into the algorithm of Google, MSN and Yahoo!, making CMS Websites extremely searchable and rankeable.
These reasons were strong enough to make Web Companies to expand over the competitive terrain of the emerging CMS market, and try to stop the Open Source tendency with a strong value proposition: Industry Specialization.
At some extend that differentiation significantly damaged the evolution of traditional Open Source CMS. If we
compare between traditional Open Source CMS and the platforms designed by those companies the result was simple and straight: Their systems were deficient, unfriendly and weak, but they had a value that was very strong at the time of evaluation of Purchasing Managers or IT specialists: Industry insertion.
Web Development companies understood very well the fragile side of the traditional Open Source CMS’s tendency.
Let me provide a fair example:
One of my clients in the automotive industry hired me to evaluate and recommend the best CMS system for the expansion of their online strategy. Five companies presented their solutions: four were strong development companies with their own packaged solution specialized in the industry; the other one presented an Open Source platform.
Without any doubt the OS was the strongest, but the client didn’t feel comfortable due to the lack of functionality oriented for the industry requirements. Even though my recommendation was clearly in favor of the Open Source CMS solution, the client decided to go for one of the packaged Open Source alternatives.
I’ve been involved in similar situations several times with clients of different industries: Municipalities, Lawyers Associations, Universities, Transportation Companies, etc.

I believe that the Open Source community is slowly reacting to this market situation, understanding the internal process of companies at the time to analyze and acquire a solution for their online business. Contributors to the Open Source CMS world are now more capable to understand that industry specialization is not against the Open Source philosophy, and the ultimate goal is to implement a high quality solution.

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About Miguel Todaro
(www.migueltodaro.com) He is the author of the book “Internet Marketing Methods Revealed” (ISBN-10: 1601382650 – 288 pages – Paperback color - 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches).
He is a Senior Marketing Executive specialized in different industries. Has been advisor of important corporations in marketing, multimedia and e-commerce projects. He is an expert in software development, with strong background in graphic design, multimedia programming and marketing. In 1997 he developed one of the first automotive e-commerce projects on the net, for the Italian company Fiat Auto International Corporation. As a consultant he helped major organizations such as UNICEF, AIGA, Oracle and IBM. He also developed experimental multimedia e-learning ventures for different companies in North America, including BP and Methanex Corp.

Currently he is working in his new book about behavioral marketing, to be released in 2010.

If the ad convinces the user about the existence of some particular value, the destination page persuades the potential customer to buy the product or service, and the landing page will introduce the credentials of the site and try to match the expectations generated by the ad.

Remember that the user is “looking for something;” for that reason, the landing page must give them what they are looking for. Every time I am defining the landing page of an ad, I ask myself the following question: Am I delivering in three seconds the promise of the ad? The answer to this question is essential to define the level of possible success of the ad. Many marketers do not value the landing page factor, and they simply direct the user to the home page. This is incorrect.
Last year I conducted a study about the level of relevancy of landing pages of Web sites from diverse industries (300 Web sites advertised through PPT ads). The results: 65 percent of the home pages did not directly address the topic of the ad; in many cases, the user needed to click three times to locate the information required in the search. If the user does not access the information at least in the first three seconds after arriving to the link, that user is gone.
Let us imagine, for instance, a particular user looking for model cars at Yahoo!; he enters “replica model + porsche.” In this case, like many others, the user knows what he wants. The first ad of the sponsored results is the following:

Porche Replica Model
Best Replica Models.
Free shipping, immediate delivery
www.replica-planet.net

Once the user clicks on the link, there are two possibilities:
1. The ad opens a home page of the storefront with a welcome paragraph, promotional ads, pictures, and information about all the replica models of cars, planes, trains, and boats. The user is unable to identify where the Porsche model car is located. After looking around for a while, he decides to press the back button and find another supplier.

2. The ads open a sub-page of the Web site with images and information about all the models of Porsche’s car replicas. He is able to locate the precise model he is looking for and, without clicking on any link, he finds characteristics of the product, price, delivery options, and more.

Remember to create a special and separate landing page for each PPT ad.

Characteristics of the Landing Page
The following list represents some important elements to consider while designing the destination page:
Navigation — It must be easy to navigate; avoid complex navigation menus.

First level information — Try to keep the user on the page, without making him click on links to access to more information. This is also called “first level navigation” or “one-click navigation.” Additional clicks discourage
users; more than 40 percent of the visitors leave the destination page if they have to click more than one time.

Objective — Never forget the purpose of the landing page. That page needs to be branded in order to be consistent with the main site, but its objective is to provide all the necessary information regarding the product or service promoted in the ad.

Menu — Many developers make the mistake of replicating the same menu of the Web site’s home page in the destination page. It is preferable to offer a back button and send the user to the home page instead. The landing page needs to remain clear and focus on the product and its characteristics.

Benefits — Think about the ad, and imagine the expectation of the users after reading the ad. Create the landing page with those expectations in mind. The landing page must offer an important value to catch the user’s attention and convince him that he is in the right place. Think in terms of benefits for the user, not in terms of product features.

Identify unique value proposition (UVP) — The page must state the UVP from the beginning. Headlines, images, and text must be applied in order to differentiate the product from the competitor.
Answer the following questions to incorporate this concept into the destination page:
- Is the product any better or less expensive than the competition? Why?
- Is the company able to make a commitment for promotional reasons (e.g., extended guarantees or special discounts)?
- Does the product offer features that the competitor’s product does not?
- Is the company the largest in the market?
- Is the company the smallest in the market?

Reliability — The page must communicate a reliable message that generates value and trust. Nobody logs in at Amazon.com and, after making the decision to buy a product, hesitates to purchase because the site does not provide enough guarantee. The worst thing that could happen to an e-commerce site is to make people wary about the purchasing, credit card validation, customer information, spyware, security penetration, delivering processes, or other such issues.
Although your Web site is not an e-commerce site, you need to manage the trust factor very seriously; down the road, your Web site is going to “sell” something and the user must be comfortable with the Web site proposition.
Read the following set of tips for making your site more reliable:
- Provide references that the users can verify easily. The visitors appreciate proof and evidence.
- Provide extensive contact information that makes you real and reachable, such as real phone numbers and street addresses. Make the “contact us” section of the site easy to find and to fill out.
- Show the people involved in the company behind the Web site with pictures, names, and testimonials. The Web site must appear as the “device” that allows the user to reach “people” who will take care of them.
- Money transaction validations are key components of e-commerce sites. You must offer (sometimes up front) the information of the company that manages the validation of the credit card transactions or any financial operation.
- Show that the Web site is regularly updated. Some developers identify the last update in the home page. Provide the feeling of constant work behind the scenes. Hire a professional developer or designer to make the • Web site (if
you are not one).
- Errors are big enemies of Web sites. Users get disappointed with all kinds of errors (no matter how big or small they are), such as typos, missing images, and dead links.
- Money back guarantee is a very convincing argument for e-commerce sites, it helps to offer this type of financial protection for potential customers.
- Proactive message — The destination page must engage the user. Remember that this visitor is not just a curious surfer who arrives to your site just by chance, this is a “potential customer” (if you have done a good PPT strategy of course) and it is valid to invite him to take an action. Anything you can recommend will help them to act; for example, “Order now!", “download the demo now!,” “fill out the form to get a free sample", “get the brochure", “get the newsletter", or “click here!”
- Capture interest in the headline — Repeating the keyword in the headline is important for the success of the landing page. I have created more than 10 different similar html destination pages, and my only change was the headline, edited specially to represent the keyword ad. People tend to read the body text if the keywords
entered (or some of them) are repeated in the headline.
- Web site performance — You must test the functionality level of the site. Some developers do not take this topic seriously. The Web site must load fast (and easily) and must not require any extra plug-in
or special download to appear and be accessible for any type of browser (e.g., IE, Firefox, or Opera)
- SEO the landing page — I recommend developing a simple html page with basic design components (headline, two or three images, body text, and footer), publishing it in the server, and submitting it individually, in the same way as was done with the Web site. This also increases the chances of being indexed by the spiders and appearing in the relevancy list of the SE.

Honda Shadow 750cc V-Twin year 1986!