Rachel Sheldon1. Why Should You Organize Your Website Assets?
In a previous blog post, we have discussed how having an organized Content Management System (CMS) is like having an organized desk. It helps you to do your job better and more efficiently. In part one, you learned how to organize your website assets in the HubSpot CMS. You learned the different ways to organize assets, how content status works in HubSpot, and how to use the file manager tool. In this second part, you will see an example of an organized CMS from HubSpot customer, ActivePDF. But first, we are going to learn how to use the file manager in HubSpot.
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Thomas Piserchia, Agency M-1 Intern, https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-piserchia-02572216a/
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This blog post was authored by Rachel Sheldon (LinkedIn - Twitter).
1.1 Benefits of Using the File Manager in HubSpot
The file manager is a great tool to keep all of your assets organized. Recall the four main advantages of maintaining an organized CMS:
- Easier to find what you need and make changes quickly
- Easier to keep your website up to date and relevant
- Easier to collaborate with your team
- Easier to report on your website’s performance
1.1.1 Navigating the file manager in HubSpot
The file manager is a cloud-based file storage system. While similar to Google Drive or Dropbox, the file manager is built into HubSpot. It supports most file types and sizes. Within the file manager, there are several options for what you can do. You can create new folders to house your files, upload a new file or upload files in bulk, move a file into a new folder, and rename files.
You can also see a preview of the file, when it was last updated, its dimensions and size, the file URL, and where that file is currently being used in your CMS. This is a useful feature for seeing where exactly your files are being used on your website. There are also the options to replace or clone and edit the file. Click the More button, and you will see the options to download, archive, or delete that file.
Finally, recall the last feature we previously discussed as a benefit of the file manager: stock images. You can search for thousands of professional stock images and download them directly to HubSpot. Here you can learn more about using stock images in your HubSpot content with the Shutterstock integration.
2. What Does An Organized HubSpot CMS Look Like?
To see how this all comes together, let us take a look at ActivePDF’s Case Studies campaign. Each asset in this campaign has the same naming structure, from CTAs to pages to emails and even workflows. This consistency makes it easy to put together a campaign and stay organized, even when there are dozens of different types of assets involved.
“Start from the beginning with the right discipline and the right methodologies in terms of how you are going to approach structuring your content and data so that not only can you stay organized, but that later you can reap the benefits of absolute pristine and clear data output when you need to analyze it on the fly.”
~ Derek Gerber, Global Marketing Director, ActivePDF
2.1 Example of Organized CMS
Here is an example of an organized CMS from a HubSpot customer, ActivePDF.
ActivePDF began using HubSpot in 2017. From the start, their goal was to keep their system clean and organized.
To accomplish this, the team at ActivePDF was purposeful and proactive. They established a clear system for naming all their assets in HubSpot. This started by having a conversation with their team to get everyone on the same page. They then chose descriptive names based on what they would search for when they needed to find content.
Below, Derek Gerber of ActivePDF, discusses the approach he took to set naming conventions and the long-term benefits of having this organization:
“The naming conventions that have been implemented in our system are truly tied in across every single aspect of the menu that you can explore across HubSpot. So, all the way from our website pages, our landing pages, our calls-to-action, our forms, our files — everything from start to finish is properly labeled and coded so that, one, it is easy to find later because it is so organized, but two, more importantly, when you go to pull that reporting data, everything from the start, again, is properly falling into place when it comes time to run those dashboards and report on how your company is doing. So, start from the beginning with the right discipline and the right methodologies in terms of how you are going to approach structuring your content and data so that not only do you stay organized, but later you can reap the benefits of absolute pristine and clear data output when it needs to analyze it on the fly.”
Taking extra time in the beginning to establish a naming system saved ActivePDF hours of work in the long run.
By creating a good infrastructure, it was possible to immediately respond to issues and make changes with confidence.
Taking a look into ActivePDF’s HubSpot account, the benefits of their organization are immediately clear. Their website pages are named by the purpose of the page, such as Learning Center pages, Product pages, Support pages, and more. Their landing pages are organized by purpose too, broken down by Career pages, Case Study pages, and so on.
2.2 Example: Calls-to-action organized in CMS (ActivePDF)
ActivePDF continued this naming structure for all their HubSpot content. Take their forms for example. The names make it easy to tell at a glance where each form belongs and what kind of information it’s collecting.
2.3 Example: Organized Forms (ActivePDF)
3. Benefits Of Creating Good CMS Infrastructure
By creating a good infrastructure, it was possible to immediately respond to issues and make changes with confidence.
3.1 Benefits of establishing naming conventions for ActivePDF
Taking extra time in the beginning to establish a naming system saved ActivePDF hours of work in the long run. By creating a good infrastructure, it was possible to immediately respond to issues and make changes with confidence.
As a real-life example, the Global Marketing Director of ActivePDF, Derek Gerber, describes a situation in which having a clean and organized CMS paid off:
“When it comes to finding an example of why we want to implement best practices in terms of managing our CMS and our CRM solutions, it comes down to the discipline that you are going to put towards the naming conventions and organizational structures that are going to help scale and grow with your business over time. We recently had a project in our About section where I had to remove about 20 pages all at once and while that previously would have been very tedious and not very fun to do on our old platform. With HubSpot, I was able to type in “about” because that’s the way it was structured, I easily looked up all the pages that I needed, selected them in bulk, and bulk edited them to take them offline to the public and unpublish and archive all of them with just a few clicks. So that type of upfront organization and planning, proactiveness, and discipline pay off every single day for us when we’re trying to accomplish tasks like that. So, our goal is to do more with less and then go have some fun while we get some good work done.”
3.1.0.1 Example: Website Pages Naming Convention (ActivePDF)
3.1.0.2 Example: Organized Landing Pages (ActivePDF)
3.1.1 ActivePDF uses naming conventions for all HubSpot content
As Derek Gerber said, ActivePDF has continued using this naming structure for all their HubSpot content. Their forms, as seen in the above image, keep them organized. The names make it easy to tell at a glance where each form belongs and what kind of information it is collecting.
Start organizing and managing your website more effectively and use HubSpot’s CMS today . With access to thousands of images and easy-to-use formatting, we encourage you to get started with it. That is, if you have not already.
Take time to review other blog posts on this topic:
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