I was really excited to read this piece in AdWeek. It confirms two very important elements of the Tippingpoint Labs content marketing strategy:

1. The slick, flashy, million-dollar microsite is done (as noted in our Predictions for 2009).
2. Open source software provides flexible solutions for valuable, effective online marketing campaigns.

Online content and, by extension, the platforms delivering it, should be constantly evolving and improving. That’s why open source software, in addition to being incredibly affordable, can be more effective for producing and delivering content than “professionally” developed equivalents.

Flexible content through flexible production

Innovation is happening all the time, and rigid programming can prevent us from delivering the best product for our clients. We’re always looking for new ways to deliver content in the online world. We explore emerging channels and experiment with what works and what doesn’t. We use a number of open source platforms because they’re more scalable and flexible.

For example, this site is powered by the same platform that powers 33 of the top 100 blogs on the web, WordPress. WordPress is incredibly flexible and stable. It also has a very active community of users and developers who have created almost 6,000 plugins to extend WordPress’s functionality, adding everything from online polls to Google translation to photo management.

Evolving platforms, evolving content

In this case, the platform is evolving just as fast as the content. The plugins being developed by the community enable us to continually experiment with and improve the content of our primary mouthpiece. This extends to our clients’ content as well.

When TomTom needed a microsite for their new connected GPS, the GO 740 LIVE, we suggested using WordPress so they could easily update the content themselves. They were skeptical at first as they weren’t exactly looking for a blog. However, WordPress is evolving quite quickly from being just a blog platform into a more comprehensive content management system. The final result isn’t blog-like at all but does have constantly evolving content and some very cool live widgets.

We’re in the process of deploying Magento, a great open source e-commerce solution, for one of our clients. The Magento platform has many advantages over other e-commerce solutions. It has search engine optimization (unlike Flash, which remains perhaps the least search-friendly web technology), ease in adding new products, capacity to manage multiple stores from one administrative interface, and easy integration with new content — just to name a few advantages.

Best practices lead to best designs

I come from a design background, and one of the best things about deploying a tool like Magento is that it allows our designers to begin with what we refer to as “solved problems.” This means that right out of the box, Magento gives our teams a framework built around best practices in e-commerce user-experience design.

There is no reason for us to spend time designing comparison shopping, search, or shopping cart functionality from scratch; upon deployment, Magento provides us with solutions to those problems. This allows us to spend our time designing and developing for a client’s unique challenges so that we add value above and beyond a best-practices e-commerce package.

The fact that the plaftorm is open source gives us confidence that our ability to add features and functionality is limitless.

Meeting the needs of users, not the developers

The bottom line for traditional software manufacturers is that technology is moving too fast for them to rely on individual product releases based on a set of requirements established sometimes years before the product is released. There’s no way to keep up with constantly changing needs when developing by committee. Open source platforms are, by their very nature, never complete; they are perpetual works in progress and can be changed to meet emerging trends.

Did I mention the cost?

Yes, it doesn’t hurt to mention the potential cost savings of implementing open source platforms. Many of them are 100% free, including WordPress and Magento.

The takeaway

Open source is no longer built only for the technologically minded. Budgets are dropping while technologies and needs continue to evolve. Open source alternatives for everything from operating systems to email clients are proving to be even more effective than the standard-bearers they replace.

For your office, home office, marketing campaigns, personal branding, or whatever activities you’re participating in, open source solutions are a cost-effective way to continually evolve your content in a meaningful way.

My questions to you

Are you using any open source applications? Which ones? What has been your experience?

Open Source platforms we like

Operating System: Ubuntu Linux
Web browser: Mozilla Firefox
Email client: Mozilla Thunderbird
Content management: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
E-commerce: Magento
Graphic design: Gimp
Productivity suite: Open Office, NeoOffice
Web analytics: Mint