I've found that different marketing teams have varying levels of familiarity with content management and modeling concepts, so the first requirement is to know where your audience is coming from.

That said, I always start from the universally familiar web page. Using the Xperience by Kentico Kbank example project, I show how pages are built out of visual components (widgets), which most teams are also experienced with, no matter which CMS products they've used in the past.

Then, I explain that the message (content) for the widget can be authored directly in the page or pulled from somewhere else. That source of content could be another web page, which is where most teams content reuse experience stops, or a non-page piece of content.

This is where marketers can have difficulty taking the next step. What is non-page, reusable content?

Thankfully, we have another familiar concept that helps bridge the gap - media assets. Marketers are familiar with media libraries in traditional CMS products. The media assets themselves aren't pages but marketers understand how they can be reused across pages on a website.

Next, I show how other types of content (like FAQs, testimonials, article authors) can also be reused across websites without being pages themselves.

Then, I show that this structured content can also be used across channels. We can feature the same image asset and testimonial structured content items in an email, a website, a dedicated campaign microsite, and even a mobile app.

The final step, with Xperience by Kentico demos, is to show how this content can easily be tracked across channels and that published changes made to that content are instantly visible across all channels. People's eyes light up at this point (if they haven't already).

So, in summary, here's the steps I use to educate the value of reusable content modeling:

1. Start with web pages
2. Web pages can be broken down into components (widgets)
3. Widgets can source content from other web pages
4. Widgets can also source content from non-page content (reusable content like image assets)
5. Those reusable content items can be shared across different pages
6. They can also be shared across channels
7. Xperience by Kentico enables easy tracking of content reuse and enables 1-click publishing to all channels instantly

Instead of building content for a page, we’re building it for the organization

Ooo. I really like this way of expressing the idea!

Sean pretty much nailed it. However, such presentations and onboarding to a more structured content modeling approach require the audience to be open-minded, eager to learn, and ready for change.

I gave a similar presentation to one of my clients who was somewhat ready for change. Initially, she was skeptical, especially when she saw Content Hub, where things can get chaotic pretty quickly. I then designed and delivered the content model without giving her too many insights upfront. Because she was open-minded, she adapted over time and got used to it quickly. With a solid content model design in place, she became really happy with it, as it made creating reusable content intuitive and valuable. The initial Content Hub chaos was mitigated, as she stated, thanks to organizational features and the fact that one does not need to visit Content Hub directly very often. Content items can be managed to a certain extent from the places where they are referenced.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I work with a client where I provide feedback on a development agency delivering a site. Many decisions were made without anyone fully understanding Xperience by Kentico or content modeling. When I joined the project after some time, I saw the agency had used the “everything is a page” approach, mostly known from Portal Engine. I tried to advocate for a redesign, but it was too late. The team was not willing to take a step back because business objectives, deadlines, and budgets were prioritized.

In my opinion, the key lies in the phase before demonstrating the value of reusable content models. It is a process of embracing the idea that there are certain rules for content modeling, which require effort to understand in order to benefit from them.

I believe the mindset shift comes when teams see how content stops being tied only to a page, and instead becomes a reusable asset for the whole organisation.

My approach is:

1. Start with what they know – build a page in Page Builder, add a widget, show how content is placed directly in that widget.
2. Introduce the reuse concept – show that the widget’s content can come from a reusable content item (not just the page).
3. Demonstrate scale and value – update that reusable item and show it reflected wherever it’s referenced (on other pages, channels). That “lightbulb moment” happens when they say: “Wait - I only changed it here and it changed there, and there…”.
4. Highlight traceability – show the “Used By” feature that lets them see where that piece of reusable content is used across the site/channel. It reinforces the value of the model: one–to–many reuse, one source of truth, reduced duplication.
5. Embed it in their workflow – tie it back to their business goals: faster page builds, fewer mistakes, consistent messaging, easier channel expansion.

By the time we finish the demo, the mindset shift from “every page is unique and standalone” to “content is structured, centralised, flexible and channel-agnostic” tends to be much easier to grasp.