In today’s technology-driven world, providing your customers with quality content consistently is of utmost importance. Choosing the right Content management solution for your organization is essential.
Some of the best and most well-known CMS solutions are WordPress, Drupal, Squarespace, and Concrete CMS. They all offer a range of different approaches that help organizations grow their reach through content management.
There is a lot that goes into deciding which CMS is best for your needs. First, you have to take into consideration what your audience’s expectations of their experience on your website should be. Then, you must consider the business needs and what your team will need to deliver a great content management solution. So, how do you pick the best solution?
“A new CMS system is a complex undertaking, so it’s crucial to your business to pick the right one that is suited to what you need” says Sharon Williams, a web developer at 1day2write and Write My X. Some key factors to consider when choosing a Content management software are the following:
Customers want personalised experiences
Customers want more than just a brochure; they want an experience that is tailored to their every need. Choose a CMS that streamlines all of their interactions with your business, and offers them a simple way to get what they want.
The need for multilingual content due to globalisation
As globalisation increases, there is a need to provide content in many different languages to stay ahead of the competition. A CMS with strong internationalisation tools helps streamline your workflow with translators, making sure your content is produced to high standards, in whatever language needed, with the right tone to engage your customers.
Technology changes constantly and continues to become increasingly complex
As time moves forward, so too does technology, and it’s doing so at breakneck speeds. Your Content management software needs to be flexible enough to adapt and keep up with growing and changing technology.
Connecting with customers means understanding data
In order for your business to be successful, you must know exactly what your customers’ needs are and meet them consistently. A strong CMS can help you understand the necessary data to provide your customers with service and products they need.
Pairing content with context is essential for e-commerce.
It’s not just about making a sale, it’s about delivering a unique, personally tailored experience to your customers. Your CMS needs to account for how your customers are consuming your content, in order to offer the right services or products at the right time, from the beginning of the sales pitch to the physical transaction itself.
So, now that we understand the environmental factors to keep in mind when choosing the right Content management software for your company, we now need some concrete ideas about how to implement a new CMS system. The following are ten practical and useful tips to keep in mind when implementing new Content management software.
1. Resist the temptation to build an in-house/custom CMS system
There is often this idea that building a customer management system in-house will be an amazing feature to have and will be the best thing for the company. More often than not, it backfires. “The simple truth is your team does not have the developer experience needed to build a CMS” explains Paul Kohlmeier, a business writer at Britstudent and PhDKingdom. Ongoing maintenance and improvement of a CMS to power modern websites is a serious undertaking. It’s cheaper and less hassle to purchase a good CMS.
2. Don’t rely too heavily on the developer
You do not want to spend all your time focusing on managing the software itself. You want to focus on developing campaigns and strategies to increase your web traffic. Development speed should never impede your business decisions. Are you getting a CMS you can feel comfortable using without having an expert in the room? You deserve to love your tools.
3. Your CMS needs to be scalable
Your business will grow and change over time, like everything else. Your CMS needs to grow with your company and adapt to the changes. Scalability is an absolute must when looking for the right Content management solution and hosting environment.
4. Choose a CMS that supports omnichannel
Just because you are currently only leveraging desktop sites doesn’t mean that will be the case in the future. Choosing a CMS that can support a multitude of different channels is an absolute must if you want to see growth in your business and reach a wider target audience.
5. Favour support over software
The software you choose is important but what might be more important is having a Content management solution that has excellent support. You could have the best software, but if the platform team is nowhere to be found when disaster strikes, you could be in some serious trouble. It’s crucial to choose a content management system that allows developers to work in the background, minimising the disruption of making and delivering great content.
6. Get a proof-of-concept for your chosen CMS
Before you shell out big money on your content management solution, get a proof-of-concept first. A lot of businesses tend to over-rely on product demos, which are designed to showcase the content management software in the best light, working in optimal conditions. You need to see if the software will actually function in your work environment, using your specific use cases. Asking for a POC will help you understand what it will feel like to manage your site with this CMS.
7. Test run your CMS
Test, test, and test again BEFORE you roll out the complete CMS site wide. Implement a section and have team members and end-users check everything and provide feedback so all the kinks can be worked out before the complete rollout. A clear testing plan and the DevOps architecture to support it will save you a load of time and money.
8. Your CMS needs to be intuitive
The right content management solution needs to be one that is simply easy to use. This is especially true if your team is going to be adding content daily. Having an overly complicated system wastes time. Your team needs to be able to navigate it when they log back in without spending hours relearning everything.
9. Choose a CMS that has an API and supports integration with other apps
Different businesses require different applications and microservices, so it’s important to take that into consideration when choosing the right content management solution for your business. You want to choose a solution with a good API which lets you connect with other third-party content management tools.
10. Plan and organise your website correctly
Before implementing any content management software, plan it out. Gather all your stakeholders together and get their input and ideas. Planning out a well-developed content strategy plan will help you meet your business’s goals. This plan should be the basis for choosing the right CMS for your needs.
A Few Extra Tips
We have looked at what the customer is looking for and how to implement a content management solution that fits their needs. We have then turned towards the business side and how a good CMS needs to work for your company. There are a few extra things to bear in mind:
1. This process will take time.
It can take up to two years to completely switch a large site to a new CMS platform, so make sure this is something that your business really needs to do before you purchase a content management solution. This step will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.
2. Don’t forget to get internal support and input
Your in-house team will have a good idea of what your business needs to create and deliver great content, so if you think your company needs to invest in a new content management solution, get their input and get as many leaders in the company to sign off on this investment.
3. Asking for professional help is a good thing
We do not know everything when it comes to running our business. Content management software is complicated and a massive undertaking. If you feel completely out of your depth, a safe option is to hire an expert who knows more on the subject than you do. They will help you get the content management solution your business needs.
There is a lot that goes into choosing the right CMS for your business. The useful tips in this guide will help you choose what is the best option.
Michael Dehoyos is an editor at Coursework Writing Services and Essay Help. He assists companies in their marketing strategy, as well as contributes to numerous sites and publications. Michael is also a writer at Nextcoursework.com.