Are you considering a content management system to take your marketing to the next level but don’t know where to start? Well, the good news is that you’ve just clicked on the right article, so you’re already on the right track.
Because sticking to one system is a big commitment to the success of your business, choosing the right one can be a pretty daunting task.
With so many CMS solutions out there, picking one should never be like drawing a name out of a hat.
So, stick around, and we’ll give you some tips on how to get started with content management and understand how the right software solution can help you take that next step in your content marketing game.
What Is a Content Management System?
Essentially, a content management system, or CMS, is the central hub of your brand’s content, running behind your website.
Whether you’re building a corporate site or an online store, a CMS enables you to control your site’s content, design, and functionality, without being a complete website wiz. In fact, you don’t need to have any coding skills whatsoever. Pretty neat, right?
A CMS is, therefore, a super-important investment for any company looking to compete on the digital playing field. Choosing and implementing one is just the start, but you could see great results or be penalized dearly down the road depending on how you navigate this step.
Why Is a Good CMS Essential to Your Content Management Needs?
So why do we think that good content management software is essential in this day and age? It’s simple — a great CMS software solution enables you to optimize your website for conversions, manage all your content in one place, and personalize the content for every visitor.
Here are five essential features that make a top-level CMS an indispensable part of your content management efforts:
- Intuitive UI — A top-notch CMS will allow you to manage all of the tasks involved in content production, all in one place.
- Templates — These are key to simplifying your publishing process and providing a consistent look and feel across your website.
- Content editor — A powerful content editor ensures that you can easily publish different types of content, from blog posts to landing pages.
- Built-in SEO tools — Content management systems with built-in SEO capabilities help you optimize your content for search so that it ranks at the top of the SERPs.
- Social-media integration — Integrated social capabilities of a CMS allow you to not only schedule and publish posts to social media but also add social media sharing buttons to your posts and pages and analyze the performance of your social media campaigns.
How to Pick the Right CMS?
If you are a first-time CMS user, there are many pitfalls to watch out for. These include, but are not limited to the following:
- Weighing up the long-term cost of inexpensive solutions
- Underestimating the amount of work that it takes to manage a CMS
- Not aligning your team’s needs with the content management system’s capabilities
To minimize your headache in this regard, we’ve discussed the topic with experts from top local SEO agencies and came up with the following tips. These should help you find the perfect CMS for your brand’s website. Check them out!
1. Don’t Build Your Content Management Software In-House
First of all, getting a piece of software like this to be fully operational is extremely difficult. Secondly, your team likely will not be experienced enough to handle the many challenges that come with building a CMS, no matter how much you plan for it.
Also, the amount of development support required in the long run far outweighs the cost of letting a professional agency handle this side of your operation or simply purchasing a CMS.
So, our advice is to save yourself time and effort. It’s not that we don’t believe in your software-development skills; it’s just that this is not something that you can bootstrap. If you like the idea of a boutique marketing agency taking care of your content management and other digital marketing needs, click here.
2. Avoid Complete Reliance on Developers
Making decisions solely based on developer speed is a recipe for disaster, as the speed of development should not dictate your business decisions.
Rather than spending a lot of time managing the technical side of things, your content management system needs to empower your team to concentrate on developing campaigns and strategies to increase web traffic.
3. Ensure That Your CMS Is Scalable and Get High-Quality Support
Change is inevitable for a growing business. In fact, change absolutely impacts any business regardless of its size. So, make extra sure to choose a CMS solution that can grow with you and scale as you need it.
Also, the quality of the support is more important than the actual software. A CMS or content management agency that can’t answer your queries and offer you help when you need it most should be passed on.
The right content management system that allows developers to work without interfering with the creation and management of content is a surefire way to save your business time and money. So, keep an eye out for CMS partners that offer 24/7 support, especially through live-chat functionality.
4. Test and Get a Proof of Concept
Before you roll out your CMS, try implementing a section of the website and getting users and team members to test everything, from creating and authorizing pages to establishing a workflow process.
Tests can show you where a piece of software truly shines, as well as show you exactly what may have been lurking in the shadows, bringing to light potential issues that may not have been obvious from the get-go.
5. Choose a CMS with an Intuitive UI
A user-friendly interface is essential, especially if your team will not be “living” in the system every day. Newbies need an easy-to-use solution that doesn’t need a load of technical training, so they can quickly pick it up whenever they log back in.
This means that an intuitive UI makes life easier for everyone and improves your team’s performance overall.
6. Understand Your Requirements Through a Real-Life Scenario
A usage scenario to describe the requirements for your CMS-selection process. It can be best described as a narrative that explains how the technology is intended to be used by an individual or company. You can use this as a benchmark for comparing one platform to another.
It is important to give specific details about inputs and outputs in usage scenarios but do not go overboard.
Avoid including procedural or UI details. Instead, prioritize impact and frequency. This means you should include that hour-long menial task that you do every day, but you can leave out that rare task that comes up every few months.
Wrapping Up
So that’s everything you need to know about getting started with content management and how a great CMS can help your business grow.
Even though each CMS is unique, there are some features you should be aware of and best practices you should follow to find the perfect solution.
Getting the selection right will make your life so much easier, with everything you need conveniently located in one piece of software.
If you’ve found this article helpful, please share it with someone you know that needs a hand with content management. You’ll also find a lot more research, comparisons, and reviews on our website, so feel free to check it out.