Best Content Management Systems

Content marketing is one of the most effective methods of growing your audience engagement, developing your brand presence, and increasing revenue. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 73 percent of B2B marketers and 70 percent of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. 91 percent of marketing pros surveyed by Semrush achieved success with their content marketing in 2021.

Marketers find content marketing beneficial because content like blog posts and social media posts answer the questions of their target audience and help build trust, develop relationships, improve conversions, and generate leads. To truly drive results from a content marketing effort, marketers must have a developed content strategy aligned to their ideal customer profile (ICP) including the topics, content forms, and distribution channels that appeal to this audience. 

Once the content is created, it’s imperative to consider how the content will be shared both internally and externally. 51 percent of marketers agree they waste money and time producing and recreating content that oftentimes goes unused because team members can’t locate them or know they even exist. Having your content organized and easy to find is the key to having successful content marketing efforts. This is where content management systems help marketers save time and money because it enables them to be more efficient in finding the content they need promptly.

What Is a Content Management System?

A content management system (CMS) is a centralized location for all of a brand’s digital assets. Having all marketing content in one place helps marketers find content quickly and effectively for their next marketing campaign. Content management systems are often used for managing content and allowing multiple contributors to create, edit, and publish. 

A CMS can store various types of digital assets. For example, Lumavate’s CMS allows users to store and use the following types of digital assets:  

• Audio - Store audio like songs or podcasts.
• Documents - Store files such as Word Documents, PDFs, Excel Sheets, or PowerPoints. 
• Forms - Build forms that can capture event registration, lead capture, or even email and mobile opt-ins. 
• Icons - Access a library of icons to use in your digital experiences.
• Images - Pull in images to use in your digital experiences related to products, headshots, and more. 
• Quizzes - Create engaging product or content recommendation quizzes that help entice customers to purchase recommended products. 
• Text - Use the same plain text or rich text in multiple digital experiences and ensure any edits made to this text are automatically updated across all experiences using it.
• Videos - Store all types of video files for product training, employee onboarding, etc.

Different content management system providers have their specialties when it comes to functionality, but here are some core functionalities of a content management system that the best content management system will always have.

The common functions of a content management system include:

• Content Storage, Creation, and Editing - Stores content in one place, in a consistent fashion, and allows users to easily create and format content.
• Workflow Management - Related to ease of use is workflow management. A CMS is designed for every individual on a marketing team to easily use the platform depending on their tasks. 
• Search Functionality - Just like any other search engine, the search functionality in a content management system allows users to search for specific pieces of content using keywords.
• Third-Party Integrations - This allows you to integrate your content management system with the rest of your tech stack.
• User Management - Assigns permissions for managing content based on roles such as authors, editors, and admins.

What Are Three 3 Different Content Management Systems?

There are three different types of content management systems headless, cloud-based, and open source. All content management systems fall into these different categories.

Headless CMS

A headless content management system is a back-end-only web content management system that acts primarily as a content repository and doesn’t offer a way to build a front-end. Most companies using a headless CMS often rely on a marketing agency, third-party development team, or digital experience platform (DXP) to build out the front-end of their digital experiences while pulling content from the integrated headless CMS.  The headless CMS market share was 71 percent in 2021 making it the most popular type of content management system. Cloud-Based CMS

A cloud-based CMS is a content management solution that allows companies, organizations, and teams to store digital assets and content within a cloud-based environment. This type of CMS is extremely popular with mid-sized and enterprise organizations because it’s offered as a SaaS solution with regular platform updates. Lumavate, Sitecore, and Adobe Experience Manager are examples of cloud-based CMS platforms. However, there are differences between these three cloud-based CMS platforms. For example, both Sitecore and Adobe Experience Manager require marketers to use their CMS when building digital experiences on their platform whereas Lumavate allows users to use its CMS, a third-party CMS, or a combination when building out digital experiences making it much more versatile than other cloud-based CMS platforms.

Open Source CMS

An open source content management system is a content management system that is maintained by its community of developers, rather than one developed and owned by a single company. An open source CMS example is the WordPress content management system since WordPress’s developers have already created a repository for their content management system for anyone to use. 

Content Management for Different Marketing Roles

In the world of marketing, there are roles that are responsible for each type of marketing, and whether you are a digital marketer or brand marketer you can still find value in using a content management system. In fact, 60 percent of marketers create at least one piece of content every day.

For example, in manufacturing brand marketers oversee all brand packaging, messaging, and campaigns. Their overall goals are to promote brand awareness and loyalty. In order to achieve these goals they often utilize content marketing campaigns. For example, a brand marketer for a skincare brand might use a content management system to create a sunscreen quiz for their website to provide a digital concierge type of service to customers. Brand marketers also find value in a content management system because it ensures brand consistency throughout their digital experiences by providing only approved brand images.

Another common role in most CPG brands is a channel or shopper marketer who is primarily responsible for increasing sales at a specific retailer or distributor. In their role, they often use digital assets from a content management system to create in-aisle campaigns to promote a new product or special offer. They also will use the assets in a CMS for digital campaigns for their channel partner.  

Another primary user of a CMS is digital marketers who are responsible for driving brand awareness and sales through a wide variety of digital channels. This role also tends to oversee the tech stack for the business and may be the owner of managing the CMS for the business. Digital marketers primarily use the CMS for content for the brand’s website and any other associated digital experiences. They may also use the content from the CMS in various digital ad campaigns too. Ultimately, this role truly views the CMS as a single source of truth for product images, videos, text, and more for the brand and will typically promote the use of the content management system to other team members internally.

All these types of marketers can benefit from using a content management system because they use or create content every day. If marketers use a content management system they could repurpose more of their content. And 61 percent of marketers said updating/repurposing existing content was the most efficient tactic.

Do I Need A Content Management System for My Website?

51 percent of marketers agree they waste money and time producing and recreating content that oftentimes goes unused because team members can’t locate them or know they even exist. Content management systems solve this problem and have added benefits as well. And given the amount of content needed for most websites, it’s a huge benefit to have a single location to pull from to drive consistency and efficiency. 

One benefit of a CMS is that most CMS platforms are easy to use, requiring limited training before you’re able to use the system. Once you’ve launched a content management system, you can quickly enable multiple members within your business to use this content when creating new pages for your website, microsite, or landing page. It’s also simple to have multiple users update this content as necessary to ensure you’re always referencing the latest approved images, videos, text, etc. This can help speed up the process of content creation which has a ripple effect that turns into increased revenue.

Some content management systems have customizable features, so you can really make it your own and improve your user experience. These customization options allow you to change everything from basic colors and menu locations to how content is displayed.

Content management systems also can promote scalability. A content management system allows multiple users to collaborate and work together on the same piece of content. For example, the writer can work on messaging for your website, while at the same time, the designer can be working on images and designing how the content will lay on the page.

Another consideration when evaluating a CMS is the availability of technical support. We always hope that nothing will ever go wrong, but sometimes you may run into issues and need assistance from your CMS vendor.  go wrong and that's okay when you have proper technical support. Most open source content management systems do not offer any support, so it's important that you choose a content management system provider that offers technical support during your core business hours. 

What Is the Most Widely Used Content Management System?

Looking for the best content management system for website? Here is a list of CMS that includes the most secure content management system, best content management system for enterprise, and best CMS for developers.

Lumavate CMS

Lumavate is a digital experience platform (DXP) that also includes content management functionality. Lumavate allows users to create, edit, and update content and digital experiences using the same platform. When users edit or update content in Lumavate’s CMS that content is automatically updated in the applicable digital experiences. Lumavate also enables users to integrate with other content management systems so digital experiences built using Lumavate can include content from Lumavate’s CMS, a third-party CMS, or a combination of the two.

Salesforce CMS

Salesforce is known for its customer relationship management (CRM) software. Salesforce defines a customer relationship management (CRM) as a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. They recently released a CMS that integrates with their CRM. They do not offer upfront pricing and Salesforce products are known for being less cost-effective compared to other CMS in the marketplace.

WordPress CMS

WordPress has an open source CMS included in its website builder platform. Many of you may have already used WordPress to build a website, blog, or portfolio. When creating content on WordPress it is stored in their CMS where you can easily find and edit the content as needed, but WordPress CMS does not offer the ability to create organized folders to store content. It also can be fairly cumbersome to navigate and often requires a developer to deliver a truly customized front-end design. These are some of the reasons why WordPress tends to be the choice of small businesses while mid-market and enterprise companies often choose a different CMS. 

Get Started with Lumavate’s CMS

Lumavate’s CMS has the most functionality for its price point. Since Lumavate is a digital experience platform that includes a CMS, you can create many digital experiences and use their CMS at no extra cost. Like any other software the more you use it the more cost-effective it becomes. The difference is that Lumavate has many more use cases than the average marketing software. 

Want to increase your marketing team’s efficiencies and stop wasting time trying to find your digital assets? Schedule a demo to see Lumavate’s Content Management System or take a tour to explore the functionality for yourself. You can also check out use cases for Lumavate based on your role or business goals on our website.