What Are 4 Functions of CMS?

by Angela Shaffield | Last Updated: Apr 3, 2023

When choosing a content management system (CMS) you will want your CMS features to be aligned with the goals and objectives of your team. You don't want to be paying for features and functionality that your team will never use or on the opposite side buy a CMS that doesn't include the features your team needs to do their jobs effectively. To avoid this you want to understand the features of a CMS, what they do, and who benefits from using them and why.

What Is the Purpose and Features of Content Management Software?

The main purpose of a content management system is to store digital assets in a central repository. Marketers find content more easily accessible when it is stored in a place where everything is organized. When you have hundreds of digital assets it can be hard to find the content you need if you do not have a system in place to keep those digital assets organized and easy to find. Even though the purpose of a content management software is to store digital assets, they can also have added benefits and functionality. Explore the functionality behind a content management system:

Content Creation and Editing - Many CMS allows teams to edit the content stored within the platform.
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 - Who doesn’t love search functionality? Though a CMS has the ability to create various folders and other ways to organize content, sometimes individuals just want to search for a specific piece of content. That’s exactly what the best CMS platforms enable their users to do.
Third-Party Integrations - The best content management system enables their customers to integrate to third-party systems that enable teams to pull in additional assets to use alongside their content.
User Management - Admins of a CMS can create different user permission that allows individuals to have varying control over the assets. For instance, an organization may choose to have only a handful of CMS admins that have the highest level of control over editing, reviewing, and managing content.

When choosing the best CMS for your business, you should ensure the CMS you choose has the core functions that support your business goals and the reasons you are implementing a CMS in the first place.

What Are the 4 Functions of a CMS?

The reason people seek out a content management system is largely because of its four core features of CMS. Yes, the bells and whistles are nice to have and can be the deciding factor when choosing between CMS providers, but without the core functions can it even be identified as a CMS? One of the functions of a CMS is to be a content library. The benefit of using a CMS that is most talked about is the ability to store your content in a centralized location. Content management systems often have organization capabilities like searching functionality and folders to organize your content. Lumavate’s CMS uses folders to sort your content by content type and has a search bar you can use to search for specific pieces of content using keywords. A content management system can also be used to edit and create content. Allowing users to create, edit, and store content in one place allows them to save time and energy when working with content. Luavate’s CMS allows you to create and update content such as images and documents plus create and edit text directly in the CMS. Lumavate also is a digital experience platform (DXP) so you can easily use content stored in Lumavate’s CMS directly in your digital experiences and any updates you make to your content are automatically updated in the applicable digital experiences. Oftentimes content is passed around from person to person like a relay race. A CMS provides user management that allows you to assign roles to your users and allow multiple users to work on the same piece of content. So instead of a relay race, it's more like a group project where everyone can collaborate at the same time. This allows brands to control the level of access of every team member. Content management systems are primarily designed for marketers. This makes content management systems easy to use if you do not know how to code. A CMS can cut website maintenance costs because it allows you to update your website without code. Lumavate’s DXP is intentionally designed for marketers, so not only can non-coders use our CMS but our entire platform to build digital experiences quickly and cost-effectively. Some CMS benefits and features are going to support your business goals while others may not. It's important to know what type of CMS is going to be the best for your business.

What Is the Most Common Type of CMS?

The headless CMS market size was 71 percent in 2021 making it the most popular type of content management system. There are other types of CMS to choose from like open-source CMS and proprietary CMS. Paying attention to the different benefits and features they offer will help you choose the best one for your business.

Headless CMS

A common CMS type is Headless. A headless CMS is a content management system that only offers backend content management. This type of CMS is often paired with software that offers front-end content management like a digital experience platform. Using this type of CMS provides flexibility because you can push content to multiple digital platforms. An example of a headless CMS is Contentstack, Craft, or Contentful.

Proprietary CMS

A proprietary CMS offers front-end and backend content management but limits you to only using their systems. When using this type of CMS, pulling content from different platforms can be challenging since they only allow you to use their CMS. There also is an annual cost for using these types of platforms, but they often have regular product updates. Some proprietary content management systems examples are Sitecore and Adobe Experience Manager. Additionally, Lumavate fits into the category of a proprietary CMS with a few unique differentiations. For example, Lumavate provides its own CMS and allows you to integrate a third-party CMS giving brands true flexibility to pull content from wherever it's stored. With Lumavate, you can even pull content from more than one CMS onto a page of a digital experience created using Lumavate. Another key differentiator is that Lumavate is a truly no-code digital experience platform which allows any user who manages content in the platform to also have the ability to build out highly personalized and engaging digital experiences. Finally, Lumavate has a much more frequent release schedule than any other comparable platform with new functionality being released every two weeks.

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. WordPress and Drupal are examples of an open-source web content management system.

What Is a Common CMS?

The most common CMS is WordPress due to its minimal cost structure which makes it a primary choice for almost every small business. However, WordPress doesn’t tend to be well suited for midsized and enterprise organizations with more in-depth security, functionality, and support needs. Most midsized and enterprise organizations tend to prefer using either a headless CMS or a comprehensive DXP that includes CMS functionality. The most flexible option to future-proof your business needs is a platform such as Lumavate. With Lumavate, you have the ability to use Lumavate’s built-in CMS, integrate a third-party CMS, or use a combination of these two options in your digital experiences. 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.