Content Management System

Managing Content 

Content marketing is all about telling a story with a purpose. When you think of content marketing, what types of assets come to mind? You probably said something like text, videos, images, or even audio files. 

These assets are weaved into marketers’ stories to help provide evidence and support for the purpose they are trying to convey. You’ve heard the expression, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, the same holds true in marketing. That’s why marketers rely on tons of digital assets to get their point across. 

So marketers create an abundance of digital assets they can use in their marketing efforts to help tell their story. The problem? These assets all need somewhere to live.

 For some, screenshots and other assets may be saved to their local desktop, where no one but the individual can access them. For others, it may be through homegrown solutions or even through many folders on Google Drive. 

Finding resources and files takes up an incredible amount of time for marketers - precious time they don’t have since most markets are being asked to do more with less. 51 percent of marketers agree they waste money and time producing and recreating content that oftentimes goes unused because team members can’t locate the file or know it even exists. 

There’s a better way for markets to store their digital assets. Enter a content management system. 

What Is a Content Management System?

A content management system, otherwise known as a CMS,  is a repository for all of a brand’s digital assets. Content management tools are incredibly beneficial for marketers as they save time and even money for marketers because they lead to more efficiencies and fewer duplicates. 

Difference Between a CMS and a DAM

A CMS differs from a digital asset management (DAM) system in several ways. Gartner defines a DAM as the following,  “Digital asset management software capabilities for ingestion, storage, retrieval, collaboration, and life cycle management of rich-media assets, including text, graphics, images, videos, and audio.” 

Comparatively, Gartner defines a CMS as, “software that enables marketers and their proxies (e.g., webmasters) to produce and manage text, graphics, pictures, audio, and video for use in Web landing pages, blogs, document repositories, campaigns or any marketing activity requiring single or multimedia content.” 

A CMS can store many different types of digital assets including:  

• Audio - Embed audio like songs or podcasts directly in digital experiences.

• Documents - Store files such as Word Documents, PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets, or PowerPoint Presentations. 

• Forms - Build forms that capture event registration, leads, or 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. 

• 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 - Embed videos stored in third-party integrations such as Brightcove, Kaltura, Loom, Vidyard, Wistia, or YouTube or upload video content directly into the CMS.

Types of CMS

There are a few different options available in the market for what types of CMS platforms an organization could invest in. Some website builders, such as WordPress, even have their own system for managing content, so it’s good to explore all of the options out there before making a decision. 

 Let’s take a look at several examples of a CMS: 

• Headless CMS - A headless CMS is a content management system that is a repository of where the content is stored. What this means is an organization can store all of its digital assets in a headless CMS, and they need to invest in a solution to create a front-end digital experience to display these assets. Typically, companies pair a headless CMS with using an agency or in-house development team to build out the front-end of the digital experience or they use a digital experience platform (DXP). Examples of a headless CMS include Contentstack and Contentful.   

• Cloud-based - Content Management Systems that are cloud-based SaaS simply mean that business users can access assets stored in this type of platform from anywhere. Examples of SaaS CMS solutions include Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager, and Lumavate.

• Open Source - The term open source means that developers have already written the code for the digital item and is available for a wide variety of people to use. WordPress is an example of an open source CMS. WordPress’s developers have already created a repository for their content management system for anyone to use. Examples of open source CMS offerings include WordPress and Drupal.

Content Management and the Customer Journey

According to a recent study, 80 percent of marketers struggle to connect more than three customer journey channels seamlessly. That’s a big deal in the digital age we live in. 

Without a CMS and a digital experience platform, it becomes increasingly difficult for marketers to create an engaging customer journey that provides personalized content to its customers 

Using siloed systems (or worse,  no CMS  or DXP at all), creates gaps in the customer journey. Let’s say a customer has just purchased a new appliance. A brand that has both a CMS and a DXP can create a dynamic customer journey that provides relevant content to where that customer is at in the journey. If the customer is being onboarded to using their new appliance, they can engage with how-to videos and an interactive checklist that shows the steps on how to set up their new product. 

Once they’re properly onboarded, the digital experience in their customer journey could dynamically change to populate a digital version of a product manual and troubleshooting tips in case the customer runs into issues with their product. 

Importance of Customer Journey Mapping

With customers’ expectations and behaviors constantly changing, it’s more important than ever for brands to undertake customer journey mapping initiatives. Organizations need to spend time mapping out their customer journey to make improvements to the customer experience.

Depending where an individual is in the customer journey will determine what type of content they need to be served in order to progress them through the next stage. 

As a refresher, below are the various stages in the customer journey: 

• Awareness

• Consideration

• Decision

• Retention

• Loyalty 

You can turn customers into lifelong brand advocates if they come to trust they’ll receive relevant content at the exact point in time they are searching for it. 86 percent  of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.

What Goes into a CMS?
Explore the functionality behind a content management system 

• 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.

• 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. 

Example of How an Appliance Manufacturer Brand Would Use a CMS 

Now that we’ve explained what a CMS is and its benefits, let’s look at an example of how a brand, such as an appliance brand would use a CMS. 

An appliance brand is usually not short on the number of products they sell. Under the umbrella of “Appliances” this brand could sell various types of products, including refrigerators, dishwashers, washers and dryers,  cooking appliances, etc. And each of these product types has multiple product options within them that vary based on features, costs, color, etc. 

That’s a ton of content to organize and manage. 

This appliance brand could benefit a ton from using a CMS. This brand could store all of its product images, product videos, product manuals,  and more in a CMS. 

To take it one step further, this appliance brand could benefit from a Product Information Management (PIM) system as well. The brand could store all of the visual assets within a CMS and 

This is is a brief list of some of the items the appliance brand could store in a PIM: 

• Product Name

• Product Images

• Product Descriptions

• Pricing

• SKU

• Product Ratings

• Product Classification

• Product Specifications

• Related Products

• Replacement Parts

• Compatible Accessories

• Disclosures and Regulatory Approvals 

• User Manuals or Instructions

• Owner’s Guides

• Assembly or Onboarding Instructions

• Warranty Information

Brands that are forward thinking and want to invest in digital are the ones who understand how a DXP, PIM, and  CMS can all work together to create engaging moments within a brand’s customer journey. 

Lumavate offers the ability for brands to store and manage their content and product data, as well as create front-end digital experiences that pull in these assets. Want to give Lumavate a try? Schedule a demo to see how our content management system can help your organization save time and unify your digital assets. 

Pros and Cons of a CMS

Like anything in life, there are pros and cons to using a CMS. Here’s what you need to know before investing in this type of software (spoiler - there are more pros than cons). 

Benefits of a CMS

There are a ton of benefits to using a Content Management System, including; 

• User-friendly - Generally speaking, most CMS systems are easy to use. While some CMS platforms are designed more for developers, there are many solutions that are intended for the use of primarily marketers which enables these teams to use a CMS without the use of code. 

• Improved Efficiency and Productivity - One of the primary reasons why organizations invest in a CMS is to improve their team’s productivity and efficiency. By having a single place where content is stored, teams know exactly where to go to find the asset they’re after. By reducing the time it takes individuals to find a specific resource, they can in return become more productive and spend more time creating engaging digital experiences that work to enhance the customer experience. 

• Consistency and Accuracy of Content - When organizations don’t have a single source of truth for brand-approved content, consistency and accuracy of the digital asset becomes compromised.  For instance, a business user could be using an outdated product video if there isn’t a system in place to regulate this content, or worse, they could misinform customers on how to use a product if the brand team hasn’t approved the video. 

• Enhanced Security  - One of the great benefits of using a CMS is the security a brand has when using this software. Admins can set up security measures that ensure their content is always safe through user authentication and other encryption methods. 

• Flexibility -  When comparing a CMS  to a website builder’s CMS there is typically more flexibility that business users have when using a traditional CMS. For instance, a CMS is designed specifically to house content, so it's going to have more features than say a website builder’s CMS.  Additionally, most CMS systems have security measures in place like authentication to ensure brands’ content remains secure. 

• Scalability - Large organizations need more than just a Google Drive to manage their content. That’s exactly what CMS does. While CMS systems are beneficial to companies of all sizes, large organizations can benefit a ton from a CMS system because this type of software is built to store large quantities of files. 

Cons of a CMS 

It’s also important to take a look at some of the cons of using specific CMS systems. Not all content management systems will possess these considerations, but it’s important to have  these in mind when researching CMS platforms to invest in. 

• Content Migration and Integration Issues - Some CMS solutions make it difficult for users to migrate off of their systems. 

• Training and Education for Users - Learning any new technology can be difficult for a new user. The best software, especially a CMS, equips users with everything they need to be successful. This includes a designated team of experts who are willing to answer any questions their customers may have, an arsenal of training videos and help content, and in-platform tools like chat and FAQs that help answer these questions. Not all CMS solutions have the tools users need to be set up for success. 

• Cost and Budget Constraints - Price will vary between different CMS platforms. If organizations are extremely budget-conscious, then choosing a more affordable CMS solution or a DXP that has CMS functionality might be the way to go. 

Best Practices for Content Management 

One of the best tips we can give for managing your CMS as efficiently as possible? Keep it organized. What do we mean by that? Well for starters, you’ll want to periodically set reminders for yourself to clean up your CMS. We recommend keeping files as up-to-date as possible and cleaning up the old digital assets which are no longer in use. This helps remove the clutter in your CMS and cuts down the time team members spend trying to find specific assets. 

Another best practice for keeping your CMS organized is aligning on how various team members will utilize your organization’s CMS. It might be worth having a strategy meeting with key members of your marketing team to organize which team members will have certain permissions so you can make sure all of your content is as accurate and secure as possible. 

Content Management Examples 

Marketers have many options when it comes to the CMS software solution they invest in - and not all work the same. Factors when considering what CMS to invest in include functionality, price, ease of migration, ability to integrate into other systems, and more. 

Let’s take a look at some CMS examples.  

Lumavate CMS

Lumavate’s approach to CMS software is a little different compared to the other CMS solutions in the market. We strongly believe that we’re stronger when we all work together - the same goes for tech. Using Lumavate’s Content Management functionality, users have a few options on how to use the platform. When using Lumavate’s CMS, users can upload and access text, images, video, audio, and more from Lumavate Content to use in their digital experiences. Any edits a user makes to content stored in Lumavate Content are automatically updated in your digital experiences.

Lumavate also enables its customers to integrate to their preferred CMS. Users can pull content directly from their CMS to use in their digital experiences created using Lumavate. Any content edits made in your CMS are automatically updated in your digital experiences.

Salesforce CMS

The content management system Salesforce has works like other CMS platforms on the market. The Salesforce CMS enables users to store, create, manage, and deliver content to their users. Is the Salesforce CMS free? No. If organizations want to use the Salesforce CMS, they’ll need to invest resources into the software. 

What is the Salesforce CRM vs. CMS? Both systems store items, it just differs in the type of content they store. The Salesforce CRM stores information related to customer and prospect data. Organizations can use the Salesforce CRM to look up a prospect’s email address, related contacts, contact history, and where they’re located in the sales cycle. The Salesforce CMS stores digital assets rather than customer data. Salesforce also limits you to only using their platform to build digital experiences. 

Drupal CMS

If you’re asking the question, “What is the best CMS for developers,” then you may have stumbled upon the list of CMS solutions that included Drupal. Drupal has features that developers would specifically be interested in such as its ability to be highly customizable and advanced API caching. 

WordPress CMS

If you have ever used  WordPress to build your website or blog, then you’ve most likely used the WordPress content management system. The WordPress CMS  is essentially just one big repository for storing files such as videos, images, and documents to be used on a user’s website or blog. While WordPress CMS features the ability to create front-end experiences with its headless CMS, organizing one’s digital assets can be difficult to manage; the WordPress CMS does not offer the ability to create organized folders to store content. Everything is stored in one place. Users can search for various assets, but if an organization has hundreds or even thousands of files, this can be frustrating. 

You might be asking, “How do I choose the best CMS,”. Well, the answer will depend on what is most important to your team? Is it the ability to integrate seamlessly into third-party systems? Do you need your CMS to be extremely easy to use for your team to work as quickly as possible? All of these questions should be asked before your team invests in a solution. 

Get Started with Lumavate’s CMS

It’s time you started managing content in a unified place. Using Lumavate’s CMS, you can access your content easily no matter where you store it. 

You’ll also be able to make your text reusable. For example, let’s say you have multiple product descriptions that can become tedious to write over and over again. Using our Content from Text functionality, you can write these product descriptions once, and use them in an infinite number of digital experiences. And if you make updates to your product descriptions, all you have to do is edit them in one place and they immediately get updated in any digital experience they live in, equipping your team to become more efficient. 

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.