Types of Content Management System

Content Management Systems 101

So, you want a better way to manage and edit your content? Welcome to the world of content management systems. Let’s explore this emerging technology that is allowing businesses to move faster and enable marketing teams to become more efficient. 

What Is a Content Management System?

A content management system, otherwise known as a CMS, is software that enables organizations to store their digital assets in one centralized location. 

Common Features of Content Management System

• Content Creation and Editing
• Workflow Management
• Search Functionality
• Third-Party Integrations
• User Management

What Are the Uses of a Content Management System?

All companies produce some sort of digital assets to use on their company’s websites, landing pages, mobile apps, etc. They need somewhere to store these assets. A CMS does exactly that. 

The use of a CMS lies in the ability for business users to have one place where they know they can easily find a piece of content that is both available for use and accurate. 

Any brand can utilize a CMS, but let’s take a look at a specific example of how a brand could benefit from a CMS’s capabilities. 

A sports drink brand would benefit greatly from using a CMS. There’s a ton of content that goes into the marketing of a beverage product. A brand might have hundreds (if not thousands) of product images for each beverage drink in its line. The brand may also have hundreds of promotional videos of the product that they use in ads or digital experiences. 

But a CMS is not just beneficial for CPG brands. Take a faucet company. They could store similar digital assets like product images, videos, product manuals, and more within a CMS to ensure their digital assets are in one place and have been approved by the brand team. 

What Are the Benefits of a Content Management System?

A CMS has many benefits, including having one, central location to store content. 

Storing content is a large issue for brands for several reasons. One - it’s a time waster for teams. On average, employees spend 36 percent of their day looking for items to complete their projects. But 46 percent of the time, employees cannot locate these items. 

This leads to precious time and resources being wasted by organizations having to recreate assets that already exist. Marketers are already tasked with doing more with less  - and if they’re constantly recreating digital assets because they can’t find where they’re located, then the lofty goals they are tasked with will be in jeopardy.

CMS platforms provide more efficiencies for marketing teams. Because CMS platforms are designed for non-developers, like marketers, they are extremely easy to use and help marketing teams increase their speed-to-market.  

What Is an Example of a CMS? 

There are several CMS providers that organizations can choose from. There are CMS platforms that are designed for software engineers and then there are solutions that are primarily focused on marketers. The majority of the time, CMS platforms are designed for marketing teams, so instead of answering the question “what is the best CMS for developers?” we’ll be exploring options that marketing teams would be interested in. 

Lumavate is an example of a CMS platform that enables marketers to store all of their digital assets in one place. Lumavate’s CMS enables marketing teams to organize their digital assets in one place and enables teams to use the content stored in the platform in their digital experiences built on Lumavate. 

Lumavate is unique in that it has CMS functionality and the capabilities for marketers to build engaging digital experiences for every moment in the customer journey. This makes it easy for marketers to use one solution in their tech stack to manage their content and display it for customers. Additionally, when using Lumavate’s CMS, if an image, video, or even product manual gets updated within the CMS, any digital experience that uses that asset is immediately updated, making marketing teams more efficient and able to go at the speed their customers demand. 

Schedule your demo to see Lumavate’s CMS in action. 

Types of CMS Platforms

When researching CMS platforms, it can be overwhelming to find one that fits the needs of your business. Not all CMS platforms work the same and some limit their users to using certain functionality or have potential security implications. 

There are essentially two main categories of CMS platforms - open source and non-open source. 

Open Source CMS

The term open source  is defined by Gartner as “Software that comes with permission to use, copy and distribute, either as is or with modifications, and that may be offered either free or with a charge.”

Open-source CMS platforms are maintained by a community of developers for which any business user can use and modify the software to meet their needs. An open source CMS is popular among smaller businesses as these tend to be affordable solutions. WordPress and Drupal are both examples of open source CMS. 

Web Content Management System

If you’ve ever used a website builder, then you would be familiar with a web content management system. Web content management systems manage digital assets for teams to use on a website and are a subset of open source CMS platforms. For example, the WordPress content management system is considered to be open source. What this means is that WordPress’s developers have already created a repository for their content management system for anyone to use. 

Pros and Cons of a Web Content Management System

If you are part of a smaller organization, a website builder’s CMS will be cost-effective and easy for teams to use. However, if you’re not part of a small organization, the cons to a website builder content management system tip the scales. When using a website builder CMS, teams have limited flexibility and customization with these platforms. Marketing teams also would have to rely on the platform’s current functionality.

Non-open Source CMS 

If open source CMS meant that these types of platforms were maintained by a community of developers and anyone was free to modify the code to meet their needs, non-open source means the opposite. But not in a negative way. 

Non-open source CMS platforms have dedicated teams of developers that are tasked with maintaining, updating, and customizing the platform to fit the needs of the team using it. Non-open source CMS platforms are typically more secure than open source CMS and provide more flexibility for marketing teams. 

Within the non-open source category, there are multiple subcategories such as a Headless CMS. Let’s explore additional types of non-open source CMS solutions.  

Traditional CMS

A traditional CMS is a platform that pairs both backend and frontend functionality for organizations to store their content and provides a way for marketing teams to display these digital assets. 

Pros and Cons of Traditional CMS Solutions 

Most of the time, traditional CMS platforms offer a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Interface that displays what the experience would look like before the team publishes it. Traditional CMS platforms also provide enhanced security and the ability to manage users.

However, traditional CMS platforms usually lock in their users to the front-end system that the platform offers. Because of that, there’s not a ton of customization marketing teams can use with these platforms and teams are reliant on the platform's front-end capabilities and features to present their content to their audience. 

Decoupled CMS

The definition of decoupled means separated or disassociated. So that’s exactly what a decoupled CMS is. A decoupled content management system is a platform that has a separate backend from front-end functionality. It basically gives the organization a way to store the content and usually does not provide a way for teams to present their content. 

Pros and Cons of Decoupled CMS

Because a decoupled CMS’s backend usually does not provide a way to present the content, it provides more flexibility for business teams to use the front-end platform of their choosing. By removing the backend from the front end, it provides teams more customization and an overall better user experience because business teams are not locked into one way of doing things. On the other hand, some business teams may not like this option as it could lead to higher development costs if they choose to utilize an expensive front-end system. 

A decoupled CMS does not come without some considerations for teams to take into account. There could be limited customization and functionality from a developer standpoint. And depending on the CMS you go with, there could be a learning curve and maintenance costs associated with this option. 

Headless CMS  

A headless CMS works like a decoupled CMS in that the backend is separated from the front-end system. A headless CMS does not have a front-end to present the content of a brand. If a brand were to use a headless CMS, it would need some sort of digital experience platform (DXP), website builder, or custom development to deliver an experience to its audience. 

Organizations that use a headless CMS partner with an agency or an in-house development team to build out the front-end digital experience. These organizations can also turn to a more cost-effective solution to build their front-end digital experience such as a DXP. 

So what’s the difference between a headless CMS and a decoupled CMS?  It’s true that a decoupled CMS and a headless CMS appear to be exactly the same  - the difference comes in technicality. A headless CMS comes without an option to present the content in a front-end experience. A decoupled CMS usually does not have the option to provide a front-end experience, but not always - sometimes it can be optional.  Some examples of a headless CMS are Contentstack and Contentful. 

Pros and Cons of Headless CMS Platforms

Headless CMS are most known for their flexibility. Because these platforms do not lock down teams to using a specific front-end system to display their content, business teams have the option to seek out their preferred method of creating digital experiences using their content enhancing the overall experience for users.

There are usually lower costs associated with headless CMS solutions because there isn’t a front-end system tied to the platform. One thing for brands to consider when using a headless CMS system is the ability to integrate to a digital experience platform if the business does not want to pay for an agency or utilize an in-house development team to build out the front-end digital experience. 

Other Types of CMS Platforms 

Aside from the content management system examples we’ve already mentioned, you may have heard of some other solutions, including Adobe Experience Manager and Sitecore. These are both cloud-based CMS solutions that offer both a backend functionality and a front-end solution for organizations to display their systems and enable their users to access content from anywhere. 

Despite having both a backend and a front end, these two CMS platforms limit users to using only their systems, meaning marketers do not have an option in the software they use to present the content visually to customers. 

Using a CMS with Lumavate

The best content management system available on the market is Lumavate. Lumavate’s CMS enables marketing teams to create, edit, publish, and manage all of a company’s digital assets. Lumavate is considered a non-open source CMS and therefore provides organizations with peace of mind that their digital assets will be secured and allows teams the flexibility for organizing their content. 

Here’s a few things your team can store in Lumavate’s CMS:

• Audio
• Documents
• Forms
• Icons
• Quizzes
• Text
• Video

What makes Lumavate different from the other list of CMS platforms is our belief that tech should work together. That means when using Lumavate’s CMS, you have options. You can use Lumavate’s CMS or you can connect to your existing CMS. Or do a combination of both. 

Want to see how Lumavate’s CMS works first-hand? Schedule a live demo to see how our CMS can work for your brand. Or take an on-demand tour to see why Lumavate is the best CMS for your organization.