How to choose the right CMS

Transforming into a digital-first, user-friendly business is becoming an imperative to stay competitive. That’s why it’s critical for your organization to master content management and optimization with CMS software that lets you adapt to changing technology, stay agile, and deliver amazing customer experiences — both today and tomorrow.

Here are five critical factors to consider when choosing a content management system (CMS).

Customers are demanding personalized experiences

With digital technology, people have grown accustomed to convenience, choice, and immediate, personalized service. Consumers are now demanding more than a product. They want an user experience that shows you know who they are, what their history is with you, and what they might need.

Your CMS needs to be able to consolidate all their interactions with you — whether through your website, mobile apps, contact center, or in person — so you can anticipate their needs and offer them a direct path to getting what they want.

Globalization means you need content for multiple languages and countries

Globalization has made the world a smaller place for consumers, who can now easily get anything from virtually anywhere on the planet. But for businesses, marketing to international audiences brings its own set of challenges, like managing localized content in multiple languages.

A robust CMS will make a drastic difference in your ability to streamline workflows with translators and easily offer multilingual content in a tone that speaks to your customers.

Technology is constantly changing and becoming more complex

Advances in automation, personalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are fundamentally reshaping the marketing ecosystem. At the same time, people are incorporating more technology into their everyday lives, with voice assistants, wearables, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

With technology developing at a dizzying pace, you’ll want to look for a CMS that’s flexible enough to adapt right along with it. This way, you’ll be able to capture, analyze, and gain insights from the nearly boundless amount of data they produce, and use that information to improve your content creation frameworks as well as optimize content delivery on webpages and in your omnichannel strategy.

Understanding data is key to connecting with customers

Every marketer today finds themselves with a huge amount of data at hand. Deciphering what that data is telling you, and using it to refine your digital content and marketing strategy, are key factors to successful campaigns.

A CMS with powerful analytics features will help you not only manage your data, but also make sense of it. You’ll be able to easily understand how your audience engages with your content, what’s motivating them, what their customer journey looks like, and most importantly, how to deliver the right message to them at the right time.

Matching content with context is now essential for e-commerce

Gone are the days of static websites and impersonal online purchase experiences. Great content experiences have become inextricably linked with the various ways companies sell and consumers buy products and services.

Your CMS needs to be able to account for how people are consuming content at each step of their customer journey throughout your whole ecommerce platform, so you can deliver the right offers to them in the right context, right up to and through the transaction.

As a marketer, you know your organization needs a great CMS. But with myriad providers, niche offerings, a growing number of internal stakeholders, and a rapidly changing digital environment, the process of choosing a CMS can seem like a daunting task.

That’s why it’s important to approach your decision-making in a deliberate and structured way. We’ve put together a sample approach to help guide your thinking as you evaluate popular CMS platforms. 

1. Get internal support and input

Any new CMS is a major investment that affects multiple parts of your organization, so you’ll need to make sure to get input and buy-in from key stakeholders. Assemble a diverse CMS selection committee and be prepared to hear different and often contrasting perspectives. Marketing will be eager to kick-start content production, while IT will want to conduct methodical risk mitigation.

Get the backing of as many senior leaders possible to push the project through. Make sure they understand why a new CMS is crucial to the company's long-term success.

2. Evaluate your current and future business needs

As a group, establish how you will use your new CMS. Think about the specific needs of your business, including what security features you’ll need and how web content currently flows through your organization. Some useful questions:

• Will you be trying to drive significant growth in website traffic?
• Will your existing technology dependencies persist, or will they evolve with a new CMS?
• How many channels will you want your content on, and in how many languages?
• Will the CMS work with your company’s existing tech stack?
• What features might you need in the future?
• Will the CMS still be relevant for at least the next five years?

Your answers to these questions will help you draw up a list of requirements and establish what functionalities you'll need, which you can then use to compare specific solutions.

3. Find an implementation partner

If your company doesn't have a large in-house development team, you'll want to hire an implementation partner or digital experience agency. They will help you choose a CMS and make sure it fits within a larger digital strategy; they can also help you evaluate cloud-based options vs on-prem and navigate customization options. An implementation partner will have a wealth of knowledge about what integrations, add-ons, and plug-ins you might need to help you get the most out of your new product. Many partners continue to provide support after the initial implementation.

4. Put together a shortlist and do your homework

With your requirements list in hand, research potential solutions and ask your implementation partner for guidance. Analyst reports like Gartner's Magic Quadrant or the Forrester Wave™ are a great place to start evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of leading CMS solutions. Consider things like pricing, scalability, ease of use for both front-end and backend users, and the technical expertise it will take to get the tool up and running. Consider the compatibility that each CMS option has with your existing technology stack, whether the tool has social media integration, search engine optimization (SEO) support, and whether it features direct or WYSIWYG editing permissions. Consider what the learning curve for new features might be within your content marketing teams and other non-technical users.

5. Write a request for proposal

It’s not always easy to understand all the features of a CMS or how it will work in the context of your company. That’s where a request for proposal (RFP) comes in. A RFP is an opportunity for prospective vendors to demonstrate they understand your needs and objectives, and that they have the experience to deliver.

Frame your requirements in a way that encourages the vendor to explain why they’re right for you, and how they’ll help you meet your objectives. For instance, group a few related requirements into a use-case narrative that describes a particular challenge you need to address, and ask the vendor how they’d respond.

6. Evaluate vendor responses

Before you make your final decision, take a critical look at your top vendors and rate how they meet all the technical, functional, and business requirements for your CMS. Consider how much support and training each vendor offers for beginners, whether there's a user-friendly interface, and whether there's a vibrant web developer community to ensure the solution will be practical and flexible for your needs.

Get demos from the vendors on your shortlist and be prepared to ask them tough questions to prove what each solution is capable of. Find out how the CMS integrates with other tools and systems and whether it's scalable. Make sure the solution will grow with your organization and remain relevant.

A final word of advice

This piece of advice is simple, but worth stating at every opportunity - this process is going to take time. Think months, not weeks. Take your time and be careful about your decision. Whether you choose a headless CMS, open-source CMS, or a traditional CMS, getting the right CMS will pay off immensely in the end.