Searching for a CMS: A Guide to Pick the Right Platform for Any Project

By Sudipto Ghosh On Jul 13, 2018

Searching for a CMS: A Helping Guide to Pick the Right Platform for Any Project

In Part One of How to Work with a Content Management System (CMS), We Picked Key Points Any Online Business Should Start With

Websites are like gardens and lawns – you always miss out on something that your neighbor (in this case your competitors) have. Or you wish, you could add more – but run out of place to showcase them. Creating a website takes a lot of hard work, immaculate precision, foresight, and of course, oodles of creativity. However, science is a ready reckoner and a helpful assist to get things right, and in time. If you have been in an online marketing for some time, you can’t deny the power of owning and managing a website that’s clean, easy to navigate and to manage.

In the end, it all trickles down to one thing- audience conversion. That’s why familiarity with a Content Management System is the quintessential requirement for a marketer to sail through the choppy waters of audience conversions and website navigation. A CMS, undoubtedly, is a powerful assist, and a commendable guide for any marketing team owning a website.

If you don’t have the budget to build a CMS on your own, there’s still nothing that can stop you from running an online business. There are hundreds of CMS platforms available in the market, and the top ones regularly feature at MarTech Series.

Here’s is what you need to look at before zeroing in on the right CMS for your business, or a project.

Key 1: Your Needs, KPI, and Objectives

Not all businesses have the same needs, yet they all have to undergo the same process of choosing a CMS, or for that matter any marketing technology. Most organization fail to look beyond the organization’s immediate goals – starting a new website.

Your stepping stone to succeeding with a CMS should be summarizing all your needs, KPIs and objectives in a bucket-list. Technical considerations and feature personalization are part of this bucket-list.

Key 2: Identify your CMS Stakeholders

Identify your key stakeholders. In most cases, it would be the marketing voice that finds the most attention. Sales, technical and operations teams should also be part of this discussion on picking the right CMS. Picking CMS that works well for sales and marketing delivers a delectable proposition to all lines of business.

Key 3: Technical Considerations

The best thing about CMS platforms—they can’t survive in silos and vacuum. They need ample nourishment from sustainable collaboration and regular updates from the various marketing technologies in the stack. These include – business intelligence, data management, CRM, Customer experience, digital asset management platforms, marketing analytics, and legal compliance.

Technical considerations would also involve providing authority to the web management team that could include content marketing, social media, editorial, and sales enablement teams.

Key 4: The Power-Play between Must, Should, and Could Haves

Must Haves:

These are a set of features that your CMS needs to deliver on all marketing and sales goals. These are:

WYSIWYG Editor
Dynamic Image Gallery
Spell-Checkers and SEO
Online Forms
Events Calendar
Tag and Category Management for Taxonomy
Archiving and Version Management
Add-On URLs for Workflow Management
Multi-site Management/Multi-Lingual Content
Mobile Web Optimization and Product Versioning
Links to Downloadable Resources, like Ebooks and Whitepapers

Should Haves:

CRM and Social Media integration
Sharepoint Integrations
Blogs and Forum Management
User-Generated Content
Predictive Search
Video Playback

Could Haves:

Cloud Support
Content Staging
API Access
Typo Management
Language Filter

Any CMS should answer every question that you throw at it. It should essentially allow the stakeholders to check, audit and make an amendment to the templates to ensure that their website content stands out from the rest. It could be highlighting an interview, or a guest blog, or your top news articles.

Recommended Read: Relay Network Launches CX Builder

The CMS should allow enough freedom to work within agreeable boundaries of authority, in accordance with the organization’s needs and requirements. Personalized online content attracts an audience and turns visitors into loyal customers who consume content and flip through pages more often. Delight them by picking a CMS with the right steps!