Marketers are dealing with more content than ever before. There are so many channels that customers can discover a brand on and interact with. From the rise of social media to the opportunity to drive sales through content marketing strategies, marketing departments, particularly in small businesses, are finding it hard to create and manage the colossal amount of content needed to stand out online with a content management systems.
Businesses are already looking to content management systems (CMS) in order to help them solve this. We actually found in our 2016 State of Marketing Technology report that a CMS is the most commonly used piece of marketing software, with 83 per cent of businesses now using one.
However, many could be missing out on the true value these platforms can offer if they don’t think critically about the function of CMS in relation to the wider business. Our research also revealed that over half of marketers struggle to confidently use marketing technologies beyond the initial investment (53 per cent).
A CMS can be used to build customer loyalty, weave compelling brand presence and attract return business as well as simply creating, sharing and managing digital content.
Here are three ways to achieve additional impact from a CMS.
Integrate to streamline the customer experience
The internet has created an era of choice where the customer is more powerful than ever before. Customers are just a click away from finding a product from an alternative brand and this mind-set needs to be applied to a CMS too.
Customers want an integrated, seamless experience when they browse a brand’s website, so if they don’t get that, they will look elsewhere for a better service.
To ensure a seamless customer journey, businesses need to ensure that the CMS runs smoothly alongside other platforms, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and other digital tools.
If all tools are integrated across the organisation, marketers can engage customers in real-time, and nurture web visitors into loyal customers.
By integrating the CMS, marketers are also able to gather insights that can be used to guide the customer on the journey to convert. For example, they can see how similar customers have behaved. With these insights about customer behaviour, the marketing department becomes a highly-valued hub for insights that can be utilised across the business.
Use customer insights to create better content
If a company can understand what content is resonating the most, they can then focus on what works best and tweak the dials of their content plan accordingly. A key benefit of a CMS is that it can be used to build content that is relevant and timely for the audience.
The content being read might also indicate the biggest challenges customers are facing or opportunities that can inform how customers are approach or sold to. Being able to use these insights means the customer is at the centre of the CMS strategy and marketing is carried out strategically.
Succeed in multichannel
The multichannel landscape is still a challenge, in fact our report discovered that over half of marketers (51 per cent) have difficulty reacting to new channels or devices. However, the reality is, this is how customers are behaving and companies need to be able to respond to meet customers’ expectations.
Customers want to be able to contact brands across numerous channels and have the same experience on all of those devices. To achieve this cross-device experience channel integration must be an important part of a content management systems strategy.
Overall, a CMS provides huge opportunities for marketers beyond managing their content. They can identify new opportunities as well as improve existing customer relationships with personalised and targeted content delivered in a seamless manner.
By using the tools around them and pushing them beyond initial investment, marketers will identify insights that will make a powerful impact on the wider business. In turn this will establish the marketing team and martech’s role as a driver of growth and ROI.
Written by Stephen Morgan, co-Founder of digital transformation business, Squiz.
Further reading on content management systems
