You are probably asking, "what does CMS stand for and why you need one?" Well, CMS stands for Content Management System and it's extremely important for your marketing strategy. Technically speaking, a CMS or Content Management System is a software application or set of related programs that are used to create and manage digital content. For the purposes of this article we will be focusing on managing website content.
An easy analogy would be to say that your website is the body of your marketing and the CMS is the heart of your website. Sounds pretty important right? Well it is, especially if you want to maximize the ROI of your website investment over time. For most companies their website is their #1 marketing asset.
A CMS is the software platform that houses the content of your website from the text to images. A CMS enables you to edit just about anything that doesn’t require coding on your site. Multiple administrators and content managers in your company or marketing agency can have access to your CMS allowing for easy editing and collaboration on updates.
Why use a CMS?
You won't have to rely on developers as much
Unless you’re a master of code you will need a web developer to do the complicated work of actually designing your website how you want in the CMS, but once that is completed they’ll be able to hand you over the keys and the ability to drive your site as you like. Even if you work with an agency, a CMS driven site will save considerable time on thier end and make it easier for them to focus on activities that move you towards acheiving your marketing goals. Having to call a developer everytime you want to change a few words on your site can add up quickly. With a well organized CMS driven website, even the most non technical person can go in and edit information, for example a price or delete a page altogether.
Your website will be way easier to update
A quality CMS will roll out updates regularly keeping you current with the latest enhancements and security updates. Depending on the CMS you’ll be able to easily integrate unique features that users are expecting to see on a site.
Your content will stay fresher and rank higher
It’s no secret that in order for a business to stay alive these days they need to have a website that ranks well on search engines but many people fail to recognize how to do that. The answer is regularly producing new content and with a CMS you’ll easily be able to do just that. Anyone from your company can go in and add new content such as blog posts (assuming you have a content strategy in place).
Not using a CMS can be frustrating, time consuming and costly. You can always outsource that part of your business to a third party developer if you have a website budget, however, going without a CMS will be damaging to your company in the long haul as digital marketing is quickly becoming the best way to attract new business.
How to choose the right CMS?
With so many CMS options available, you are probably better off talking to an experienced web design and development agency partner that can help you get started. Choosing a digital marketing agency partner to build you a high quality CMS powered website is the first step in streamlining your content management workflow and taking your website to the next level.
