Chances are if you own a business, you’ll have an online presence. In the present climate, where the Internet has the potential to open up your store front to a much larger customer base, you can’t afford not to. Managing this online presence is one of the most important aspects of your marketing strategy. So where exactly does choosing a CMS feature?
A CMS, or Content Management System, to give it its full title, not only helps you to publish your online content, it also helps you to effectively manage it. You can see why selecting the right CMS for you is so important to helping ensure the success of your marketing.
Who needs to use a CMS?
Gone are the days of Dreamweaver, and hand-coding; CMS allows you as a business to produce and manage your content in a timely and effective manner. Globally, there are a multitude of web based services, ecommerce sites and even coupon/voucher sites that are run using CMS, with WordPress being the most popular choice for many.
A site such as VoucherBin, which provides online voucher codes for UK users, utilizes WordPress in conjunction with other technologies. Indeed, even many large companies, such as Ford, use WordPress as an integral part of their web publishing. You can see that the answer to who needs to use a CMS, is everyone.
Which CMS is right for you?
There’s no doubt about it, WordPress is the most widely used CMS globally, with just under 50% of the market share.
This can be deceiving though, as WordPress lends itself perfectly to blogs and smaller niche sites, of which there is a proliferation across the Internet. That isn’t to say it can’t be used by larger companies for their web content, especially with the wide variety of add-ons and plug-ins that are available, but it can have its limitations, especially when users adjust coding to meet their requirements, only to find this causes problems down the line.
One of the main benefits of WordPress, and other CMS such as Drupal and Joomla, is that it’s open source which not only makes it affordable for even start-ups, but also gives users access to a huge global forum of other users for advice and information.
For larger organisations, there may be a need for more wide ranging CMS solutions to cope with the volume of content, scalability and functionality. The solution may be to utilize more than one CMS, depending on what type of content you want to manage; integration is such a straightforward process that using more than one shouldn’t present a problem.
It’s not just about publishing
One of the most important things to remember when choosing a CMS is that it isn’t just about publishing. You need to invest in a solution that enables to fully manage all aspects of your content, and produce the online presence you need in order to engage customers. You also need analytical tools that enable you to measure the performance of your content on an ongoing basis.
Before you make a decision, decide on your requirements and the level of functionality you require, that way you will not be tempted to over or under buy, and you will end up with a CMS that fully meets your needs.
