Tools for Content Management

A content management system (CMS) is a software program that is designed to help users and companies plan, create, post, moderate, assess, and maintain content for an online platform.

There are content management tools for blogs, websites, and social media platforms.

All of these processes are integral to building a successful online presence, which is why content management systems try to roll all of those processes into a single system.

Characteristics of the Best Content Management Software Tools

Here are some of the features marketers should feel good about in a content management software tool.

1. A powerful, flexible editor.

As marketers, we need to be able to do things like quickly produce a landing page for a Facebook campaign, make simple layout changes to a page (like adding a column, or testimonials module), and easily edit content on existing pages (like changing some of the text of your homepage to promote your upcoming annual conference).

A powerful WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor is critical, so if you can, make sure you’re comfortable with making changes within the content management software tool.

2. The ability to test.

It’s important you’re able to understand what’s working, so you can do more of the good stuff. You need to be able to easily run tests on outcomes for different headlines, layouts, and more. It’s especially critical when doing something like a paid campaign, where maximizing results is tied directly to spend.

3. The opportunity for increased collaboration.

Chances are, you have a team of people working on one website.

You may have a developer who works on complex design pieces and integrations, a marketer who runs the day-to-day and manages campaigns, and content creators who write blog posts.

The ability to collaborate within the content management software tool and set permissions makes life a lot easier — and ensures issues don’t arise, like your social manager accidentally overwriting the developers’ code.

4. Accessibility to support.

Oftentimes, your developer can fill this need — but that can get expensive if you’re paying by the hour. It’s maybe not mission critical, but it sure is nice to have a support team you can call for help when you really need it, especially when it’s halting your ability to launch a campaign.

5. Ability to integrate with the rest of your tools.

Last, but probably most importantly, you need your content management software to offer the ability to integrate with the rest of your tech stack. Generally, the best choices here are going to be open platforms or all-in-one solutions.

Ideally, it should at least have the ability to integrate forms with a mailing tool (for lead/ mailing list collection), as well as your CRM or some kind of database so you can personalize content. Additionally, you’ll want to integrate with your CRM so you can customize pages, and add pages quickly and easily.

Now that we’ve explored five critical components of any content management software tool

Top Content Management Tools

There are many content management tools developed over the past decade. Choosing between them can be difficult. However, there are a few that stand out because of their reputation, features, and use cases.

Drupal

Drupal is a free and open-source platform and content management system written in PHP for building dynamic websites .it is easily customizable and enhances the range of functionality and ideas for designers and developers .you can use these tools to create sophisticated yet straightforward social networking pages, blogs, websites, texts, polls, videos and more. Mostly, it is usually among the best due to its reliability, security of online sources, manageability, and availability.

Joomla

It is one of the most widely used open source CMS systems in the world. You don’t need any technical skills to use it as the platform manages all the content for you with just a few clicks. To make it easier, this CMS provides a two-level hierarchy that allows you to use hundreds of content-rich website pages. More so, it powers all various types of Web sites consisting of online magazines, newspapers, corporate intranets, and publications together with e-commerce, and government applications. The system includes features such as language internationalization, new flashes, website searching, blogs, polls, printable versions of pages and page caching to improve performance.

HubSpot

This tool offers features that help marketers to deliver and create effective personalized emails without coding expertise. Also, it has integrated analytics which enables you to analyze the efficacy of your email operations easily. More so, it enables you to get the ability to create still and active lists that update spontaneously based on the modification of the list membership and contact field data. The good thing about this tool is that it delivers a full-funnel marketing solution that enables users to deliver and build enthralling emails that can easily link to the rest of their tools and bids.

WordPress

It is one of the best content management system tools currently, due to its functional system that can easily be custom-made, user-friendly and has an automatic SEO checking plugin. More so, word press is no longer for blogging alone; it is an open source project which means hundreds of people all over the world are working on it. The better thing about this tool is that you can use it without paying a design price or license fee.

Wix

Wix is a website building platform, and works differently than other Content Management Systems (CMS). Wix does have components and applications that function as part of a CMS, but Wix itself is design-driven and, as such, is not a ‘pure’ CMS.It is beginner-friendly and it might be worth considering. It offers a free plan, too. Wix’s drag and drop interface makes it really easy to create pages that look just how you want. You can select any part of your page and start editing it. There are lots of pre-made templates you can choose from in Wix. These are fully responsive, so they look great on mobiles and computers. You can add lots of apps to your site from the Wix App Market. These work like WordPress’s plugins to give your site new features.

Shopify

Shopify is another all-in-one hosted CMS platform. You won’t need to buy hosting, install any software, or manage things like updates and backups.

It has a straightforward drag and drop interface. It supports in-store sales, which is great if you have a physical store as well as an online one.

Managing Content Development Can Be Easy

Content development does not have to be a difficult process. You just need the right software to help you. Each of these options is effective in its own way, but there are plenty more options to choose from if you don’t find what you are looking for in these choices.

The bottom line is, do not be afraid to try a new content management system. You may find that it is exactly what you need for your business to reach a new level of success.