Deep in the sea of acronyms in the marketing world, there’s an overwhelming amount to keep straight. SEO, CRM, SERP, CTR, and CToR are all important acronyms that can roll off of the tongue for most of us.
What about CMS?
Whether you’re new to marketing or have been in the industry for years, this acronym may be completely new to you. It also may be the answer you’re looking for if you need a professional website, fast, with limited technical resources.
A CMS can help you build exciting, delightful content, resulting in more conversions and lead generation. If you’ve never heard of it, or have always seen the term thrown around and never knew exactly what it meant, this post is for you.
What is a CMS?
A content management system, also known as a CMS, is a type of software that allows users to create and manage a webpage without technical training. Instead of coding a website, a user would pick features of a website via modules on a CMS.
Rather than opening up HTML or JavaScript, CMS software does that for you, so you’re able to pick and choose how your content will look once it’s live on a webpage. Additionally, to save you the task of building systems that create pages and CTA buttons, a CMS can take care of those things for you.
Having a CMS helps marketers who need to operate a fully-functioning website, but lack coding experience. A CMS can be used to create web pages, such as an “About” page or a blog, so focusing on customer-specific content is easier (and less stressful).
Why do you need a CMS?
If any of these scenarios are pain points at work, it may be time to look into how a CMS can help you streamline processes and organize content.
Limited Resources
If you’re working with limited technical resources, it might be imperative to save you time and the gripe of wondering if your website is professional enough. For example, maybe you don’t have the software needed to code a webpage or don’t have a developer.
Because CMS software is so expansive and comprehensible, it’s a simple process to add, update, or remove content from a website. You won’t have to spend extra time figuring that out.
SEO Plugins
Additionally, with a CMS, you can optimize web pages for search engines, which is extremely helpful in getting your contact to rank highly on Google. That way, potential leads can find you, and you’ll have an amazing-looking website when they do.
Lack of Coding Knowledge
You may find yourself in a position where you need a new landing page or something similar, but you don’t have enough time to build one from scratch. With a CMS, that process can be straightforward.
Allows for Collaboration
Multiple members can have access to CMS software. Every team member would individually use their account to work collaboratively on team projects, like editing a landing page. They also have the capability to save templates of webpages, as well.
Ultimately, a CMS consolidates processes that may be impossible to a marketer.
Best CMS Platforms
HubSpot offers a CMS that’s for businesses at any stage. If you’re thinking of piloting a CMS, find out more about HubSpot’s trial here. There are alternative CMS options like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, as well — take a look at WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal: Which Is the Right CMS Platform for Your Site? To investigate alternative options to HubSpot.
HubSpot
HubSpot’s CMS allows you to build websites that are powerful, optimized for search engines, and secure. You can manage all of your marketing and content in one place, which allows for easy collaboration.
The tools in HubSpot’s CMS lets you personalize every visitor experience. Personalized content improves the experience of the user, having felt targeted.
WordPress
With WordPress, you’ll have more than a blogging website. With the plugins and widgets you can add to a WordPress site, you can create a unique experience specific to your brand.
These plugins and widgets can add sidebars, calls-to-action, unique forms, and more. The easy-to-use tools in WordPress is that you can be as minimal with the design or as flexible as you want.
Joomla
Joomla is similar to WordPress in that it offers many plugins and widgets to expand your website. Both platforms are also free and come with webpage templates.
While other CMS platforms adopt an expansive all-in-one experience with content management, Joomla focuses on building and designing websites. It’s a good platform to use for straightforward website management.
Drupal
Drupal’s homepage has CMS information split into sections for developers, marketers, and agencies. As an open-source platform, Drupal is another website that allows for a lot of customization opportunity.
Drupal is different because the platform is more on the technical side. It would mostly benefit the marketer with more than a working knowledge of code who doesn’t have the time to learn the extra skills needed to build an entire website.
It can be a huge pain to get a proper website up and running — that’s why more SMBs are finding that having a CMS has helped them exponentially.
If you’re in a spot that sounds similar, give a CMS a try and see if it works for you.
