The way content is developed, delivered and digested has radically evolved over the years, and it’s putting more pressure than ever on content teams who are left to navigate a constant state of flux—and now with fewer resources than ever, thanks to ongoing economic uneasiness that’s pushing leaders to save costs wherever possible.
Adding onto this pressure and complexity, the number of moving pieces within a content program is increasingly vast. Just as content experts feel up to speed with a new channel, their customers might have already shifted their time and attention to a different one. Just as they get a hold on delivering personalized content to their customers across various digital touchpoints, they then need to completely readjust the strategy for partners and other stakeholders, who have different needs and expectations.
The intricacies of content programs today can feel like too much for any one team to successfully manage, rarely leaving time for them to learn about innovative content strategies that could propel their business forward. This is why content teams turn to technology for help. Content management systems (CMSs) were developed to help teams better, more easily manage end-to-end content flow. Unfortunately, many organizations are still operating with CMSs that weren’t designed to solve constantly evolving challenges or support scaling content programs—and it’s time that changes.
Mismatched needs and capabilities
It’s important to first acknowledge the content challenges most brands are navigating today and how their current legacy systems aren’t equipped to help address them.
- Slow systems that can’t enable fast movers: Legacy CMSes often encompass multiple, disparate systems that are slow to update, difficult to learn, and are not built with the user experience in mind. Yet, today, content teams need to move fast. They don’t have time to work through internal bottlenecks and clunky workflows with IT teams, as they’re constantly racing against the clock to publish the right content at the right time to keep their customers coming back for more.
- Closed systems that don’t support expanding programs: Legacy CMSes developed as closed systems, which rely on developers to manage all updates, can’t support expanding content programs that are adding new digital channels on a regular basis. In order to optimize content for a new channel with a closed system, content teams need IT teams to step in and ensure all content meets the requirements for each channel, often delaying the publishing process and severely hindering the agility of the team and program.
- Homegrown systems that can’t accommodate new technologies: Legacy CMSes weren’t designed to integrate with and support innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Attempting to retrofit homegrown systems to accommodate new capabilities is time and resource intensive and will likely require a significant hardware investment to see any notable improvement. Content teams, however, are tasked with launching campaigns quickly without sacrificing a quality customer experience; they need to be fast and flexible, and homegrown systems simply aren’t cutting it anymore.
Legacy CMS technology was built during a specific time and place to solve the content problems that organizations were experiencing at that time. But now, between drastically different audience expectations, a wave of new delivery channels and the availability of cutting-edge technologies, content challenges have expanded and transformed—and they’re shining a light on the importance of modern content solutions that can support both current and future content needs.
Solving content challenges step by step
Remember that finding the right CMS is part of the solution, not the solution. It takes the right people, processes and technology to make any program run well, especially an innovative, ahead-of-the-curve content program.
So, how can you begin solving your organization’s content struggles and ensure your teams are set up for success? All too often, brands get distracted by shiny objects and start by finding the technology they think is best for the business. Then, they retrofit their content strategy to conform to the platform’s capabilities. This, however, often leads to a lackluster adoption of the tool, flaws in content workflows and ultimately an underwhelming customer experience.
Instead, you should first prioritize creating a strategy that will help your teams deliver quality content based on who is consuming the content and then select the right technology that will help the team execute. Your attention should remain focused on your target audiences and finding new, creative methods for reaching them with relevant, engaging content. Your technology vendor, on the other hand, should do the heavy lifting from a system architecture standpoint and ensure your chosen solution fits with the organization's tech stack.
It takes the right strategy and the right architecture to support your program and scale it to meet evolving audience needs and expectations. And while it’s inherently challenging to keep pace with evolving trends and changing requirements, you don’t need to go it alone, and you don’t need to solve all challenges all at once. Take it step by step, be meticulous with your objectives and above all else, focus on what matters most for the success of the business.
