User-friendly functionality
Your writers, marketing team and other content creators are not IT professionals or web developers. And they shouldn’t have to be in order to use your CMS. The platform should be intuitive and easy-to-use, whether you are uploading content to one website or multiple sites. Features such as modular content capabilities, flexible content templates and the ability to easily embed different kinds of media make a CMS easy to use.
Robust management for all types of content
Several years ago, every business had to have a written blog to boost their SEO rankings and stay competitive. But in 2022, video rules the online world. Cisco predicted that online video would make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic last year. That’s 15 times more than we saw in 2017.
Clearly, a CMS that helps you easily sort, manage, edit, publish and distribute all kinds of content, not just the written word, is crucial. Your CMS should enable you to upload and optimize videos for streaming on any device, deliver videos along with companion content and create playlists. When it comes to image management, features such as editing, cropping and auto-tagging to sort your products by features and descriptions make it easy to deploy content to your site faster and leverage the benefits of optimized photos in search engine rankings.
Syndication and distribution tools
Multiple apps and platforms exist to help you manage social media, syndication distribution and even cross-platform advertising. But a CMS that brings these capabilities together on one platform and integrates with APIs you already use can make implementing your marketing strategy easier than ever.
Collaboration capabilities
Chances are that every piece of content your company creates is a joint effort. Look for a CMS with all the editing and collaboration features you need for productivity and security, including rich-text editing, field-level locking for simultaneous editing and real-time conversations and updates so a remote team can easily collaborate.
Users should be able to set up their account to receive notifications the way they want, when they want. The CMS should support third-party integrations with communications platforms your company usually relies on, including Slack, email and even text messaging.
Having control over collaboration tools can increase efficiency and streamline workflows. When two people want to work on revisions at the same time, this can happen within the system. But sometimes, you don’t want to jump into a piece of content until your teammate is finished delivering feedback.
Multisite and microsite management
Today’s publishers often have more than one website or brand to promote but want a consistent look and feel across properties—even when different teams are responsible for content on disparate sites. Look for a platform that allows a consistent brand experience, one easy and intuitive user interface and the ability to manage and publish content in multiple languages. Being able to create a familiar user experience for your brand, your teams and for site visitors will increase efficiency, saving valuable time and money.
Powerful workflow capabilities
While multisite and microsite management capabilities help increase efficiency, these won’t be as effective without a solid suite of workflow management tools. You want to be able to customize workflows for each type of content and for multiple sites without assistance from your IT team or a developer. That means having access to edit permissions and notifications and track every change made on any type of content.
Integrate multiple apps easily
Above all else, the best features to look for in a CMS for a mid-sized organization relate to ease-of-use, scalability and flexibility. Platforms change, content evolves and your organization may grow in a way that causes your needs to expand, too.
An API-first content platform lets you choose the best front-end experience for your organization and adapt as your business needs change. Best of all, it can serve as a hub to connect your ecosystem of essential applications across technology, marketing, advertising and other needs. With this flexible framework in place, you can manage updates and integrate with other apps without the support of an in-house or outsourced development team, giving your marketing team and creative staff freedom and flexibility to adapt the CMS to their changing needs.
Most of all, you want a system that doesn’t require your organization to rely on developers or complicated coding to make changes. Functionality, flexibility and the ability to produce, edit, store and distribute multiple types of content should be in the front of your mind when you choose a new CMS.
