The year is 2005. Mike, a marketing manager, is sitting at a conference table with some of his coworkers listening to a marketing agency talk about the recent website overhaul that has been completed for his company. When the conversation turns to maintaining the website, the agency rep looks to Mike about whether the company will want to implement a content management system (CMS) to help the marketing team keep the web pages updated—at a rather significant cost. Mike shoots a quick glance to Sara, his boss, and she gives a subtle shake of the head. “No thanks, we’ve got it,” he says.
Flash forward to 2015. The impression of content management systems as high-cost add-ons that only help you update web pages (and line the pockets of web design firms) persists. However, the power, flexibility, and ease-of-use of these systems has grown by leaps and bounds. The products of industry leaders, like HubSpot, bear almost no resemblance to the rudimentary content management systems of old. In fact, if you want a website that helps you provide better service to your clients, more actively engage your prospects, and keep your staff interested and informed about company happenings, you definitely need a CMS!
Here are some ways a CMS will make your life easier and your marketing efforts far more productive:
- More Effective Content Marketing — The publishing, managing, and promoting of high-quality content is an area where a modern-day CMS blows the old-school version out of the water. So is the recording, tracking, and analysis of actionable analytics. I’ve blogged before about the truly staggering power of tools like HubSpot, but it’s worth repeating here. And everything they do is scalable—as your company grows, your CMS grows with you.
- Improved Customer Relations — I hesitate to call this “customer support,” because a CMS enables so much more. Yes, your CMS can integrate with your customer service portal, allowing clients to submit a support ticket directly from your website. But, features like gamification and hosted user communities where customers can answer each other’s support questions are even more important.
- Enhanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — Everything from web copy edits, to broken internal link detection [and correction], to automatic sitemap generation falls under this heading. And it all has a powerful impact on your search ranking. These are more like the CMS functions that you remember, only vastly improved.
- Increased Employee Awareness/Involvement — It can be surprising to learn how little the employees of some companies know about exactly what the company does or how it does it! The ability to share real-time information on things like sales wins and company events is one of the many ways a CMS can help your staff get more involved. Another is the option to provide online collaboration space for your teams. You can also have a team of content producers, all using the CMS, and all with their own permissions/restrictions/responsibilties. We actually have one client that has over 80 active content creators on staff.
- Amplified Influencer Marketing — It’s well known that word-of-mouth is some of the most powerful advertising you’ll never buy. The ability a CMS gives you to keep the content on your site current, relevant, and interesting, greatly increases the chances that an industry expert will talk about your products and services in a positive way.
Need someone to guide you through the process of selecting, implementing, and setting up a new CMS? We’re here for you!
