B2B Marketing 2.0: Harnessing the Power of Next-Gen CMS Solutions! (1/2)

A major part of any B2B marketer's workflow is managing the designs, assets, and text used for promoting products or services on the website. Typically, B2B marketers are focused on developing content, sales materials, social posts, creatives and related assets that get published on the website. How these assets are published on the website is something that sits with a developer team that is responsible for managing the website. This team could be in-house or is part of an external agency hired for the purpose.

As technology is evolving, it is taking more space in B2B marketers' workflows and day-to-day conversations. Most marketers don't find it important to know how the content and other assets are published on the website. However, there are push factors like user journeys getting fragmented, emphasis on personalization, and generative AI is demanding websites to focus more on user intent. Then there are pull factors of emerging tech like generative AI, AR/VR/XR, and progressive web apps. There is an overlap in these pull and push factors, but it's important to get some basic understanding of how it works, and the context of what's emerging in this space. There is a lot to cover here, so I will be covering all in this two episodes. Let's dive into the push and pull factors that are driving marketers to upgrade their existing CMS.

Getting a grip of different types of CMS

Okay, imagine you want to build a cool website, but you're not a computer genius. That's where a CMS comes in. CMS stands for Content Management System. It's like having a special tool that helps you create and manage your website without needing to know how to write a bunch of complicated computer code.

With a CMS, you can design your website, add pictures, write text, and even publish your work online. You don't have to be a tech whiz to do it either. The CMS takes care of all the behind-the-scenes stuff, like setting up the structure of your site and storing your files.

Basically, a CMS lets you focus on making your website look awesome and work smoothly, without worrying about the technical stuff. And it's not just for websites either – you can use a CMS for things like keeping track of documents or organizing information. It's like having your own personal filing cabinet for all things online!

Traditionally, CMS is like having a super organized toolbox where everything you need to build and run your website is neatly packed together. Now, inside this toolbox, you've got two main parts: the backend and the frontend. The backend is where all the important stuff happens - like storing and organizing the content you want to put on your website. It's like the engine of a car, doing all the heavy lifting behind the scenes. The frontend, on the other hand, is what people see when they visit your website. It's like the body of the car - it's what makes everything look nice and work smoothly for the visitors.

In a traditional CMS, these two parts are tightly connected, meaning they work closely together in one single system. So, when you write or edit something on the backend (like a blog post or a product description), it gets saved in a database, and then magically appears on your website's frontend for everyone to see. The cool thing about this setup is that it's super easy for writers and editors to use. They can create and update content without needing any technical skills or help from developers. It's like having a user-friendly tool that anyone can pick up and use without much fuss.

A decoupled CMS, on the other hand, is a special kind of system where these two parts are separate. So, the part where you create and manage the content is totally separate from the part that people see when they visit the site. It's like having two different programs for two different jobs.

For example, let's say you have a blog. With a regular CMS, like WordPress, the system where you write your blog posts is also the system that displays them on your blog's website. But with a decoupled CMS, you might have one system just for writing and managing your posts, and another system that actually shows them on your blog's site.

So, basically, decoupled CMS keeps the backstage stuff (like editing and managing content) separate from the front stage stuff (like what users see on the website). It's like having two separate teams working on different parts of the same project.

Now, a headless CMS is like separating the frontend and the backend. The "head" is the frontend where everything looks nice, and the "body" is the backend where all the content is stored and managed.

So, a headless CMS is a system that only deals with the backend stuff. It doesn't worry about how things look on the website or app. Instead, it just stores and manages the content. Then, it provides this content through something called an API, which basically lets other parts of the website or app grab the content and display it wherever needed.

Basically, it's a way to keep things organized and flexible so that the content can be shown on any device or platform without needing to mess with the design every time. Cool, right?

Push factors driving need for a new CMS solutions

It's understandable to wonder why knowing all this is important, whether you know about different types of CMS solutions or you're just hearing about it for the first time. There are a few push factors in the digital marketing space that are influencing B2B marketing use cases and challenging the status quo.

Today's audience consumes content on multiple platforms, including websites, mobile apps, social media, and even smart devices. It's hard to deliver content efficiently to these different channels with traditional CMSs. With their API-driven architecture, headless and decoupled CMS make it easy to deliver content across different platforms, ensuring consistent branding and messaging.

It's also becoming more important to personalize experiences. With a headless CMS, you can easily integrate structured content models with CRMs or marketing automation tools. It helps B2B marketers personalize content based on user data and behavior, resulting in higher engagement.

The content B2B marketers create has to be repurposed for different channels. Headless and decoupled CMSs are great for centralizing content creation and management. It's easy to adapt content for different platforms without having to recreate it from scratch.

Marketing needs can change fast. You can design and deliver content more easily with headless and decoupled CMS. As your marketing grows, they'll be able to handle increasing content volumes efficiently.

Likewise, marketing landscapes are always changing. Headless and decoupled CMS, with their open APIs, work seamlessly with marketing tools and emerging technologies like AR and VR. You'll be able to change your marketing stack as trends change.

The separation of content and presentation in headless and decoupled CMS lets B2B marketers experiment with different front-end designs without affecting the core content. It helps optimize marketing campaigns for better results and fosters innovation.

The pull factor of the emerging tech

There are emerging technologies in the digital marketing world that will require the flexibility and scalability of decoupled and headless CMSs. Let's take a look at some of the key emerging trends that will likely require a decoupled or headless approach.

Today, consumers want a seamless brand experience across all platforms (website, app, social media, etc.). Having an omnichannel strategy is becoming more important. A decoupled and headless CMS ensures consistency and personalization across all channels by centralized content management that can be easily distributed to different platforms.

Content delivery based on user behavior and preferences is getting more and more important. With its structured content models and APIs, headless CMS integrates well with personalization engines, letting marketers create tailored content experiences.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are going to be more- prominent in marketing. With a headless CMS, your content can be integrated into AR/VR experiences, making them more immersive and engaging for your audience.

Progressive Web Apps offer website-like experiences with app-like functionality. Using a decoupled and headless CMS, marketers can create engaging and feature-rich PWAs that work across devices seamlessly.

As IoT-based devices like wearables and smart homes become connected to the Internet, marketers will need targeted content to reach them. With Headless CMS APIs, you can integrate with IoT platforms to deliver content.

So there you go. These push and pull factors clearly establish how important it is to have the right CMS for your marketing. When you look at the bigger picture and you'll see that customer behavior, technology, and effective content management & delivery are clearly overlapping. In the end, it's all to make customers' experiences seamless and engaging. In the background, the CMS will determine how well B2B marketers are able to accomplish this.