To transform good content into exceptional, teams can benefit from a platform with features that streamline content management and help elevate the final results. Let’s explore some of the key features worth considering when choosing the right CMS for your organization.
Published on Oct 10, 2024
Modern content management requires a content management system (CMS) with robust and flexible features to truly stand out. A CMS is software that helps teams create, manage, and deliver content to websites or other platforms. But what exactly should you look for in a CMS to elevate your content from good to exceptional?
Understanding the essential CMS features is key as the right features can significantly help teams streamline content creation, management, and delivery. In this blog post, we’ll dive into some of the CMS capabilities organizations might want to consider to transform their content management into a powerful tool for creating exceptional content.
Having a user-friendly content editor that aligns with your team’s requirements is crucial, as it impacts productivity and content quality. Depending on content needs, a user-friendly content editor can mean different things to different organizations.
Many systems feature WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors and drag-and-drop interfaces, making content creation accessible for users of all skill levels. While these tools are great for teams needing quick, intuitive editing, they may not suit organizations with strict brand guidelines or more advanced content needs, which might prefer a rich-text editor.
Let’s now explore the different types of editors in more detail.
WYSIWYG editors
A WYSIWYG editor lets users make real-time changes to the published end product—hence the term “What You See Is What You Get.” For example, Microsoft Word is a WYSIWYG text editor, meaning the final print matches what is seen on the screen. These editors typically include drag-and-drop interfaces, enabling users to add, remove, or alter design elements effortlessly without having extensive web developer knowledge.
These editors offer tight control over visuals of content, such as text color or image display width. While this might be useful for teams who need quick editing, there is the possibility of creating visually inconsistent content that may violate your organization’s visual style guide. In addition, reusing content from WYSIWYG editors across multiple channels is typically very difficult.
Rich text editors
For organizations following strict brand guidelines, and aiming to reuse their content across different channels, WYSIWYG might not be the best option. This is where the rich text editor comes in.
A rich text editor allows users to create and format text, but unlike WYSIWYG editors, it provides more control over the structure of the content. Users can format text with headings, paragraphs, lists, and links, and insert images, media, or other elements, all while maintaining a clear separation between content and design.
When structured like this, the content is future-proofed and can be easily reused. This kind of editor gives content teams enough freedom in creation while providing them with boundaries to avoid producing any off-brand content.
Efficient content workflow and collaboration tools are essential for streamlining content creation and publication. Collaboration tools, such as tasks, comments and suggestions, help simplify communication and feedback, speeding up the content creation and ensuring team members can assist each other as needed.
Key features like version control, content scheduling, and approval processes help manage the content lifecycle effectively.
Version control lets team members access older versions of content, track changes, and compare performance, helping to refine content continuously. Content scheduling allows teams to plan and publish content at specific times, which helps maintain a consistent flow of fresh content and keeps your audience engaged. Approval processes ensure that all content is reviewed and approved before publication, eliminating errors and rogue posts.
Imagine visiting a website that seems to know exactly what you’re interested in—whether it’s recommending products based on your past purchases, showing content that aligns with your browsing history, or even adjusting the interface to suit your preferences. A modern CMS can do wonders by tailoring content to user behavior and preferences, creating a more personalized and engaging experience.
Let’s explore a few personalization features that can make your website feel like it was tailor-made for each visitor:
For example, thanks to Recombee’s AI content recommendations, Audiomack delivers a personalized streaming experience to its 20 million monthly active users and 5 million daily active users. This tailored approach not only enhances user satisfaction but also significantly boosts the number of monthly follows and plays.
If you want to connect with audiences around the world, it takes more than just translating your website—you need to make sure the content feels right for each region. A CMS with strong multilingual and localization features helps you do this by ensuring your content speaks the language and matches the cultural preferences of different areas. This is key for businesses that want to expand their reach and engage with a diverse audience.
Localization means more than just changing the words and translating text. An advanced CMS with localization tools can adapt various elements to fit the cultural and regional preferences of different markets. This includes adjusting currencies, time formats, images, or the tone of voice to make sure the content is relevant and appropriate for each specific audience.
For example, a friendly, informal tone might resonate well with audiences in some countries, while a more formal and professional tone could be preferred in others. By making these adjustments, your organization’s content will feel relevant and appropriate no matter where your audience is.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital for every brand’s website’s visibility so it ranks higher in the search engine results. Many CMS platforms come with built-in SEO tools that simplify the optimization process, offering features such as:
In addition to built-in SEO features, organizations with a strong focus on search engine performance, such as digital marketing teams or content-heavy businesses, may benefit from integrating their CMS with third-party SEO tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz.
These tools can enhance the capabilities of your built-in features by offering advanced analytics, keyword tracking, and performance insights. By combining the foundational features of your CMS with the advanced functionalities of third-party SEO tools, you can boost your website’s visibility, ensuring you reach and engage a broader audience.
Multiplatform support is crucial in today’s multi-device era. Modern CMS platforms provide responsive design and cross-platform compatibility, ensuring your website looks and functions well on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. This is critical for reaching a broader audience and delivering a seamless user experience across various devices.
Today’s audiences are browsing on smartphones during their commute, checking emails on tablets, and streaming videos on smart TVs. Multiplatform support ensures your content looks and works seamlessly across all these different screens, making it easy for users to engage with your brand no matter how they access it. By ensuring your site is responsive and performs well across devices, your content is always ready to make a great impression.
Headless CMSs allow for better multiplatform support by separating the content from how it’s displayed, enabling you to send content to any device or channel using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which allow different software applications to communicate with each other. This means that teams can create content once and easily share it across multiple platforms, making sure it looks great and functions well everywhere.
As your business grows, your CMS needs to scale accordingly, managing increased traffic and content volume without compromising performance. To achieve this, organizations should look for a CMS with a set of capabilities designed for scalability. These might include:
Choosing a CMS that scales alongside your business will keep your digital operations smooth and efficient as you grow, making sure your organization can handle increased traffic and large volumes of content with ease.
CMS platforms need strong security measures in place to protect sensitive data from common cyber threats, such as phishing, malware, and data breaches. Important security elements to look for might include a Single Sign-On (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), customizable roles and permissions, and data encryption.
SSO allows users to access multiple applications with a single set of sign-in credentials. This simplifies the sign-in process and reduces the need to remember multiple passwords, which is especially important in organizations where users need to access a wide range of tools on a daily basis.
MFA adds an extra layer of protection by requiring more than one piece of information to verify user identity during sign-in. In addition to a password, users might need to provide a one-time code or authenticate through a mobile device, ensuring that even if a password is compromised, unauthorized access is much harder to achieve.
Customizable roles and permissions let you control who can access what within your CMS. You can define different roles for team members, like editors or admins, and specify what actions each role can perform. This granular control helps ensure that only authorized users can make critical changes or access sensitive information.
Using SSL certificates and HTTPS encryption is also essential for keeping your online interactions secure. SSL certificates encrypt data, making it hard for unauthorized people to access information sent between a user’s browser and your server. HTTPS works with SSL to protect sensitive data like sign-in details and personal information, ensuring it remains private and secure.
Choosing the right CMS is a strategic decision that can significantly impact organizations’ digital presence. For this reason, it’s important to look at how different CMS features and capabilities, like collaborative tools or user-friendly editors, match the specific goals and audience needs of your business. The right capabilities can make content management easier, helping teams work together smoothly and create better content.
Modern headless CMSs, like Kontent.ai, offer an array of features to support the flexibility, security, and scalability that innovative organizations need. To see how Kontent.ai can help your content go from good to great, schedule a demo today.
