In the past, building your website and adding content to it would require experience and a lot of technical sophistication. But thankfully, content management systems (CMS) provide your website with a plethora of benefits that can make your life easier. With benefits like easy maintenance, cost efficiency, and SEO-friendly features, even those who are inexperienced in technology can maintain their website. In this article, you will learn what a CMS is and how it may or may not be the right option for your business.

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of things, you must first understand what a content management system is. A content management system, or CMS for short, is software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without needing specialized technical knowledge. To give you an idea of how a CMS works, let’s go through a tour of WordPress, one of the largest CMS in the industry. Without a CMS, adding elements to your website would require HTML, CSS, and JavaScript knowledge. However, with a CMS like WordPress, you can write your content in an interface that is as simple and easy to use as Microsoft Word. You can upload and manage media without directly interacting with your web server.

A CMS can be broken up into two components- a content management application (CMA), and a content delivery application (CDA). A CMA is a graphical user interface that enables users to design, create, modify, and remove content from a website without HTML knowledge. A CDA provides the backend services that support the management and delivery of the content once a user creates it in the CMA. In short, a CMA is the front end and the CDA is the back end.

Now that we know exactly what a CMS is, how can it help you in your business? You now know you need no coding experience to keep your website up and running. Having a website allows small businesses to remain competitive in an easy-to-use and cost-effective way. CMSs enable your business to streamline the digital content and authoring process. You can customize the website the exact way that you want and ensure consistency in the entirety of your site. Furthermore, CMSs can also be integrated into other business applications, such as asset management and customer relationship systems. You can also optimize your website and content to be responsive (mobile-friendly) and perform well on search engines (SEO).

It’s crystal clear now that using a CMS is essential for business growth online. Most successful businesses use a CMS for marketing their content and products because it has many advantages & features that optimize the process of creating, updating, and managing content seamlessly. In turn, it leads to strong visibility online while improving lead generation & sales. In case you’re still not convinced by the importance of a content management system for marketing and growing your business, here are a few extra reasons on how it can help you grow your business.

A successful enterprise can be analogous to a well-oiled machine – it cannot run without solid teamwork and collaboration. That is why having an enterprise CMS can be essential to manage

and operate with your team efficiently. For example, you are working with a large team on an eCommerce website, and editors, administrators, and content creators can easily organize and manage each separately. The right CMS provides an organizational and interactive environment wherein you can easily manage and collaborate with your team in one place. You can monitor your team’s performance and suggest improvements if necessary. Moreover, you will collect analytic data about your business site’s overall status online, giving you critical insight into what’s working and what needs to be changed. This will enhance your team’s marketing & production efforts and amplify your business growth.

There are effectively two types of CMS for your business to consider – open-source or proprietary platforms. Open-source platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are the most popular type of CMS, as they are easy to use and can be customized based on your business requirements. These platforms are consistently updated and improved by professionals and are free to download and use. The affordability of open-source CMSs makes them an attractive option for small businesses. However, security and the risk of hacking remain a concern for these types of content management systems.

Proprietary CMS platforms are developed and updated by one company, and these CMSs are tailored to meet the individual needs of a business. However, proprietary CMSs come with a licensing fee and are a costlier type of CMS for a company to run. If you want to improve your business’s online presence without investing heavily in website management, getting to grips with a CMS could be the perfect tool for helping your company optimize its digital presence.