When it comes to building a website, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is what content management system (CMS) to build your site on. Web technology has come leaps and bounds since a CMS was used solely for the purpose of managing content. Today, there are a number of different considerations to take into account, starting with the customer experience, progressing to engagement and re-engagement and coming full circle with relationship building that results in increased trust, higher conversion rates, repeat sales, and higher revenues. Therefore, choosing a CMS should also be considered as part of a larger customer-centric strategy. The CMS is at the core of your website, but one important consideration is what other systems it needs to tie into. For example, many enterprise level companies and large businesses use CRM systems such as Salesforce.com or Microsoft CRM to manage leads. Those systems are often tied into marketing automation software such as Marketo or Hubspot, or smaller email automation software such as Exact Target or Constant Contact. One of the first things you should do when choosing a CMS is provide your web developer with the list of proprietary systems, legacy databases and social media accounts that exist. This will help to determine best way to integrate. On the front-end, other CMS considerations include the customer interface, multilingual support and mobile friendliness. Some content management systems are more flexible than other when it comes to design templates and mobile formatting, so consult with an expert and ask them to give you the pros and cons of each system. On the backend, your CMS should help you with more than just updating content. At the least, it should have a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for easy updating by non-technical personnel. It should also have search-friendly URLs and room for SEO Meta data. This is something that is really easy-to-use in systems like WordPress. For a more intuitive site, find out if you are able to get a snapshot of a customer from the insights provided by the CMS. Many systems can adapt to customer behavior and serve up the most relevant and personalized content to connect with them. Finally, ask how easy it is to make future updates to the site. If you want to add a page, a section, a subsection or change a layout, does it require coding? Or are you able to make some changes on your own? Always think long-term when it comes to planning your CMS build. Map out what 5 and 10 years down the line looks like and share these plans with your developer. With this information on hand, they’ll be able to provide recommendations that will support scalable growth when your company is ready. Have questions or need another opinion about the best web CMS for your organization? Contact one of our web development specialists for a free consultation. When it comes to building a website, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is what content management system (CMS) to build your site on. Web technology has come leaps and bounds since a CMS was used solely for the purpose of managing content. Today, there are a number of different considerations to take into account, starting with the customer experience, progressing to engagement and re-engagement and coming full circle with relationship building that results in increased trust, higher conversion rates, repeat sales, and higher revenues. Therefore, choosing a CMS should also be considered as part of a larger customer-centric strategy. The CMS is at the core of your website, but one important consideration is what other systems it needs to tie into. For example, many enterprise level companies and large businesses use CRM systems such as Salesforce.com or Microsoft CRM to manage leads. Those systems are often tied into marketing automation software such as Marketo or Hubspot, or smaller email automation software such as Exact Target or Constant Contact. One of the first things you should do when choosing a CMS is provide your web developer with the list of proprietary systems, legacy databases and social media accounts that exist. This will help to determine best way to integrate. On the front-end, other CMS considerations include the customer interface, multilingual support and mobile friendliness. Some content management systems are more flexible than other when it comes to design templates and mobile formatting, so consult with an expert and ask them to give you the pros and cons of each system. On the backend, your CMS should help you with more than just updating content. At the least, it should have a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for easy updating by non-technical personnel. It should also have search-friendly URLs and room for SEO Meta data. This is something that is really easy-to-use in systems like WordPress. For a more intuitive site, find out if you are able to get a snapshot of a customer from the insights provided by the CMS. Many systems can adapt to customer behavior and serve up the most relevant and personalized content to connect with them. Finally, ask how easy it is to make future updates to the site. If you want to add a page, a section, a subsection or change a layout, does it require coding? Or are you able to make some changes on your own? Always think long-term when it comes to planning your CMS build. Map out what 5 and 10 years down the line looks like and share these plans with your developer. With this information on hand, they’ll be able to provide recommendations that will support scalable growth when your company is ready. Have questions or need another opinion about the best web CMS for your organization? Contact one of our web development specialists for a free consultation.