It’s no secret that user attention is fragile. Statistics show that your website has 50 milliseconds to leave a positive impression on a user, or they will move on.
With the stakes this high, every advantage counts. Your content management system (CMS) needs to deliver an exceptional bed on which your content lives for you win over users.
Before you invest in content delivery, here is a look at standout traits to help you pick the best CMS solution.
1. Understand Your Use Case
So, you know you need to choose a CMS. But, do you fully grasp what your actual uses for it will be? As basic as that may seem, it’s a critical part of assessing how you go about selecting the right option.
Before spending a dime on a CMS option, validate your need for it first.
For example, ask yourself whether the issue you have is a technology problem or a content-related matter. It could be that the issues you are facing call for more of a content, process, or collateral fix than getting another CMS.
If you already have an existing CMS solution but are mulling a migration, you need to be sure that’s the appraise fix. That’s because moving your content takes time and effort, which may be better spent on other mission-critical tasks.
Besides that, you also have to judge whether the CMS will play nice with your operations. A vital part of this decision-making has to focus on the impact the CMS can have on your overall user experience.
As the folks at Sitecore regularly espouse, a CMS you rely on ought to deliver a 365 view of your clients. You, therefore, have to determine that once you deploy the CMS, it will improve your customer experience.
2. Settle on the Hosting Option You Can Work With
Every business has its web hosting approach, which flows from the organization’s operational strategy. Therefore, picking a CMS platform is a proxy decision for the type of hosting you’re going to rely on.
You can go the Service Solution (SaaS) route and run lean, bring it to your premises, or opt for a cloud option. It all boils down to your strategic push.
What you should never do is fail to justify a popular CMS option in light of your overarching strategy. More often than not, you’ll end up with costly adjustments and even migrations on your hands. Choose early and correctly to avoid future regrets.
3. The Level of Support Available Is More Crucial Than the CMS
When handling any software, a rule of thumb is that the support function adds or takes away value from the end product. Since any software solution will have issues, you will inevitably need troubleshooting assistance.
No matter how well the software looks, it won’t be helpful if you can’t solve issues emanating from its use. And this is never truer than with CMS.
Spend a significant amount of time researching the provider’s track record for handling support queries. Talk to people you know who use the CMS you desire to adopt and peruse online review sites. You’ll quickly get a feel of what to expect.
If you are not 100% confident in the support the CMS developer can offer, you may want to rethink your decision. Don’t settle, as your customer experience will be the first to suffer due to poor troubleshooting services when things do go wrong.
4. Insist on Personalization
Did you know that not personalizing your content alienates 74% of your users? No CMS should force you to lose out on the fruits of delivering personalized content to customers.
When your users receive content perfectly paired with their needs, it makes life easier for them. They don’t have to waste time wading through unnecessary material to get to their content destination.
It’s imperative to select a CMS that enables you to bring together all the interactions you have with your users. It’s only when this happens that you’ll deliver an experience that drives convenience and choice for your users.
5. Flexibility Is Gold
The most suitable CMS needs to make life easy for you by offering operational flexibility in presentation. You should only invest in a CMS whose framework can differentiate between your content and design.
For example, if part of your content strategy relies on delivering up-to-date news, its chronological approach needs to vary. Your users should have the capacity to access news content in reverse chronological order. They shouldn’t be boxed into one approach due to less thoughtful design.
Another key example of the flexibility you must demand from a CMS is multiple language options. The best fit for your CMS need is one that empowers you to serve content in various languages.
You’ll then be in a position to leverage the global nature of the internet and potentially expand your user base.
6. The Best CMS Nurture Greater User Interaction
Without user interaction, your content is of limited value. Since users will interact with your business primarily through the content you put out, you can’t skimp on anything that promotes more user interaction.
Any CMS you go for must offer functionality nudging users to interact with your content. At the very least, your CMS selection needs to either enable users to leave feedback or allow third-party solutions that do the same job.
On the other side of this coin is the CMS’s feature set to help you communicate to users. You need other avenues to reach your users beyond basic options such as posting blogs.
Look for a solution that goes the extra mile. For instance, aside from enabling blogging, a removable CMS option should allow you to serve newsletters. The service could even add functionality to hello you group users by specific factors and communicate to them.
The more your CMS acts like a swiss army knife for user outreach, the greater the value you’ll get for your investment.
The Right CMS Will Add Value to Your Content
Once you draw a user, you have milliseconds to keep or lose them. The CMS you deploy will either make your content shine or drag it down. Purpose to figure out what makes for the best CMS offering to up your odds of serving users better.
Standing out online is cutthroat competition, and you need every edge you can get. Our website features in-depth technology tips, tricks, and insights to help your business gain ground on the internet.
Check out more of our content to sharpen your digital success skills.