What is a content management system (CMS), and how does it fit into our discussion concerning small businesses? CMS is content management software that facilitates creating, maintaining, and updating digital content. If you are not living under a rock, it's common to see most businesses today have a website that holds most of your business-specific digital content.
A website is central to building an online presence, connecting with your customers, and achieving conversion. Today 71% of small businesses have a website. Anyone who has heard about CMS must have heard of WordPress. Yes, it's the most popular CMS today.
Why do small businesses require a CMS?
Websites are repositories of information. It includes information about your enterprise, services, organizational vision, and other content that links you and your customers, who may appear as casual visitors' sometimes.
Also, consider the fact that a website consists of pages, and these are built using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS programming languages. So, if you were to create web pages, it would require a solid grasp of these languages and tons of coding.
With a CMS, you can build a website without learning a language. Cost overrides many considerations if you are a small business just starting and operating with limited resources. Hiring a dedicated developer or setting up a team to keep your website content updated and relevant is a significant investment.
It is here that a CMS makes website content management easy. With little or no coding knowledge, your website remains updated with a host of information that your visitors find relevant. The website needs to be simplified.
Businesses are opting for CMS software more than before. A staggering 43.6% of websites are custom-built using CMS.
Business relevance of CMS today
Most content is in digital form today and has replaced legacy content. The sheer size of the data makes it unmanageable. A content management system (CMS) becomes a vital business component.
It may look like a small business may not generate so much content. Therefore, a CMS doesn't fit the requirement. But it's a wrong assumption. With the rise of mobile phone users and the growing internet penetration, more and more people are heading towards popular platforms for content.
By 2022, the number of hand-coded websites has come down to 36%, meaning a massive drift towards adopting CMS. Why not have the ease of a web content management system? Businesses aren't static entities; even small businesses are bound to register impressive growths as they scale. This means an enormous amount of content. Moving to a content management platform is an ideal solution. It is essential to understand which CMS fits best for a small business, with an eye on future requirements as your business grows.
ECM- The answer to your small business scaling up
As your small business grows into a full-fledged enterprise, adding different verticals like marketing, sales, customer service, and managing internal workflows, you might need an enterprise content management system or ECM.
Your business requirements dictate communicating not just to your customers via your website but connecting seamlessly with an expanded set of people, which includes your internal employees and business stakeholders.
The focus is on managing the whole lifecycle of an organization's content, which can be anything that makes your business work documents, spreadsheets, contracts, training materials, and even scanned images. Today's popular ECMs are Drupal, Docushare, and Silverstripe CMS.
Factors small businesses should look for when choosing a CMS
Understandably, making a business choice is not an easy thing. Which CMS to go for? Should you choose the most popular one or pick the one that serves your business needs?
Before juggling with most common CMS-related queries, it is crucial to understand the features that make a CMS the ideal choice. Pay attention to these qualities while searching for the best content management system.
1. Easy to use and customize
The integration of the CMS and its ease to the user is an important criterion. Why does a business pick software A over software B? The most common answer is simply because it's easy to use. With hassle-free handling, content management software, at the end of the day, should appear as the most effortless piece of software rather than intimidating your people.
The in-built flexibility should ease business requirements and not overload them. One should be able to switch between the dashboard and the analytics, create or edit content and do much more without strain.
It must be easy to use for technical as well as non-technical professionals for the simple reason that coding is not the business of not everyone on the team. People from your sales or content creation department should be able to use the CMS for digital asset management with the same ease, which will bring collaboration and synchronization between teams.
A CMS with handy tools (drag-and-drop), provision for embedding third-party content, and publishing features are what you should look for.
Also, your business type will dictate the CMS type you require. Websites differ based on their business goals; hence, the target audience varies. For example, an e-commerce site would have a different CMS than a blog site offering content on the finance market.
A CMS of choice still may not fulfill all your requirements. Extensions and add-ons save the day. These pieces of software can be added on a need basis to achieve the desired functionality.
2. SEO capabilities
Brand visibility and conversion depend on the traffic your website gets. The overall purpose of having an online presence for a small business- is to maximize traffic.
What else? A small enterprise must refrain from competing with the elaborate marketing strategy of big companies. A good CMS choice compliments your digital marketing strategy, adding grist to the mill.
An SEO-enabled CMS facilitates the optimization of your content, helping it to rank better in search engine results. These inbuilt features that allow updating content titles, meta descriptions, tags, custom permalink structures, adding a call to action (CTA) button, and inclusion of SEO best practices are good to have and are what make a good content management system.
If your chosen CMS allows third-party plugins, it’s even better. Improving SEO is a critical part of online business, and as many as 64% of marketers today are investing in it to generate leads via organic traffic. A good example is the user-friendly Hubspot CMS.
3. Support options
Even with the most user-friendly software, the end user can get stuck up in a situation where they need support to bail them out, irrespective of the nature of the query. The moot point is- Is there ready support when you need it most?
If you are using a free CMS, support would be missing. In such a case, you have to fall back on the online support community, freely available help resources, and tutorials; in short, find the solutions yourself.
You can rely on their customer service support if you pay for a CMS. Remember to check if your CMS offers help services when you need them.
4. Cost factor
Small businesses may appear finicky when it comes to costs. And there’s nothing terrible about it. An unlimited budget is a luxury available only for big businesses. They need to be sure before upgrading or enhancing their processes and operations to justify the cost.
After all, the ROI matters in their business strategy, given that some may be operating on a shoestring budget. Some of the most popular content management platforms, like WordPress, Weebly, Wix, and Bolt, are free or open-source. It is capable of meeting most of the requirements of a small business.
But do we all not know that business requirements grow and may outsize the free offering? One must pay for third-party extensions, site creation, templates, web hosting services, and other similar components. And it’s justified. Shape your budget around your requirements.
Also, by the time you go ahead with spending on your CMS requirement, you will be able to judge between two competing CMSs. Opt for a pocket-friendly CMS, as the free ones offer fewer customizations.
If you are willing to shell out more, gain a business advantage by getting professional CMS development services that address unique content management requirements (user profiles, custom modules, themes ), bringing automation, greater integration, and smooth workflow management.
5. Security concerns
The security of your CMS is a crucial element. It should be your top priority. Practically, all CMS has inbuilt security features to ward off unintended intrusions and access to your content. Some require frequent updation of the CMS software to keep it sanitized and robust. Others can have automated procedures. Do check it has a robust user authentication mechanism for individual users or groups to keep operations safe from malicious attacks. Third-party plugins add layers of security. You might need them if you choose an open-source platform with a high vulnerability index.
Our recommendation
Proquantic recommends a WordPress content management system for small businesses. If you are considering e-commerce, go for Shopify, which is a good option. If you want to have the best of both worlds, we recommend Wix.
Winding up
Check what works best for your business. Trying the free version is a good idea before purchasing. It will let you know if it's easy to use and the degree of business goals compatibility.
Furthermore, recall that the best CMS platforms offer more than content management. If you are wondering what that means, we explain it to you. These CMS help you build websites, allow web hosting, and double as e-commerce platforms.
Choosing a good content management software means having a CMS that meets your specific needs and has low monthly costs.
You can also contact us for a free consultation on your CMS requirements. Our CMS development services are a comprehensive plan which ensures you get the best returns on your investments while meeting your business goals.
