Are traditional CMS platforms holding back your brand?

Digital content moves fast, but customer expectations move faster. In the early days of content management, it might have been enough to maintain a single website for desktop visitors, but today, people want more content, and they want it delivered seamlessly to a growing list of devices, including phones, tablets, wearables, and even in-store displays. 

If your content management system (CMS) can’t keep pace with that demand, sooner or later, customers are going to notice — and then look around to see which brands can provide them with the seamless digital content experiences that they expect. 

But not all content management systems are created equal and, as the digital ecosystem continues to evolve, some have shown their limitations. In this climate, brands that want to stay ahead of the curve need to start thinking differently about how they approach both content creation and content management, and then frame their CMSes as platforms from which they can build new, exciting content experiences. 

In this post, we’re going to explain how traditional content management systems are holding modern businesses back, and why it’s time to look to new content management platforms in order to tackle 21st century content challenges. 

What is a CMS?

Simply put, a content management system is a tool that enables brands to manage the content that they publish on their website, or on any digital channel. 

The scope of the content management system includes the editing, publishing, and storage of content — all of which is facilitated via a user-friendly interface. When we talk about “content,” we mean any asset published online: text on websites, images, video and sound files, logos, and even fonts. Those assets are published on websites, online stores, emails, newsletters, internal memos, social media posts, and so on.

Given the scale and complexity of our content landscape, content management systems are now an indispensable brand tool. The more the CMS can do with content, the more creative and engaging brands can make digital experiences for their customers. 

But we also said that not all content management systems are created equal, so let’s dive deeper into the notion of the traditional CMS — and examine how it falls short of meeting modern content challenges. 

Understanding different types of CMS platforms

Traditional, legacy content management systems are typically all-in-one solutions that offer a suite of features and capabilities for building a website. That includes predefined content templates, a database in which to store content, built-in SEO tools, a user interface, and so on — all wrapped up in one package.

An all-in-one package is an advantage if you need a website builder for a small site with limited content requirements, or want to get an online store up and running quickly — but there are downsides if, like most businesses, you want to grow your digital presence over time, attract new audiences and customers, and create content that stays fresh and engaging.

Monolithic CMS problems 

The problem is, legacy content management systems are monolithic in the sense that their backend administrative layer is tightly coupled to their frontend presentation layer (also known as the head). 

That means users are strictly limited with what they can do with content in the CMS, and need to drag and drop content between different templates if it needs to be duplicated. That not only creates unnecessary work for editors as they create and maintain content, but significantly reduces their efficiency. And if anyone makes a mistake during any of those (often tedious and complicated) processes, they risk disrupting site formatting. 

Because of that complexity, monolithic content management systems struggle to format content across different digital channels. Content that looks fine on a website, for example, might need to be carefully adjusted for a mobile application. In a worst-case scenario, it may not even be possible to use the content for mobile at all — which means it needs to be remade from scratch with more drag-and-drop work, more pressure, and more grunt work for editors and other creative team members who would probably be more profitably assigned to the next exciting marketing campaign. Ultimately, all that duplication will make it harder to maintain content, and more than likely your content ecosystem becomes fragmented, with your website falling out of sync with mobile and other channels. 

There’s also the issue of scalability. You’re typically locked in to the features and functionality that all-in-one content management systems provide, with no scope to add anything new to the framework when you want to grow your site or your online store, or integrate some useful new tool. If a game-changing innovation does debut on the market, and a competitor takes advantage of it, you might find yourself having to consider whether to migrate to a new CMS in order to keep up with the trend — a process that demands further attention, time, and money. 

And let’s not forget how content roadblocks can slow everything else down. If you can’t get content out quickly, your audience and your customers, who may be visiting from around the world, and engaging in multiple languages, aren't going to get to hear about the latest products, offers, and services — and that slowdown will eventually have a knock-on effect on sales. 

The bottom line: monolithic content management systems don’t give you flexibility, or scalability, or future-proofing. And in an evolving landscape driven by new market trends, new challenges, and new innovations, that’s a problem. 

Fortunately, there’s an alternative: you can start thinking about your CMS less as a system for content presentation, and more of a platform on which to build experiences.

With that in mind, let’s talk about different types of CMS platforms.

Headless CMS solutions

We solve the flexibility issues of the monolithic content management system by, quite literally, removing its head — in other words, its frontend presentation layer. 

Uncoupling the back end means that you’re free to build your presentation layer yourself with third-party services, which, in turn, means you can sidestep any formatting restrictions imposed by a provider. 

In headless CMS architecture, communication between the front end and the back end is facilitated by an application programming interface (API), which eliminates any potential coding hazards and the need for users to have in-depth technical knowledge, and makes editing and publishing content much easier. 

The headless CMS also stores content in a machine-readable format, making it generic for any platform, and ensuring that the front end gets to decide how it is displayed. It’s like storing a manuscript for a novel as a Word document, rather than a published, bound book. In its generic format, you get to decide how it is displayed: you could print it, but you could also save it as a PDF for an ereader, or send it to a voice actor for transformation into an audiobook. 

In other words, headless CMS content is reusable, which makes it available for publication on any channel (website, mobile app, tablet, etc.) without any need to worry about formatting. That, in turn, makes content creation and editing easier: you’ll only have to create a piece of content once, and then you can reuse it almost anywhere. 

Headless content management systems make no assumptions about how content is going to be displayed online, effectively turning their back ends into foundational platforms on which to build unique frontend content experiences. You could, for example, choose to use your content to create a static website, using platforms such as Gatsby or Next.js, or you could push it to a native mobile app to create an optimized and engaging experience for mobile devices.

That’s all good news for creative, growing brands — but why stop there? 

The content platform

Most modern CMS platforms are headless, but a content platform goes beyond the decoupling of the front and back ends by enabling you to build your entire tech stack from the ground up. In this environment, you choose exactly what you need to optimize your website, adding new components to the stack like modular building blocks. 

A content platform is an evolution of the headless CMS, and an approach that leans into the possibilities of the API-first design philosophy. In a modular environment, you’ll be creating an entire ecosystem of separate-but-connected microservices: website builder, database, translation tool, video streaming tool, and so on. A content platform is completely customizable and extensible, and is really only limited by your ambition to explore the tools available to you.  

For example, you could choose Shopify to handle your payment process, build your website with Next.js, use Lokalise for text translations, and Contentful itself for content management. The point is, with a content platform, you can build exactly the stack you need for the purposes of your business and your content strategy — and thereby shape digital experiences down to the smallest detail. 

The benefits of a content platform

While traditional CMSes are falling short of brand ambitions, a content platform helps both web developers and content teams push their content further. Let’s dig into some of their specific benefits. 

Scalability

A content platform is easy to scale compared to their legacy counterparts, whether that means increasing the size of the website to match business growth or simply adding new modular features and functionalities to the tech stack. It’s also easy to add new brands and locales, scale to new technologies, increase content output, and so on.

Omnichannel possibilities

In composable architecture, content can be created once, and then used across any digital channel, without formatting risks. That’s because the microservices within a modular ecosystem all communicate via APIs, with machine-readable formatting making it possible to programmatically map content, in real time, to any channel or user touchpoint. The content you create for a product description will work just as well on a phone screen or a store display as it does for your desktop site. 

Vendor options

Legacy content management systems typically lock customers into services provided by a single vendor, with no scope to extend that functionality or swap out inefficient parts of the stack down the line. A content platform eliminates vendor lock-in: you’ll be able to choose whichever microservice you need to customize your framework, or swap in better or cheaper components whenever you need to. 

Cost efficiency

It’s possible you’ll need a larger upfront investment to build and launch your content platform, but because you’re building your back end and front end yourself, you’ll be able to select only the modules you need to realize your content ambitions, and make significant cost savings over the long term. Similarly, because structured content is reusable and generic, you’re reducing future content maintenance costs, and don’t need to buy a separate, dedicated CMS for every single platform on which you publish.  

Content efficiency

It’s easy for nontechnical users to work with content platforms because they don’t need to worry about coding complications or extensive technical knowledge when they upload new, or update existing, content. Less CMS friction means smoother, more efficient content creation workflows, and an easier time for creators, editors, and marketers. 

Technical efficiency

Composability provides benefits for developers and technical team members too, who can do their work in an entirely separate lane from the editorial and marketing teams. Since they’re not needed to help publish content, developers are free to focus on revenue-generating activities — and, vice versa, editors don’t have to wait for technical team members to answer tickets or do detailed content work. It means everyone can move faster, increase output, focus on value, and get more out of content.   

Testing

A content platform makes it easier to test content or new additions to the tech stack without disrupting the wider site. Developers could, for example, compare the performance of two different translation tools, integrated as part of the site infrastructure, without imposing any significant downtime to the system, and then select the one that works best.  

Security 

In a monolithic CMS, hackers have a single target to aim at — and once a vulnerability is found, it’s likely the entire system will be compromised. Content platforms don’t present a single attack surface: if one microservice is compromised, the wider system remains protected. 

Wrapping up 

Content management systems have obviously evolved a lot in the past decade, but while the limitations of monolithic architecture are now holding some brands back, the inherent flexibility and extensibility of headless and content platforms are enabling others to innovate with content, and shape digital experiences with one eye firmly on the future.  

Contentful is designed for that purpose, empowering developers, content teams, marketing teams, and anyone involved in the content workflow. Our platform is a launchpad which leverages APIs to unlock our vast Marketplace of microservices; we’ve helped the world’s biggest brands deliver compelling new experiences for audiences around the world. 

If you’re ready to begin your own composable content journey, we’re ready too — with everything you'll need to take your first step.

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