The importance of consistent brand messaging across multiple markets

CMG Digital is a scaling digital design and smart production agency. We are a Contentful Solution Partner which has launched, migrated and optimized over 100 sites on Contentful.

Clients including GlaxoSmithKline and other FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies in the Fortune 100 trust us to be their Global Digital Agency. For these clients alone we manage approximately 1000 websites around the world – 700 of which we've also built.

Our clients frequently ask us; how can we amplify brands and support with scale? In this post, we'll outline how we achieve exactly that with Contentful.

The limitations of a legacy tech stack

We detect common issues with legacy websites. Each sub-brand site might have a different layout, for example. Or there may be sub-brand website differences between markets.

A legacy platform might attempt to solve these issues, but a centralized template is often restrictive and only allows for minimal brand personalization, with few variations in content styles and budgets. Overall, there's a massive opportunity for improvement.

CMG Digital has a forward-thinking digital philosophy that delivers outstanding results. By migrating to Contentful from a legacy tech stack provider, we can build a consistent content model across all of a company's brands, regions and markets.

While this is no small undertaking, a prioritized roadmap – one that begins with the master brand – enables us to develop a solution with an intuitive content architecture. This can be applied later, for example, to localizations across multiple markets and sub-brands.

Contentful brings flexibility and scale

Contentful’s architecture allows for rapid onboarding across brands. When compared to a legacy CMS, Contentful-supported sites are far more intuitive and require less technical knowledge to edit and add author content.

In addition, a composable content platform brings with it a logical hierarchy, which is horizontal rather than vertical, resulting in components that are easier to find and edit.

Today, multiple stakeholders within organizations — content authors, blog creators, brand managers, and marketing technologists — can work on content no matter where they're located. With this set-up, we can simultaneously share key brand messages across the platform. In addition, multiple users can work in the same space, allowing for flexibility and consistency.

With Contentful, it's also quicker and easier to train authors. And there is greater control when it comes to versioning and publishing in different environments. Content-author roles allow more people to have access without security risks involved, so there's no need to worry that someone will “mess up“ existing work. Even if such a scenario were to play out, the versioning option allows users to return to a previous iteration.

The benefits of a composable content platform

The benefits of an excellent technical architecture are not limited to developers and content authors. We have transformed the entire digital ecosystem for a global brand, for example, providing major commercial gains and increased ROI through:

• Dramatically reducing website time to delivery.

• Achieving brand consistency across all markets.

• Switching to cloud-based storage so there's no need for costly installation, maintenance, or upgrades.

• Increasing the ease of integration into future applications, no matter the technology.

• Centralizing the “content hub” repository for structured content into a single source across the entire platform.

• Pushing content to every device and platform by using an omnichannel delivery. 

Using Contentful, our job as a digital agency is made much easier. A composable content platform opens an array of opportunities for creativity and efficiency, in turn offering clients the best possible solutions at the highest speeds.

The reusability of components means that, once you edit a single component or piece of content, it can be reused in multiple places across the site. It's not necessary to create or edit components and pieces again, ensuring resources are not wasted. This fits perfectly into CMG‘s concept of digital sustainability.

Once the content is implemented, it can be displayed on multiple screens and devices, whether desktop or mobile. There's no need to create different versions of content. And the versioning option is another time-saving feature; it comes in handy during the editing process. With one click, we can view previous versions and seamlessly compare changes.

And with filtering, useful data can be easily extracted. We can review user activity and compare it against information on timesheets and work carried out in a given period. In the past, it would have taken hours to retrieve this data manually.

Content without limitations

Contentful has a structured system, which enables developers to create models with full flexibility and no limitations. Each component is independent and has no hierarchy, allowing it to be manipulated or moved depending on our needs. As a result, changes to order can be made far more easily.

With a command-line interface and pre-prepared scripts for environment set-ups, developers can easily set up new environments. Components and content types can be moved through code. As a result, no work is required from the web-editing team.

Since its earliest beginnings as a headless CMS, Contentful has never been tied to frontend technology. Instead, the backend is separate. We as an agency are free to choose whichever frontend technology our clients require.

With one client, for example, we currently use React and Gatsby. There are no limits with Contentful, a composable content platform supporting REST APIs and GraphQL. This means you can pull the data from any API and immediately get to work. 

Test and deploy new builds seamlessly

Undoubtedly, the option to have multiple environments is an outstanding benefit of composable content architecture. We can test new code or components in a single environment. Once we are finished, the project can be moved to the preview stage or published live.

There's nothing to worry about when it comes to the possibility of something breaking in the QA/change phase. Creativity is front and center and new ideas can be created and implemented within days.

Wrapping up

As more brands learn of the benefits of Contentful, CMG Digital is busier than ever with our clients enjoying the commercial gains from their new websites. Whether it's a site migration, a completely new build, or an optimization for an existing Contentful installation: our clients are fully empowered to deliver consistent, scalable digital experiences to their customers.

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