A content management system (CMS) is a very powerful tool that provides small and medium sized businesses with complete control over publishing important company, marketing and product/services information to their website. Businesses are able to easily manage, create, edit and publish content (text, images, video, audio, animations) quickly and efficiently.

With a CMS, you can say goodbye to annoying spelling mistakes and out of date information. Learning to use a content management system is so easy, with no special HTML programming or web design skills required.

All you need is a web browser, access to the administration section of your CMS website (password protected) and some basic word processing skills. You can insert, create and update content yourself, delegate this to your own internal web content and publishing team, or outsource it.

Here is a quick checklist to help you decide whether your business website is ready for a content management system.

• You and your business want to attract more customers.
• You need to redesign and update your current business website, improve its functionality and overall performance.
• You require more interaction and communication with your customers by publishing helpful, useful information that will be of value to them.
• You need a system to manage a number of publishers/writers on your website team who will be creating, editing and publishing content on a regular basis.
• You want to schedule the publishing of content in advance. Eg. Upcoming blog posts, news articles and marketing campaigns.
• You want to promote and sell your products and services online.
• You see your website as a valuable marketing tool with ‘free’ advertising space available to your business ‘exclusively’, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• You want to experiment with different online marketing campaigns on your website.
• You need your website to be search engine friendly, with the ability to update title tags, meta tag descriptions and keywords when required.
• You want to monitor and track your website, to be able to analyse results, note successes and areas that can be improved upon.
• You want to invest in a cost effective website system that will grow with your business.
• You want to be empowered, to have hands on experience to learn and understand how your website can work more effectively for your business.

If you think your business is now ready for a content management system why not contact us (Paul or Marie). We have a range of content management solutions to suit all businesses and would be happy to talk with you about your own unique website requirements.

—————————————————————————————————————–
Related articles: Coming soon!
CMS Websites - “with great power comes great responsibility” (Part 1)
Ecommerce Websites are powerful too! (Part 2)

—————————————————————————————————————–
Free image: Ernest von Rosen

For web site content managers and business owners
If you have answered ‘yes’ to the above question, then don’t be disheartened - you’re not alone. Understanding how to firstly use your website content management system and then publish new and relevant content to your site ‘regularly’, can be a big challenge. It can also be of great value to your business. All you need to do is factor this work into your daily routine and marketing initiatives.

Of course ‘regular’ means different things to different businesses (and owners of businesses). Some update their website twice a year and consider 6 months to be regular, whilst for others it’s once a month or several times a week. It really does depend on your individual business, your target market, online strategy and your actual resources (read people + experience).

Expect content surges and slow downs… but keep going
In March of last year, I wrote a post “updating content online requires resources”. Unfortunately I didn’t heed my own advice. Setting myself unrealistic goals and allocating a disproportionate amount of hours per month to write content, I found that other projects began to take up more and more of my time. The gap between posts widened and I eventually lost my momentum and stopped writing.

Sound familiar? Take for example this scenario - the launch of a new website. Everybody involved with the launch is fired up. The website is going to change the marketplace and direction of the company. The web team (made up of members from the HR, Admin, Sales & Marketing departments) are all excited.There are lots of great ideas - timeframes are tight but achievable.

Then… Sally leaves! John is assigned to other duties. Page impressions are down and now there’s a new CEO! Workloads increase. Members of the web team are needed elsewhere. And then….(car screeching to a halt, sound fx) “What? What do you mean, there’s nobody left on the web team anyway?”

Set a pace that works for you!
If you can identify with the above just try focussing on a pace that works for you and your team. Writing content and updating your website is actually very empowering and with a team of just one or two people, a lot can be achieved. All you need to do is get back online and make sure you have a better plan than the last one. Once you all begin to enjoy the process of publishing new content without ridiculous timelines or expectations, things can only get better!

New thought… ever considered outsourcing your content management to trusted partners?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net