Choosing the right team for your CMS Website
In CMS Websites- “with great power comes great responsibility” (Part 1), I focused on having a long-term strategy for your website and content management system. The article touched on the importance of choosing the most appropriate technologies and building a strong foundation in the early stages of development.

Another area just as important to the success of a CMS website are the people who will be involved with your content management system training, maintenance, marketing and management of the site.

Some business owners/managers like a hands on approach, keen to learn how to use the content management system themselves, while others prefer to share responsibilities from day one.

Below are some questions to contemplate while in the planning phase of your CMS web development strategy.

• Do I want to learn to manage and update the website myself?
• Can I assign these extra tasks to myself and comfortably fit them in with the day to day running of my business?
• Do I need to employ or contract other people to manage and maintain the website?
• Do I currently have members of my staff who can manage these tasks?
• How many hours or days per week, per month, do I expect my staff to be involved with the website? (Full-time, part-time?)
• If on a part-time basis, will they be able to manage these tasks with their current workload?
• Do they have the communication, imaging and organisational skills to do this for my company?
• Who will be responsible for web maintenance and website enquiries?
• Who will partake in the CMS training?
• Who will write, edit and approve copy?
• Is there a need for ongoing photographic images and video?
• Who will schedule and publish the content?
• Who will monitor and analyse the web statistics and data?
• What are the types of online marketing that we want to be involved with short and long-term?
• Who will be responsible for marketing the website?

If an ecommerce-shopping cart and/or advertising modules are also part of the plan, then more questions around resources and services will need to be added to the list. And certainly the more powerful your CMS website becomes, the greater the responsibilities.

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Coming soon:
CMS Websites – “services & resources to help you”
CMS Ecommerce Websites – “require a team effort”

Related articles:
CMS Websites - “with great power comes great responsibility!” (Part 1)
Is your business website ready for a content management system?

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If you would like to know more about our content management systems you can contact Paul or Marie. Go Man Go specialise in Web Design and Development, Web & Email hosting, Digital Marketing and Outsourcing Services.

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PowerPuff & Astro images courtesy of: Ernest von Rosen

Fans of Marvel action hero Spider-Man, may well remember the above quote from Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, in the Spider-Man 2 movie. Whilst it may sound a touch melodramatic, a CMS (content management system) website can be a very powerful publishing tool, especially when teamed up with an ecommerce shopping cart engine, revenue generating advertising module or ad server.

For small/medium sized businesses and non-profit community organisations, a CMS provides opportunities to publish upcoming events, new products and services, blogs, media releases, industry news, competitions, advertisements and more.

A CMS also becomes an effective marketing tool for a business that comes equipped with an online marketing strategy. It works especially well when the business has allocated dedicated resources and services to manage, maintain and publish content on a regular basis.

Build a CMS website for the long term
A website with a content management system is best viewed as a long-term investment. For example, say a business wants to start with a Stage 1 version of their website with the intention of expanding the site at a later date. This could be due to a number of reasons - budget, time constraints, staff, first website, lack of content and so on.

The most cost effective approach is to include the big picture planning and scoping in Stage 1 of the web design phase; with the appropriate technology and web hosting services selected to allow for future growth. Technical designs for the larger framework, including information/ content architecture and interface designs are taken into account to ensure that there is a strong foundation for Stage 2.

Without this forward planning, a business may find themselves throwing out the initial website and having to start all over again - an expensive exercise, that can reduce the business’s speed to market and have an impact on internal staff morale and motivation.

Technology and planning aside, the key to a powerful CMS business website and its longevity are its people, both internal and external to the business.

Content Management System Websites… (Part 2) focuses on the web content team.

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Coming soon:
CMS Websites – “services & resources to help you”
CMS Ecommerce Websites – “require a team effort”

Related articles:
Is your business website ready for a content management system?

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If you would like to know more about our content management systems you can contact Paul or Marie. Go Man Go specialise in Web Design and Development, Web & Email hosting, Digital Marketing and Outsourcing Services.

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PowerPuff Image courtesy of: Ernest von Rosen

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.

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

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Free image: Ernest von Rosen