Talking to Membership Organisations about their digital landscapes, there is a common thread around content management, manual processes, duplication of efforts, spreadsheets and a good doze of copying and pasting. We call the pain-points of the organisations “as-is” state.
Organisations are the go-to places for members to get resources. These can be documentation, videos, webinars, podcasts etc. The conversation quickly turns to what Content Management System (CMS) the organisation is using (if any) and what are the available options. There is a variety of CMSs in the marketplace and more recently there is the rise of what is called the “Headless” CMS an improvement to the conventional or also known as “monolithic” CMS.
A Headless CMS has the sole purpose of managing content and making that content available to be consumed by multiple platforms and devices without the reliance and headaches of webservers, hosting requirements and lengthy upgrades. They are fast, easily accessible via a web browser and come with a suite of features such as workflow, content planning calendars and a next to no training on boarding process. The same content can be consumed via your website, your App and your social media i.e. all the places your members will look for resources. A Headless CMS is available and exposed to be integrated with the rest of your digital presence. Sounds like a dream come true.
Why Go Headless?
Freedom and Independence
The conventional monolithic CMS combines both the design, functionality and the content of your website in one platform. The Headless CMS is purposed to manage content and only content. Your content is less restricted and endlessly re-usable. Going headless will allow to use the same content across multiple websites, apps, social media feeds. It gives you the freedom to architect your digital presence with a variety of technologies. Your CMS should not be a deciding factor for the rest of your architecture (i.e. which CRM/AMS to use or when and how to refresh your design), it should be a part of the puzzle that can be integrated with the rest of the landscape.
Future Proof and Scalable
Your content is not coupled with the front-end and back-end code. It’s portable and you can re-use it within a different architecture. You can scale your architecture by adding consumption points for your content by simply re-purposing it.
Your Team will Love it
Membership organisations are content heavy so being able to content populate easily is key. We have heard of horror stories of content that has to be manipulated several times via several pieces of software in order to be published to a website. No more hindering your team with mandate tasks. Your content editors will have the freedom to perform their tasks in one place, one time and collaborate. There is no need for lengthy training sessions and definitely no need for coding skills. Your Marketeers can create landing pages on the fly and configure SEO all in one place. Your IT department will also be satisfied as there is no hosting, no upgrades and security patches are rolled out centrally.
Your Members will Love it
More to the point your organisation’s members will enjoy all the above benefits. They will be offered a personalised experience with an up-to-date quality content at all times.
Environmental Friendly
Going headless will also assist with protecting the environment! There are no requirements for hosting which means less hardware consumption. Also being lightweight there is less data to download.
Discover IT is an award-winning Digital Agency with a core focus on Strategy, UX Design, Solutions Architecture, Systems Integration and Support & Maintenance Services.
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