Your content management system is the foundation of your content assets. This one platform is the significant driver that pulls users towards higher engagement, better response and increased conversions. An effective content management system not only lets content writers upload or edit content, but it manages and allows you to repurpose content as and when required. Investing into a CMS platform is a big decision that involves cost and human-resources. Once set-up, it is necessary that your team understands the platform and uses the CMS to its maximum potential.
However, this is not as easy as it sounds. Installing the right solution incorporates a number of important steps. You need to sit with your team and understand the gaps and how a CMS can fulfil them. Then comes selecting the right platform and vendor to best suit your business needs. This in itself is a long drawn process and needs due diligence from management. Once CMS and chosen and you have the infrastructure set up in your business environment, comes the toughest part: familiarizing your content team with the new system and helping them adapt to this change.
Installation is one end of the stick and the other end is implementation. Working on an altogether new platform can be tough. If the editors or content writers are unable to fathom the workflow, it can be demotivating. Thus success of a CMS platform depends on how well it was implemented and how easily and simply the content team was able to understand, adapt and use the CMS for delivering all content needs. There is no one set formula but rather, management needs to chalk out a framework that can support employees to understand the new platform and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Implementation needs to be broken down into simple manageable steps to ensure each one of team-members can make the most of the platform.
The journey from an unstructured way of authoring to a more structured manner can be tough for writers. Even before the CMS is put to use, encourage your authors to start thinking content in terms of a framework or a structure. Structured content involves a more analytical frame of mind and your team needs to start thinking differently in order to make the process easier and quicker.
To ease out the process, encourage your team to start using some of the basic functionalities of the CMS. Start with unstructured documents such as your ms word files and begin to use your CMS platform as a central repository for your documents. Carry out simple processes and track your changes to see the difference. Slowly and steadily, you will get a hang of how the system works. By and by start to convert active content into XML components and go granular.
These steps can help your content to to understand and easily take a plunge into the new Content Management Solution platform. As much as that is important, it is equally imperative to provide training. Choose a content management solution where the vendor is ready to provide prompt support as and when needed and is also able to help in on-boarding the team to better understand how the new system works. A CMS platform can take your content delivery to the next level and it’s important that your team understands and makes use of all the rich features that a CMS platform can offer.
