A content management system or CMS enables companies to publish their content on the Internet. The main goal of a CMS is to make it easy for everyday users of technology to build websites and keep them updated without an in-depth understanding of programming languages or coding. 

With a suitable content management system, marketers can easily create, edit, modify, and manage all the content on their website, whether it is a blog or an infographic or personalized content for buyer personas. 

Top CMS features for marketers 

There are hundreds of CMS solutions in the market today, of which some are specially designed for and useful to marketers. A good CMS platform facilitates easy creation and publishing of content, along with added features for improving SEO and readability. 

Another important feature to look for in a CMS solution is the ability to customize content with preloaded themes and templates. Some highly-rated solutions come with multiple plugins and widgets, provide search engine optimization tools to enhance your content, offer an intuitive user interface, and have a large community of users.

As with every tool or software, there is no ‘best’ solution. However, you can choose from a handful of top contenders that are neck-and-neck in terms of functionality, features, and user-friendliness. Here’s our pick of some top-rated CMS platforms that can make your marketing tasks simple and seamless:

WordPress

WordPress.org (not WordPress.com) is a very popular content management system that powers some key brand websites. It brings you the advantage of a large user community, great support, resources, and tools/plugins built especially for its users. It is also reasonably easy to use and install. You can ask a hosting provider to offer a one-click install on your dashboard to make things easier for lay users.

Here are some of the top reasons to consider WordPress:

• Multiple free resources 
• Liveblogging tools
• Built-in SEO features
• Easy to customize
• Mobile-optimized
• Integration friendly

Drupal

Drupal is one of the preferred CMS platforms for businesses. It is a bit more advanced than WordPress and uses higher levels of programming. So, there are considerable advantages of using Drupal for your CMS needs, especially if you are a B2B or B2C marketer.  This CMS enjoys the support of an active community and experts from around the world. It is helpful for those who want to manage copious amounts of content. 

Drupal helps marketers seamlessly integrate various digital marketing platforms and tools to work with the content. Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, etc., have a dedicated Drupal module to help marketers build forms, monitor campaigns, and capture leads into the CRM.

Here are some key highlights of Drupal:

• Ability to create accelerated mobile pages (AMP)
• Integration with email marketing platforms
• Customized landing pages
• Scalability and flexibility 

Joomla

Marketers looking for more features and functionality baked into the platform may find Joomla very useful. Joomla is an open-source CMS and has inbuilt multilingual support and content management options that make it ideal for community, social networking, or membership sites. 

Joomla’s core features include:

• Free, open-source CMS with hundreds of extensions and templates
• Easy setup 
• Great support for e-commerce sites
• Active developer community
• Highly flexible and scalable 

Wix

Wix is a cloud-based CMS that helps you build HTML5 and mobile-optimized websites effortlessly. Its drag-and-drop interface, easy availability of plug-ins, and reasonable pricing options make it ideal for small businesses and e-commerce sites. Wix is also very easy to use. The intuitive drag-and-drop building tool allows even beginners to build a website from scratch, without the need to write a single line of code. 

Wix offers a host of features, including:

• More than 500 free templates
• E-commerce capabilities with product pages, payment, and store management
• Contact management tools
• Blog
• Free hosting and free SSL certificate
• SEO and mobile-friendly features

Conclusion

With the acceleration of technology in the content management and marketing space, there are many options available to a wide range of customers. Some other great CMS options include Magento, Squarespace, Shopify, TYPO3, etc. To find the perfect CMS for your organization, you should assess factors such as usability, pricing, security, community support, custom capabilities, and mobile optimization. 

Explore the options mentioned above in greater detail and take advantage of the free trials offered by various platforms. This should help you choose the best CMS for your own marketing needs.

Contributors: Ashini. Sanchea and Swapnil