How Innovations in Headless CMS Will Impact Marketers in 2021

Digital transformation and innovation specifically to a headless CMS platform becomes crucial for companies looking to move forward quickly. BrightspotOpens a new window CEO and co-founder David Gang explains how to implement a headless CMS platform to enhance digital transformation and the importance of speed and easy integrations in relation to accessible content. He also shares some tips and tricks to provide better digital and personalized experiences in 2021.

When thinking about the future of content marketing, speed is the name of the game. Speed has always been an essential capability for effective marketing, but recently—especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic—speed in creation and delivery has been positioned as the number one differentiating factor for successful content strategies. 

With 70% of marketers actively investing in content marketing todayOpens a new window —a number that will surely rise across the 2020s—the need for speed is paramount. As the volume of content increases, so does the competition for eyeballs. Marketing today means jockeying for views and clicks across web pages, mobile devices, and many additional channels, some of which seem to appear overnight. 

To stay ahead of the game, marketing organizations need to embrace digital transformation and innovate with content types and channels. This is not a new mandate; however, what is new is how quickly digital transformations must be completed and how immediately marketers must demonstrate ROI from the new platforms or tools they’ve adopted.

The challenge of transformation is that—if gone about the wrong way—adopting new platforms or integrating new capabilities frequently leads to business disruption, inefficiencies, and headaches for all involved. Even if an organization wants to improve or update a legacy platform without completely replacing it, pain points are in store, and the benefits may not be seen or felt for weeks or even months. 

The good news is that recent advancements have made headless content management systems (CMS) a solution for many different organizations. Headless CMS architecture can be quickly and seamlessly integrated with no disruption to existing platforms, allowing for an immediate transformation of content marketing and increased speed-to-execution. 

Learn More: How To Solve Top Digital Content Challenges With the Right CMS

What Is Headless and Why Does It Matter?

Headless technology connects the CMS to a selected front-end framework through APIs. This is made possible by using a query language like GraphQL, which enables flexible connection with APIs and content management and delivery to external systems. 

While headless architecture has been around for a while, it has truly come into its own in recent years. Beginning in 2015, when the public GraphQL CMS specification was developed, headless became attractive to marketers because the architecture’s extreme flexibility helps quickly deliver content across existing and emerging channels, at multiple points in time from the same source back end. 

The four main components that make up headless CMS include: 

• The back-end database where all content and assets are stored 
• A back-end content creation platform 
• APIs that connect the content backend to internal or external (including third-party) devices or channels
• APIs that make it possible to connect to any publishing front end

With this in mind, it’s clear why headless CMS platforms have been so popular, especially this year. COVID-19 did not kick-start new trends, but it surely accelerated existing trends toward prioritizing flexibility and speed and achieving the agility to respond to unexpected scenarios in real-time. 

So, how exactly do you implement headless? Headless architecture is best suited to organizations with robust development teams with the know-how to establish the front end for content delivery and plug into new channels as they emerge. 

Going headless is beneficial to the entire organization—especially marketers—but a close partnership with development teams is the secret sauce. And they will love you for it, as headless makes it much easier for developers to manage integrations and new requirements. By decoupling the back and front ends, a headless CMS can be implemented almost immediately. Once in place, the front end can change without impacting the backend, allowing for seamless content delivery. 

The best-case scenario is working with a CMS partner who allows you to be future-proof for the long haul, no matter at what point you’re on in the technology or digital transformation spectrum. A solution that has the flexibility to offer headless, decoupled or a combination of CMS architectures, means organizations can choose what works for them and adjust as their priorities change.

Learn More: Top 10 Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Software Systems in 2020

Delivering Better, Faster, and More Personalized Content Experiences

COVID-19 may be a tipping point for mass adoption of headless CMS architecture, but with how quickly new content channels have been emerging in recent years, this change was inevitable. With lockdowns continuing into 2021, there will continue to be an overwhelming reliance on digital content to reach people. Increasingly, this will take place on non-traditional devices (i.e., beyond just websites). Organizations that have held off on transformation, waiting for the “return to normalcy”, will be left behind. 

In order to be effective in this decade, companies need to reach audiences with the right message at the right time. As the pandemic continues, the right time and place can vary wildly: consumers are looking at content on an ever-expanding array of digital devices. When appropriate, delivering to multiple channels at the same time can help catch their attention. 

Above all, marketing teams and the development organizations they work with need to prioritize speed and accessibility. Integrations and the ability to migrate existing systems is key to transforming and showing ROI more quickly.

It is likely that the ultimate form of content management will look like a single, unified hub with pipelines throughout and beyond a business. Headless is a significant step forward, but marketers will still need to adapt in terms of how they approach content creation and management technology. It’s no longer about features and functionality (although these are important of course), but the drive toward flexibility and faster outcomes. 

Did you enjoy reading this article on headless content management systems? Let us know your thoughts on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!