An increasing number of European firms are reaching out to adopt a headless CMS. There are many reasons for organizations to do so, as the online landscape becomes more complex and scattered. Many potential customers can be found across the Internet, and soon the metaverse, requiring organizations to become more agile. In this article, we will look at a headless CMS and see its core features. Next, we introduce a headless CMS comparison guideline to start your selection process.
The system has no ‘head’
Why is a CMS called headless? Well, it does not have a ‘head’. This means that the front-end is not present, and the content is being managed in the CMS. However, the formatting capability of the content is there, through the presence of rich content editors. Depending on the organization’s needs, they can create multiple front-ends and send the content through. This is made possible through the use of Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs).
Omnichannel approach
Organizations can use APIs to send the content to multiple channels ranging from websites to applications and third parties. This enables an omnichannel strategy, which has lots of benefits to organizations. They can reach more potential customers and do that consistently across all possible channels.
Testing your ideas across segments
The headless CMS is taking over from the traditional CMS providers (e.g., WordPress, Joomla). This means that they are also building their features at scale, resulting in new capabilities desired by European businesses. For example, you would like to segment your customers based on certain traits. Next to that, you want to recommend certain articles or products that suit this segment of customers. Once you have defined these, you can do an A/B test on the product page to see which description or button works best. Through continuous optimization, you can take your website (and other channels) to the next level.
Headless CMS comparison: what you should know
Naturally, you need to do your research before selecting a CMS for your organization. But, what do you need to look out for? To help you in starting your headless CMS comparison, we have created a list of questions for you to start the thinking process.
- How many channels do you want to provide content to? Which channels?
- Through an API you can easily communicate across channels, but there are CMS providers who created custom sets of APIs. For example, to communicate with Facebook to show your products and content in a more elegant way
- Where do your customers live?
- Global companies need to think about the location of their customers. Page speed is crucial to converge and retain the customer. A global Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps to ensure page speed across the world.
- To what extent does your product require segmentation and personalization?
- When you have a broad range of products, chances are you need specific segmentation and recommendation capabilities. If your offering is limited, you might want to keep this out of the picture.
Angular CMS as a modern-day example
A typical example is the use of javascript for modern websites. This can easily be combined with an Angular CMS to ensure flexibility and scalability. Programmers enjoy the possibility to leverage the tools they like while the content creators can leverage extensive features.