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With the global recession forcing companiesto revert their marketing budgets from above-the-line to below-the-line, web design and SEO institutions havebecome hot property. It seems that everyone wants a slice of the software design pie and with goodreason. New Media is the marketing avenue of the future and ignoring yourbusiness? online presence is tantamount to professional suicide.
By making sure that your online marketingis up to scratch you can substantially increase your company's exposure and themore people realise this the more important the appearance and useability oftheir websites becomes. But how do you go about managing your site? Which content management system is right foryou and your business? This is a deceptively simple question with a veryintricate answer that relies on a wide array of variables.
Choosing a suitable CMS will depend on your available budget, the nature of your site,as well as your technical proficiency. The easiest way to go about it is toidentify the exact nature of your requirements before you even start comparingthe features of different contentmanagement systems. Here are a few questions you need to ponder before youset out into the digital wilderness to find the right product:
1. How much control do youdesire? Depending on the nature of your project, you may want to be intimatelyinvolved in every aspect of the content management, but on the other hand youmight want to delegate this responsibility to a third party. In that case, youcan opt for a product that is hosted by its developers and can then be accessedby means of a browser. There are providers that will allow you to rent theservice per month, which also provides a bit more flexibility. If you prefer tohave the reins in hand however, it would be a better idea to invest a softwaresystem that can be installed directly onto your server.
2. How is your businessstructured? Will the site be delegated to a single person or is it going to be runby a complex system of contributors and editors? The more involved yourteamwork system, the larger your system needs to be. Smaller systems can buckleunder pressure and end up being more trouble than they are worth.
3. What is your current systemlike? It's all good and well to spend the time andmoney to get a spunky new CMS, butif it doesn't play well with your existing computer systems you may be in for abit of a bumpy ride. If you already have a functional Intranet or database youwill want to make sure that it can be linked to your CMS, in order to ease data extraction, etc.
4. Will you be kept in theloop? Contentmanagement systems, like all other web-based platforms, are constantlyevolving and updated. Therefore it makes sense to ensure that you will be privyto new features and service as part of your buying agreement.
5. How user-friendly are thetools? It is imperative that you invest in aproduct that combines user-friendly tools and flexibility. If you will behaving a lot of editors and contributors on the project you will also need toconsider how much time you are willing to devote to training. The tools yourequire for an intricate problem will of necessity be more sophisticated, butshould ideally be easy to master in a short space of time.
And there you have it ? these fivequestions should give you plenty of constructive things to consider. Take thetime to weigh your options carefully, a good CMS system has the potential to make or break a project.