In our fast-paced, plugged-in world, differentiation is imperative to a B2B company’s survival. The best way to stand out from the competition is to have a consistent digital presence with a robust website that gives a great impression right off the bat.
Every strong website has a solid foundation, meaning they have a high-quality content management system (CMS).
Choosing the right platform for your B2B website can be an overwhelming task. But today, we will give you insight into the most popular CMS platforms B2B businesses are using today.
WHY DO YOU NEED A CMS?
B2B marketing is designed for driving qualified leads into sales. Whether you are focusing on SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, or any other techniques, content is the foundation for it all. Content determines if potential customers are discovering your brand and products. Creating, managing, and publishing content requires a CMS. It is a tool B2B businesses must implement into their content and digital strategy as a whole to be competitive and successful in the B2B industry.
HOSTED OR SELF-HOSTED?
Content management systems can be split into two categories, hosted and self-hosted. Hosted platforms will be easier and faster because you won’t have to worry about more minor details. Self-hosted platforms provide more flexibility and accessibility while giving you more responsibility.
Some popular hosted platforms include Squarespace and Shopify and are often referred to as “all-in-one” platforms because they are built from templates and hosted on their own servers. These offer a simpler and more straightforward method of creating a website for those who aren’t as tech-savvy. However, with hosted platforms, you are always connected to the host, which could be an issue down the line since you don’t have the flexibility you may want.
On the other hand, there are many self-hosted platforms for you to choose from. Some popular open-source CMSs that we design and develop at New Target are WordPress and Drupal. Both are widely used platforms with large supporting communities. In addition, self-hosted CMSs come with may benefits like unique domain names, better SEO opportunities, plugins, built-in customer support, and so much more.
Nobody knows your business better than you, so it is up to you and the needs of your business when deciding what type of CMS would be best.
B2B CMS FEATURES
– Content Management: Your B2B advertising team can easily create, edit, post, and manage web content. A CMS lets you control all the content on your B2B website.
– Display Compatibility: A CMS allows you to customize and optimize content display on various devices and operating systems.
– Content Measurement: A CMS allows you to access necessary performance data parameters like reading rate, download rate, and content view.
–Â Ecommerce Integration: If your B2B business has an ecommerce store, some CMSs have high integration using APIs to support multichannel content publishing.
– Multi-language Translation: If your B2B business operates on a global scale or has foreign customers, you can use a CMS to translate content into other languages.
– Content System Stability: Most of the CMSs available now are stable and contain very few or no bugs.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A CMS
Besides deciding if you want a hosted or self-hosted CMS, there are some other things to consider, including:
COST AND MAINTENANCE
You need to give significant consideration to the cost when choosing a CMS. Although open source generally means you can use the platform for free, associated costs will vary depending on your own business’ needs. If you want to take your B2B company to the next level and use your resources wisely, contact us at New Target, as we are specialized in many CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, and more. Many CMS platforms offer basic and predesigned templates if you are concerned with being overwhelmed by options. For example, Squarespace is inexpensive and is completely template-based. On the other hand, WordPress costs a bit more but has an extensive library of customizable templates for all your needs. The amount of money you spend on your CMS will depend on the level of customization your B2B website requires.
IMMEDIATE WEBSITE GOALS
For a B2B business, your goal is probably to drive traffic to your website, turn that traffic into qualified leads and turn those leads into sales to grow your business. Starting with the first step, if you want to drive more traffic to your website, you need to choose a CMS that works well with SEO efforts. SEO work is done through design, content, strategy, and development. The two most popular tools available for SEO are Yoast and Rank Math, both being WordPress plugins.
BUSINESS GROWTH
As your B2B business grows, you want a website that can grow with it. Are you adding a new product? Or are you thinking about ERP integrations? You shouldn’t have to overhaul your website to accommodate an influx of business or integrate a new process. You want a CMS that gives you access to extensive libraries of extensions, plugins, and supporting documentation. You also want the luxury of customization, so as your business expands or changes, you are already connected to the tools that allow you to facilitate that growth.
WHICH DOES NEW TARGET LIKE?
Besides deciding if you want a hosted or self-hosted CMS, there are some other things to consider, including:
COST AND MAINTENANCE
You need to give significant consideration to the cost when choosing a CMS. Although open source generally means you can use the platform for free, associated costs will vary depending on your own business’ needs. If you want to take your B2B company to the next level and use your resources wisely, contact us at New Target, as we are specialized in many CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, and more. Many CMS platforms offer basic and predesigned templates if you are concerned with being overwhelmed by options. For example, Squarespace is inexpensive and is completely template-based. On the other hand, WordPress costs a bit more but has an extensive library of customizable templates for all your needs. The amount of money you spend on your CMS will depend on the level of customization your B2B website requires.
IMMEDIATE WEBSITE GOALS
For a B2B business, your goal is probably to drive traffic to your website, turn that traffic into qualified leads and turn those leads into sales to grow your business. Starting with the first step, if you want to drive more traffic to your website, you need to choose a CMS that works well with SEO efforts. SEO work is done through design, content, strategy, and development. The two most popular tools available for SEO are Yoast and Rank Math, both being WordPress plugins.
BUSINESS GROWTH
As your B2B business grows, you want a website that can grow with it. Are you adding a new product? Or are you thinking about ERP integrations? You shouldn’t have to overhaul your website to accommodate an influx of business or integrate a new process. You want a CMS that gives you access to extensive libraries of extensions, plugins, and supporting documentation. You also want the luxury of customization, so as your business expands or changes, you are already connected to the tools that allow you to facilitate that growth.
WHICH DOES NEW TARGET LIKE?
We think it’s important to consider your options when it comes to something as important as choosing a CMS, but our favorite, especially for B2B businesses, is WordPress. Here are some reasons why we like WordPress as a CMS.
EASY INTEGRATIONS
WordPress offers seemingly endless integrations. If you want a feature on your website, chances are WordPress can provide it for you. For example, B2B companies traditionally relied on in-person trade shows, but after the pandemic hit in 2020, there was a need to shift to online. Online trade shows are expanding, so the easy video integration WordPress provides is great for B2B marketing. In addition, WordPress integrates with Zoom and provides a lot of options for creating virtual meeting spaces and webinars to connect with customers. WordPress also integrates with other big names like YouTube and offers plugins to manage your video content through your website.
PORTABILITY
WordPress is nonproprietary and open source, giving you the freedom to take your website with you wherever you want. This could mean anything from switching hosting services or switching designers or agencies as your business develops. You no longer have to rely on a single person or company to maintain your website. WordPress gives you unlimited flexibility and can give you whatever your heart desires.
SEO
Many CMSs can be restrictive in terms of SEO. WordPress, however, allows you to edit the side code to customize metadata, H1 tags, and image ALT tags. Therefore, WordPress is the most versatile CMS for SEO based on our experiences. Also, as we mentioned before, there are great WordPress plugins for SEO.
SECURITY
We have found WordPress to be a very secure platform if the software and servers are well managed and kept up to date.
Our advanced WordPress design and development team in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA delivers websites that meet all of your advanced content editing and publishing needs with rich features and functionality.
Although WordPress is the most popular CMS right now and currently our preferred platform, Drupal deserves honorable mention. Drupal is an open source CMS that allows you to customize your website fully. At New Target, we are also a leading Drupal agency, and our experienced engineers develop intuitive Drupal-based websites for our clients no matter the size.
One of our Washington DC-based clients, McGillivray Steele Elkin LLP, came to us looking for an innovative website redesign. Their previous website was built in a custom CMS that was not mobile-friendly, difficult to update, and cumbersome. New Target took on the challenge and chose Drupal as their CMS to give their firm all the functionality it needed.
Choosing the right CMS for your B2B website comes down to your business’ needs, goals, and budget. It can be a tricky task, but you are not alone! At New Target, we can pick the right CMS for your business that will give you all the tools essential to the success of your unique business.
