Content Management Systems (CMSs) are the most important and ubiquitous technologies on the internet. They are essential for today’s digital environment. Where there are people, there is content. And where there is content, there is a CMS. If you need to publish a photo or a comment on social media, there is a CMS behind that. Do you want to post an article on a blog? A CMS is there too. It is no wonder the global CMS market is expected to exceed US $25.5 billion by 2028.

Despite the use of CMSs in nearly every area of the digital world, and their significant advancements in recent decades, many people continue to view them merely as publishing tools. That’s why many organizations still operate using inefficient workflows — first writing text in Word and then copying, pasting, and publishing it on a CMS like WordPress.

In reality, CMS tools are going beyond mere publishing. According to a report from Forrester Research, “The Five Key Trends That Will Shape Your Content Services Strategy,” knowledge management will shape the CMS market in the coming years. In other words, CMSs are crucial for content reuse, aggregation, and searching, as well as for the reinforcement of content governance policies.

Traditionally, CMSs have operated based on a separation between managing and delivering content. Management content involves control, modeling, and versioning, while delivery focuses on performance and optimization — encompassing what happens after you click the publish button. However, organizations have recently been overvaluing delivery.

One example of a shift away from this mindset, which focuses solely on delivery, is how National Geographic uses its CMS. The system aggregates content from various sources within the organization, including its international branches and user submissions, into a single, searchable repository. With this setup, users can access years of content creation in one place. Such aggregation enables editors to quickly curate content for special editions or continuous news cycles.

For instance, if a global event occurs, like the eruption of a volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean, the editorial team can easily compile related articles, videos, and interviews from both their archives and current submissions.

This is possible, of course, because of National Geographic’s powerful content strategy. The organization based its design on a CMS that has robust search capabilities (to retrieve content for reuse) as well as efficient tagging and governance systems that can assign metadata to each piece of content, such as the topic, relevance, source, and permission for reuse.

This type of content strategy reveals the increased opportunities that CMSs provide — not only for developers but also for content teams. Generally, marketing content teams are tempted to focus too much on creating, delivering, and tracking content, while paying less attention to contextualization and reuse of content.

Collaboration and productivity
There are further advantages of CMSs beyond simple publishing. For example, with the increasing adoption of AI, one emerging use is the application of CMSs for managing content validation. For example, before publishing content, the CMS could automatically check the legality of media usage in the target region and whether the content was created using AI. This process would help prevent potential legal issues and ensure a brand’s integrity.

For all stakeholders, this perspective offers endless benefits. One statistic shows that only 28% of organizations excel at the fast deployment of content. Using a CMS to manage your content, you can boost the productivity of content marketing teams and overcome the challenge of deploying content quickly. When a CMS organizes and contextualizes your content, you can will have quick access to find and use data related to any topic, synchronized and organized according to your specifications.

You can also boost your organization’s collaboration and workflow. CMSs naturally eliminate information silos. According to the 2023 Digital Trends report from Adobe, “Content Management in Focus", 42% of organizations still have content workflow issues that a CMS could resolve. A CMS, for example, ensures that everyone — from designers to legal advisors — can access the same version of content, which will reduce inconsistencies and duplicated work.

In summary, CMSs are critical tools in the current digital landscape. Implementing a CMS for tasks that go beyond publishing will provide various benefits. Think about how your organization can benefit from this expanded perspective.