Headless CMS Blog

Read everything on headless CMS technology, tips, best practices, and how-tos.

Aug 18, 2022

Is Artificial Intelligence Replacing Jobs in Marketing?

As AI develops, many people in the workforce have been concerned about how technology may affect their job security. However, this concern is likely misplaced. According to While it may seem that more tasks being handled by AI will lead to workers losing their jobs or careers, the reality is that as AI handles more work processes, employees will have more time and bandwidth for tasks that require a more human touch. This may allow companies to focus more time and effort on innovation and collaboration.According to the World Economic Forum, AI is expected to fuel long-term job growth due to economic expansion related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution — developments prompted by technologies such as AI. Technologies such as AI and AR are expected to provide valuable support to human employees in industries such as marketing, rather than pushing employees aside. Where AI Can’t Completely Replace HumansAlthough AI can help develop certain industries, there are some areas where AI cannot compete effectively with humans. These jobs typically require interpersonal skills and involve creativity and innovation. Customer PreferenceUnlike AI, humans can better understand variations in tone and nuances in human language. They can also more easily identify where miscommunications are taking place and how to properly field them. And although AI typically has a large pool of resources to offer suggestions for common customer issues, human employees can offer an empathetic response, which may improve a customer’s experience. Nuanced RequestsBecause AI adapts based on previous information that it has collected, it may be less effective when it comes to fielding less common requests — particularly if the request is complex. AI's difficulties fielding requests may be further exacerbated by the unique ways people voice them. Human employees may not only be better equipped to correctly honor requests in this situation, but they may also provide more seamless interactions that reduce a customer’s frustration. Human-Level QualityHumans are better equipped to provide high-quality results in creative pursuits such as writing, story-building and developing marketing strategies. This is particularly relevant if your business has specific guidelines for quality such as style guides and company-specific goals. Many AI applications are built for more generalized purposes to serve a wide variety of businesses and may not be suited to highly unique task specifications. The cookie-cutter and sometimes awkward outcomes provided by AI-generated writing applications could not only read as awkward to consumers but also result in your content being flagged as spam by Google . Therefore, although AI-generated content is possible, you must be strategic about it.Where AI Can Replace or Augment HumansOn the other hand, there are many areas where AI and automation can very effectively replace human efforts for business tasks or otherwise offer substantial assistance. Largely, these areas have to do with highly repetitive tasks.Task AutomationSimple, repetitive tasks are typically those that are most well-suited to being managed by AI. There are fewer variables the application needs to account for, and the necessary data will be easier to collect and process. Simple content management tasks and email outreach and follow-up are ideal for AI-driven automation. These applications are only becoming more sophisticated with the development of technologies such as headless CMS which do not require a highly static structure. ChatbotsAI can effectively manage chatbots because they typically process common, simple requests. For example, someone may use a chatbot to ask the price of an item or to ask where they can find information about a service or product. The limited nature of these interactions means that companies can have a high level of confidence in the AI’s ability to accurately respond to these questions. How AI Can Help Human MarketersAlthough AI stands to improve several industries and departments within a company, marketing should witness the most changes because of AI. AI can improve marketing outcomes and ultimately lead to success for both the company and the individual. As in other fields, AI can provide support by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks such as email outreach and follow-ups and potentially even some aspects of content creation. AI can also allow marketers to keep many of their processes in-house. For example, automated software updates can reduce or eliminate the need to outsource IT efforts. Why Marketers Should Learn to Leverage AIAI is quickly becoming the norm, and marketers who fail to familiarize themselves with AI applications may find themselves behind the pack in their industry. AI can help speed up the process of producing large quantities of marketing materials and digital content so human marketers can focus on the more important tasks.Rather than threatening your job security, AI can improve your productivity and benefit your company as a whole by allowing you to focus on what matters most in your job.

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Aug 05, 2022

What You Need to Know About Digital Accessibility

To be digitally accessible means to create an equally accessible online environment for employees and job seekers with disabilities. No different than creating an accessible brick-and-mortar store, developing digital accessibility is essential for a business’s success.There are many benefits of digital accessibility for employers, employees and job seekers. One notable advantage is that it creates an opportunity to embrace diversity in the workplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on persons with disabilities in the workforce, 19.1% of persons with a disability were employed in 2021 compared to 17.9% in 2020. While the future is uncertain, it’s safe to assume the importance of digital accessibility will remain as vital as it is today. Let’s dive into what digital accessibility is and how it’s beneficial for employers and job seekers. What Is Digital Accessibility? As defined by Georgetown Law, digital accessibility “refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, digital tools, and technologies, by people with disabilities.” Digital accessibility isn’t just for the workplace; it’s for every interaction individuals with disabilities have with technology. Technology, digital tools or other online interactions should always be developed with accessibility in mind. Failure to create a digitally accessible environment — especially in the workplace — could lead to a range of implications, including failure to comply with the American Disability Act (ADA).  Workplace Accessibility LawsThe American Disability Act (ADA) is “a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.” Common violations of the ADA include:Denying individuals an opportunity for employment because of their disabilityIntently refraining from promoting or providing a raise for employees with a disabilityFailure to provide required accommodations like wheelchair ramps and handicap-accessible parkingExamples of digital accessibility violations include:Poor color contrastNo closed-captioning option for videos and other visual aidsThe Web Active Initiative - Accessibility Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) was developed to make web content and applications more accessible to people with disabilities. While WAI-ARIA isn’t a legal matter, it is an essential set of standards used by many to create accessible content.  Digital Accessibility for EmployersWhen asked to develop a digitally accessible workplace, you’re being asked to create an online atmosphere that adheres to all three states of a disability: permanent, temporary and situational. Permanent disability: A permanent disability, also known as a long-term disability (LTD), is a mental or physical disability that affects an individual long-term and doesn’t go away. Permanent disabilities will affect an individual’s ability to perform daily tasks expected of other employees. Examples of permanent disabilities include spinal cord or brain injuries. Temporary disability: A temporary disability, also known as a short-term disability (STD), is a mental or physical disability that affects an individual over a shorter period, eventually going away. Examples of temporary disabilities include broken bones or a concussion;Situational disability: A situational disability, also known as a situational impairment, is when an individual has difficulty using digital technology as the result of a one-off scenario. An example of a situational disability is becoming visually impaired when viewing a website because of poor page lighting. Creating an accessible digital workplace that embraces the above disabilities and beyond can help improve the way employers and employees consume internal communications. Digital Accessibility Technology for Employers Improving a website’s digital accessibility can be difficult without the help of software and other technological tools. To remove that stress, IT professionals, digital marketers and web developers should consider implementing one or more of the below tools to maximize their site’s accessibility. While the above departments are typically responsible for implementing digital accessibility, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done without them. Below are examples of digital tools and solutions created for employers and job seekers who value accessibility.Accessibility Testing ToolsDigital accessibility testing tools help users identify a website’s usability. These testing tools will conduct automated testing and allow users to perform manual audits to pinpoint the system’s performance and whether or not it’s accessible. Here are a few popular accessibility testing tools and solutions:Adobe Acrobat Document Cloud (DC); Axe DevTools Chrome plugin;CKSource Accessibility Checker;Color Contrast Checker;Dynomapper;Quality Logic;Remediate.co;SortSite;WAVE.There are many accessibility testing tools to choose from. Read reviews and ask for recommendations from trusted professionals before selecting an accessibility testing solution. Closed-Captioning SoftwareClosed-captioning software helps users with hearing impairments follow along with video and other audio-based media on a website. Businesses with audio-heavy websites should have closed-captioning options to ensure those with hearing impairments can understand their content. If users can’t understand a site’s content because of a lack of accessibility, a business’s credibility can be damaged. There are multiple digital closed captioning solutions that can help.3Play Media;Amara;Captioning Star;Otter.ai;Rev;Videolinq;Vitac;YouTube.Websites with little to no audio should still consider closed-captioning solutions. Failure to do so may violate ADA laws. Per the FCC guidelines, all content aired on public television is required to have closed captions if this same content is posted online.Websites are not legally required to have closed captioning, but this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. Opting out of this accessibility tool can alienate staff, prospective employees and customers, causing damage to your brand’s image and your business.  CMS and Headless CMSA content management system (CMS) is a software application that marketing teams use to create, publish and manage content for websites, applications and other digital experiences. CMS software can streamline workflows and ensure content satisfies regulatory standards as well. An enterprise CMS can:Encourages team collaborationsImproves customer experienceIncreases efficiencyReduces management costsTracks marketing information A headless CMS manages and organizes content without a connected front-end or display layer. Compared to traditional CMS software, a headless CMS offers these benefits for providing accessibility:Assign text equivalents to images, implement labeled form fields and ensure keyboard accessibility to all user interface componentsEnsure WAI-ARIA standards are met across all platformsMaintain regulatory standards, avoiding potential fines and lawsuits with an accessibility checkerPrompt authors for alternative content, such as alt text on images, or audio descriptions and text transcripts for videoOffer a uniform experience to all usersStreamline voice and visual search optimizationReview the above in further detail before choosing a CMS can help ensure you get the best system for your accessibility needs.Color CheckersThis simple yet valuable accessibility tool enables users with visual impairments such as color blindness or low vision to customize a website’s color, contrast and lighting. Accessibility color contrast analyzing tools to consider include:ACART Contrast Checker;Colorable;ColorBox;Colour Contrast Checker;Contrast;Contrast Ratio;Deque Color Contrast Analyzer;Tanaguru Contrast Finder;WebAIM. Keyboard Navigation OptimizationsTo be considered digitally accessible, a website must be fully accessible and operable using only a keyboard. Keyboard navigation optimization tools are often recommended when developing an accessible digital experience strategy. According to the California State Universal Design Center, to be keyboard accessible, a web page must not only be keyboard operable; it must also have: A visible keyboard focus to allow users to identify the primary focus elements on a page Appropriate tab order so users can navigate the pageNo keyboard traps that prevent users from accessing parts of the pageIndividuals with motor skill impairments often rely on this adaptive technology to help them perform their duties. This is why keyboard accessibility is essential to creating a digitally accessible workplace.Digital Experience Design SoftwareWhile the above software helps with accessibility, it takes digital experience design software to create the ultimate user experience. The main focus of digital experience design is to improve interactions with all website users, including job seekers. Digital experience design can improve interactions between users and:Email campaignsOnline advertisingSelf-help kiosksSocial media postsVirtual chatbotsYour websiteA digital experience management strategy can help ensure that customers have positive interactions with your business. A digital experience platform will enable you to create, manage, deliver and optimize digital experiences across all channels in your customer’s journey. How Digital Accessibility Benefits EmployersIt’s no secret that enabling digital accessibility embraces diversity in the workplace. However, this isn’t the only benefit for employers. Improving digital accessibility as a business can:Attract like-minded job seekersBoost employee moraleBuild brand awarenessCreate a positive and diverse workplace cultureIncrease productivity While it may seem like a lot to check off from your to-do list, ensuring your business is accessible from all ends is vital. The software and tools mentioned above can lessen your workload and ensure that you provide quality services. Additional Digital Accessibility Resources for EmployersThese resources offer more information about developing digital accessibility for your business:Disability Equality Index;Inclusion@Work;JAN Workplace Accommodation Toolkit; Syracuse University Employer Toolkit;What’s New in WCAG 2.1;Work Without Limits.Now that we’ve seen the benefits of digital accessibility for employers, let’s take a look at how it can positively affect those seeking employment. Digital Accessibility for Job SeekersFinding a new job without limitations is a stressful process in itself, but the stress is amplified for job seekers with disabilities.   There are ways that you, as a job seeker, can improve the digital accessibility of the website you’re accessing. Employers with basic disability etiquette will make it known on their site in a variety of ways. To ensure a website is accessible, ask yourself the following questions: Do they include alt texts for their images?Is there an option for closed captioning?Do you have software to check the color contrast?Can you access every tab on the page from your keyboard? If so, do the tabs appear to be in order?These are also signs a website isn’t accessible:Missing and/or incorrect media captionsPage timeout restrictionsPoor screen contrastHow Digital Accessibility Benefits EmployeesEmployers show they’re attempting to understand and improve the user’s experience when they remove barriers and unnecessary restrictions often seen on other websites.Inclusive companies will also focus on embracing your abilities beyond the application process and during the interview. If you notice a prospective employer only appears to be accessible on paper and not in person, then it could be a sign they’re not the right company for you.  You may consider seeking employers that offer flexible schedules or allow you to work from home.  Advocate for yourself and others if you feel a business isn’t accessible enough. After all, they can’t improve if they’re unaware of any accessibility issues. How to Address Accessibility With a Potential EmployerAddressing accessibility to an employer can be an awkward situation. Here are a few tips for discussing your disability with an employer:Decide if you want to have the conversation. You are not legally required to disclose a disability to an employer. However, they can’t provide optimal accessibility if they’re unaware of what alterations to make.Create a rough draft of what to say before you talk to them.Review their accessibility policy for areas that need improvement.Additional Digital Accessibility Resources for Job SeekersYour rights as an employee are protected by the ADA. Review these rights to ensure you’re not being asked to disclose information you’re not required to provide. You can refer to the Department of Labor’s guide on disability rights to learn more about how you can make an impact on the way your workplace embraces accessibility.  

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Jul 14, 2022

Automated Content Management: How Technology Can Make Life Easier

What Is Content Automation? Content automation is a digital marketing strategy that replaces human intervention in the content lifecycle with an automated alternative, saving time and money and freeing up resources. Sounds vital, right? In content marketing there are many opportunities to program or automate repetitive processes, allowing marketing agents to focus on more important tasks such as strategy and planning. Here are some examples of tasks a content marketing automation platform can perform:  Publishing blog posts and distributing content on social media sites Tracking and monitoring user behavior and engagementProofreading content for grammar and spelling mistakesCreating and sending automated emails to a targeted audience, based on behavior and triggersTranslating text into other languages and natural language processing (NLP)Writing content that does not need human interventionWhat Is Automated Content Management and How Does It Work? Automated content management is the human element required to set up and manage automated content. Before any automation can occur there needs to be a well-planned strategy that defines the goals and the method of achieving those goals.  There are a wide range of content automation tools available, so step one is for the executive marketing team to agree which tools are necessary and which tools will justify themselves in time and money saved in the long run. Once the tools are in place, users need to be thoroughly trained to ensure that your organization can reach the full potential of the automation tools. Once the training is complete, the creative work, the fun stuff, begins. Creating written, video or audio content to push out to the audience, in a way that keeps them engaged and results in conversions, is at the core of marketing. Using automation, content can be personalized to a degree that would never be possible if an individual had to carry out the work, but it takes a human to design the process and set up the triggers and options that will keep on delighting your customers. What a human can do when managing content automation: Identify the optimal tools to use for the organization.Establish goals and a timeframe for measuring success of the tools.Train the individuals or teams who use the automation tools.Map out the touchpoints of the customer journey.Create the assets the automation tools will publish.Analyze reports generated by the automation tools and make data-driven business decisions. Push the automation tools to do more and achieve more.The Benefits of Automated Content Management The benefits of automated content management are multiple and can be clearly measured: Save Time Content automation is the answer to those repetitive but time-consuming tasks. Rather than asking your team to laboriously set up individual email newsletters, publish individual social media posts and search for qualified leads, item by item, they can focus on what they do best: creating dynamic content. Leave the machines to the automation and the humans to high-level thinking that will grow the business.Save Money With saving on time comes a saving of money — and less need to have an ever-expanding team. Now the business can employ the right people to manage the tools but will save on a wide team of employees doing the time-consuming tasks. Time will be saved, productivity will increase and as a result the organization will save money.Boost Creativity Relieve your team from the mind-numbing boredom of repetitive tasks and ask them to bring creative ideas to the table. This will inspire and empower workers to engage and will boost creative energy and morale. This can help reduce turnover and the associated costs of replacing staff.Improve Workflow When the individuals in the team know their roles and responsibilities and are free of mundane and time-consuming tasks they can work faster and more efficiently. Ideas can flow, the process of marketing campaign creation can speed up and client relationships can flourish.Nurture Leads Never miss an opportunity again with automated tools that can score new customers and send out handy reminders and timely communications. Automation tools can curate, manage and nurture high volumes of potential leads before they even hit the inboxes of the sales team. No more sifting through a mountain of emails or paperwork; sales teams can focus on the cream of the crop, presented to them clutter-free. How to Get Started With Automated Content Management The first step is to identify the task that best suits automation. It should be a task that is time-consuming, possible to automate and will bring faster and cheaper results. Once you identify the task and goals, you will need to map out a workflow and create any assets that are required. It is key that the results of the automation are measurable so the programs can be constantly updated, monitored and improved upon.Examples of Automated Content Marketing Tools Vendors in the content automation space have two basic business models. The first is to create simple tools with a single functionality, such as Grammarly for editing and proofreading written work. Another popular choice among vendors provides entire platforms where users are able customize every aspect of their website, such as Marketo, which also includes marketing automation, email marketing, lead management and revenue attribution. Hubspot, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, has all the tools and integrations required for marketing, sales, content management and customer service. The Future of Automated Content Management Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm and the potential it brings is evolving all the time. The combination of automated content management and artificial intelligence is a great tool for giving workers back the time they need to perform more complex tasks that still require a human brain. Here are some examples of ways automation can make life easier: Machine learning: A machine automatically learns new things without being programmed. Interaction between AI tools:  A voice-activated smart speaker to control household appliances is one example. Automated content creation: AI can now create content from scratch, such as writing articles, reports and transcriptions. Natural language processing and generation: A machine reads or speaks in a human language. On-the-spot SEO improvements: AI enabled CMSes are able to identify real-time SEO improvements Content gap identification: AI can spot gaps in content and alert the business to fill the gap Customer service automations: Chatbots are already commonplace, but they are advancing to the point where they can provide around-the-clock support without routing back to human agents.Conclusion When automation is used intelligently it can engage and retain customers and lead them down the funnel with almost no human assistance. The savings in time and human resources are undisputed and the real win comes from being able to do more with less. With automation, the blue-sky thinking can really take flight. Get started with automated content management and AI with Contentstack. Your organization can push boundaries by adopting a composable CMS that’s built to integrate with AI-enabled content management tools.  Contentstack is an agile CMS that’s part of the MACH revolution. It’s microservices-based, API-connected, cloud-native, and is built on headless architecture from the ground up. Contact us today to schedule a demo.

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Jul 14, 2022

What You Need to Know About E2E Testing with Playwright

Contentstack recently launched Marketplace, a one-stop destination that allows users to find, create and publish apps, connect with third-party apps and more. It aims to amplify the customer experience by enabling them to streamline operations. Marketplace now has a few Contentstack-developed apps and we will introduce more in the future.Initially, we tried to test these apps manually but found this too time-consuming and not scalable. The alternative was to use an end-to-end (E2E) testing tool (Playwright in our case), which helped us streamline and accelerate the process of publishing the apps.Playwright is a testing and automation framework that enables E2E testing for web apps. We chose Playwright because of its classic, reliable and fast approach. Besides, its key features such as one-time login, web-first approach, codegen and auto-wait make Playwright suitable for the task at hand.This article will walk you through the processes we used and the learnings we gathered.Our Testing ProcessesIn this section, we detail the processes we followed to test the Marketplace apps using Playwright.Set-up and Tear-down of Test DataPlaywright permits setting up (prerequisites) and tearing down (post-processing) of test data on the go, which helped us accelerate our testing.There are additional options available for this:global set-upglobal tear-downbeforeAll & afterAll hooksbeforEach & afterEach hooksIdeally, a test establishes prerequisites automatically, thereby saving time. Playwright helped us do that easily. Once the test was concluded, we deleted the app, content type, entry or the other data we initially set up.Playwright helped us achieve the following on the go:Auto-create app in the dev centerAuto-create content type and entryTest Directory StructureWe added all the test-related files and data to the test's repository. The following example explains the process:For the illustration app (see image below), we added the E2E test inside the 'test/e2e' folder.Next, we included the 'page-objects/pages' (diverse classes) for multiple web pages and tests. The Page Object Model is a popular pattern that allows abstractions on web pages, simplifying the interactions among various tests.We then placed the different tests (spec.js) under the test folders and the utility operations under /utilsAll the dependencies of E2E tests were put in the same .json package but under dev dependencies.We attached .env(env. sample) with correct comments to add the environment variables correctly.After that, we added support for basic auth on staging/dev.In the next stage, we added the Readme.md details about the project.We used the global-setup for login management to avoid multiple logins.Next, we used the global-tear-down option to break the test data produced during the global-setup stage.Finally, we used beforeAll/afterAll hooks to set-up/breakdown test data for discrete tests.How to Use Playwright Config Options & Test HooksGlobal-setup & Global tear-down:Both global-setup and global tear-down can be configured in the Playwright config file.Use global-setup to avoid multiple logins (or any other task later required during the test execution) before the tests start:Global set-up easily evades repetitive steps like basic auth login and organization selection.That way, when the tests are conducted, the basic requirements are already in place.Below is the example of a sample code snippet for a global set-up:Use global-tear-down to break down any test data created during the global-setup file.The test data generated using global-setup can be eliminated in global-teardown.While global-setup/global-teardown are the config option/s for an entire test suite, before/after tests hooks are for the individual tests.Test Hooks Available in PlaywrightPlaywright hooks improve the efficiency of testing solutions. Here is a list of test hooks available in Playwright:test.beforeAll & test.afterAllThe test.beforeAll hook sets test data shared between test execution like entries, creating content types and establishing a new stack. The test.afterAll hook is used to break or tear the test data. This option helps eliminate any trace of data created for test purposes.test.beforeEach&test.afterEachThis hook is leveraged to set up and break down test data for individual tests. However, the individual text execution and the concurring data might vary. Users can set up the data according to their needs.Tips & Tricks for Using PlaywrightWhile using Playwright, we learned a few valuable lessons and tips that could be useful to you:Using the codegen feature to create tests by recording your actions is a time-saving approach.You can configure Retires in the playwright config file. It helps in case of a test failure. You can re-run the test to come up with relevant results.The Trace Viewer allows you to investigate a test failure. This feature includes test execution screencast, action explorer, test source, live DOM snapshots and more.Use the timeout feature for execution and assertion during testing.By setting up a logger on Playwright, you can visualize the test execution and breakpoints.Using the test data attributes during a feature development navigates the test through multiple elements, allowing you to identify any element on the DOM quickly.Recommended Best PracticesWhile using Playwright for E2E testing of our marketplace apps, we identified a few best practices that might come in handy for other use cases.Parallelism:Test files run by default on Playwright, allowing multiple worker processes to run simultaneously.Tests can be conducted in a single file using the same worker process.It's possible to disable the test/file execution and run it parallelly to reduce workers in the config file.The execution time increases with the number of tests; parallelly running tests are independent.Isolation:Each browser context is a separate incognito instance, and it's advisable to run each test in individual browsers to avoid any clash.In isolation, each browser can emulate multi-page scenarios.It's possible to set up multiple project requirements in playwright config as per the test environment similar to baseURL, devices and browserName.Speed of Execution:Parallel test execution, assigning worker processes and isolation expedite the running of test results.Elements like test data, global tear-down and set-up affect the execution speed regardless of the number of worker processes.Double Quotes Usage:Use double quotes if you come across multiple elements on the exact partial string.Help establish case sensitivity. For instance, awaitpage.locator('text=Checkout') can return both elements if it finds a "Checkout" button and another "Check out this new shoe."The double usage quotes can also help return the button on its own, like await page.locator('text="Checkout"'). For details, check out the Playwright text selectors.Prioritizing User-facing Attributes:It's advisable to use user-facing elements like text context, accessibility tiles and labels whenever possible. Avoid using "id" or "class" to identify elements. For example, use await page.locator('text=Login') instead of await page.locator('#login-button') is recommended.A real user will not find the id but the button by the text content.Use Locators Instead of Selectors:Locators will reduce flakiness or breakage when your web page changes. You may not notice breakages when using standard selectors.Example:se await page.locator('text=Login').click() instead of await page.click('text=Login').Playwright makes it easy to choose selectors, ensuring proper and non-flaky testing.Wrapping UpIn a world dominated by Continuous Integration and Delivery, E2E testing is the need of the hour. Though it's a tedious task, following the practices above will save you time and improve your product.

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Jun 30, 2022

The Benefits of an Enterprise CMS

If you're a marketer, you know how important it is to have an enterprise content management system that can handle all of your content needs. But what makes it an enterprise CMS (eCMS) instead of just a CMS? The main difference is that an eCMS can manage multiple websites and large volumes of web content, through a single interface and a single sign-on. Enterprise CMSes provide organizations with a tool to capture, organize, store and deliver an ever-increasing volume of digital information — documents, images, emails, rich media and other types of valuable business content.An effective eCMS should allow you to manage your website's content easily and efficiently, without having to go through a web developer every time you want to make a change. Training people to use the eCMS effectively is vital for the success of your website, and when done properly it will save time and money in the long term. Should you invest in an enterprise CMS? With so many different CMS options available, how do you know which one is right for your business? Here are the top 10 benefits of using an eCMS for your company website. 1. Increases efficiency. An enterprise CMS can automate many tasks related to managing and distributing content, which leads to faster turnaround times and fewer errors. The more critical information there is in the business, the more time it takes to keep it organized and accessible. An enterprise CMS efficiently organizes content, making it easy to locate and access, which in turn means you can save time, increase productivity and focus on more important tasks.2. Keeps track of all your information. Enterprises keep track of a large amount of information. There needs to be a way to store and file this information that prevents lost man-hours, shuffling through paperwork or searching for missing or misplaced items. An enterprise CMS offers efficient, accessible and secure document management, giving all stakeholders a smoother experience. Here are some examples:A marketer working on a new campaign can find and take lessons from previous campaigns.A software designer can access customer problem reports before working on solutions.Purchasing agents can access previous purchase orders.Customer support staff can view customer records quickly to offer better customer service. 3. Reduces costs. Investing in an enterprise-class CMS can help you save money long term by streamlining content management processes and eliminating the need for multiple third-party software applications. With the vast amount of digital content created and maintained, it is important to keep track of storage costs and know your cold from your hot data. An eCMS gives fast access to this data, allowing you to save money by storing cold data at a lower cost. An eCMS can also save time for your team by reducing man-hours spent on projects. As fewer people are required to manage the system once it is set up and running smoothly, your teams are free to focus on more productive tasks.Having an efficient eCMS can also create the environment for a paperless office — saving money on physical storage and reducing your organization’s environmental impact. 4. Allows document version control. With an eCMS your organization can experience seamless teamwork and you’ll have more control over important documents. Your team can track notes and comments simultaneously while collaborating on documents. You will be able to access previous, time-stamped versions and revert back to them if necessary. 5. Improves collaboration. An eCMS gives teams the platform they need to be more productive, with tools that allow them easily organize and track projects and collaborate efficiently from any location.6. Offers greater security. An eCMS can help protect your company's confidential data by implementing strict access controls and tracking user activity, as well as providing reporting and auditing capabilities. Strict access control will ensure that only authorized individuals can create, edit or delete sensitive assets, and tracking user behavior gives an additional level of security by reinforcing accountability.7. Improves regulatory compliance. Compliance regulations are constantly evolving and the penalties for failure to comply can be huge. An enterprise CMS gives the tools and framework to instill data management policies that control the creation, retention and destruction of sensitive information. 8. Improves customer service. Getting real-time visibility into the status of customer enquiries, requests and transactions allows you to respond quickly to their needs. Online forms and requests speed up interactions, and with trackability comes useful insights for improving the customer experience. 9. Helps with sustainability. In the current climate all organizations need to consider the effect of their impact on the environment. Cutting paper usage, reducing the carbon footprint of storage facilities, printed goods and transportation all help toward a greener future.10. Allows automation. One of the great advances of modern technology is automation, which gives organizations the ability to save time and resources by removing repetitive manual processes. This can be anything from simple document routing and document approvals to workflows and email customer journeys. What Can an Enterprise CMS Do?Capture: Capture content as it enters the systemManage: File and categorize the content Store: Keep active, hot data and content readily available Preserve: Archive cold dataDeliver: Present the right content to the right user at the right timeWhat Should You Look For in an Enterprise CMS?The question remains: How do you choose an enterprise content management system? How does what you currently have in place compare to what’s new on the market? And if you choose to invest in something new, how can you be sure it will be worth it?2-minute guide on how to choose an Enterprise CMS A cloud-Based SaaS solution: Content Management is constantly evolving and you shouldn’t have to replatform every few years just to keep up. Enterprise CMSes needs to stay cutting edge right into the future and with a cloud-based SaaS solution your enterprise CMS will frequently and automatically be improved and updated without disrupting your workflow - so no more expensive upgrades.Customer support that actually cares: You shouldn’t have to fight for your provider’s attention — you need to find a CMS that has qualified people available to answer your questions quickly.Sky’s the limit scalability: With so many customers relying on your CMS, you need a platform you can rely on to run smoothly as your business grows. Why Choose an Agile, Headless CMS for Your Business?Assuming your business has multiple websites and a high volume of content that needs constant updating, monitoring, editing and refreshing, you should be looking at the most flexible and future-proofed eCMS. Opting for an agile headless CMS you get the benefits listed above, plus more:Integrations with extensions and apps via API: The beauty of headless is the flexibility to integrate with third party platforms and tools. Omnichannel for all: Have one central content hub with a unified user experience across the marketing stack.MACH: (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native Saas and Headless) is a set of principles behind futureproof best-of-breed software. Agile, nimble, always up-to-date technology that you can add, replace and combine for your evolving business and customer experience.Speak to us at Contentstack about how using an agile headless CMS can help your organization. Book a demo today.More About Enterprise Content Management SystemsTo learn more about enterprise content management systems, see these articles: What is the Best CMS for Your BusinessWhy Every Enterprise Should Choose a Headless CMS

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Jun 09, 2022

Agile CMS: The Best of Headless

If you're a marketer or developer who's been searching for the best of both worlds, then look no further: An agile CMS is the perfect solution for you. An agile CMS gives you all the power of a traditional CMS while also offering the benefits of a headless setup. Whether you need to manage a large website or simply want more flexibility and control over your content, an agile CMS is the perfect choice.  What is a Headless Agile CMS?A headless agile content management system (CMS) is a decoupled CMS that delivers content through APIs instead of rendering it on the server side. This API-first approach makes headless architecture ideal for agile brands that need to deliver personalized experiences across different consumer touchpoints.The agile CMS is well suited for digital experiences that are built using modern front-end frameworks such as React, Angular and Vue.js. Headless agile CMSes provide a flexible and scalable approach to delivering content, and they allow developers and marketers to create unique and engaging digital experiences. In addition, headless agile CMSes are often more affordable and easier to maintain than traditional server-side CMSes. As a result, headless agile CMSes are becoming increasingly popular among organizations that are looking to build next-generation digital experiences.What Are the Benefits of a Headless Agile CMS Over Traditional CMSes?Agile CMS is a type of content management system that emphasizes speed and flexibility. Unlike traditional CMSes, which can be slow and inflexible, agile CMSes are designed to be quickly updated and easily customized. This makes agile CMSes ideal for businesses that need to frequently update their website content or make changes to their website design. Headless is a core principle of MACH, which is making major waves with its revolutionary approach on a microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native and headless architecture. As a result, agile CMSes offer several benefits over traditional CMSes.User-centered content hubBuilt-in planning and real-time collaboration toolsEase of use for marketers and developers alikeTime savings on projects Content delivery flexibilityIntegration to existing development stack via APIWhat Industries Are Best Suited to Agile?In the world of software development, agile methodology has become widely adopted as the preferred approach for designing and building new applications. Agile CMS is a relatively new approach that combines the benefits of agile methodology with the flexibility of a headless content management system. This makes headless agile CMS well-suited for industries where speed and flexibility are essential, such as media and publishing, e-commerce and marketing. With a headless agile CMS, developers can quickly and easily make changes to the front end of an application without affecting the back end, and vice versa. This allows for a more agile development process that can respond quickly to changing needs and requirements. In addition, headless agile CMS provides greater flexibility for hosting and deploying applications. This makes it an attractive option for companies that want to avoid the hassle and expense of maintaining their own infrastructure. Headless Agile CMS Case StudiesCovea InsuranceCovéa Insurance offers commercial and personal insurance products to customers across the UK. They needed a CMS to consolidate multiple CMSes, integrate with their chatbot, and support the launch of their insurance-as-a-service platform.What did they achieve?Enabled developers to release code within one sprintReduced call center costs through chatbot integration with IBM WatsonOffered a customizable white-label solution platform for individual clientsShaw Academy Online EducationShaw Academy experienced a massive influx of new learners, educators, and course materials due to COVID and desperately needed to upgrade their traditional CMS from the homegrown solution they were using.What did they achieve?50% faster course publishing time; releasing 90 courses in 9 months5 new languages launchedAbility to release content 2x per weekHealth KarmaA fast-growing startup that was mired in the ticket-based content publishing quagmire of legacy CMSes. They needed a content solution that would empower their teams to scale up personalization, allow marketers and developers to work together efficiently, and lay the foundation for sustainable future growth.What did they achieve?Reusable templates that let marketers directly publish contentEasy to create and test variations for personalizationModular infrastructure that strengthens data securityAre There Any Downsides to Using an Agile CMS?An agile CMS is a viable option for developers who are looking for a content management system that will allow them to move quickly and efficiently. It is also a good choice for developers who want to take advantage of the latest technology trends. However, there are some potential downsides to using an agile CMS: Not as widely adopted as other content management systems No built-in user interfaceMore expensive up front than traditional CMSes (but more flexible and future-proof)How Do You Get Started With an Agile CMS?We have a simple-to-integrate and agile CMS that can help bridge the growing divide between traditional and modern marketing management. Watch our agile CMS demonstration. Find out more about agile marketing from And learn the ins and outs of an agile CMS for enterprise businesses by reading See how easy and creative composable commerce can be, at enterprise scale. Using agile headless technology, watch Contentstack build a shop in real time during this webinar series "The ABCs of Composable Commerce."

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Jun 01, 2022

What Is a Content Experience Platform?

As more companies pursue the best approach to create better digital experiences, content experience platforms are on the rise. Today’s consumer expects the research and purchasing journey to be seamless between devices, channels and content. They expect to be recognized and have their loyalty rewarded. Using artificial intelligence, content experience platforms (CXPs) deliver an omnichannel experience, taking customers to next-level interaction. A CXP focuses on the individual user, tracking the unique journey through web, mobile and other forms of customer experience. So now we have a new acronym to add to the multiple-choice as listed by CMSWire: WCM, WEM, CMS, DXP, agile CMS and CSPs. CXP replaces older approaches such as traditional CMS and connects audience interaction across devices and rich content. Businesses can’t afford to stand still. They need a CXP that rises to the challenge and recognizes that no two customers are the same. What is a Content Experience Platform?The CXP is the latest in content management technology: a CMS, but taken to the next level. A content experience platform has speed at its heart and allows companies to create personalized experiences that are designed to retain and engage customers — across multiple channels. In its listing of Top 20 Most Compelling Examples of Personalization Forbes cites Grammarly in the number one position: Grammarly, an app that helps catch grammar mistakes and improve writing, sends weekly reports to users on how their writing has improved. The reports include how many words the user wrote that week, how many mistakes they made and mistakes they made frequently. The report also highlights potential areas for improvement, which helps customers better use the product and improve their communication. A CXP is a centralized tool that organizes assets based on tagging, segmenting, categorizing, individuals, audiences or use cases. When content is organized effectively, personalization can provide custom experiences for audiences. Content can be created and distributed with the aim of capturing leads and driving users to a defined call to action. What Types of Content Can Be Managed With a CXP?VideoAudioImagesArticlesE-books & white papersInfographicsNews feedsInteractive content (e.g., quizzes, surveys, polls, calculators)ChatbotsE-commerce product recommendationsWebsites or blogsHow Is a CXP Different From a CMS? To answer this question we need to take a look at the various types of content management systems that exist today. First, we have the traditional CMS, a low-barrier solution for simple websites. These monoliths deliver editorial content, reporting, customer data, security and administration. The basic CMS provides the software that is the foundation for digital identity, strategy and engagement. However, setting up a traditional in-house CMS, such as Adobe Experience Manager, OpenText TeamSite, Drupal or SDL Tridion, is time-consuming and costly, and these systems can limit creativity by being restrictive and slow. Headless CMS is a different approach using microservices — single-service applications — that you can add, remove or rearrange in a composable ecosystem. This frees you to choose best-of-breed applications that suit your business instead of being limited to solutions prepackaged by a vendor. The headless CMS uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to distribute content to anywhere and everywhere you need it, such as your website, mobile app, email marketing or customer relationship management system. Headless CMSes are easy to use for both IT and business users and streamline content operations to enforce consistency while remaining agile — hence the coining of the term agile CMS or agile headless CMS. This allows companies to connect with customers at scale and respond quickly to market opportunities. The latest technology in the evolution of content management systems is the content experience platform (CXP), not to be confused with a digital experience platform (DXP) — which, according to Gartner, is “an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences.” Aragon Research defines the content experience platform as the “next-generation offering to address the age-old enterprise need to create and deliver dynamic experiences to users on any device” — including content experiences — in a multichannel world.” The key difference with other CMSes lies in the “content experience,” and this is where it widens the scope and introduces new possibilities. A CXP must by nature be omnichannel and must be quick, flexible and able to adapt to new channels quickly. It must sync with touchless, voice-driven and extended reality experiences. It must be possible to integrate it with any tools and technologies to empower analytics, personalization and localization. And it must be easy to use for both content creators and end users so the process of creating content is seamless right from the first idea, through testing and on to publishing. In summary, it offers much more to make composable much easier. What Can a CXP Do? With any kind of technological development it pays to be at the forefront — always surprising the customer and inviting them to engage, convert and remain loyal. Getting ahead of the competition is vital and with a CXP the world is limitless. Anything can be built, published, delivered and distributed. Based on the principles of MACH (Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless), the CXP is a diverse and ever-changing ecosystem that allows innovation and integration. Creativity can flourish without limits. Take the example of Gatorade: Gatorade Tracks Users’ Sweat Gatorade’s Gx platform tests and analyzes how high-level athletes sweat to deliver personalized sports fuel recommendations. Users apply the Gx Sweat Patch before a workout, then scan it afterward to get their unique sweat profile, including how much fluid and sodium was lost and how quickly compared to other athletes. That information creates personalized recommendations for sports refueling to reach their optimal performance and nutrition. A CXP enables you to:Self publish within minutesBuild personalized experiences fastIntegrate with third-party content platforms, such as RSS, YouTube and morePersonalize content into campaign destinationsDeliver real-time, dynamic personalization Leverage the power of AI to predict content recommendationsDrive and capture leads seamlesslyIntegrate with marketing automation platforms such as Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot and HubspotConnect customer behavior with content performanceGet insights that show what content drives the most salesHow to Choose a CXP Now we know a CXP is vital to the success of creating content and retaining customer engagement and loyalty — but how to go about choosing the right one? The important elements to consider are: Integration with legacy software: Does the CXP integrate well with all the marketing, sales or design software your business is using? And can it push content out to your social media channels? Scalability: How much content does your business produce and can the CXP meet the needs of your content creators, marketing and sales departments? Customer support: Does the CXP have a good rating on review websites such as Trust Radius and G2? Is there good collaborative support during integration and continued support for your admins? (i.e., solution-focused vs. vendor finger-pointing) Cost comparison: Does the CXP charge on a monthly or yearly basis, and are the number of licenses restricted? Costs can vary enormously so it is worth researching and comparing vendors.Take the Next Step Today Ready to level up your omnichannel marketing? Schedule a free, two-week trial of Contentstack platform and see why top brands are choosing our content experience platform.

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May 26, 2022

6 ContentCon Lessons on Content Experience Success

There’s nothing like the high energy of an in-person event where people make connections, trade insights and ruminate on innovation together. And dancing. Lots of dancing. That’s how we would describe the atmosphere at our first-ever ContentCon customer conference in Austin this week. We heard from our CEO Neha Sampat on key trends shaping the industry and our evolution from a digital experience services company in the early days of the cloud to the CXP category leader. We also heard from customer speakers like Zach Crittendon, software architect at Levi Strauss & Co, Jon Richards, head of Digital at Golfbreaks, and Edvardas Paskevicius and Óskar Völundarson from Icelandair about their successful composable journeys and lessons learned. 6 Key Takeaways From ContentCon We could share a lot of takeaways from our two-day event, but we settled on our top six. 1: Lead With Technology, But Put Your People First While technology is a great tool to help organizations execute creative campaigns and projects, innovation is driven by your people. Danielle Diliberti leaned on her learnings from implementing Contentstack as CTO at The St. James to build Sommsation from the ground up. Her journey reminds us that technology allows us to rethink the norms of what our people do and enables them to set the bar higher and achieve those aspirations. 2: Work Through Digital Transformation in Phases Digital transformation is just that — a transformation. It takes energy and resources across departments. Levi’s Crittendon emphasized the importance of small phases to accomplish the journey. Start with the homepage, move to a small headless site and only then roll out to major markets, for example. 3: Adopting MACH Can Be Complex. Tap Into the Support! Bob Howland, Chief Digital Officer of Dawn Foods, said in his session: “It takes a village to successfully implement MACH, and you’ll need everyone on the bus.” We feel a sense of responsibility for that bus. That’s why we were proud to unveil Connect without Compromise™ — including Automation Hub, Marketplace and Blueprints — at ContentCon. Worry-free adoption of MACH architecture starts here. 4: Complex Doesn’t Mean Long Turnaround Times In fact, speed is one of the main reasons to move to MACH. We brought together Catalyst partners Algolia, BigCommerce and Cloudinary for a live demo of a PoC we built in four weeks to show that it’s not as challenging as you think. We implemented all of our solutions, including content, search, commerce and digital asset management — and walked away with a working swag store attendees ordered from. 5: Composable Helps You Achieve Business Goals Golfbreaks shared that moving to MACH led to a 67% increase in organic traffic and a 35% increase in site conversion. Richards elaborated on speed, too. Golfbreaks now publishes content 90% quicker and reduced development time by 80%. Where does all this extra time go? Innovation. Crittendon said personalization on the homepage, improved pre-production for the branches and enhanced preview services are what’s next for Levi’s. 6: The Unimaginable Is Possible Icelandair moved from content turbulence to “smooth sailing,” including streamlined translations for 12 languages across 15 locales. Dawn Foods moved from manual, pen-and-paper ordering to a robust, self-service e-commerce infrastructure. Levi’s previously took 20+ weeks to launch new pages with siloed content and commerce. Now they can launch in days, including shoppable editorial. Yes, there is life way beyond the status quo.Our CEO Neha Sampat said it best: We are “super motivated to continue the journey of challenging the status quo and empowering the community to build the best digital experiences on the market.” We’ll take everything we learned to spur innovation, influence our product and customer success teams and better serve our customers. Our first ContentCon was one to remember, and we hope you’ll join us May 8-10, 2023 for the next one!

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May 24, 2022

Introducing Automation Hub for Speed, Flexibility and Scalability

In the last decade, we’ve seen three things separate thriving enterprises from the rest of the pack:SpeedFlexibilityScalability for the futureThey’re the reason why the adoption of composable architecture (or stacks) has soared to an early majority state in the last couple of years. Dawn Foods is a prime example. When they integrated their CMS with their product catalog, one-click order platform and online payment portal, online orders increased by 50%. They also successfully launched six major products within six months of implementation. The composable approach gave them the flexibility and scalability needed to grow the business. Analysts are convinced. Gartner® predicted that “by 2023, organizations that adopt an intelligent, composable approach will outpace their competition by 80% when it comes to the speed of new feature implementation.” Many enterprises recognize that composable architectures with best-of-breed technologies are the way forward. But moving away from monolithic legacy systems to a world of choice isn’t exactly easy. The average marketing organization has deployed 91 different tools across its stack, and the process of integrating them introduces a host of technical and operational challenges. You might have the best stack in the world, but if all the technologies don't communicate and interact with each other, what are you left with? Fragmentation—and a lot of time and frustration spent dealing with it. That’s why we’re launching our industry-first Automation Hub and Connect Without Compromise™ program: to simplify the process of creating composable experiences for organizations. There are three ways this program makes integration fast, easy and seamless. Launching Today: Automation Hub to Overcome Integration Hell While leveraging best-of-breed technologies is the only way to stay competitive, enterprises often find themselves bogged down in what we call “integration hell.” Imagine opening one application to make a change, only to have to open another application to update the data there too, and then another to close the gap there… and APIs only help so much. The solution typically involves writing complex code that is often slow, brittle and requires constant maintenance—not much of a solution. But what if you could enable all these applications to perform tasks automatically with low code – even no code – all within a centralized location? That’s the goal of Automation Hub. Users are no longer forced to weave in and out of applications and manually perform several sub-tasks to accomplish the overall activity. Instead, they can build the flow visually inside Automation Hub, and those sub-tasks complete automatically. As organizations continue to adopt technologies, Automation Hub saves time across the board by automating and streamlining the hundreds of activities that happen across stacks several times every month. It also improves governance by knowing what each step is and how it executes every time — and that’s where the real value lies. Integrate the Tried-and-true Functionality Your Organization Needs with Marketplace Another component of Connect without Compromise™ is Marketplace, a one-stop library of applications to incorporate the functionality you need into your stack. Choose from a wide selection of partner-developed, customer-developed and Contentstack-native applications and quickly integrate them with just a few clicks. The Developer Hub inside Marketplace gives developers a tool to package apps, iterate new versions and set up authentication and security measures. The Venus Component Library ensures the application looks and feels native to your stack and supplies reusable front-end components to speed development along. And if you’re looking to understand what integrations you’re using and where they’re incorporated, Marketplace provides an audit log. Even if you’re unsure what the next step in your composable journey is, the entire library is available to browse. See what other partner or customer organizations have integrated into their stacks and adopt what your organization needs. Building your stack on our extensible app framework ensures that as your organization grows, the tools you need to carry out operations will scale with it. Easy Access to Expertise with Blueprints What if you have never worked with a headless provider or need extra help with implementation? This is where Blueprints comes in. Blueprints is our library of best practices, expert guides and use cases for creating composable experiences. See what others have done before, learn how they accomplished it and what to avoid. Whether or not you’ve worked with composable architecture before, we’ve made it easier for anyone to create as if you have. Connect Without Compromise™ eliminates obstacles so businesses can embrace composable architectures with confidence. Speed, flexibility and scalability for the future are not only within reach, but easier to achieve than ever before. With our foundation, framework and support, businesses will be able to get their composable experiences up and running and create at the speed of their imagination. Now that we’ve made it so much easier, the question is: what will you create Automation Hub BETA will be available in late Summer 2022.

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May 23, 2022

Build, Integrate, and Publish Apps With the Developer Hub

Contentstack is excited to introduce Developer Hub, a powerful platform that allows you to build apps, create integrations for your specific business needs and publish them on Marketplace. The Developer Hub (in Open Beta) is an app development platform that comes with Apps APIs, SDK and other tools to help you build apps with ease. Using these tools, you can develop private apps (only for your organization) and public apps (listed in the Public Marketplace for any Contentstack customers to use) such as third-party integrations, Contentstack apps and more.Developer Hub: The Power to Build If you are a developer, Developer Hub lets you build apps to extend the core functionalities of Contentstack and use them in your organizations or stacks. These apps can be extensions or integration solutions (packaged as apps), with any UI location of your choice. You can decide where these apps are rendered — as a field, sidebar widget, dashboard widget, RTE plugin or other location. We have created a comprehensive guide to help you get started with building apps. We have also included tutorials for sample apps that can get you up to speed immediately. If the Marketplace apps sound similar to extensions, it’s because they are. Apps are the future of integrating and implementing third-party solutions within your CMS. Compared to extensions, apps offer advanced functionalities as they extend all the features of your current extensions and more to provide seamless integration with your favorite third-party platforms. You can learn more about how Marketplace apps are different from extensions, which one will suit your requirements and how to convert your existing extensions into apps.How Can You Start Creating an App With Developer Hub? Note: If you do not see Developer Hub in your organization, kindly contact our Support Team, To start creating an app with Developer Hub, you need to perform the following steps:Download and use our boilerplate that will set up your project from scratch using the App SDK.Install Node version 12 in the app drive.Next, log in to your Contentstack account and click on the “Developer Hub” icon that you see on the left navigation panel.You'll see the Developer Hub landing page where you can start setting up your app. Configure the OAuth, UI locations and Webhooks.Once set up, install the app in your organization or stack according to your setup.Now, update the boilerplate code to suit your application’s needs and test it out. For more information on how to create and manage your apps, see our extensive Developer Hub guide.Contentstack Marketplace and Developer Hub: The Dual Advantage Contentstack Marketplace is a platform that allows you to connect apps and other services and make them work for you quickly and efficiently. These applications are easy to install and have all the resources you need for every step of the development process. Currently, Algolia, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Cloudinary are among the top integration apps that you will find in Contentstack Marketplace, with more to come soon. With Contentstack Developer Hub, you get the ability to create your own apps, and with the right approvals, you can even get them listed in Contentstack Marketplace so others can install and use them. For more information about this, refer to our App Submission and Approval Guidelines.What’s next? We will continue to improve user experiences with Developer Hub in upcoming releases. Also, we will provide app hosting abilities where users can upload their app code directly into Contentstack without having to rely on external third-party apps. We also plan to add more locations where these apps can be placed. Stay tuned!

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May 23, 2022

Introducing Contentstack Marketplace: Explore, Build, Integrate

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to your content and digital experience management needs. Most enterprises today know that a monolithic or suite solution is no longer the answer. A best-of-breed system allows you to choose the tools you want for a modern technology stack that fits your unique business needs.A content experience platform like Contentstack gives you a perfect platform to tailor your content for an omnichannel world. It is easy to create content, extend its user interface, and integrate third-party apps you need to deliver a complete digital experience to your customers.And now, with the all-new Marketplace, it’s easier than ever. All your favorite apps are in one place, just a click away.Enter Contentstack MarketplaceThe new Contentstack Marketplace is a one-stop solution for all your integration needs. It houses pre-built apps, starters, guides and everything else you need to build a fully tailored digital experience stack.With the launch of Contentstack Marketplace, you can rely on our best-of-breed philosophy to create the platform that works the best for your brand, with features, services, apps, integrations and accelerators from the industry's leading technology and service providers.Marketplace allows you to connect apps and other services and make them work for you quickly and efficiently. Here, you'll find all the tools to help you with every step of your development process. You can find and install pre-built extensions, leverage high-quality applications and build integrations that will solve specific needs for your business.Here’s a quick video to get you acquainted with the Contentstack Marketplace!You can start using the apps right away with no new accounts or requirements. Installing these applications is quick and easy. Check out our comprehensive Marketplace guides for more details.Introducing Best-in-Class AppsOur marketplace has an exclusive range of apps listed based on various categories, including A/B Testing, Analytics, Commerce, DAM, Personalization and Translation. Popular SaaS applications such as Algolia, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Cloudinary are already among the integrated apps in the Contentstack Marketplace today, and with more on the way, the number is growing even as you read this!Here’s a glimpse of the top apps that you can work with.It’s easy to find and install apps with our user-friendly interface. Browse through the categories or use filters to quickly find the apps you need.Custom fields, sidebar and dashboard extensions and other integrations will make it easier than ever for your team to collaborate and create.If you are unable to find the app you need, you can send us a request specifying what you're looking for.How Can You Start Working With Marketplace?To access the Contentstack Marketplace, log in to your Contentstack account and navigate to Marketplace using the main left navigation.Under “Explore,” you can see Apps (which are third-party applications), Starters (which are starter-level apps based on significant technologies) and Guides (which offer step-by-step tutorials to help you create specific Integrations use cases).Clicking on each section, you will find “Filters” that help you quickly locate one of the many apps you can connect with.Installing each app listed in the Marketplace leads you through a series of steps to install the app in your desired location. To get them installed for your organization, simply follow the prompts.Note: If you do not see Marketplace in your Organization, kindly contact our Support Team,Build Apps for MarketplaceWhile Contentstack offers many pre-built apps you can start with, you are not limited to that list. You can build apps for your own needs and publish those to the Marketplace as private (visible only to your team) or public (visible to all Contentstack users) apps. Here are some marketplace apps to get you started with.Learn more about building apps for Marketplace.What’s Next?This is just the beginning. We are constantly in the process of adding new apps to the marketplace so all our users can find an app for any use case, workflow, or requirement.In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to access many more custom solutions and extensions.

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May 20, 2022

Introducing Asset Sidebar Extension and Additional Metadata Support

We are excited to introduce two of our latest features: Asset Sidebar Extension and Additional Metadata Support for entries and assets. Asset Sidebar Extension is a new type of Experience Extension. It lets developers create sidebar widgets to add capabilities or custom functionalities for editors to manage, transform and optimize stack assets. Additional Metadata Support lets developers add metadata to assets and entries (via API) without incrementing their versions. This helps better organize or categorize assets and aids easy search. Let’s look at the details of these two exciting features.Meet the Newest Member of the Experience Extension Family: Asset Sidebar Extension If you have been using Contentstack’s Experience Extensions, you already know the power of extensions and the value they can add to your content management experience. With the all-new Asset Sidebar Extension, you can create custom widgets that dramatically enhance the way your content editors manage assets. You can, for example, create widgets for cropping images, adding filters or converting assets into other formats. You can also add auto image tagging, audio to text, quality enhancer, file compression and finding similar images. The possibilities are endless. You can even choose to integrate with third-party applications to create custom widgets. Here is an example of the Asset Sidebar Extension: With few design limitations in the extension creation process, you can develop robust extensions for your growing business needs.Why Should You Use Asset Sidebar Extension? It can make asset management a lot easier for your content managers. That’s not all, let's look at some of the other valuable benefits you gain with this extension:Optimize your assets within a single application thus increasing productivityImprove front-end delivery and performance with underlying API-driven optimizationTailor your business experience to meet unique requirements using Contentstack as a medium, with the help of custom asset extensionsAccelerate utilization of media files in the native Contentstack repositoryAutomate mundane tasksRead our documentation to get started with Asset Sidebar Extensions.Manage Entries And Assets Better with Additional Metadata Support Metadata, as you might already know, is the data that gives more information about other data, but not about the content of the data. When you create a new entry or upload an asset, Contentstack adds some basic metadata by default, such as:created bycreated atfile sizelast modifiedcontent type referenced inBut as your content needs grow, you may want to add custom metadata to manage your content effectively. To that end, we have added support for custom metadata for your assets and entries. As of now, this can be done only via API (not through the UI), using the Metadata Content Management API requests. Examples of custom, additional metadata that you can add include:entry type (parent entry or referenced entry) orasset type (image, video, audio clip, or document)owner details for an entry or assetcopyrights for an image or documentgeneric SEO tagsrelated articlescustom tags or labelsWhy Add Additional Metadata and What Should You Consider While Adding Metadata? There is a fine line between having enough or too much metadata. Entries and assets become versatile and much easier to access and manage with additional metadata support. The absence of metadata defeats the purpose of the digital asset management system and makes it challenging to find content. However, if you give away way too much meta information about your digital content, it may allow harmful access to external users and lead to copyright infringements. So, add enough metadata to fulfill your business requirements, but make sure it isn't too extensive. Read more about Additional Metadata Support for entries and assets in our documentation. Note: These plan-based features are only available in the new Contentstack interface.

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May 12, 2022

What is the Best CMS for Your Business?

Managing your digital experience used to be a lot easier. You would meet your consumers where every business did: your website. But today, new content channels are popping up continually, and your customers are looking for you on all of them. A recent report by Salesforce said that 67 percent of customers use multiple channels to complete one transaction. In addition, 40 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t do business with a company where they couldn't use the channels they were comfortable with. Numbers like that have caused businesses to enter the world of omnichannel marketing, but many have found a speed bump on their road to a seamless content experience: Their current content management system can’t cut it anymore. If you’ve decided that you want to move on to a new CMS, or add a second one, the first question you might ask is, “Which CMS is the best?” The answer is that the best CMS is the one that meets your unique business needs. Traditional monolithic content management systems are implemented as a finished product with applications the vendor chooses. The content you create is informed by the abilities of the system instead of the other way around. Want to create that ad campaign across six channels? Copy and paste is your friend as you recreate the ad time after time. What if there was a way to create vibrant and timely content faster and easier and deliver it across all your desired channels at the same time? And what if you could build that content on applications and integrations you choose for yourself? The best CMS? It’s the one you craft for yourself using a modern, agile, MACH headless CMS.Why Headless? For businesses trying to get a foothold in the world of e-commerce, a MACH headless CMS is the best tool for the job. MACH stands for microservices-based, API-connected, cloud-native and headless, the principles at the heart of an agile CMS. As the emphasis on the omnichannel experience continues, a headless CMS delivers content from a cloud-first content hub, allowing you to push your content quickly across all customer touchpoints, from your mobile app and kiosk to your social media channels and email campaigns. And you can do it all from the same back end. And since the front end and back end of the headless platform are decoupled, things are simpler for your teams as well. Content editors focus on what they do best while avoiding mundane, repetitive tasks like recreating pieces of content for different channels. Developers can innovate, experiment and make updates without risking a content disaster. Best of all, both teams can work simultaneously without interfering with one another. The benefits can be felt in the office as well. A Storyblok survey recently found that 83 percent of companies that switched to a headless CMS reported efficiencies in time and productivity coupled with increasing KPIs and significant growth in revenue.Going Enterprise MACH No matter where you are in your business journey, choosing the right CMS is an important decision. For some, an enterprise CMS, equipped with capabilities that allow your marketing departments to engage customers and drive revenue, is the way to go. Using MACH principles, a headless enterprise CMS is composable, using APIs that make it simple for your system to integrate with the services you depend on to manage your business from a CRM to your e-commerce platform. It’s that same composability that allows you to shape your platform to your unique needs, growing with you as tech changes, effectively future-proofing your CMS. Here are a few other benefits to going enterprise headless: Freedom to Innovate Natively built with modern development tools and frameworks, MACH solutions are incredibly adaptable to whatever you need them to be. Channel Agnostic When you decouple the back-end logic from the front-end presentation, you allow your platform to serve any channel you own. Modem Architecture MACH tech leverages the latest in cloud and API design so you can create a seamless customer experience at whatever scale you prefer.Content is King with a Content Experience Platform Aragon research defines the content experience platform as a “next-generation offering to address the age-old enterprise need to create and deliver dynamic experiences to users on any device.” While an Enterprise CMS focuses on the tools needed to help you succeed in e-commerce, a CXP treats content as the centerpiece of your strategy, putting its role in the customer journey at the forefront. Moving to a CXP allows your organization to focus on content delivery, integrating tools designed to reach larger audiences and incorporate a variety of digital channels with highly detailed analytics so you can be sure your efforts are working. With a CXP, you have a control center to manage not only content creation but management, deployment and the tools you use to refine your content development. Rooted in MACH, a CXP architecture is also composable and can help you to innovate through content instead of being weighed down by the issues of a monolithic legacy CMS. For a CXP to be effective, there are several checkboxes it needs to hit. Be Omnichannel by Nature We’ve discussed how important omnichannel marketing is in today’s global commerce market. For a CXP to be successful it must be built to explore new channels quickly and easily so you can adapt to the changing landscape of the digital experience. Be Composable Your platform should integrate with any tool or technology that your business needs to scale and extend its digital reach, such as analytics platforms, personalization technologies or localization services. Empower Your Experts The CXP should exist with content creators and end users in mind to allow your content experts the bandwidth to unleash their full potential at a maximum speed with minimal friction. Organizations can use a CXP to streamline processes, accelerating time to market for unprecedented returns on their content marketing strategies.Using a CXP to Boost Your Business Every organization has its own set of wants and needs, but there are four things a content experience platform offers that will help any digital experience strategy. Headless CMS A headless architecture is a recurring theme among content management solutions and a CXP is no different. Using a MACH-based agile CMS provides the best foundation for creating and distributing your omnichannel content. Its modular architecture allows marketing teams to reuse content across channels using APIs that can manage everything from social media to your CRM database. Data Management Software Sure, you’re still going to rely on the old standards of web analytics and A/B testing, but a CXP can help you take it to the next level. A headless-based CXP can be integrated with your CRM database to collect data from all customer touchpoints. Using that data, you can use automation to find trends and patterns you may not have noticed to personalize your customer journeys in ways beyond your imagination. Personalization Tools Your customers expect their experiences to feel seamless and tailored directly to them. A study by Accenture found that 91 percent of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who remember their preferences and carry them across channels. Along with the data management software we just talked about, APIs integrated into your CXP can further support personalization by automating everything from sentiment analysis to keyword extraction, helping you deliver a message made just for your customers. Augmented and Predictive Analytics Platforms Anyone who has ever had to do a deep dive into analytics can tell you that the data collected to generate top-notch business intelligence can be overwhelming. Using augmented analytics, you can rely on machine learning to build analytical models that help shape your content strategy. Want to know what your customers think about your new campaign? Augmented analytics can help you measure that. But why stop there? With predictive analytics, you can take those same models to help determine what your customers might want next, putting you a step ahead of the competition.Take the Next Step Today No matter whether you’re looking for a content management system, an enterprise CMS or a content experience platform, a headless CMS is the foundation to build on. If you’re ready to elevate your omnichannel marketing strategy, you can enjoy a free, two-week trial to learn why Contentstack’s headless platform is the best CMS for your business.

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May 09, 2022

How to Solve Your Top E-Commerce Challenges With a Headless CMS

By 2040, it’s estimated that 95 percent of all purchases will be made online. And as we continue to venture through the pandemic, global e-commerce numbers are showing that we could get there even sooner, with sales expected to grow to $6.4 trillion by 2024. As more and more businesses try to take advantage of the rapidly expanding market, they are facing new challenges in trying to create the best digital experiences to match the ever-changing expectations of consumers. “When we look at brands trying to engage now with their audience, it’s no longer just about the web. It’s about social and mobile and all these ways to engage that need to be personalized,” said Eric Courville, senior director of business development at Cloudinary, a provider of image and video management solutions. “Trying to do that having this single vendor locked-in approach where you’re forced to use a specific set of tools, the monolithic approach, it doesn’t cut it anymore, which is why we’re seeing a huge trend towards a composable architecture where the pieces are like Lego blocks and you can pick and choose your best solution.” Courville joins representatives from Contentstack, BigCommerce and Algolia for a webinar series, “The ABCs of Composable Commerce,” where the four partners will demonstrate how easy and creative composable commerce can be, at an enterprise scale. Nick Barron, Senior Director of Partner Enablement at Contentstack, says that using a headless content management system like Contentstack is the best way to build a solid composable ecosystem. “We try to simplify things, right? You’ve got business folks, you’ve got tech folks. So we try to provide an interface where anyone can come in and leverage the capabilities of the whole system,” Barron said, adding that being able to do all of that within one platform offers you the speed to go live right away without having to master each level of development. “When we're looking at this composable architecture and a set of APIs where we're just connecting to each other's endpoints, I don't have to be an expert in big commerce to implement my part of the solution.” How can a headless CMS and composable architecture help to tackle the e-commerce challenges you’re facing? Four Biggest Hurdles in E-commerce Here are the four biggest challenges businesses face in delivering seamless customer experiences and how a headless CMS can help you address them: 1. Competition Your competition is increasing every day, so delivering seamless omnichannel experiences and continually improving is paramount. With a composable platform, you can choose the tools you need to create outstanding personalized customer experiences, monitor performance and easily scale and adjust to stay ahead of the competition. 2. The Customer Experience Once you’ve begun to build a solid customer base, the next challenge is keeping them. Research has shown that it can cost five times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one and the success rate of selling to a current customer is 60 to 70 percent compared to only 5 to 20 percent for a new customer. With a headless CMS, you can create stellar omnichannel experiences that are scalable and easily updated to make sure you can continually improve the customer experience. 3. Making and Increasing Sales Converting a browser to a purchaser is the biggest and most important puzzle to solve in the world of e-commerce. User research will help you determine what might be preventing conversions. Is your customer experience lacking in personalization? Are there technical issues? Once you have a sense of where to invest your energy, a composable architecture will allow you to quickly adapt by choosing APIs that suit your needs, taking full ownership of your customer experience. 4. Cybersecurity Just because you sell online doesn’t mean theft is less of an issue. Having your data hacked and stolen can result in damage to your brand and image. A headless CMS uses microservices, which are a tiny target for attackers, and since they’re not connected, it’s more difficult to quickly affect your entire system. Cloud-nativity is another layer of protection since your technology is hosted by outside vendors whose job is to protect your data.Conquering Your E-Commerce Challenges is Easier Than You Think If you haven’t made the move toward composable commerce and a headless CMS to build a stronger digital experience, there is no need to wait. Unlike a traditional CMS that requires a large up-front investment and ROI doesn’t begin to trickle in for months, you can be up and running in days, hours or minutes with a headless CMS. And because of the platform’s scalability, you can start small and add as you see fit. “So many companies, they re-platform their tech stack about every five years because of issues both business-wise and maybe architecture-wise or there's compatibility issues or maybe the system is out of date,” said Maribel Mullins, tech partner manager at Cloudinary. “Imagine a world where you don't need to re-platform, or say you hate a technology and you want to swap it out or plug in a new business process as your company grows. Instead of buying a monolith turnkey product, you can buy best-of-breed components that meet each of your business needs.” Watch “The ABCs of Composable Commerce” webinar series to see industry partners leverage the latest MACH-powered technologies to dream up, build and launch a revenue-driving shop in half the time it would take with a monolithic CMS. Episode one and two aired in April and can be seen here. Register now for episode three at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday.

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May 05, 2022

Digital Experience Strategy: People, Technology & Process

There’s a phrase you may have heard before: “The experience is the brand.” These days that saying is more true than ever. A recent survey found that 80 percent of consumers said that the experience a brand created was just as important as the product they sell. It also found that consumers want companies to invest in a digital experience strategy that delivers the same experience they got from in-person interactions, especially now as we continue to work through the global shifts that came with the COVID-19 pandemic. With the digital experience being that important to modern consumers, brands have been forced to think differently about how they engage with their customers. What is Digital Experience Strategy? When we talk about the digital experience (DX), we’re referring to every online interaction your customer has with your brand. When we talk about digital experience strategy, we’re talking about the overarching plan that includes every element of that experience. From your shopping cart to how a customer can contact you, every element plays a part in the shopper’s experience. No interaction is too small. No interaction is unimportant. And making them all work together is key. When creating a strategy to work from, the most important question to ask is what the story is that you want to tell? How do you wish to be seen as a brand? Once you understand the answer to that question, it will inform every aspect of your digital experience strategy and how your DX fits into your overall customer experience.Why You Need a Digital Customer Experience Strategy Customer journeys are complex creatures with online and offline segments and marketing and e-commerce elements. But the customer on that journey isn’t concerned about the technology behind the experience. They’re on their own quest and they expect it to go seamlessly. With that in mind, making sure you have a strategy in place that comes from a customer mindset is fundamental to developing your omnichannel experience. A study by the Harvard Business Review found that customers who engage across multiple channels spend an average of 4 percent more in-store and 10 percent more online. It also showed that brands with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain an average of 89 percent of their customers, in comparison to 33 percent of companies with weaker strategies. But what does it mean to have a good DX strategy? How Do You Build a Good DX Strategy? There are plenty of things to consider when plotting a digital experience strategy, but at the root of all of them is one thing: content. From marketing campaigns and social media to product descriptions and confirmation emails, your content is the foundation that your customer experience is built upon. It’s important to make sure your content has a consistent voice across channels. What other elements should you consider?. The customer experience firm KPMG says there are six core pillars that will allow a business to excel at the customer experience. These pillars can be used to comprise any solid DX strategy: Personalization Customers want to feel that you understand their specific needs and circumstances and will adapt their experience accordingly. Integrity For your customers, integrity means the degree to which you deliver on your promises. If you tell them your product or service does something, they want to have faith that it always will. Expectations Customers have expectations about how their needs will be met, and they want you to understand, deliver and, if possible, exceed those expectations. Resolution Sometimes the process breaks down despite your best efforts. A great company should not only put the customer back in the position they should have been in as rapidly as possible, but also make them feel good about the unfortunate incident. Time and Effort Everyone these days seems to be in a hurry and that makes their shopping time even more limited. Removing obstacles, impediments and bureaucracy to enable the customer to achieve their objectives quickly is an easy way to increase loyalty. Empathy Letting your customers know that you can understand what it is like to be in their shoes is essential to connecting with them. Once you understand these pillars, you can apply those concepts to your strategy and design. How Do You Know It’s Working? Incorporating a new digital experience strategy is a seismic undertaking. The investments you're making and the culture you’re changing won’t bear fruit overnight. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be sure what you’re doing is working. Here are a few ways to track your results: Define Your Goals When you create your strategy, you have an idea of what success will look like. Changing those ideas along the way makes it hard to quantify if you’re on the way to achieving those goals. Having a well-defined view of success before trying to measure your effectiveness will help you to better develop your metrics. Once you know what metrics you wish to focus on, set goals that are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Employ Behavior Tracking Your digital experience design performance can be measured without consumer input. Add heat-mapping software to monitor how consumers are using your channels in real time. This can give you a valuable insight into what is and isn’t working along the customer journey. Measure the Measurables When you’re ready to develop and collect metrics, it’s a good idea to focus on important indicators like customer satisfaction and effort. A customer satisfaction (CSAT) score measures customers’ satisfaction about their experience with a product, service or company. A customer effort (CES) score measures how much of an effort a customer had to expend to achieve their goal. Getting this score at various spots along the way can help determine where the experience needs to be tweaked.Best Practices for Creating Great Customer DX No matter what your strategy looks like, there are three tactics you should apply at the heart of it: Get Personal Personalization will continue to grow in importance when it comes to digital experience, and it has to occur across all of your channels because your customers don’t distinguish between them. They want to feel just as important on your mobile app or kiosk as they do on your website. Omnichannel or Bust If you haven’t branched out to an omnichannel approach, you’re already starting at a disadvantage. Your customers are looking for you where they are, not where you are. Forcing consumers to find you on your turf instead of where they are already makes them begin at a place they aren’t comfortable or don’t often use. Give them a choice. Never Be Happy with Good Enough No matter the touchpoint your customers engage with you through, the experience should be just as solid. Enhancing your brand means aiming to level the playing field across every possible touchpoint. Is your social media stellar but your kiosks fall short? Knowing your weaknesses helps you to see where to invest your attention next. Does that sound like a project that never ends? It is, but it should be. Your aim is to build a framework that allows you to continually improve, adapt and excel. Related Resources For more on crafting a digital experience strategy: Future-Proof Your Brand With Digital Experience Design What You Need to Know About Digital Experience Management How to Get Started with Digital Experience Management

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Apr 20, 2022

Why Your Business Needs a Digital Experience Platform (DXP)

Gartner defines a digital experience platform as a “well-integrated and cohesive set of technologies designed to enable the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences across multi-experience customer journeys.” In simpler terms, a DXP is the solution to every aspect of your digital needs including content management, personalization, e-commerce, customer relationship management and analytics. Whether or not you need a DXP depends on your goals. If you’re looking to create a fully connected journey for your customers, complete with many touchpoints and a personalized experience, the answer is likely yes. Read on to learn the benefits of digital experience platforms and what to consider when choosing a DXP for your business.Understanding the Digital Experience Platform A full-featured DXP integrates tools and services across the digital ecosystem and helps maintain consistency across the entire customer journey. The software can be a single product or a suite of products working together to achieve the same goals. Either way, a digital experience platform consists of the same fundamental components: Content Management: No matter what business you’re in, the one constant is content. So, it’s no surprise that content management is at the core of any solid DXP. As your company’s digital repository, your DXP will allow you to present your content across various channels, creating the seamless experience your customers expect. Customer Relationship Management: Getting customers in the door or on the website is crucial, but it’s also important to keep them coming back. A DXP can track your customer’s data to help you build long-term relationships through personalization. Personalization: If you’re operating a business, you know how vital personalization has become to the digital experience. Using customer relationship management (CRM) data, you can analyze trends and preferences to create journeys for each customer. Analytics and Insights: Data analysis and content intelligence tools give you real-time insights into what’s working and what isn’t, allowing you to make more informed decisions to optimize your customer journeys.Five Ways a DXP Can Address Customer Needs If you’re still not sure whether you need a digital experience platform, let’s look at how a DXP can help propel your customer experience forward. Content flexibility: Moving to a platform that features headless architecture disconnects your content from the channels where you’re building it, allowing you to deliver it wherever you want. That means wherever your customers are — browsers, apps, tablets, IoT devices, kiosks, smartwatches, voice assistants — you’re there, too. More customer insights: With a digital experience platform, you’re connected to all the digital channels we mentioned. But you’re also connected in-store, on billboards, through customer portals, e-commerce and more. Wherever your customers are, a DXP’s reporting and analysis tools collect customer data to help you make personalization decisions that will increase sales and promote brand loyalty. Better personalization: Speaking of personalization, these days it’s not just a perk; your customers expect a personalized experience. A DXP platform can help you bring in data from all avenues to get a well-rounded view of every customer. And with the ability to process that data, you can gain deeper insights that you might have missed. Affordable scalability: A DXP uses microservices to create cloud-based digital experiences. With this approach, you’ll enjoy more reliable uptime and performance from your tech stack, and can easily scale up (or down) as consumer demands and business plans shift. Future-proofing: Because a headless architecture allows various API integrations, you can incorporate new technologies as they develop. This structure will let you stay ahead of the needs of your customers, so you can adapt and connect with audiences how and when they want.What to Consider When Choosing a DXP If you’ve decided to move forward with a digital experience platform for your business, here are some tips and strategies to consider: Be Agile: If you’re moving to a DXP platform, getting your content to market quickly is probably at the top of your wish list. Market demands change rapidly. Being too slow to market is a surefire way to lose your customers, so you need to have a platform that allows you to instantly adapt. Consider the User Journey: Consider your customer's needs before your own. Understanding what they’re looking for, what devices they’re using and how they interact across channels will help you choose tools you need to keep them engaged. Create a user journey map of what you can do now and your goals for your customer experience. Then you can choose a DXP that fills the gaps. Going MACH: Legacy CMS platforms may try to deliver omnichannel experiences, but they can struggle to keep up with the changing needs of today’s consumers. If you’re aiming for a seamless digital experience, you’ll need a cloud-based content management system that will allow you to scale easily and has a wealth of APIs, allowing you to integrate applications that fit your business needs. A headless CMS can grow with you and help you achieve your desired DXP capabilities. The future of the omnichannel digital experience lies in MACH:Microservices - Lightweight, single-purpose applications that can be added, rearranged and removed to create infinite customized tools for your business.API connectivity: Application programming interface technology connects services in a composable ecosystem.Cloud nativity: Cloud-native software is delivered as a service by an outside vendor, allowing endless, affordable scalability.Headless infrastructure: Headless architecture decouples front-end and back-end functions so content can be created and managed without interfering with design and development.How a DXP works with Artificial Intelligence We’d be remiss to talk about digital experience platforms without talking about how artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool in your DXP. From doing the grunt work that takes away time from your content creators to analyzing the data your platform is pulling in, incorporating AI into your processes allows you to not only save time but discover trends and patterns you may otherwise miss. We often choose metrics by guessing which areas we should track. Having AI at the heart of your platform takes much of the guesswork out of analysis. AI can sort your data and identify patterns that reflect areas you should focus on for improvement.Learn More About Digital Experience Platforms For more information about digital experience platforms, check out these articles:Understanding Engaging and Personalized Digital Experiences (DXP)Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) vs. CMSWhat Is a DXP? Understanding Digital Experience PlatformsAre you ready to take the next step toward future-proofing your business with a DXP? Enjoy a free, no-obligation trial or demo of Contentstack today to see how easy you can achieve your omnichannel goals with our MACH-based content management platform.

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