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At its core, content marketing is exactly what it sounds like 鈥� creating content that supports marketing efforts, to create and distribute relevant assets that will engage a specific target audience.

The type of desired engagement will vary by the content 鈥� a social media post will be measured in likes, while an e-book will be measured in form fills 鈥� but the ultimate end goal of all the content is to drive profitable consumer actions.

We know a CMS can drive efficiency for publishers 鈥� so let鈥檚 look at how it can specifically help a content marketing team.

Content strategy development within CMS

An effective approach to content marketing always begins with a holistic, documented strategy. The function is an integral part of a business鈥� marketing efforts, which may include digital marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO and paid search efforts, public relations, inbound and outbound marketing and digital marketing. Identifying where content management sits at the table 鈥� as well as which slices of the pie they鈥檙e responsible for 鈥� will help streamline content marketing efforts.

Here are a set of best practices we like to follow when it comes to developing a solid content strategy:

Narrative brainstorming

Here, the focus is creating a narrative for your content 鈥� telling a story about your business or product. This makes your content more authentic, engaging and tailored to your audience. Remember, instead of pitching products or services, a strategic content-driven approach is about solving problems for your prospects and customers.

Walk in your customers鈥� shoes

The assets created by content marketing should be valuable and relevant to attract and retain your target audience. What problems are your customers typically facing? What are some common pain points 鈥� or larger industry trends or challenges you might use as a gateway? Your employees, especially those who engage with your customers regularly, will be a wealth of knowledge and inspiration here.

Channel planning

Understanding priority channels for content delivery is an important first step. Will you reach your target audience via social media, blogs, your website, other websites, apps, press releases, podcasts, or some other channel? Once these are identified, and prioritized, you can begin content creation. To streamline creation efforts, it鈥檚 also good to identify similarities between tone and length by channel as well 鈥� for example, the social media posts may be easily repurposed as podcast web content. Look for overlap where you can reuse and simplify messaging.

Content creation

Again, there鈥檚 a wide variety of assets the content marketing team may have a hand in preparing 鈥� including blog posts, e-books, whitepapers, podcasts, infographics, web landing pages, email campaigns and more. There鈥檚 an infinite mix of content types and channels that can be leveraged in a content marketing strategy, so it鈥檚 best to focus on the top two or three channels and types (depending on your team鈥檚 budget).

CMS as a tool for content marketers

Content management systems offer a wealth of benefits to content teams, and this extends to content marketing teams. Let鈥檚 look at some of the top features 鈥� and benefits 鈥� a CMS can provide:

• User friendliness: CMSs are typically designed to be easy to use by any user, not just technical folks. This means a content marketing team should easily adapt to using one. And this ease isn鈥檛 just about creating content; many systems include tools like asset search that can make discovering previous or related assets a breeze. The benefits of a simple, easy to use UI will support teams throughout the content lifecycle. 
• Workflow tools: Whether it鈥檚 a single asset or a large campaign, a CMS workflow solution can help teams organize their efforts from a first draft to a finished asset. Workflow tools can be simple or complex, and add a level of oversight and control to ensure content is clear, consistent and in line with the overall campaign narrative. Scheduling capabilities also allow teams to create, set and forget.
• Collaboration tools: Pooling efforts into a CMS will allow multiple team members to contribute. In addition to workflow features, many CMSs offer features like full-page preview, asset locking and real-time conversations. 
• Content reuse: One great benefit of taking a CMS-based approach to content marketing efforts is the ability to reuse all or part of the content 鈥� what we at Brightspot refer to as a modular content strategy. Modular content offers several benefits for content marketing, including increased efficiency, scalability and consistency. By creating content modules that can be repurposed and reused across different channels, organizations can save time and resources while ensuring that their messaging stays consistent and on-brand.
• Content personalization and localization: Leveraging a CMS for content efforts 鈥� as well as a modular approach 鈥� sets up content marketers to be able to easily personalize content for different target audiences, languages and regions, making it more relevant and engaging.
• Customization options: A CMS will typically provide teams with an array of customization options 鈥� meaning teams can tailor the content and layout to their specific needs. This customization should happen within a set boundary to ensure brand consistency. For example, the CMS may give teams a set brand color palette versus the full spectrum of color when creating a new landing page.
• Increased efficiency: A CMS makes the process of creating, editing and publishing content more efficient. It allows marketers to have more control over their content
• Faster launch times: With a CMS, new content, new content types, new landing pages and new content campaigns can be ideated, drafted and launched more quickly.
• SEO and content optimization: Many CMSs include powerful SEO optimization tools, which can increase your ranking in search engines 鈥� and help you reach audiences more organically.

So, indeed, a CMS can be a very powerful tool for content marketers. It can streamline processes, improve collaboration and ultimately lead to more effective content marketing strategies.

Leveraging CMS for content distribution and analysis

Modern CMS platforms are much more than just content management tools. They now offer multi-channel content distribution, which means you can publish your content on various platforms and reach a wider audience. Brightspot, for example, provides more than dozens of pre-built integrations, or 鈥渃onnectors鈥�, to easily deliver content from the CMS to its final destination, whether that be RSS, Facebook, Mailchimp, Marketo, Apple News, or some other system.

Many CMSs also offer advanced SEO tools, personalized content delivery and AI integration for content analysis. Many 鈥� including Brightspot 鈥� also offer analytics plugins, which allow you to track performance of content assets directly in the CMS, in real time. These features can help you understand how your content is performing, who it鈥檚 reaching and how it can be improved. This data-driven approach allows teams to quickly assess content performance, adjust messaging and can lead to more effective content strategies.

In many ways, leveraging a CMS for content marketing efforts becomes the rising tide that lifts all boats. By providing a framework for creating, managing and publishing the content, the CMS helps improve the quality of the content. This, in turn, can enhance the user experience and increase engagement... which helps reduce the costs incurred by creating and distributing the content in the first place.

The best tools and plugins for content marketers in CMS

As mentioned above, there are many tools and plugins that content marketers can leverage built directly into today鈥檚 modern, flexible content management system. That said, there are several plugins that teams might use alongside the CMS to supercharge their workflows. Read on for a few examples:

Semji (SEO)

Semji is a platform providing AI/ML tools and solutions for content optimization, particularly focusing on improving SEO performance. It offers AI-driven recommendations for headlines, subheadlines, SEO fields and full-body text. CMS content creators can harness the power of Semji's SEO tools by adding the Semji Chrome extension to their browser. This extension enables writers to enhance their content-creation processes instantly, saving time and optimizing content directly in the CMS without switching context or publishing workflows.

Learn more about the Semji integration here 

HubSpot (marketing CRM)

HubSpot is a cloud-based marketing, sales and customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps companies attract visitors, foster audience connections and nurture leads. The all-in-one software solution helps you manage contacts, engage visitors with live chat and chatbots, add eye-catching forms to pages and create newsletters and email marketing campaigns. With the HubSpot integration, publishers can seamlessly add existing HubSpot accounts, configure settings to import forms into CMS assets and receive corresponding reports.

Learn more about the HubSpot integration here 

Parse.ly (analytics)

While Google Analytics is typically the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to understanding web traffic, Parse.ly鈥檚 feature set is beloved by marketers because it provides insights 鈥� not just data. Its intuitive dashboard can be used in parallel with your CMS to streamline the identification and prioritization of content to repurpose, improve and update.

Learn more about the HubSpot integration here 

All marketing integrations in Brightspot

Brightspot's marketing integrations provide tools to keep customers engaged with your brand, while giving consistent front-end experiences via different channels including emails and newsletters. These integrations can help optimize marketing efforts by leveraging forms to capture and send customer data to popular marketing automation platforms.

Explore the Brightspot integration library here 

Conclusion: Elevating content marketing with CMS

As you can see, creating a symbiotic relationship between content marketing teams and a CMS has undeniable benefits for businesses. A CMS can help content marketers streamline processes, enhance collaboration and ultimately craft more effective strategies 鈥� all by leveraging popular CMS capabilities like workflow management, content reuse, SEO optimization and content distribution.

Moreover, the integration of analytics data and insights within modern CMS platforms further amplifies the value proposition for content marketers. Real-time insights into content performance enables marketers to iterate quickly, optimize their strategies and drive meaningful results.

As organizations continue to prioritize content as a cornerstone of their marketing efforts, harnessing the potential of a CMS quickly emerges as a strategic imperative.