The modern CMS: The key to omnichannel marketing

The internet used to be a simpler place, where almost everyone surfing the web was on a desktop or laptop computer. Today though, the average consumer uses multiple devices to browse the web and engage with brands.

From good old emails to smartwatch notifications, consumers want digital experiences to be channel-agnostic. In fact, marketers using three or more channels in any one campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign.

For marketers, serving up an omnichannel experience makes sense from a conversion, customer experience, and branding perspective. The only problem is, marketers often find themselves with little control over the content and user experience beyond the borders of their company’s website.

In this article, we’re diving into how a modern CMS is the key that opens the door to omnichannel digital experiences.

Section titled What is omnichannel marketing? What is omnichannel marketing?

According to Gartner, omnichannel is “the synchronization of channels (mobile, desktop, smart devices, and stores) to support the customer journey from discovery to conversion, along with fulfillment and postpurchase.”

The point of omnichannel marketing is that every time a customer interacts with your brand or establishes a touchpoint, it feels like the continuation of the previous action.

An omnichannel customer journey might look like this:

• A customer sees a Facebook ad that grabbed their attention,
• They click the ad and are redirected to a landing page with the product details,
• The customer clicks to buy it, but they leave the cart for some reasons
• A few hours or days later the customer gets an email to complete the purchase along with an incentive to complete the payment,
• The customer buys the product,
• Weeks later, they get ads on social media of similar products or better versions of the product to encourage upsell or cross-sell.

The vital part of being omnipresent in marketing is cohesiveness and relevance. Omnichannel experiences are always relevant across different marketing avenues and are personalized based on user preferences and tastes.

Therefore, when planning for omnichannel, marketers need to think about the customer journey and optimize for every touchpoint. Without a strong understanding of where and how customers engage with your brand, or without collecting customer data, omnichannel marketing is doomed to fail.

Section titled What is a modern CMS? What is a modern CMS?

A modern CMS provides a backend content repository where all of a brand’s content is stored and managed. Through the use of APIs, that content can be published to any channel, device, or digital experience.

Most organizations are familiar with legacy or traditional content management systems like WordPress, which are closely coupled with the frontend. In WordPress’ case, that frontend is almost always a responsive website theme. This tight coupling makes sense when a corporate website or blog is your aim, but when you want an omnichannel experience that incorporates channels like email, digital signage, and smartwatches, a traditional CMS isn’t equipped to help.

A modern CMS, on the other hand, provides a step up from the traditional CMS for two reasons; a modern CMS is frontend-agnostic, and it uses APIs to deliver content.

By frontend-agnostic, we mean that, unlike with WordPress, your content isn’t tightly coupled or restricted to being used within a template, or even a website. Instead, your content lives in the CMS freely, ready to be sent to any channel.

How? That’s where the APIs come in. Using APIs, a modern CMS can push content to any frontend experience, allowing developers to design smartwatch apps, VR applications, single web applications, and more, without worrying about where the content is going to come from.

This is also known as the headless CMS approach.

However, a modern CMS doesn’t just offer frontend freedom. Thanks again to APIs, modern content management systems are far easier to integrate with third-party systems, like a CRM. eCommerce, or marketing automation platform. It then uses API calls to gather customer data, product information, and marketing content from all those different systems, making omnichannel experiences far easier to execute.

Section titled How a modern CMS enables omnichannel marketing How a modern CMS enables omnichannel marketing

A modern CMS supports omnichannel initiatives efficiently and enables marketers to distribute content to a consumer at any time, while also collecting data from every touchpoint, giving marketing teams a 360-degree view of their customers and an unrestricted pathway to engaging with them across all relevant channels.

Modern CMSs also support early adopters willing to embrace new content delivery technologies and channels such as IoT, VR, and AR. This means that switching to a modern CMS like Storyblok will give teams the ability to execute omnichannel marketing campaigns and deliver the best content across devices. Here are a few of the differences between a traditional CMS and a modern CMS:

Section titled Why omnichannel marketing is challenging with a traditional CMS Why omnichannel marketing is challenging with a traditional CMS

A traditional CMS was initially created to manage content on a desktop website. Over time, these platforms have also managed content for mobile devices as well through mobile-optimized websites. However, building omnichannel experiences with these platforms is essentially impossible. Here’s why:

Lack of connectivity: Traditional CMS platforms struggle to connect to new and emerging channels such as IoT devices. Content gets stuck in silos, and there are no easy workflows to tie everything together. **
No personalization:** Another aspect of the omnichannel experience is personalizing content at every stage of the customer journey and across multiple channels. Legacy CMS platforms cannot personalize content to the level required.

Section titled How a modern CMS can unlock omnichannel experiences How a modern CMS can unlock omnichannel experiences

According to Gartner, in 2020, only 32% of retailers combined a best-in-class site experience with adequate marketing efforts. This means that there is still a long way to go for most marketers to build a true omnichannel marketing strategy.

A headless CMS can help marketers with their omnichannel initiatives by providing more than just a database for storing and managing content assets These platforms play a leading role in the brand experience, giving you a centralized hub from where you can plan ahead, maximize your content's profitability, and deliver timely, agile experiences that drive conversions.

Storyblok helps you keep up with today's customers' expectations, learning from every interaction, extracting insights from their behaviors, and automating manual processes to free marketers from time-consuming tasks. As a modern CMS that provides more than just headless architecture, Storyblok bolsters your omnichannel marketing efforts with content that's relevant to both your customers and the channel they're in, giving your brand an edge.

Let's see how a modern CMS powers omnichannel marketing campaigns and future-proof your operations.

Section titled Connect messaging services to your CMS Connect messaging services to your CMS

With a modern CMS, marketers can build non-intrusive, transactional relationships with customers with ease. The API-first approach gives you the tools to integrate with messaging services like Whatsapp to reach customers in a personalized way that creates less friction than email marketing or push SMS notifications.

Section titled Create multilingual customer journeys Create multilingual customer journeys

Language is the shortest path to someone's heart. Creating a multilingual customer journey with a modern CMS is as easy as adding a new social media service with an API. From an omnichannel perspective, language gives marketers a new tool to engage with other people and unlock new markets without having to spend money on a full-fledged translation team.

Section titled Deliver fast and stunning visual experiences Deliver fast and stunning visual experiences

Omnichannel marketers often leverage pure headless CMSs to drive omnichannel marketing. But, the truth is that pure headless platforms fall short when it comes to giving marketers the tools they need to create stunning visual experiences for the customers. Storyblok's visual editor empowers marketers to create omnichannel experiences without code.

Section titled Embrace the API-first model Embrace the API-first model

Modern CMS platforms like Storyblok have embraced the API-first model because it enables the seamless integration of data and third-party technologies to enhance the CMS's out-of-the-box capabilities. APIs give developers the ability to integrate customer data and technology all in one place, making data understandable and accessible at any moment to create highly targeted content.

Section titled Focus on hyper-personalization Focus on hyper-personalization

A modern CMS gives marketers the tools to go beyond name personalization and cater to the individual customer, their intention, the context, and the channel from which they got to the website. Storyblok's personalization engine enables on-point recommendations based on individual actions and tastes, showing customers the products that are most likely to appeal to them.

Section titled How Storyblok supports omnichannel marketing How Storyblok supports omnichannel marketing

Storyblok offers a flexible and open CMS that allows you to publish content wherever you like while organizing it in one central place.

Our CMS feeds from customer data to optimize your brand’s marketing messages, solidifying each communication channel to deliver compelling content across every touchpoint. A modern CMS like Storyblok also brings the following benefits to marketers:

Section titled Increased retail sales Increased retail sales

Since omnichannel marketing shows your product to a broader audience, consumers end up spending more in-store and online than single-channel customers do. A modern CMS makes it possible to keep every customer in the loop for future promotions and upsell opportunities, the chances for them to make more purchases increase.

Section titled Higher customer retention Higher customer retention

With omnichannel initiatives, customers are always in the loop, making it possible for marketers to retarget them with content. An omnichannel approach ensures that your brand is still top of mind when they’re planning to purchase another product.

Section titled Improved personalization Improved personalization

A modern CMS enables personalization on many different levels and throughout the entire customer lifecycle. With Storyblok, you can map your customer lifecycle and determine what kind of content they get at each stage of their journey, in a way that appeals to them and satisfies their needs.

Section titled Internationalization and localization Internationalization and localization

Another key benefit that a modern CMS brings to omnichannel marketers is that it enables them to translate and localize their content for audiences in different countries to speak to them in their language, increasing the chances of converting them. With Storyblok, creating multilingual customer journeys is effortless and straightforward.

Section titled Stronger’s omnichannel rebrand with Storyblok Stronger’s omnichannel rebrand with Storyblok

Swedish lifestyle brand Stronger needed a headless CMS that could help them get content delivered quickly and allow them to rebrand for their international market. Their previous monolithic system didn’t offer the flexibility their marketers and developers needed. It also forced them to have separate international sites that were disjointed and required lots of manual effort.

With Storyblok, they could start new campaigns easily and create omnichannel and localized content effortlessly. They have also seen a 172% increase in revenue and greater ease-of-use reported from their marketing and developer teams.

Section titled Is omnichannel marketing the way to go for you? Is omnichannel marketing the way to go for you?

The short answer is, yes.

Omnichannel marketing can help any business connect with audiences across both brick and mortar and digital channels. With an omnichannel marketing strategy backed by a modern CMS like Storyblok, you give your customers all the information they need to complete a purchase and then return for more.

However, keep in mind that omnichannel isn't something you can take lightly. On the contrary, you need to have the right strategy and tools to ensure that your planning and execution will be fruitful. Also, to deliver seamless experiences, you need to have well-oiled processes in place, and the best way to do it is by leveraging a modern CMS's capabilities.

Omnichannel marketing has many potential benefits and will boost your sales and increase your customers’ affinity for your products. An omnichannel approach enables better digital experiences that are relevant to the channel your audience is in. So, rather than a mishmash of disjointed experiences and digital properties, with an omnichannel marketing strategy backed by Storyblok, you will gain a centralized hub to optimize and improve your eCommerce store and a solid foothold on the future market trends.

This might all sound overwhelming, but we assure you that it’s not, especially with a modern CMS by your side to take the load off your shoulders.

If you want to learn more, visit our omnichannel CMS page to learn more about how Storyblok helps you create better omnichannel experiences.