What are the different ways to research CMS and DXP software?
Posted by: Adam Weston
11 February 2021
What goals need to be supported by your CMS software?
Before you plunge into evaluating CMS solutions, you first need to figure out how the CMS is to be used by different teams. You can discuss the team goals that need to be supported by the CMS and how they relate to the business objectives of your organisation.
Will the CMS software that you evaluate support diverse requirements and objectives for multiple teams in your organisation?
What do you want to accomplish with your website:
- provide information
- generate leads
- have an e-commerce platform
- implement marketing campaigns
How do these goals connect to higher revenue and business expansion objectives?
Organisations can fall into the trap of selecting a CMS solely from a list of features or technologies rather than thinking about how the CMS will help them for primary use cases.
CMS vendor corporate websites
Corporate websites are still the top source for the research conducted by software buyers. CMS vendors should provide not only product information through web pages and data sheets but also detailed use cases, customer success stories, white papers, demo videos, how-to podcasts, and blogs that share expert advice. Industry analyst reports are often available as downloads. Customer references should also be available from the sales team.
Industry analyst firms
A number of analyst firms research and review CMS and digital marketing platforms. Often, these firms provide benchmark reports based on the attributes they consider important for a CMS to deliver. These firms also have definitions of CMS and online
marketing solutions that better align with what many buyers are looking for. Gartner, Forrester, Real Story, and Digital Clarity Group are among the analyst firms that cover CMS and digital experience platforms.
Industry expert blogs
Numerous people with extensive content management system experience regularly write about this industry, covering the optimal characteristics of CMSs for particular use cases and specific vendor offerings.
Crowdsourced review sites
Be sure to review closely how each site defines the CMS category to see if the definition aligns with what you are looking for in a solution. Reviews are highly dependent on the competence and truthfulness of the person writing it (purportedly an end-user). For CMSs, these sites will likely include many products that are not suitable for your needs. Sites include G2 Crowd, TrustRadius, and Software Advice.
Forums, user communities, and LinkedIn groups
The users of CMS solutions are often active in various groups and forums, sharing their knowledge about how to get the most from CMSs and providing commentary about individual products
Online publications
Several online “magazines” publish articles on the many aspects of content management, digital marketing, content marketing, e-commerce, and other relevant topics, and software solutions are often discussed. Online publications include cmswire.com, econtentmag.com, and socialmediatoday.com, to name a few.