allison-gauss-headshot.JPG

Allison Gauss

<p>In the enterprise business world, 2020 and 2021 brought more than just hardships—these pivotal years also provided lessons. And one of the biggest lessons of all wasn’t a new one but an old standard that keeps getting reinforced time and time again: The only constant is change. </p>
<p>According to Subrah Iyar, a leader and legend in the enterprise software space, <strong>the biggest change of which today’s businesses need to be aware is the growing importance of digital experiences</strong>. </p>
<p>“Consumers’ expectations have gone digital, and there’s no turning back,” <a href="https://www.cmo.com.au/article/685001/predictions-10-technology-trends-marketing-2021/" target="_blank">Iyar said</a>. “Businesses need to adopt digital solutions to keep customers satisfied and continue growing their businesses. This implies shifting customer engagement experiences to a ‘Pull' model from a ‘Push' model for doing business where customers are able to pull services on-demand rather than having businesses push their services onto a customer.”</p>
<p>Luckily, most enterprises already have the key resource that enables consumers to interact with them digitally and on demand: content. But <em>unluckily</em>, most enterprises don’t have what it takes to <em>manage</em> this key resource. </p>
<p><strong>That’s where modern CMS architecture comes in.</strong></p><h2>What is Modern CMS Architecture? </h2>
<p>It all began with the traditional content management system (CMS), which is a software platform that combines content creation and management with control of the entire website experience. </p>
<p>And these monolithic CMSs worked swimmingly… for a while. </p>
<p>Today, the world is full of exciting new content distribution channels that legacy CMS platforms simply can’t accommodate (<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/leaning-away-legacy-tools-mach/" target="_blank">without disappointing and un-secure workarounds</a>, that is). In other words, the traditional CMS and the organizations that use them are in dire need of transforming to modern CMS architecture: An agile, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms/">headless CMS</a> built on MACH principles. </p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="4spckne5db7a" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt8b119d5146873909/6112e8bf365a7d358c6c0769/traditional-vs-modern-cms.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt8b119d5146873909" alt="traditional-vs-modern-cms.png"></p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/enterprise-ready-for-mach/" target="_blank">MACH technology is based on microservices</a>, connected via application programming interface (API) technology, stored and delivered via the cloud, and built on headless architecture. </p>
<p>Then there’s <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms/" target="_blank">headless CMS, which is called that because it removes the “head” or the presentation layer</a> from the traditional CMS structure. This allows developers to build any experience they like with whatever language is best, and make whatever technical changes necessary without ever disrupting the presentation layer where consumers are interacting with the content. And at the same time, this modular structure empowers marketing users to easily create and publish content.</p>
<p>In addition, the integrability of headless CMS means almost <em>any</em> content optimization tool, consumer data platform, etc. can be plugged in. That means content can be quickly and accurately reoptimized and republished to serve every channel, audience, and experience. </p>
<p><strong>It’s these principles and structure that make MACH, headless CMS platforms </strong><strong><em>the</em></strong><strong> key foundational element of modern CMS architecture.</strong></p><h2>7 Reasons Why Modern Enterprises Need Modern CMS Architecture</h2>
<p>If you need a little more convincing before diving into headless CMS, here are several reasons it's vital that your enterprise drops outdated content solutions and adopts modern, headless CMS architecture.</p><h3>1. Efficiently Create and Manage the Content at the Core of the Digital Experiences</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-omnichannel-digital-experience" target="_blank">Content is what powers</a> all of your marketing efforts, from social media messaging to articles, localized websites, smartwatch application notifications, personalized emails, and beyond. </p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="nv5o9iu0xcok" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt0e5b5d92aca05dff/613277e907866d6a2d82429d/content-hub-connetd-devices.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt0e5b5d92aca05dff" alt="content-hub-connetd-devices.png"></p>
<p>That means it’s your content that provides the consistent, contextual, and effortless experiences with which consumers interact wherever and whenever they seek information or goods from your enterprise. This is what makes content the heart of the digital experience and therefore makes the CMS architecture you use to manage it <em>integral</em> to your success.</p><h3>2. Enjoy Infinite Opportunities to Update the Customer Experience </h3>
<p>An inherent advantage of decoupling the front- and back-end with headless CMS architecture is that each can be changed without negatively affecting the other.</p>
<p>This feature enables businesses to completely transform the content presentation—and therefore the customer’s experience—without limitations. At the same time, IT professionals are empowered to transform the underlying technology at any time, adopting the latest languages and distribution channels to keep consumers engaged.</p><h3>3. Transform Your Business with Modern Content Architecture</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/content-architecture" target="_blank">Content architecture is the process of naming</a> all the little pieces that build great content — the text, the graphics, the links, and more. For enterprise businesses, it’s important to have a  modern and effective content architecture process so that each carefully crafted content element can be tracked down and used to its fullest potential. Headless CMS architecture lends itself to building a great process because of its modular architecture that enables individual pieces of content to be stored, labeled, searched, and used over and over again.</p><h3>4. Excel in the Marketplaces of Today and Tomorrow</h3>
<p>Developers who are restricted to maintaining traditional, legacy CMS software do just that: maintain. They aren’t empowered to explore and implement cutting-edge technology. This keeps enterprise companies from innovating and causes them to fall behind competitors in the marketplace. </p>
<p>With decoupled CMS architecture, however, businesses are prepared not just for today’s marketplace but for whatever new consumer experiences and expectations <em>tomorrow</em> may bring. Headless CMS architecture helps organizations future-proof their tech stacks by connecting carefully planned decoupled components via API so that they can be moved or changed as needed.</p>
<p>With your content tucked away in API-ready modules, you’re always ready to refresh your design, technology, and experience without having to re-implement your entire CMS. Need to spin up a new smartwatch app, plug in a different database, or update the underlying code base? Programmers that work within headless CMS architecture can do this and more without damaging the customer-facing experience.</p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="op7h3m38bzdg" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt5b711e21deb77a7c/61327ba98e16ab655b349563/traditional-dev-vs-content-first.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt5b711e21deb77a7c" alt="traditional-dev-vs-content-first.png"></p><h3>5. Make Your Team More Productive</h3>
<p>As much as it’s hard to admit, those who work with content spend an <em>obscene</em> amount of time on completely non-productive work like tracking down the latest draft, reworking copy for each channel, and worst of all, toggling back and forth between various publishing platforms.</p>
<p>No more. </p>
<p>Headless CMS architecture presents content in a single, centralized, and often responsive platform. From here, all optimization, personalization, publishing, and other tasks can take place. And with many of today’s leading headless CMSs providing <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/features" target="_blank">content management features</a> like approval workflows, versioning, access controls, and more; content teams can become more productive through collaboration without the fear of over-writing or wasting time accidentally re-making vital marketing assets.</p><h3>6. Make Iteration and Improvement Stress-Free for Marketing and IT</h3>
<p>With headless CMS architecture, development teams can iterate and improve upon existing technology without worrying they may take down the entire content experience at any time. Likewise, headless CMS enables marketing teams to launch messaging improvements and even try out new channels without laying a finger on existing campaigns that are working well.</p>
<p>These features empower organizations to move much more swiftly to take advantage of new opportunities and keep up with changing consumer desires.</p><h3>7. Answer Consumer Calls for Consistency and Personalization</h3>
<p>Today’s connected consumers want two things above all else: consistency and personalization. In fact, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/connected-devices-shape-consumer-behavior-infographic/" target="_blank">the majority of customers expect consistent levels of service</a> across brand experiences, and 71% express frustration when their experience feels impersonal. </p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="pkzpy7bq3i7t" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt4f062dd22c32dcb1/6132781c8f8f7644bdf4eff5/consistency-physical-digital-experiences.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt4f062dd22c32dcb1" alt="consistency-physical-digital-experiences.png"></p>
<p>Headless CMS meets these demands by allowing brands to optimize and distribute consistent messaging across channels and allowing marketers to plug in cutting-edge content personalization tools. Brands that create this flawless, personalized omnichannel experience for consumers can expect increased loyalty and advocacy in return.</p><h2>Are There Any Reasons My Enterprise Wouldn’t Need Cutting-Edge CMS Architecture? </h2>
<p>At this point, you can probably tell we’re major believers that adopting headless CMS architecture should be a pretty big priority for the modern enterprise. But we also realize that context is everything. These are a few circumstances in which going headless may be more trouble than it’s worth.</p><h3>You Aren’t Publishing to Multiple Platforms Anytime Soon</h3>
<p>It’s no secret that <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/how-to-choose-partner-to-transition-technology-to-mach/" target="_blank">replatforming content is a pretty big undertaking</a>. So, if you aren’t ever—and we mean <em>ever</em>—planning to publish beyond the singular, traditional website/publishing platform you’re already using; yours might be a case in which a headless CMS is overkill.  </p>
<p>Luckily, many traditional CMS platforms do allow the integration of APIs for simple “add ons.” You may find that these are enough if you’re truly focusing on a singular publishing channel. Just keep in mind that if you choose to stick with your traditional CMS, you will create “<a href="https://www.cmswire.com/web-cms/is-a-headless-cms-right-for-you/" target="_blank">content debt</a>” that will have to be paid if you ever <em>do</em> decide to adopt an omnichannel marketing strategy.</p><h3>You Don’t Have Access to Programming Talent</h3>
<p>The original headless CMS platforms typically didn’t come with presentation functionality. So if you were to work with one of these, you would have to find someone with front-end development chops to implement additional technology to display your content.</p>
<p>Many headless CMS providers, however, are moving away from this “tradition” and offering a presentation layer that is still decoupled from the content layer but available if you want to use it. As pioneers in headless CMS architecture ourselves here at Contentstack, we’re loving and even taking part in this development. <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/business-cms/" target="_blank">Check out how Contentstack perfectly conjoins the ease of use</a> for which traditional CMS gained popularity with the flexibility for which headless CMS has become necessary.</p><h2>Modernize Your CMS Architecture (And Your Enterprise) Today</h2>
<p>With content at the center of the all-powerful digital experience, it just makes sense that the platform on which you manage it should be cutting-edge. Headless CMS has the ability to continuously transform the customer experience, centralize content management, future-proof businesses against the competition, meet the demand for consistency and personalization, and more. That’s why we believe headless CMS architecture is the perfect tool to manage content and top off any digital marketing initiative.</p>
<p>For help shopping for the best headless CMS architecture for your organization, check out our guide “<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/enterprise-cms-how-to-choose-modern-content-solution/" target="_blank">How to Choose an Enterprise CMS That’s Right for Your Firm</a>.” </p>
<p>And once you’ve learned all there is to know, the next step is to try it out for yourself! Go ahead and sign up for a free Contentstack trial or demo and <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/request-demo/" target="_blank">start building out your own proof of concept today</a> — no obligation required.</p>

In the enterprise business world, 2020 and 2021 brought more than just hardships—these pivotal years also provided lessons. And one of the biggest lessons of all wasn’t a new one but an old standard that keeps getting reinforced time and time again: The only constant is change.

According to Subrah Iyar, a leader and legend in the enterprise software space, 

the biggest change of which today’s businesses need to be aware is the growing importance of digital experiences

“Consumers’ expectations have gone digital, and there’s no turning back,” 

. “Businesses need to adopt digital solutions to keep customers satisfied and continue growing their businesses. This implies shifting customer engagement experiences to a ‘Pull' model from a ‘Push' model for doing business where customers are able to pull services on-demand rather than having businesses push their services onto a customer.”

Luckily, most enterprises already have the key resource that enables consumers to interact with them digitally and on demand: content. But 

, most enterprises don’t have what it takes to 

That’s where modern CMS architecture comes in.

It all began with the traditional content management system (CMS), which is a software platform that combines content creation and management with control of the entire website experience.

And these monolithic CMSs worked swimmingly… for a while.

Today, the world is full of exciting new content distribution channels that legacy CMS platforms simply can’t accommodate (

, that is). In other words, the traditional CMS and the organizations that use them are in dire need of transforming to modern CMS architecture: An agile, 

, connected via application programming interface (API) technology, stored and delivered via the cloud, and built on headless architecture.

 from the traditional CMS structure. This allows developers to build any experience they like with whatever language is best, and make whatever technical changes necessary without ever disrupting the presentation layer where consumers are interacting with the content. And at the same time, this modular structure empowers marketing users to easily create and publish content.

In addition, the integrability of headless CMS means almost 

 content optimization tool, consumer data platform, etc. can be plugged in. That means content can be quickly and accurately reoptimized and republished to serve every channel, audience, and experience.

It’s these principles and structure that make MACH, headless CMS platforms 

 key foundational element of modern CMS architecture.

7 Reasons Why Modern Enterprises Need Modern CMS Architecture

If you need a little more convincing before diving into headless CMS, here are several reasons it's vital that your enterprise drops outdated content solutions and adopts modern, headless CMS architecture.

1. Efficiently Create and Manage the Content at the Core of the Digital Experiences

 all of your marketing efforts, from social media messaging to articles, localized websites, smartwatch application notifications, personalized emails, and beyond.

That means it’s your content that provides the consistent, contextual, and effortless experiences with which consumers interact wherever and whenever they seek information or goods from your enterprise. This is what makes content the heart of the digital experience and therefore makes the CMS architecture you use to manage it 

2. Enjoy Infinite Opportunities to Update the Customer Experience

An inherent advantage of decoupling the front- and back-end with headless CMS architecture is that each can be changed without negatively affecting the other.

This feature enables businesses to completely transform the content presentation—and therefore the customer’s experience—without limitations. At the same time, IT professionals are empowered to transform the underlying technology at any time, adopting the latest languages and distribution channels to keep consumers engaged.

3. Transform Your Business with Modern Content Architecture

 all the little pieces that build great content — the text, the graphics, the links, and more. For enterprise businesses, it’s important to have a modern and effective content architecture process so that each carefully crafted content element can be tracked down and used to its fullest potential. Headless CMS architecture lends itself to building a great process because of its modular architecture that enables individual pieces of content to be stored, labeled, searched, and used over and over again.

4. Excel in the Marketplaces of Today and Tomorrow

Developers who are restricted to maintaining traditional, legacy CMS software do just that: maintain. They aren’t empowered to explore and implement cutting-edge technology. This keeps enterprise companies from innovating and causes them to fall behind competitors in the marketplace.

With decoupled CMS architecture, however, businesses are prepared not just for today’s marketplace but for whatever new consumer experiences and expectations 

 may bring. Headless CMS architecture helps organizations future-proof their tech stacks by connecting carefully planned decoupled components via API so that they can be moved or changed as needed.

With your content tucked away in API-ready modules, you’re always ready to refresh your design, technology, and experience without having to re-implement your entire CMS. Need to spin up a new smartwatch app, plug in a different database, or update the underlying code base? Programmers that work within headless CMS architecture can do this and more without damaging the customer-facing experience.

As much as it’s hard to admit, those who work with content spend an 

 amount of time on completely non-productive work like tracking down the latest draft, reworking copy for each channel, and worst of all, toggling back and forth between various publishing platforms.

Headless CMS architecture presents content in a single, centralized, and often responsive platform. From here, all optimization, personalization, publishing, and other tasks can take place. And with many of today’s leading headless CMSs providing 

 like approval workflows, versioning, access controls, and more; content teams can become more productive through collaboration without the fear of over-writing or wasting time accidentally re-making vital marketing assets.

6. Make Iteration and Improvement Stress-Free for Marketing and IT

With headless CMS architecture, development teams can iterate and improve upon existing technology without worrying they may take down the entire content experience at any time. Likewise, headless CMS enables marketing teams to launch messaging improvements and even try out new channels without laying a finger on existing campaigns that are working well.

These features empower organizations to move much more swiftly to take advantage of new opportunities and keep up with changing consumer desires.

7. Answer Consumer Calls for Consistency and Personalization

Today’s connected consumers want two things above all else: consistency and personalization. In fact, 

 across brand experiences, and 71% express frustration when their experience feels impersonal.

Headless CMS meets these demands by allowing brands to optimize and distribute consistent messaging across channels and allowing marketers to plug in cutting-edge content personalization tools. Brands that create this flawless, personalized omnichannel experience for consumers can expect increased loyalty and advocacy in return.

Are There Any Reasons My Enterprise Wouldn’t Need Cutting-Edge CMS Architecture?

At this point, you can probably tell we’re major believers that adopting headless CMS architecture should be a pretty big priority for the modern enterprise. But we also realize that context is everything. These are a few circumstances in which going headless may be more trouble than it’s worth.

You Aren’t Publishing to Multiple Platforms Anytime Soon

. So, if you aren’t ever—and we mean 

—planning to publish beyond the singular, traditional website/publishing platform you’re already using; yours might be a case in which a headless CMS is overkill.

Luckily, many traditional CMS platforms do allow the integration of APIs for simple “add ons.” You may find that these are enough if you’re truly focusing on a singular publishing channel. Just keep in mind that if you choose to stick with your traditional CMS, you will create “

” that will have to be paid if you ever 

 decide to adopt an omnichannel marketing strategy.

You Don’t Have Access to Programming Talent

The original headless CMS platforms typically didn’t come with presentation functionality. So if you were to work with one of these, you would have to find someone with front-end development chops to implement additional technology to display your content.

Many headless CMS providers, however, are moving away from this “tradition” and offering a presentation layer that is still decoupled from the content layer but available if you want to use it. As pioneers in headless CMS architecture ourselves here at Contentstack, we’re loving and even taking part in this development. 

 for which traditional CMS gained popularity with the flexibility for which headless CMS has become necessary.

Modernize Your CMS Architecture (And Your Enterprise) Today

With content at the center of the all-powerful digital experience, it just makes sense that the platform on which you manage it should be cutting-edge. Headless CMS has the ability to continuously transform the customer experience, centralize content management, future-proof businesses against the competition, meet the demand for consistency and personalization, and more. That’s why we believe headless CMS architecture is the perfect tool to manage content and top off any digital marketing initiative.

For help shopping for the best headless CMS architecture for your organization, check out our guide “

And once you’ve learned all there is to know, the next step is to try it out for yourself! Go ahead and sign up for a free Contentstack trial or demo and 

cant-run-modern-enterprise-without-cms_hero.png

Why You Can’t Run a Modern Enterprise Without Modern CMS Architecture

<p>“Both.” </p>
<p>That’s what most consumers would tell you if you asked them whether they preferred to shop online or in-store. Yet, <a href="https://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/new-survey-reveals-what-consumers-want-from-omni-channel-shopping-experience.html" target="_blank">just 70% of retailers provide what they consider a “unified” commerce experience</a> that enables customers to “start the sale anywhere, finish the sale anywhere.” While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it doesn’t exactly describe an all-encompassing (or “omni”) experience. </p>
<p>Which raises the question: What really are these omnichannel experiences that everyone seems to be talking about? And is it actually possible to deliver them, or are they more science fiction than fact? Travel through space and time with us in this article as we attempt to answer both of these questions.</p><h2>Omnichannel Experiences: The Oversell of the Century </h2>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-omnichannel-digital-experience/" target="_blank">Omnichannel experiences promise to provide cohesive and personalized consumer-brand interactions</a> across channels and devices. The goal is to create seamless experiences that don’t just turn consumers into customers once but provide ongoing support that boosts retention and overall lifetime value. </p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="6py3eqk30xno" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/bltbfc5a891e771b2d0/6112e87c4a72ef3a8c6ef780/the-omnichannel-experience.png" data-sys-asset-uid="bltbfc5a891e771b2d0" alt="the-omnichannel-experience.png"></p>
<p>Omnichannel experiences sound great, right? Unfortunately, execution has been stalling out ever since the term “omnichannel experiences” became the buzzword of the century in marketing circles. Omnichannel experiences should be what every modern consumer is enjoying from the brands with which they interact. Yet, most companies have failed to deliver on the full promise of the omnichannel experience. </p>
<p>There are several reasons why this continues to happen, many of which we’ll discuss in the next section. (By the way, if you stay tuned to the end of this article, we’ll also be covering <em>how</em> businesses can overcome these hardships and finally deliver omnichannel experiences consumers will love!)</p><h2>What Makes Omnichannel Experiences so Hard to Deliver?</h2>
<p>What are the hardships that keep omnichannel experiences more fiction than fact for many businesses? Let’s find out.</p><h3>Consumer Channels Have Exploded </h3>
<p>In 2020, the <a href="https://techjury.net/blog/how-many-iot-devices-are-there/" target="_blank">average household had 10 different internet-connected devices</a>. All told, the number of these internet-enabled devices is expected to hit 46 billion globally in 2021. And do you know what people are doing with all these phones, watches, computers, tablets, and other devices? They’re interacting with brand social media channels, blogs, chat services, podcasts, ads, webinars, affiliate marketers, PR efforts, and more. </p>
<p>With all these channels, today <a href="https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/how-many-touches-does-it-take-to-make-a-sale" target="_blank">it takes a consumer an average of 8 “touches” or interactions</a> before they complete their first conversion. The explosion of channels upon which consumers can have their omnichannel experiences has created a <em>lot</em> of ground for marketers to cover.</p><h3>The Time it Takes to Create Omnichannel Content is Mind-Boggling </h3>
<p>We’re sure you’ll agree that <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-omnichannel-digital-experience/" target="_blank">content lies at the heart of the omnichannel experience</a>. It’s the first branded element with which consumers will interact, and it’s often the same element that will guide their entire relationship with your business. But this makes content both a blessing and a curse in modern marketing.</p>
<p>It’s a time-consuming task to create content for all of the previously mentioned channels, devices, and other platforms. And that task becomes almost unfathomable when you’re creating fresh, high-quality, and even <em>personalized</em> content at such a scale. Creating the right quality and quantity of content to feed the omnichannel experience machine is nearly impossible when you don’t have a thoughtful system in place.</p><h3>Customer Information is Often Siloed </h3>
<p>Close to 40% of customer experience leaders say that <a href="https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/5-key-challenges-to-building-a-successful-omnichannel-customer-experience-strategy/" target="_blank">fragmented or siloed customer data has hurt their efforts</a> to develop true omnichannel experiences. Silos in the workplace are often a result of technological tools that aren’t able to effectively share data with each other. And this fragmentation of information is worsened by poor communication tools and habits. It’s a hard nut to crack, but the businesses that are able to update their tech (more on that later) as well as modernize their communication practices should also be able to overcome customer information silos.</p><h3>How Do You Manage All That Customer Data?</h3>
<p>If silos aren’t your problem and you actually <em>do</em> have a way to gather all that customer information in one place, that’s great! However, now there’s something else to worry about. How are you going to organize all that data, make sense of it, and actually apply what you’ve learned?</p>
<p>With all the channels and platforms upon which customers interact and all the new tools on the market that enable you to gather data from these interactions, chances are you’re collecting a ton of data. It takes a custom combo of tools, complete with artificial intelligence (AI), to actually develop and apply your consumer data learnings. The good news is that, while we can’t walk you through the whole process in today’s article, we can help you get started with the foundational tech it takes to make your data work for you.</p><h3>Real-Time Personalization is a Full-Time Job </h3>
<p>Real-time decisioning (RTD) is the process of delivering the right experience to the right consumer at the right time—and on the right channel, of course. Serving this kind of quick personalization either takes a lot of time or a lot of tools, such as AI-powered customer data platforms (CDPs), predictive analytics systems, and more. </p>
<p>That’s why, not so surprisingly, <a href="https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/5-key-challenges-to-building-a-successful-omnichannel-customer-experience-strategy/" target="_blank">a measly 14% of marketers would call their experience with decisioning successful</a>. To be part of the modern marketing departments raising that percentage, you have to be ready to put in a <em>lot</em> of time or invest in the right tools.</p><h3>Most Current Tech Simply Can’t Keep Up</h3>
<p>Chances are at least some of the marketing tech you’re using was created before many of the above developments (always-connected consumers, the personalization push, etc.) became the new norm. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/ease-the-pains-of-legacy-tech-one-step-at-a-time/" target="_blank">66% of developers say maintaining legacy tech hinders productivity</a> and 64% of IT decision-makers have already prioritized upgrading said outdated tech. And we probably don’t have to tell you that this old-school, legacy technology is holding you back from creating successful omnichannel experiences.</p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="09xg1b6muzsu" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/bltd302e74bc18d6296/6112e8a67b2aa336d6ba417a/customer-experience-projects-success-rates.png" data-sys-asset-uid="bltd302e74bc18d6296" alt="customer-experience-projects-success-rates.png"></p>
<p>If you’re stuck in the loop of expensive and time-consuming marketing tech that actually <em>hinders</em> your team from creating modern experiences for modern channels, here’s what you’ve been missing.</p><h2>What You Need to Build Future-Ready Omnichannel Experiences</h2>
<p>That once-empty promise that “Omnichannel is here!” doesn’t have to be a pipedream when you have the right foundation with which to integrate and implement modern marketing tech. </p>
<p><strong>The right foundation is a MACH, headless content management system (CMS). </strong></p>
<p>When it comes to marketing tech, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/enterprise-ready-for-mach/" target="_blank">MACH means tools that</a>: </p><br><ul><li>Are built on lightweight apps called <strong>microservices</strong> </li><li>Connect and communicate via <strong>application programming interface (API)</strong></li><li>Live in and are delivered via the <strong>cloud</strong> </li><li>Employ <strong>headless</strong> architecture</li></ul><br><p>It’s this last characteristic—the headless architecture—that makes agile, headless CMS with MACH features a perfect cornerstone for omnichannel experiences. With a modern, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms/">headless CMS</a>, content creation and content presentation exist separately. This structure makes it so that marketers can generate content-led experiences while designers and developers build out the perfect distribution channels that make those experiences <em>omnichannel</em>.  </p>
<p>And because of the modular, flexible infrastructure of headless CMS, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/product-updates/easily-integrate-with-your-marketing-technologies-with-contentstack-cms-custom-fields/" target="_blank">it’s easy to integrate with all kinds of tools and services</a>—like the aforementioned CDPs and predictive analytics systems as well as CRMs, ecommerce platforms, localization tools, and lots more—that make creating plenty of personalized content possible.</p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="f40s7ocy2tud" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt8b119d5146873909/6112e8bf365a7d358c6c0769/traditional-vs-modern-cms.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt8b119d5146873909" alt="traditional-vs-modern-cms.png"></p><br><h2>Close the Book on Outdated Marketing Tech Today </h2>
<p>Science fiction is something that belongs on your bookshelf, <em>not</em> in your marketing program. </p>
<p>To create <em>real</em> omnichannel experiences your consumers trust and a content creation process your employees believe in, you have to pull your tech out of the past. </p>
<p>And the easiest way to get started is to upgrade the platform where most of your content creation tasks take place: Your CMS. To learn how to actually choose the best modern CMS, check out our guide “<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/enterprise-cms-how-to-choose-modern-content-solution/" target="_blank">How to Choose an Enterprise CMS That’s Right for Your Firm</a>.”</p>
<p>And if you want to learn more about building a modern marketing strategy that will really make the most of your CMS investment, read “<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms/how-to-enterprise-marketing-strategy/" target="_blank">How to Nail Your Enterprise Marketing Strategy</a>.”</p>

That’s what most consumers would tell you if you asked them whether they preferred to shop online or in-store. Yet, 

 that enables customers to “start the sale anywhere, finish the sale anywhere.” While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it doesn’t exactly describe an all-encompassing (or “omni”) experience.

Which raises the question: What really are these omnichannel experiences that everyone seems to be talking about? And is it actually possible to deliver them, or are they more science fiction than fact? Travel through space and time with us in this article as we attempt to answer both of these questions.

Omnichannel Experiences: The Oversell of the Century

 across channels and devices. The goal is to create seamless experiences that don’t just turn consumers into customers once but provide ongoing support that boosts retention and overall lifetime value.

Omnichannel experiences sound great, right? Unfortunately, execution has been stalling out ever since the term “omnichannel experiences” became the buzzword of the century in marketing circles. Omnichannel experiences should be what every modern consumer is enjoying from the brands with which they interact. Yet, most companies have failed to deliver on the full promise of the omnichannel experience.

There are several reasons why this continues to happen, many of which we’ll discuss in the next section. (By the way, if you stay tuned to the end of this article, we’ll also be covering 

 businesses can overcome these hardships and finally deliver omnichannel experiences consumers will love!)

What Makes Omnichannel Experiences so Hard to Deliver?

What are the hardships that keep omnichannel experiences more fiction than fact for many businesses? Let’s find out.

. All told, the number of these internet-enabled devices is expected to hit 46 billion globally in 2021. And do you know what people are doing with all these phones, watches, computers, tablets, and other devices? They’re interacting with brand social media channels, blogs, chat services, podcasts, ads, webinars, affiliate marketers, PR efforts, and more.

 before they complete their first conversion. The explosion of channels upon which consumers can have their omnichannel experiences has created a 

The Time it Takes to Create Omnichannel Content is Mind-Boggling

. It’s the first branded element with which consumers will interact, and it’s often the same element that will guide their entire relationship with your business. But this makes content both a blessing and a curse in modern marketing.

It’s a time-consuming task to create content for all of the previously mentioned channels, devices, and other platforms. And that task becomes almost unfathomable when you’re creating fresh, high-quality, and even 

 content at such a scale. Creating the right quality and quantity of content to feed the omnichannel experience machine is nearly impossible when you don’t have a thoughtful system in place.

Close to 40% of customer experience leaders say that 

 to develop true omnichannel experiences. Silos in the workplace are often a result of technological tools that aren’t able to effectively share data with each other. And this fragmentation of information is worsened by poor communication tools and habits. It’s a hard nut to crack, but the businesses that are able to update their tech (more on that later) as well as modernize their communication practices should also be able to overcome customer information silos.

How Do You Manage All That Customer Data?

If silos aren’t your problem and you actually 

 have a way to gather all that customer information in one place, that’s great! However, now there’s something else to worry about. How are you going to organize all that data, make sense of it, and actually apply what you’ve learned?

With all the channels and platforms upon which customers interact and all the new tools on the market that enable you to gather data from these interactions, chances are you’re collecting a ton of data. It takes a custom combo of tools, complete with artificial intelligence (AI), to actually develop and apply your consumer data learnings. The good news is that, while we can’t walk you through the whole process in today’s article, we can help you get started with the foundational tech it takes to make your data work for you.

Real-Time Personalization is a Full-Time Job

Real-time decisioning (RTD) is the process of delivering the right experience to the right consumer at the right time—and on the right channel, of course. Serving this kind of quick personalization either takes a lot of time or a lot of tools, such as AI-powered customer data platforms (CDPs), predictive analytics systems, and more.

. To be part of the modern marketing departments raising that percentage, you have to be ready to put in a 

Chances are at least some of the marketing tech you’re using was created before many of the above developments (always-connected consumers, the personalization push, etc.) became the new norm.

 and 64% of IT decision-makers have already prioritized upgrading said outdated tech. And we probably don’t have to tell you that this old-school, legacy technology is holding you back from creating successful omnichannel experiences.

If you’re stuck in the loop of expensive and time-consuming marketing tech that actually 

 your team from creating modern experiences for modern channels, here’s what you’ve been missing.

What You Need to Build Future-Ready Omnichannel Experiences

That once-empty promise that “Omnichannel is here!” doesn’t have to be a pipedream when you have the right foundation with which to integrate and implement modern marketing tech.

The right foundation is a MACH, headless content management system (CMS).

It’s this last characteristic—the headless architecture—that makes agile, headless CMS with MACH features a perfect cornerstone for omnichannel experiences. With a modern, 

, content creation and content presentation exist separately. This structure makes it so that marketers can generate content-led experiences while designers and developers build out the perfect distribution channels that make those experiences 

And because of the modular, flexible infrastructure of headless CMS, 

—like the aforementioned CDPs and predictive analytics systems as well as CRMs, ecommerce platforms, localization tools, and lots more—that make creating plenty of personalized content possible.

Close the Book on Outdated Marketing Tech Today

Science fiction is something that belongs on your bookshelf, 

 omnichannel experiences your consumers trust and a content creation process your employees believe in, you have to pull your tech out of the past.

And the easiest way to get started is to upgrade the platform where most of your content creation tasks take place: Your CMS. To learn how to actually choose the best modern CMS, check out our guide “

And if you want to learn more about building a modern marketing strategy that will really make the most of your CMS investment, read “

omnichannel-experiences-no-longer-science-fiction_hero.png

Omnichannel Experiences Are No Longer Science Fiction

<p>According to <a href="https://www.twilio.com/blog/announcing-the-state-of-personalization-2021" target="_blank">“The State of Personalization 2021” by customer data management platform Twilio Segment</a>, personalized experiences are in high demand. No surprises there, right? But what’s truly shocking is the fact that there’s still a<em> big gap</em> between consumer expectations and the reality that brands are delivering.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While a massive 85% of businesses included in Twilio Segment’s survey said they offered personalized experiences, only 60% of consumers reported feeling that their experiences were actually personalized.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The brands who are able to fill this personalization gap with valuable, unique experiences—at <em>scale</em>—will be prepared for whatever the future of consumers and business throws at them. Read on to learn how to say goodbye to random content and say hello to modern technology that makes personalized, content-driven experiences not just effective but affordable and <em>repeatable</em>.&nbsp;</p><h2>No More Random Acts of Content: Master Personalization with This Modern Technology&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Why does personalization all start with content? Because content is typically how customers first interact with your brand (and sometimes it’s the only way they <em>ever</em> interact with it).&nbsp;</p>
<p>From advertising campaigns that bring new consumers to your business to the informative content that convinces them to make a purchase to the personalized emails that help retain them long-term—content is a huge tool in your experience-creation toolbox. So, the content they encounter shouldn’t be sent at random with no regard for individual needs and preferences.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But we all know that’s much easier said than done for businesses with lots of consumers, lots of offerings, or lots of moving parts in the marketing department. For you, we created the world’s best MACH-powered, agile, headless CMS.&nbsp;</p><h3>Start Marketing at MACH Speed with Headless CMS&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Let’s start with headless CMS. Just like any good content management system (CMS), a headless CMS is a central “hub” where your content assets and activities live.&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms/" target="_blank">What makes headless CMS different from traditional CMS</a> is its modular architecture, which separates content creation and management from how it’s eventually published. This separation between the content and the code empowers marketing teams to create content while technology and design teams use modern tools to build cross-platform experiences that bring that content to life. This modular architecture works together thanks to application programming interface (API) technology and makes it so that content is easy to optimize, publish, and even <em>republish</em> to websites, mobile apps, social channels, chatbots, and more.</p>
<p>One step above the standard headless CMS is the <em>MACH</em> headless CMS. <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/leaning-away-legacy-tools-mach/" target="_blank">MACH is a classification for technology</a> that is built on microservices, connected via API technology, native to the cloud, and headless from the ground up. These features give a MACH headless CMS infinite scalability, the agility to adapt to every modern consumer trend, and the power to integrate with other cutting-edge platforms to build a well-rounded marketing program.&nbsp;</p>
<p>And that brings us to <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/features/" target="_blank">Contentstack—an agile, headless CMS that’s built on MACH principles</a>, bringing all the best modern CMS features together under one roof. And Contentstack doesn’t just employ MACH principles, the company is even <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">a founding member of the MACH Alliance</a>!&nbsp;</p>
<p>Coupled with complementary MACH technologies like personalization provider <a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank">Uniform</a> and MACH-methodology implementation agencies such as <a href="https://www.epam.com/" target="_blank">EPAM</a>, personalization suddenly starts to become a whole lot more manageable than the old-school, rules-based suites many marketers know and probably don’t love.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="mdhmwp0vqui9" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/bltdc95801fefc60e50/604bf8b9e122b53af55137bf/traditional-vs-headless-cms.png" data-sys-asset-uid="bltdc95801fefc60e50" alt="traditional-vs-headless-cms.png"></p><br><h2>How Headless Tech Powers Your Personalization Plan</h2>
<p>Here are just a few ways taking a more measured and less random approach to content with the help of a headless CMS can greatly boost the power of your personalization efforts.&nbsp;</p><h3>Customize Individual Experiences Without a PhD in Rules</h3>
<p>Rigid, complex webs of rules used to be the only way to deliver content that was somewhat “personalized” for different consumer groups. However, marketers who have kept up with the times know that, today, uniqueness is celebrated and the brands who are willing to do the work to recognize each customer’s preferences are rewarded.</p>
<p>Today, content must be personalized for <em>each</em> consumer based on context. Historically, this has been a practically impossible task to pull off at any kind of scale. But with a modern, headless CMS that has intuitive tagging tools and can also integrate with agile and highly performant personalization platforms, businesses can finally leave rules in the dust and develop more effective personalized content.</p><h3>Finally Flex Your Creativity and Start Innovating&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Creativity is an important element of every marketer’s toolkit. Unfortunately, marketers often don’t have enough time to put their creativity to use on innovative campaigns. Why? Because they’re stifled by the repetitive processes that come with working in an outdated, legacy content management system.&nbsp;</p>
<p>With an agile, headless CMS like Contentstack that believes in the democratization of content, marketers are free to create, manage, and publish creative campaigns without waiting for help from tech teams —&nbsp;who are often already immersed in their own world of tasks.</p><h3>Integrate Best-in-Class Tech and Elevate Your Brand Experiences&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Content management isn’t the only technology that has evolved from tedious, complicated processes toward user-friendly and agile alternatives. A headless CMS can integrate with best-in-class modern personalization technology to create a workflow in which your team can quickly and seamlessly create personalized experiences from within a single user interface.&nbsp;</p><h2>See Personalization In Action: “Project CUE” by Contentstack, Uniform, and EPAM&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>
<p>With MACH technology and an agile mindset, personalization can be spun up in a matter of weeks. To prove it, Contentstack, Uniform, and EPAM teamed up for <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/announcements/omnichannel-personalization-with-headless-content/" target="_blank">“Project CUE” — a real-life demonstration of agile personalization in action</a>, conceptualized as a journey of planning an imaginary trip to Las Vegas. In less than one business quarter, the team identified a use case, developed a content model in Contentstack, added personalization with Uniform, and debuted the omnichannel experience live.</p>
<p>Keep scrolling to see the infographic that details how modern CMS combines with modern personalization technology to create content experiences that are anything but “random”.</p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><a href="https://info.contentstack.com/rs/489-WNI-383/images/project-cue-infographic.png" target="_blank"><img data-image="os4htifjp3o8" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt994a244134a8185c/60f619e452fbad613927507f/project-cue-infographic.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt994a244134a8185c" alt="project-cue-infographic.png"></a></p>

, personalized experiences are in high demand. No surprises there, right? But what’s truly shocking is the fact that there’s still a

 between consumer expectations and the reality that brands are delivering. 

While a massive 85% of businesses included in Twilio Segment’s survey said they offered personalized experiences, only 60% of consumers reported feeling that their experiences were actually personalized.   

The brands who are able to fill this personalization gap with valuable, unique experiences—at 

—will be prepared for whatever the future of consumers and business throws at them. Read on to learn how to say goodbye to random content and say hello to modern technology that makes personalized, content-driven experiences not just effective but affordable and 

No More Random Acts of Content: Master Personalization with This Modern Technology 

Why does personalization all start with content? Because content is typically how customers first interact with your brand (and sometimes it’s the only way they 

From advertising campaigns that bring new consumers to your business to the informative content that convinces them to make a purchase to the personalized emails that help retain them long-term—content is a huge tool in your experience-creation toolbox. So, the content they encounter shouldn’t be sent at random with no regard for individual needs and preferences. 

But we all know that’s much easier said than done for businesses with lots of consumers, lots of offerings, or lots of moving parts in the marketing department. For you, we created the world’s best MACH-powered, agile, headless CMS. 

Start Marketing at MACH Speed with Headless CMS 

Let’s start with headless CMS. Just like any good content management system (CMS), a headless CMS is a central “hub” where your content assets and activities live. 

 is its modular architecture, which separates content creation and management from how it’s eventually published. This separation between the content and the code empowers marketing teams to create content while technology and design teams use modern tools to build cross-platform experiences that bring that content to life. This modular architecture works together thanks to application programming interface (API) technology and makes it so that content is easy to optimize, publish, and even 

 to websites, mobile apps, social channels, chatbots, and more.

One step above the standard headless CMS is the 

 that is built on microservices, connected via API technology, native to the cloud, and headless from the ground up. These features give a MACH headless CMS infinite scalability, the agility to adapt to every modern consumer trend, and the power to integrate with other cutting-edge platforms to build a well-rounded marketing program. 

, bringing all the best modern CMS features together under one roof. And Contentstack doesn’t just employ MACH principles, the company is even 

Coupled with complementary MACH technologies like personalization provider 

 and MACH-methodology implementation agencies such as 

, personalization suddenly starts to become a whole lot more manageable than the old-school, rules-based suites many marketers know and probably don’t love. 

How Headless Tech Powers Your Personalization Plan

Here are just a few ways taking a more measured and less random approach to content with the help of a headless CMS can greatly boost the power of your personalization efforts. 

Customize Individual Experiences Without a PhD in Rules

Rigid, complex webs of rules used to be the only way to deliver content that was somewhat “personalized” for different consumer groups. However, marketers who have kept up with the times know that, today, uniqueness is celebrated and the brands who are willing to do the work to recognize each customer’s preferences are rewarded.

 consumer based on context. Historically, this has been a practically impossible task to pull off at any kind of scale. But with a modern, headless CMS that has intuitive tagging tools and can also integrate with agile and highly performant personalization platforms, businesses can finally leave rules in the dust and develop more effective personalized content.

Finally Flex Your Creativity and Start Innovating 

Creativity is an important element of every marketer’s toolkit. Unfortunately, marketers often don’t have enough time to put their creativity to use on innovative campaigns. Why? Because they’re stifled by the repetitive processes that come with working in an outdated, legacy content management system. 

With an agile, headless CMS like Contentstack that believes in the democratization of content, marketers are free to create, manage, and publish creative campaigns without waiting for help from tech teams — who are often already immersed in their own world of tasks.

Integrate Best-in-Class Tech and Elevate Your Brand Experiences 

Content management isn’t the only technology that has evolved from tedious, complicated processes toward user-friendly and agile alternatives. A headless CMS can integrate with best-in-class modern personalization technology to create a workflow in which your team can quickly and seamlessly create personalized experiences from within a single user interface. 

See Personalization In Action: “Project CUE” by Contentstack, Uniform, and EPAM  

With MACH technology and an agile mindset, personalization can be spun up in a matter of weeks. To prove it, Contentstack, Uniform, and EPAM teamed up for 

, conceptualized as a journey of planning an imaginary trip to Las Vegas. In less than one business quarter, the team identified a use case, developed a content model in Contentstack, added personalization with Uniform, and debuted the omnichannel experience live.

Keep scrolling to see the infographic that details how modern CMS combines with modern personalization technology to create content experiences that are anything but “random”.

proejct-cue-infographic_hero.png

No More Random Acts of Content [Infographic]

<p>Making marketing feel more like a one-on-one sales conversation (rather than a generic broadcast) has long been the “holy grail” for marketers. If each marketing interaction, message, and call to action could be precisely tailored to the prospect’s needs, informed by their past actions, and served up in the right context; then it should all add up to more effective marketing. And in fact, the data points in this direction.</p>
<p>Studies on the <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/43-facts-on-content-personalization-marketing-strategy" target="_blank">effects of personalization</a> show clear benefits:</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>91% of consumers are more likely to shop</strong> with brands that provide offers specific and relevant to them</li>
  <li><strong>80% of customers are more likely to purchase</strong> products or services from brands that provide personalized experiences</li>
  <li><strong>79% of consumers are only likely to engage with a brand’s offer</strong> if that offer has been personalized to reflect previous interactions that the consumer has had with the brand</li>
</ul>
<p>The quest to provide personalization has driven many of the biggest shifts in marketing over the last several years. It has led to the emergence of a new type of marketing strategy focused on building personal relationships that act more as dialogue than as broadcast.</p>
<p>Welcome to the era of conversational marketing.<br /></p>
<h2>A Brief History of Conversational Marketing</h2>
<p>Not too long ago, websites were simple HTML and CSS. Before the age of interactive websites and advanced JavaScript frameworks, browsing the web was more like flipping through a catalog than being treated to a great shopping experience. But websites now offer interactive, immersive experiences. And, in many cases, there is someone or something to guide you to the content or information that you need with just a single click.</p>
<p>Website chat, in particular, has become a nearly ubiquitous part of the marketing stack. Companies like Intercom and Drift pioneered the live-chat-on-every-website trend, offering a real-time opportunity for website visitors to connect with a person or bot on any page.</p>
<p>This trend has been further accelerated by the growing sophistication of chatbots that are able to instantly ingest, analyze, and act on troves of customer data. This makes it possible for firms to deploy always-on conversational marketing powered by bots rather than humans. All in all, the U.S. chatbot market is expected to <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/chatbot-market" target="_blank">grow by roughly 3x between 2020 and 2025</a>.</p>
<p style="margin: auto;text-align: center;"><img data-image="7sxxyj66hf4v" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/bltfaa5001232590633/60bab56536617c1194b6c6ed/us-chatbot-market-growth.png" data-sys-asset-uid="bltfaa5001232590633" alt="us-chatbot-market-growth.png" /></p>
<p>Interestingly, many B2B companies have lagged behind on chatbot trends. A 2018 study from Boomtown found that <a href="https://www.goboomtown.com/blog/chatbot-statistics-study" target="_blank">fewer than 1% of B2B companies implemented chatbots</a> on their website. This trend will likely shift&nbsp;in the coming years as chatbots come to replace traditional, human-powered chat options.</p>
<p>One way that this will come to fruition is the increasing sophistication of said chatbots. Most notably, deep integrations between chatbots and customer data, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-modeling-and-headless-cms" target="_blank">structured content</a>, and AI/machine learning are giving rise to a new breed of chatbots that can far outperform human agents, even in the art of conversation.<br /></p>
<h2>Getting Smarter: Modern Conversational Marketing</h2>
<p>Since the advent of live chat functionality, the technology has grown&nbsp;smarter and more versatile. And this evolution has given way to modern chat software, available on many of your favorite websites. These always-on chat widgets—often paired with AI-powered chatbots—have ushered in a new paradigm.</p>
<p>While this technology functions similarly to earlier chat options, having an always-on chat option introduced a significant and important dimension that has transformed more generic live chat into something greater. That new dimension is <em>context</em>.</p>
<p>By making chat functionality ever-present, companies gain insight into the <em>context </em>in which a website visitor is initiating conversation. Combine that with the ability to track and incorporate historical browsing behavior, past purchases, and even personal customer histories and you have the ingredients for a transformational customer experience with <strong>conversational marketing</strong>.</p>
<p>Having evolved from the most basic building blocks of live chat and website tracking, conversational marketing allows marketers to deliver deeply personalized experiences that teeter on true one-to-one marketing.</p>
<p style="margin: auto;text-align: center;"><img data-image="n1j7hh5qzks4" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt4f898eb4112a7b30/60bab585971f487708eb1402/building-blocks-of-conversational-marketing.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt4f898eb4112a7b30" alt="building-blocks-of-conversational-marketing.png" /></p>
<p>As live chat has evolved into the use of chatbots, the marriage between AI and data has furthered the advancement of conversational marketing. But many firms are likely to hit roadblocks in the pursuit of sophisticated personalization. Not the least of which is the legacy CMS, which often doesn’t integrate well with modern tools and frameworks to serve up the personalized content needed to fuel conversation.</p>
<p>Here, too, a new generation of tools has enabled innovation. The <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms" target="_blank">headless CMS</a> has presented a new, API-first approach to content and the emergence of the <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/content-as-a-service-framework" target="_blank">content as a service (CaaS) technology framework</a>. Not only is this a boon to content strategy and marketing teams, but it unlocks content across all contexts, channels, and interactions.</p>
<h2>Headless CMS: The Conversational Marketing Command Center</h2>
<p>The core of your conversational marketing strategy is content.</p>
<p>Without content, your chatbot (or human agents, for that matter) have no material from which to draw answers, form responses, or deliver personalized experiences.</p>
<p>A headless CMS serves as the central content hub that links together various inputs and technology layers to first understand the context of a customer conversation, and then to select and deliver the correct content.</p>
<p style="margin: auto;text-align: center;"><img data-image="kwdow00rmo65" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt4edabd4762aac1d4/60bab59ad475801b9d54e9f1/headless-cms-orchestrates-conversational-marketing.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt4edabd4762aac1d4" alt="headless-cms-orchestrates-conversational-marketing.png" /></p>
<p>The new breed of headless CMS goes way beyond the capabilities of legacy software. No longer is the CMS built to just churn out templatized pages for dynamic websites. Now, the CMS is a truly universal tool for creating, managing, and deploying content in an omnichannel world.</p>
<p>Where legacy systems have <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/api-doesnt-make-headless-cms" target="_blank">added an API to “extend” what is, essentially, a blogging platform</a>, a truly API-first solution is built from the ground up to power innovative marketing strategies. At the core of the headless CMS is a <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/content-architecture" target="_blank">modular content architecture</a>, which allows teams to create and deploy content that’s context and channel agnostic. This creates a nearly infinite array of content personalization options, which can be connected to AI integrations like <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/integrations/ibm-watson" target="_blank">IBM’s Watson</a>, Salesforce Einstein, or <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/integrations/monkeylearn" target="_blank">MonkeyLearn</a> to combine individual customer data and deliver personalized experiences on the fly.</p>
<p>This modern content infrastructure allows teams to orchestrate automated one-to-one marketing personalization that would have seemed like science fiction just a few short years ago.<br /></p>
<h2>A Roadmap to Conversational Marketing and Personalized Customer Journeys</h2>
<p>Ready to kickstart your conversational marketing strategy? Download a free copy of Gartner’s report, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/re/headless-cms-digital-experience-platform-gartner-report" target="_blank"><em>Elevate Your Horizontal Portal to a Digital Experience Platform</em></a>.</p>
<p>Inside, you’ll learn how the modern digital experience platform is built on a new type of technology stack where headless, API-first, and cloud-native tools unlock a microservices architecture that will usher in a new era of personalized marketing and 1-to-1 conversations at scale.</p>And if you want to learn more about how you can build evolution and agility into your organization’s mindset, watch “<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/wr/3pillar-faster-digital-economy-adopting-product-mindset/" target="_blank">The Keys to Moving Faster in a Digital Economy: Adopting a Product Mindset for You and Your Technology Partners</a>.” This fireside chat with 3Pillar provides insights on leadership, product development, and innovation.

Making marketing feel more like a one-on-one sales conversation (rather than a generic broadcast) has long been the “holy grail” for marketers. If each marketing interaction, message, and call to action could be precisely tailored to the prospect’s needs, informed by their past actions, and served up in the right context; then it should all add up to more effective marketing. And in fact, the data points in this direction.

The quest to provide personalization has driven many of the biggest shifts in marketing over the last several years. It has led to the emergence of a new type of marketing strategy focused on building personal relationships that act more as dialogue than as broadcast.

Welcome to the era of conversational marketing.

A Brief History of Conversational Marketing

Not too long ago, websites were simple HTML and CSS. Before the age of interactive websites and advanced JavaScript frameworks, browsing the web was more like flipping through a catalog than being treated to a great shopping experience. But websites now offer interactive, immersive experiences. And, in many cases, there is someone or something to guide you to the content or information that you need with just a single click.

Website chat, in particular, has become a nearly ubiquitous part of the marketing stack. Companies like Intercom and Drift pioneered the live-chat-on-every-website trend, offering a real-time opportunity for website visitors to connect with a person or bot on any page.

This trend has been further accelerated by the growing sophistication of chatbots that are able to instantly ingest, analyze, and act on troves of customer data. This makes it possible for firms to deploy always-on conversational marketing powered by bots rather than humans. All in all, the U.S. chatbot market is expected to 

Interestingly, many B2B companies have lagged behind on chatbot trends. A 2018 study from Boomtown found that 

 on their website. This trend will likely shift in the coming years as chatbots come to replace traditional, human-powered chat options.

One way that this will come to fruition is the increasing sophistication of said chatbots. Most notably, deep integrations between chatbots and customer data, 

, and AI/machine learning are giving rise to a new breed of chatbots that can far outperform human agents, even in the art of conversation.

Getting Smarter: Modern Conversational Marketing

Since the advent of live chat functionality, the technology has grown smarter and more versatile. And this evolution has given way to modern chat software, available on many of your favorite websites. These always-on chat widgets—often paired with AI-powered chatbots—have ushered in a new paradigm.

While this technology functions similarly to earlier chat options, having an always-on chat option introduced a significant and important dimension that has transformed more generic live chat into something greater. That new dimension is 

By making chat functionality ever-present, companies gain insight into the 

in which a website visitor is initiating conversation. Combine that with the ability to track and incorporate historical browsing behavior, past purchases, and even personal customer histories and you have the ingredients for a transformational customer experience with 

Having evolved from the most basic building blocks of live chat and website tracking, conversational marketing allows marketers to deliver deeply personalized experiences that teeter on true one-to-one marketing.

As live chat has evolved into the use of chatbots, the marriage between AI and data has furthered the advancement of conversational marketing. But many firms are likely to hit roadblocks in the pursuit of sophisticated personalization. Not the least of which is the legacy CMS, which often doesn’t integrate well with modern tools and frameworks to serve up the personalized content needed to fuel conversation.

Here, too, a new generation of tools has enabled innovation. The 

 has presented a new, API-first approach to content and the emergence of the 

. Not only is this a boon to content strategy and marketing teams, but it unlocks content across all contexts, channels, and interactions.

Headless CMS: The Conversational Marketing Command Center

The core of your conversational marketing strategy is content.

Without content, your chatbot (or human agents, for that matter) have no material from which to draw answers, form responses, or deliver personalized experiences.

A headless CMS serves as the central content hub that links together various inputs and technology layers to first understand the context of a customer conversation, and then to select and deliver the correct content.

The new breed of headless CMS goes way beyond the capabilities of legacy software. No longer is the CMS built to just churn out templatized pages for dynamic websites. Now, the CMS is a truly universal tool for creating, managing, and deploying content in an omnichannel world.

, a truly API-first solution is built from the ground up to power innovative marketing strategies. At the core of the headless CMS is a 

, which allows teams to create and deploy content that’s context and channel agnostic. This creates a nearly infinite array of content personalization options, which can be connected to AI integrations like 

 to combine individual customer data and deliver personalized experiences on the fly.

This modern content infrastructure allows teams to orchestrate automated one-to-one marketing personalization that would have seemed like science fiction just a few short years ago.

A Roadmap to Conversational Marketing and Personalized Customer Journeys

Ready to kickstart your conversational marketing strategy? Download a free copy of Gartner’s report, 

Inside, you’ll learn how the modern digital experience platform is built on a new type of technology stack where headless, API-first, and cloud-native tools unlock a microservices architecture that will usher in a new era of personalized marketing and 1-to-1 conversations at scale.

And if you want to learn more about how you can build evolution and agility into your organization’s mindset, watch “

.” This fireside chat with 3Pillar provides insights on leadership, product development, and innovation.

conversational-marketing-in-2020_hero.png

Conversational Marketing is the Future (and the Future is Now)

<p>Customer loyalty isn't what it used to be. Gone are the days when points programs or even product quality were enough to attract and keep a customer. In a marketplace where all the rules are changing, digital managers have a critical role to play in earning the business of all customers—potential and existing—with a <strong>consistent, high-quality customer experience (CX)</strong>.</p>
<p>And the numbers show that putting effort into CX is well worth it. Accenture predicts that a digital wave is underway that could bring a <a href="https://www.accenture.com/t20170530T230710__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-52/Accenture-Strategy-DD-Painting-Digital-Future-POV-v2.pdf#zoom=50" target="_blank">cumulative $2.95 trillion in value</a> to the retail industry by 2025—all powered by digital connections to consumers. With the right mindset and the right tools, brands have an incredible opportunity to level up their CX approach and earn more market share.</p>
<p>Already, leading companies are getting on board with the experience-driven customer journey. According to the 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Report by Econsultancy and Adobe, customer experience ranked number one as the most exciting business opportunity today. Here’s what customer experience means today and how businesses can ensure that all stages of the customer journey are united by a thread of outstanding CX.</p><h2>What Does Modern Customer Experience Mean?</h2>
<p>The customer experience is the sum of the interactions that a person has with your brand, from their first impression to their most recent contact, including everything you would expect: Convenience, quality, attitude, and more. What the modern customer experience adds to this is that so many of these interactions can now take place <em>digitally</em>. This vastly increases the channels, devices, and platforms upon which customers can interact with your brand, as well as how often. In a digital world where customers have many ways to engage with your brand, there are more opportunities to get CX right—or to get it really, really wrong.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/global-cx-study-2240276.pdf" target="_blank">global CX study by Oracle</a> found that rising customer expectations (59%) and the impact of social media on customers’ ability to broadcast good and bad experiences (37%) are the top two drivers for organizations’ focus on customer experience. Research shows that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/09/12/dont-spend-5-times-more-attracting-new-customers-nurture-the-existing-ones/#3ba8ef3d5a8e" target="_blank">it costs five times as much</a> to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. That alone could be reason enough to focus on CX, but there’s even more compelling data to demonstrate why you should invest in CX for all of your customers. Let’s look closer at how important CX really is.</p><br><h2>Why is Customer Experience So Important Today?</h2><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="9118adcn3dmw" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/bltd370935389b23fc1/60ad3a7494bb755c04c28f81/top-business-priority-graph.png" data-sys-asset-uid="bltd370935389b23fc1" alt="top-business-priority-graph.png"></p>
<p>According to research by Forrester, <a href="https://go.forrester.com/blogs/cx-index-2019-results/" target="_blank">how an experience makes customers feel has a bigger influence on their brand loyalty</a> than the ease or effectiveness of the experience. </p>
<p>And a survey conducted by PwC makes an incredibly strong case for a laser focus on CX:</p><ul><li>73% of people point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions</li><li>65% find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising</li><li>42% would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience</li><li>32% of customers say they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience</li></ul>
<p>What’s even more compelling? Customers that give companies a high CX score <a href="https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-strategy/" target="_blank">spend 140% more</a> and remain loyal for up to six years.  As technology progresses, customers have come to expect a no-fuss, seamless experience that’s optimized for their needs, regardless of where they are in their buying journey. Here’s how to answer their demands.</p><h2>How to Bring Modern Customer Experiences to the Customer Journey </h2>
<p>The entire customer journey—from the moment a customer becomes aware of a need to every decision they make after that—is full of opportunities to deliver exceptional CX that translates into loyalty that you simply can’t buy. Let’s look closer at the foundation of a modern customer journey and find where you can put digital tools to work to improve your CX along the way.</p><h3>Stage 1: Awareness </h3>
<p>The awareness phase is when your potential customer first becomes aware that they want something or have a problem to solve. In this phase, they’re simply looking for information, so that’s what you want to deliver. </p>
<p>The best way to elevate CX in this phase is by providing a seamless experience that allows your prospects to get the information they want, when they want it, and in a context that’s relevant to them at the time. You achieve that by executing an omnichannel strategy that meets your prospects on their terms.<br></p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms" target="_blank">headless content management system (CMS)</a>—the latest development in a long and <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-management-systems-history-and-headless-cms" target="_blank">rich history of content management</a>—separates content creation from how it’s designed, stored, optimized, and displayed. This means content can be quickly found, re-optimized, and re-published to cater to the right audience, on the right channel, at the right time. </p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="m0a3u28b6bii" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/blt4ffa7f8750396583/602dcb94f16aa8400f83b8e9/headless-cms-content-hub-diagram.png" data-sys-asset-uid="blt4ffa7f8750396583" alt="headless-cms-content-hub-diagram.png"></p><h3>Stage 2: Consideration</h3>
<p>The consideration phase is where a prospective customer assesses how interested they are in the experience they’re receiving from your brand. This is where their preferences come into play, and it’s where they do research to evaluate if there’s a better alternative out there. Competing on this playing field is all about personalization — a growing trend that’s been called the “holy grail” of marketing.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/future-of-content-marketing-personalization" target="_blank">Personalization is all about tailoring an experience</a> based on information that has been collected about an individual, and there’s solid data proving that it works:</p><ul><li>According to KPMG, <a href="https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2020/01/home.html" target="_blank">personalization drives loyalty in 18 out of 20 markets</a> </li><li>Research by McKinsey shows that leaders in personalization have<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-future-of-personalization-and-how-to-get-ready-for-it" target="_blank"> increased revenue by up to 15% and improved the efficiency of their marketing spend by up to 30%</a> </li><li>A study by Accenture found that<a href="https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-77/Accenture-Pulse-Survey.pdf" target="_blank"> 91% of consumers</a> are more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations</li></ul>
<p>Using advanced tools like augmented analytics, which uses real-time data from the web and social media, you can get to know your audience better and faster. That allows you to deliver personalized content that tips their decision-making in your favor. Together with predictive analytics, which automate the task of assessing customer behavior to determine what they’re likely to do or want next, you can deliver the personalized experience that leads increasingly expect.</p><h3>Stage 3: Decision-Making</h3>
<p>In the decision-making phase, consumers are working out those last few questions before deciding between their top options. For digital managers, the goal is to build a deep relationship and provide value that would be hard for the consumer to leave behind. How can companies do this in an age where there are so many leads to keep up with across so many channels? They can integrate modern customer relationship and customer data platforms that are purpose-built to help win in the decision showdown.</p>
<p>A customer relationship management (CRM) platform like <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm" target="_blank">HubSpot CRM</a>, <a href="https://www.zendesk.com/">Zendesk</a>, or <a href="https://www.intercom.com/">Intercom</a> helps you keep track of all the interactions a consumer has had across your business. A customer data platform (CDP) like <a href="https://www.evergage.com/" target="_blank">Evergage</a> or <a href="https://exponea.com/us/cdp/" target="_blank">Exponea</a> layers consumer data on top of this relationship information so you can create a complete, personalized profile of the lead at hand — enabling you to build a personal, decision-worthy relationship.</p><h3>Stage 4: Retention</h3>
<p>The customer journey doesn’t end once a product is shipped or a service is delivered. Even after a transaction has been completed, CX is as important as ever. A good experience leads to retention, which is the most significant driver of revenue for businesses. After all, the success rate of selling to a new customer is only 5-20% while the <a href="https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-retention-tips-with-crm-software/" target="_blank">success rate of selling to an existing customer is a whopping 60 to 70%</a>!</p>
<p>While there’s no doubt that the retention stage is vital to the customer journey, the question is how can a single team keep up with providing a great customer experience across various channels at all times of the day? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/ai-powers-customer-experience-2020" target="_blank">Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots</a> are the always-on and always-informed customer service “agents” that can document requests, answer customer questions, and even provide the resources consumers need to help themselves around the clock. As long as your chatbots are combined with business processes that ensure no important complaints, requests, or conversations fall through the cracks, automation can help you provide a customer experience that keeps them coming back for more.</p><p style="margin: auto; text-align: center;"><img data-image="s4gsp1vrkx2m" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltc5a09bf374882538/bltd924ccba4f006f0b/60ad41f101e3276b007a22da/stages-of-the-modern-customer-journey-funnel.png" data-sys-asset-uid="bltd924ccba4f006f0b" alt="stages-of-the-modern-customer-journey-funnel.png"></p><h2>Where Will the Modern Customer Experience Take You?</h2>
<p>Great CX is a long-term goal, but it’s worth an investment right now. Having a modern marketing technology stack powered by a <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/headless-cms" target="_blank">headless content management system</a> will streamline your content delivery, break down information silos, and integrate your MarTech tools—like your customer relationship management platform, chatbots, and more—to provide a seamless thread  of excellence and ease throughout the customer journey and beyond.</p>
<p>For more details on how to level up your company’s performance, <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/resources/eb/going-beyond-roi-with-return-on-experience-rox" target="_blank">download our free ebook <em>Going Beyond ROI with Return on Experience</em></a> and learn why forward-thinking organizations are shifting their thinking from ROI to return on the modern customer experience.</p>

Customer loyalty isn't what it used to be. Gone are the days when points programs or even product quality were enough to attract and keep a customer. In a marketplace where all the rules are changing, digital managers have a critical role to play in earning the business of all customers—potential and existing—with a 

consistent, high-quality customer experience (CX)

And the numbers show that putting effort into CX is well worth it. Accenture predicts that a digital wave is underway that could bring a 

 to the retail industry by 2025—all powered by digital connections to consumers. With the right mindset and the right tools, brands have an incredible opportunity to level up their CX approach and earn more market share.

Already, leading companies are getting on board with the experience-driven customer journey. According to the 2020 Digital Marketing Trends Report by Econsultancy and Adobe, customer experience ranked number one as the most exciting business opportunity today. Here’s what customer experience means today and how businesses can ensure that all stages of the customer journey are united by a thread of outstanding CX.

What Does Modern Customer Experience Mean?

The customer experience is the sum of the interactions that a person has with your brand, from their first impression to their most recent contact, including everything you would expect: Convenience, quality, attitude, and more. What the modern customer experience adds to this is that so many of these interactions can now take place 

. This vastly increases the channels, devices, and platforms upon which customers can interact with your brand, as well as how often. In a digital world where customers have many ways to engage with your brand, there are more opportunities to get CX right—or to get it really, really wrong.

 found that rising customer expectations (59%) and the impact of social media on customers’ ability to broadcast good and bad experiences (37%) are the top two drivers for organizations’ focus on customer experience. Research shows that 

 to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. That alone could be reason enough to focus on CX, but there’s even more compelling data to demonstrate why you should invest in CX for all of your customers. Let’s look closer at how important CX really is.

Why is Customer Experience So Important Today?

 than the ease or effectiveness of the experience.

And a survey conducted by PwC makes an incredibly strong case for a laser focus on CX:

What’s even more compelling? Customers that give companies a high CX score 

 and remain loyal for up to six years. As technology progresses, customers have come to expect a no-fuss, seamless experience that’s optimized for their needs, regardless of where they are in their buying journey. Here’s how to answer their demands.

How to Bring Modern Customer Experiences to the Customer Journey

The entire customer journey—from the moment a customer becomes aware of a need to every decision they make after that—is full of opportunities to deliver exceptional CX that translates into loyalty that you simply can’t buy. Let’s look closer at the foundation of a modern customer journey and find where you can put digital tools to work to improve your CX along the way.

Allison Gauss

Posts by Allison Gauss