Content Management System vs Digital Marketing Platform
Digital marketing platform (DMP) is not a new, more catchy, name for content management systems (CMS). Difference between these two is fundamental. Content management system allows non-technical users to easily create and manage content. Focus of a CMS is primarily on robustness in content management but also on
- assets management
- collaboration
- workflows
- scalability
- support for multiple languages
- versioning
For CMS, main focus is on making management of websites simple. You can recognize good CMS when content management is a straightforward task which doesn’t require support from IT department. I would even say that sites which are well designed and built in a sensible way (on top of CMS), should empower regular people to publish their content easily and quickly.
Where role of content management system ends, role of digital marketing platform starts. Published content is a starting point for marketing activities like:
- promotion of content via social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus)
- email marketing, newsletters
- campaign execution and performance monitoring
- conversion rate optimization
- SEO and content optimization
To support all of the above activities, DMP has to enable easy execution and tracking of campaigns. It has to offer tools to gather subscribers, it has to integrate with social media, it has to support SEO. Those are basics which marketers need, to do their job effectively. And also, this is exactly what differentiate CMS and DMP.
Environment in which digital marketing platforms operate is very dynamic, there are lots of system/platforms/sites to integrate with. Every year there are at least a few significant acquisitions which change the landscape. To give you a good idea how vast and complex the landscape is – here is a Scott Brinker’s marketing technology inforgraphic from last year:
This vast and complex landscape is a challenge awaiting technologists while building sites on top of digital marketing platforms. It’s even bigger challenge for those who build digital marketing platforms.