In today's digital age, content management systems (CMS) play a vital role in creating, managing and delivering digital content. One of the leading CMS software solutions available in the market is Contentful, also being a proud and prominent member of the MACH-alliance. This article will give you a comprehensive understanding of what Contentful is, its benefits, types of use cases, and you will learn how to use it.
Benefits of using Contentful:
Contentful is a modern Composable Content Platform that enables organizations to manage and deliver digital content seamlessly. Here are some of the benefits of using Contentful:
- Easy to use: Contentful has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for non-technical users to manage content. It enables content creators to create, edit and publish content without any coding skills.
- Flexible: Contentful allows you to manage and deliver content across multiple channels such as websites, mobile apps and digital displays. It also supports multiple languages, enabling you to deliver localized content to your audience.
- Scalable: Being fully cloud-native, Contentful is highly scalable. The Composable Content Platform allows you to manage and deliver content to millions of users globally. It also integrates with many other third-party tools such as OutSystems, commercetools or Google Analytics.
- Developer-friendly: Contentful has a robust API and Software developer toolkit that enables developers to create custom applications and integrations. It also supports various programming languages, making it easy for developers to use the language of their choice.
- Operational efficiency: One of the key selling points is that content is always reusable. Content can be created once and then used over multiple pages and multiple platforms.
Contentful is used by businesses of all sizes and industries. Here are some of the use cases of Contentful:
- eCommerce: Contentful enables you to manage and deliver product information, enabling you to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers.
- Website development: Contentful is an ideal CMS for website development as it allows you to manage and deliver content seamlessly across multiple websites.
- Mobile app development: Contentful enables you to manage and deliver content to mobile apps, enabling you to create a personalized experience for your users.
- Digital signage: Contentful allows you to manage and deliver content to digital displays, enabling you to showcase your brand's content in public spaces.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): Contentful comes with a powerful CDN solution, enabling businesses to publish content throughout their entire application landscape.
Most-used features
Contentful is used across all branches and all types of digital media because of it’s versatility. A few of their most-used, out-of-the-box features are:
- Localization: For each piece of content, you can change it to the local language and culture.
- Release planning: you can plan to publish a single piece of content or a group of content at any given time, without you being there or not
- Role & access management: create roles for specific users. For example a content editor, translator & reviewer. This can also me managed with tasks and work-flows. So everybody knows what to do and quality increases.
- SEO: Manage what search engines see and don’t see for each specific page within Contentful without developer effort.
- Marketplace: For everything else, content related, like search, personalization, translation, A/B testing, and much more. Contentful is extendable with a big library of tools. It can be integrated by the click of a button via Marketplace.
Learning and using Contentful:
Contentful has comprehensive documentation and resources available to learn and use the platform. Here are some of the resources available:
- Contentful documentation: Contentful has extensive documentation that provides information on how to use the platform, including tutorials, guides, and API references.
- Contentful Academy: Contentful Academy provides training and certification on how to use the platform, enabling you to become a Contentful expert.
- Contentful community: Contentful has a vibrant community of developers and users who share their knowledge and experience on how to use the platform. The community also provides support for any issues or challenges you may encounter while using the platform.
Conclusion:
Contentful is a modern CMS that enables businesses to manage and deliver content across multiple channels seamlessly. Its benefits, use cases, and resources make it an ideal platform for businesses of all sizes and industries. By learning and using Contentful, you can create a personalized experience for your users, increase engagement, and drive business growth.