I regularly work on multiple CMS systems. One question that I am always asked by clients is... which CMS is the best one? If you go by the industry recommendations (Gartner magic quadrant) in 2017 Sitecore is number 1 🥇🥇🥇. A simple comparison on websites like StackOverflow, will show that Sitecore has more interest than any other ASP.NET power CMS, so what makes Sitecore so different from other platforms? Sitecore's path is definitely slightly different from its competitors.
Sitecore is focused on meeting the complete digital needs of a company, not just CMS. Sitecore focuses on the needs of marketers by providing ways for a company to connect with customers through an omnichannel experience. Omni-channel marketing is a fancy buzzword for being able to stay in contact with people through different mediums, like a website, email, mobile etc...
Even the names given to plugins have the end marketer in mind. Compare form building using Umbraco CMS, or Episerver CMS. The add-on to deal with web-forms are both called the 'Forms' plugin... original. Sitecore's naming conventions on the other hand is a lot more buzzword friendly. The form plug-in is called 'web forms for marketers'. Even though the name has only a slightly nuanced difference, it highlights the focus Sitecore puts on the people who use the CMS. This focus on digital experience seems to be the reason why Sitecore gets ranks so highly. It ticks more boxes and it releases features first ✔️.
Sitecore is the industry leader of .NET CMS solutions. Sitecore 8 saw the release of analytics and the experience editor. Marketers can write their content in Sitecore and then use that content on their website, in marketing campaigns, emails. If people click to respond to the proposal, the analytics are all stored in one central place, in real-time. Marketers can use better business intelligence through stats and analytics to help drive sales and improve conversion rates. In today’s article, I have compiled a few reasons why you should consider using Sitecore. You will learn the areas in which Sitecore can help you expand your business and the ever-important question... who is using Sitecore?
Why You Should Consider Sitecore?
Sitecore is an enterprise-level CMS used by many big and familiar brands. Founded in 2001, picking Sitecore to power your website will mean you are building your website on a platform that is well tested and well-trusted. Sitecore started off solely as a content management system (CMS) focused product and over the years it has slowly evolved to include digital experience delivery, multi-channel campaign management, and business analytics. Sitecore is probably the most customizable ASP.NET powered CMS on the market.
Sitecore's approach to content management is slightly different compared to other CMS systems. Instead of focusing on page types, Sitecore is built by objects. As a non-tech person, you might not care about the difference between objects Vs templates? As long as your website has pages that people can view, who cares? Using objects means Sitecore is very flexible. You can model more business data within Sitecore compared to other platforms. In other CMS systems, the focus is on web pages. A developer will create a set of templates where each template represents a type of page that can be created within your website. As these systems have been built with just CMS in mind, if you want to represent some business data, like historical stock price data, there is nowhere in page-based CMS systems for this data to live. Stock data are not web pages. Most CMS developers know how to get around these problems, however, fundamentally these CMS do not support modelling of non-page data.
Sitecore, on the other hand, is built upon objects which allow for this type of data to be easily modelled within the platform. A data template defines what data you can add into Sitecore, but, it doesn't define how it will look. This means that you could host multiple websites within Sitecore, each sharing the same data templates. In Sitecore, you do not have to duplicate your content efforts. You can render the same data on different channels. As data is separated from page content, each channel can have its own HTML and custom look and feel. Another unique feature to Sitecore is real-time analytics, which, as of writing, no other CMS currently offers. By inserting a special Sitecore tag within your campaign emails, your mobile app, your social media posts and your website, Sitecore can track what your customers are doing across all your different marketing channels, within one dashboard, in real-time!
If you're reading this and you're thinking, my website only has 10 pages, I don't have a mobile app and this all sounds too complex and a bit overkill, you can start to see why answering the which CMS is best question is subjective. Each CMS on the market has different strengths and weaknesses. If you have a very simple website, Sitecore can be overkill. If you are the CTO for a large enterprise company, Sitecore could be a great fit. My personal opinion is that Sitecore is a good fit for your company if:
You want to build multiple websites. Sitecore allows you to build as many websites as you want in a single instance with its standard license
You want to market to customers on different channels within a single place to manage your data.
You sell things on your website and you want to use analytics to improve your sales funnel. As you have all your customer data in one place, you can leverage it to create personalized content in your channels. If a user has viewed a certain product before, why don't you send them a sales email a few weeks later asking them if they are still interested in it?
You want to store all your customer data in one place. Are you sick of looking in Google Analytics, your CMS, your experiment platform? Sitecore's aim is to have all this data in a single place
Multi-language support within the website or the CMS. Sitecore allows administrators and editors to work in their native languages. Sitecore also integrates with translation software providers like Lionbridge, so you can do your translation all in one place.
You want to perform A/B testing without needing developer input. As long as your website has been configured correctly, a marketer can A/B test directly in Sitecore.
Automated marketing campaigns. Sitecore provides an easy interface to help you write and schedule your marketing campaigns.
Solid content editing abilities. The Sitecore interface might not be the most usable, but it is the most configurable. If you don't like the way Sitecore does something, you can customize it and change it.
Who uses Sitecore?
If you're considering Sitecore but scared no one else is, fear not. Many of the world’s top brands use Sitecore including Dyson, Monte Blanc, Thomas Cook, Easyjet, Canon, Suzuki, Oxfam, Panasonic to name a few.
How do I get started using Sitecore?
You will need to get in contact with Sitecore sales, to get a demo. At the time of writing (2017), there is no evaluation version of Sitecore that you can download and experiment with. The only way of really using it is to send a developer on the training course and then purchasing a license. If you want to know more about this process then I'd recommend reading, Why Is Sitecore Development So Difficult To Get Into?. If you want a demo but are unsure about how to proceed, get in contact with me here.
As I am hoping I have explained, using Sitecore can be a great choice for a CMS. My advice is to first figure out what you want your website to do and figure out how you want your business to grow. After this, pick the CMS that will help deliver that growth. Happy Coding 🤘
