Articles - Page 102

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

Be you a blogger, an entrepreneur or a web developer, you have probably thought about a possible perfect platform for your website. But what if there is a one single solution, versatile enough to power all types of websites on all possible topics?
<a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/monstroid/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/monstroid-featured-img684x0-is.jpg" /></a> Today we’ll draw your attention to the new player in the team of all-purpose WordPress themes – <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/monstroid/" target="_blank">Monstroid</a> by TemplateMonster. With its roots in <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/presentations/cherry-framework-4-0/" target="_blank">Cherry Framework 4.0</a>, the number of its functions is immense.
The framework itself is pretty impressive, and all the additions and tweaks of Monstroid make it even more diverse. Let’s take a closer look at its features.
<h2>Styling Options</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/skins-and-child-themes923x0-is.jpg" />
Evergrowing Selection of Subtopics
Monstroid’s starting package includes five child themes – the core theme and 4 themes dedicated to the most popular topics – Finance, Education, Portfolio, Interior &amp; Furniture. The core theme is highly versatile: it has neutral layout and can be used for any type of website. Additionally it has three color schemes and is ready to be used as a WooCommerce-based online store.
Every new child theme (it’s over 15 themes monthly) will be available to Monstroid users for free. They will just have to download and activate them in the dashboard via Monstroid Wizard.
Monstroid Skin Switcher 
This feature appeared in some of the recent TemplateMonster templates, now they decided to implement it in Monstroid. It allows switching between premade style schemes from the frontend of the site. You can choose between dark, minimal or flat styles.
Cherry Grid 
Cherry Grid defines how your post list will look like.
You can choose from rows, columns or extremely popular masonry grid.
MotoPress Content Editor 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/motopress.jpg" />
MotoPress is a popular premium drag’n’drop content editor for WordPress which is available in Monstroid for free. MotoPress allows you to adjust the size, position and properties of the your website elements without touching any shortcodes.
<h3>Unique Features of Monstroid</h3>
Shortcode Template Editor 
Dozens of shortcodes, available for Monstroid users, can be additionally customized via the Shortcode template editor. It is capable of changing shortcode attributes, element loading order etc.
CSS Compile / Minify 
This trick is a lifesaver for coders. With this function compiling of multiple CSS files into one is just a matter of two clicks. How it works: you work with several style sheets and then compile them to get one optimized file at the output. This helps to decrease page loading time and contributes to website’s performance.
Dynamic CSS 
It allows changing CSS dynamically. You don’t overwrite the existing file, but create new files each time you make changes.
Static Area Builder 
You can completely redesign your header and footer by changing the positions of their elements – logos, widgets, banners, menus, etc. You can drag and drop these elements and adjust their position with Bootstrap grid classes.
Monstroid Wizard
This plugin is a combination of an installation tool and a showcase of available child themes. You can switch between them in any moment. Additionally it is used for installation of sample data.
Theme Settings
Backup All the changes made in theme settings can be rolled back with the help of this plugin. Simply set the checkpoint and continue experimenting safely.
Independent Module Structure 
The Monstroid package includes 23 plugins; most of them have been developed specially for the theme. All of them can be used either with the theme, or separately. This feature gives unlimited possibilities to advanced web developers.
<h3>Powerful Plugins Coming with Monstroid</h3>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/features919x0-is.jpg" />
Cherry Mega Menu 
This plugin is made to effectively manage sophisticated menus with complex structure and lots of assorted elements – links, banners and embedded YouTube videos. These menus have proven themselves in large multitopic websites and online stores.
Cherry Social
Cherry Social plugin incorporates social interactions on all levels. It includes social sharing, login and widgets of the most popular social networks.
Cherry Custom Sidebars 
Sidebars are important for focusing the attention of your audience. For example, simply moving your sidebar to the left you can boost email subscription. Cherry Custom Sidebars gives you full control over this element of user interface.
Cherry Testimonials 
The Testimonials editor will help you show the love of your customers to your potential customers. This is a powerful factor for acquiring trust, which is so important for every business.
Cherry Portfolio 
If you want to present your works in a stylish way, this plugin is for you. Your portfolio will look awesome with Ajax-powered visual effects and customization options.
Cherry Services 
The plugin is used to set up landing pages with your business information. Among the available functions are, for example, customizable price tables and blocks with address and phone information for better conversion.
Cherry Team 
Cherry Team is probably the best way of presenting your team members. Profiles are created independently and can be later merged into one page. Then you can edit them and rearrange their order.
Cherry Charts 
Now there is no need in external (often paid) services for creating compelling visualizations of your statistical data. Cherry Charts is created specifically for this purpose.
Cherry Blog Layouts 
If you are going to build a blog, this plugin will be your main tool. Adjust elements of your blog until you find the layout that is perfect for you.
Cherry Ranking 
With the help of “like” and “star” ranking systems you can insensibly call your visitors for expressing their opinion. Product rating is a very important factor when it comes to trust, so why not let your customers do a part of your job for you?
Cherry Data Manager
This tool serves as a “briefcase”, allowing you to export and import your website data to back-up it or transfer to another domain. It is particularly useful for developers, who need to test their work on different servers.
MotoPress Slider 
MotoPress slider is a premium plugin that can be used to add visual appeal to your layout. It is able to compose versatile complex slides of text, images and even videos, accompanied with transition effects.
<h3>Full WooCommerce Compatibility</h3>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/woocommerce800x0-is.jpg" />
For merchants who have chosen WooCommerce as their online store platform (they account for 22% of the total number of online sellers), TemplateMonster have prepared several useful tweaks.
Firstly, all child themes of Monstroid are ready to use with WooCommerce.
Secondly, the core Monstroid theme is supplied with all possible ecommerce page types: product lists, product pages, checkout pages, etc., and is able to become a live store in a few minutes after installation. It also includes premade product templates, so you just need to change images and descriptions to start selling.
YITH WooCommerce Compare &amp; YITH WooCommerce Wishlist 
Two plugins from YiThemes are included by default to enhance the selling possibilities of WooCommerce – they add functions of product comparison and adding to wishlist with an option of social sharing of wishlisted items.
<h3>Support of Major WordPress plugins</h3>
If you’ve been with WordPress for a long time, you probably know these titles: BuddyPress, and BBpress. If not, it’s high time to squeeze the most out of your website. The plugins above are complex solutions for turning a WordPress website into a social network (BuddyPress) or a forum board (BBpress). Monstroid supports them, so you can try them out right after the installation.
<h3>Other features</h3>
Lifetime Support <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/monstroid-support.jpg" /> TemplateMonster is well known for its lifetime 24/7 support for every product. Monstroid is no exception. Moreover, you will get access to their support live chat from your WordPress dashboard. Another option is sending a support email, but “live chat with average response time of 2-4 hours” sounds very attractive.
Library of 500+ fonts 
Monstroid supports the whole collection of Google web fonts. You may choose any of 500 for your titles, body text or interface elements, combining them as you wish.
RTL and WPML ready 
This necessary function is, of course, present in Monstroid. RTL stands for “right-to-left” and grants correct display of such languages as Arabic and Hebrew. “WPML” means “WordPress Multilingual” and it allows hosting different language versions of your website on one domain.
Google-oriented 
Despite the variety of native and external options, Monstroid is crafted with Google requirements in mind. It is not only fast, but is also SEO-optimized, including the support of Yoast SEO Plugin.
<h3>With Monstroid You Also Get:</h3>
Source PSD Files <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/psd-files1306x0-is.jpg" /> Over 100 PSD files come with Monstroid as a separate downloadable option. This package includes pages for the main Monstroid theme and all the child themes, furthermore, new sources will be delivered with every new child theme every month.
50+ Licensed Images 
More than 50 licensed royalty-free images are included in the Monstroid package. Whatever is the topic of your site, you will find pictures to your liking.
<h3>What’s now?</h3>
Now you are probably going to <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/monstroid/" target="_blank">see Monstroid for yourself</a>. Seriously, if you are looking for a theme with possibilities of a framework, look no further: Monstroid has everything you may ever want from a WordPress theme, it has much more.

Monstroid: A Multipurpose WordPress Theme from TemplateMonster

mike-johnston

<a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.progress.com%2F&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Progress&amp;index=1&amp;md5=cc113aefe089e8ec7976006d0b1de8c4">Progress</a>, the company now behind <a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telerik.com&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Telerik&amp;index=2&amp;md5=0793eb0d8f4ddd4aaee058ae99d6f5b9">Telerik</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sitefinity.com&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Sitefinity&amp;index=3&amp;md5=ae3343b33c80db43b16f312723849234">Sitefinity</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sitefinity.com%2Fproduct%2Fsee-also%2Fwhat%27s-new&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=CMS+and+Digital+Experience+Cloud+%28DEC%29&amp;index=4&amp;md5=17c2c1827228fe31951237095b7efb9a">CMS &amp; Digital Experience Cloud (DEC)</a>, has announced a new release with improved translation, multi-site synchronization and predictive analytics.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" />Aiming to provide developers with richer tools, extended content tracking and personalization to mobile apps, Progress also announced a new strategic alliance with <a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lionbridge.com%2F&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Lionbridge&amp;index=5&amp;md5=149609736688ca985aa17e5deb095c3e">Lionbridge</a>, specialists in translation and localization.<h2>Cross-site Content Syncing</h2>When an organization is made up of various departments and teams, it is often difficult to schedule and sync projects, operations and tasks efficiently.This latest release enables Sitefinity administrators to schedule content syncing to different sites at set times, with notifications and automatic retries if syncs fail. This feature has been designed to reduce effort and improve site and workflow quality.<h2>Enhanced Translation Management</h2>As global content proliferating continues to grow exponentially, the ability to speak with customers in their preferred language is a must for any enterprise.<a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sitefinity.com%2Fweb-content-management&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Telerik+Sitefinity+CMS&amp;index=6&amp;md5=e77abd7913fbb739206eca64cb328831">Telerik Sitefinity CMS</a> is now equipped with powerful translation management features to simplify and automate the content translation process when working with third-party translation agencies.The platform now automatically integrates with <a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lionbridge.com&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Lionbridge+Freeway&amp;index=7&amp;md5=db507fb6fbe849a1815e378493504932">Lionbridge Freeway</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.translations.com&amp;esheet=51145478&amp;newsitemid=20150721005173&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=translations.com&amp;index=8&amp;md5=69bea3c8516ddc30062ace1406496d73">translations.com</a>, while other translation services can also be added if desired.In addition, with Telerik Sitefinity CMS, content authors can easily determine which content items to send for translation, and to which languages. They can then review the status of all sent translations; preview all returned translations before publishing; and handle any errors or conflicts prior to publication.<h2>Improved Predictive &amp; Prescriptive Analytics, Mobile Personalization &amp; Campaign Support</h2>Also with this new release, Telerik Sitefinity CMS users will benefit from the following improvements:<ul><li>Conversion recommendation ranking based on the estimated likelihood of assumed outcomes</li><li>Tracking and personalization of mobile apps, based on website behavior and CRM data for efficient real-time marketing</li><li>Greater granularity in defining segments, leveraging demographic data such as job title, location and more</li><li>More tracking control—enables site administrators to easily track visitors across sub-domains, configure tracking for multiple Telerik Sitefinity CMS websites, mobile apps and/or exclude traffic from specific IP addresses</li><li>Easier integration with Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com and Oracle Eloqua with improved data merging</li><li>Enhancements to online marketing campaigns to support large email campaigns, integration capabilities with cloud hosted mail services such as SendGrid and usability improvement.</li></ul>Svetozar Georgiev, Progess' Senior Vice President of App Dev, made the following comments upon the arrival of this new release:<blockquote>“More than ever before, the global enterprise needs to support all manners of customer engagement–from first time site visitors to repeat buyers.The latest release of Telerik Sitefinity CMS and DEC further strengthens support for the global enterprise. It enhances the customer experience, ensuring that organizations can create a personalized, seamless experience across languages, sites, mobile apps and geographies.”</blockquote>More details on this relase can be with the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150721005173/en/#.Va9vQ_lViko">official press release</a>.And of course, you can delve further into <a href="/products/progress-sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS directory</a>.

Telerik Sitefinity Gets Enhanced Multi-site Synchronization, Translation & Analytics Features

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PHPfox</a>, a social networking software, has released a new version of its “Neutron” edition, alongside three new themes.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfox-emblem.png" /> Neutron is one of PHPfox's two products, the newer and more promising version of their previous flagship product, Nebula. Both are supported. PHPfox has gone through somewhat of a transformation over the last year or so, with Neutron looking like a hot prospect for the social networking CMS niche.Version 4.03 brings about a long list of bug fixes, along with Logo support for all themes. The full list of improvements can be <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.phpfox.com/2015/07/21/phpfox-neutron-v4-0-3-released/">found here</a>.<h2>New Neutron Themes: Wisteria, Green Sea &amp; Alizarin</h2>Three new themes have been released too. Users will need to upgrade to version 4.0.3 in order to make use of them, though.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bec0db3114b2119834b0b16effe0c892418x0-is.jpg" /> To see the other two themes in action, <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.phpfox.com/2015/07/21/3-new-themes-for-phpfox-neutron-wisteria-green-sea-alizarin/">check out the PHPfox official blog announcement</a>.And of course, be sure to explore more of PHPfox through our CMS Directory.

PHPfox Releases Neutron Version 4.0.3 & Three New Themes

Content marketing is about more than SEO and it’s also about more than expert blogging. It’s about people. It’s always been about people.
It’s about defining your audience, reaching out to them and holding on to them. It’s also about making money, and spending less money to do so, by using quality content to generate traffic to your site.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/samsung-793043_1280616x0-is.jpg" /> 
And yet somehow we’ve reduced it to a process that revolves around tiny Google spiders and their elusive algorithms. SEO is important, it’s extremely important, but it’s just one part of the equation when it comes to content strategy, and it should never be prioritised over producing top-notch content for your target audience.
Sure, a blog post with a keyword in every second sentence will be easily found – but what’s the point if no-one actually wants to read it? Striking the balance between dropping knowledge bombs and dropping keywords is essential to the success of every business blog, and it’s something that you can get right from the get-go, once you have a proper content strategy in place.
According to the latest Content Marketing Trends Study by Ascend2, 89% of businesses have been successful with their content marketing endeavours in the past 12 months. So how do you get a successful content strategy in place?
<h2>1. Define Your Objectives</h2>
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wD37-nXSCXRVGnIznNx90vTFSGD3rgaGss8D9MO2zhpSZ2lLodj_Z9nndZZAp5BxPWihU4J2iJUtXIXRtcQMYe39tsMTRe9vqHzMC51vGmWNKY85OCJDONRLv8sSbwCWb4EHPic" alt="Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 13.10.37.png" />
Your content objectives should be very much in line with your business objectives, and they should be just as measurable. Too many businesses put the cart before the horse and start milling out content before they have any kind of strategy in place, which only ever leads to chaos.
You need to know why you’re doing what you’re doing, before you do it, and the same applies to any situation in life. Can’t think of any objectives? Never fear, here’s a few examples to inspire you!
<ul>
<li>Increase brand awareness and loyalty</li>
<li>Increase newsletter signups</li>
<li>Generate leads, e.g. by driving readers to a specific landing page</li>
<li>Increase referral traffic to your site</li>
<li>Improve SEO rankings</li>
<li>Increase organic traffic to your site</li>
</ul>
<h2>2. Research, Research &amp; More Research</h2>
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/3G83ZeGGlTt3cJZLdWFQ0b_a_yEyb1se2GOD-AiBt1ywBfuiSWiy8UAHz6gutN4oDJbTRx3HMoxjYoi4vS3j6-8vzDjh9u12AqES3t46XktNuudUcwXTkTJPE_js4rNF0nvrDg0" alt="Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 13.12.13.png" />
The very first thing you need to do is to research your target audience and figure out who they are!
You can do this by creating an audience profile, or buyer personas if your marketing is sales focused. It’s important to get as much information as possible about your target audience and it’s easy to collect this information with social listening tools such as <a href="https://www.socialmention.com/">Social Mention</a>.
Some important questions to ask yourself are:
<ul>
<li>Who do you want to buy your product? </li>
<li>Who do you want to read your content? </li>
<li>What industry are they in? </li>
<li>Where do they live? </li>
<li>What types of content do they share online? </li>
<li>Where do they hang out online? </li>
<li>What are their pain points? </li>
<li>How can your content address those pain points? </li>
</ul>
Once you’ve answered these questions, you can tailor your content specifically to that audience with far more efficiency.
<h2>3. Create Relevant, Innovative &amp; Original Content</h2>
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/i05gM5hheV60wTr_A9sSf3a-UT4ptS9OvRCLEwYoNxqn9AGfQ5qOtUBoO-5nJetqhZ050dOdC1xhCqsSKWxervZXO6BGlbzQJ8Fkn8efrYRCdrhs9mHCfMnpyQmQZCjZ4zj3IWw" alt="Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 11.58.04.png" />
It’s important to keep your content objectives in mind 24/7 and to ensure that every piece of content you create is designed to help you to meet those objectives. Your content doesn’t have to be specifically about your industry, but it should be designed to appeal to your target audience as a whole.
For example, if you want to get organic traffic from your content marketing then you need to provide content that your audience is searching for, i.e. there’s no point in writing a post about the new KFC Snackbox on a Vegan website. Once you know what they’re searching for, you can make sure that the content is ready and waiting on your blog…and ching ching, instant traffic to your site.
<a href="https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner">Google’s keyword planner</a> is your best friend when it comes to keyword research and once you’ve identified your keywords, you can use them to come up with content themes and get your content calendar up and running.
Another excellent tool is <a href="https://whattowrite.org/">What to write</a>. It's effectively an online muse when it comes to writers block and it will come up with awesome content ideas for you based on the themes you provide.
Alternatively, why stick to only written content? Articles came out top on the Ascend2 Content Study, but there are tons of content formats out there to choose from, including infographics and video content.
<h2>4. Stick to a Content Calendar</h2>
<img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/BLIJwzBd5ZvSE5MFTDmNmbQauOzYncb7yFoIHek09PB4EKMVVJFWG1AKHYn7NNrSqSwJtn-_Ao8XlZVxwbINF1ex8kELb6juZMfpKp9EX_nf1u-ZD_JNb8YlsESdFFItxsbHtEI" alt="Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 12.29.31.png" />
This is simply about getting a process in place for the creation and promotion of your content, and it’s super handy for tracking your results. This calendar should be shared with everyone involved with the content, from ideation to publishing – as it keeps everyone on the right track and working towards the same goals.
Your calendar template can be customized, designed from scratch, or simply downloaded if you just don’t have the time to get creative! Some of the usual suspects found in content calendar categories are:
<ul>
<li>Content Theme</li>
<li>Blog Post Title</li>
<li>Blog Post Overview</li>
<li>Social Media Link Copy</li>
<li>Target Audience</li>
<li>Author</li>
<li>Editor</li>
<li>Keywords and Categories</li>
<li>Supporting Images</li>
<li>Due Date</li>
<li>Publish Date</li>
</ul>
Feeling overwhelmed? Here are a few great FREE templates from head honchos in the industry to get you started!
<ul>
<li><a href="https://coschedule.com/editorial-calendar-template">Co-schedule</a></li>
<li><a href="https://themarketingnutz.com/2014/01/content-marketing-editorial-calendar-template-2014-contentmarketing/">Content Marketing Institute</a></li>
<li><a href="https://offers.hubspot.com/blog-editorial-calendar">Hubspot</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/download-your-free-content-calendar/#.VazdHbc5TGs">Inbound Marketing Agents</a></li>
<li>Convince and Convert</li>
</ul>
<h2>5. Track Performance</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/computer-767776_1280614x0-is.jpg" /> 
There is very little point in having objectives if you’re not going to work towards them, which is why it’s imperative that you track and monitor everything.
How are you measuring your business objectives? Are you meeting them? What counts as a success to you? All of these questions have to be answered if you’re going to see any tangible results.
When it comes to measuring content performance, <a href="https://www.hootsuite.com">Hootsuite</a> and <a href="https://www.bufferapp.com">Buffer App</a> are excellent social monitoring and analytical tools. And you can then revert to Google Analytics or <a href="/lucky-orange-an-excellent-alternative-to-google-analytics/" target="_blank">Lucky Orange</a> to measure your website traffic. The frequency at which you track your content is up to you, but generally I recommend daily social media tracking and weekly analytic reports.
<h2>Over To You</h2>
So, now that you’re clued up on what to do, it’s time to get cracking and actually do it! Those blog posts won’t start writing themselves.
Do you have any of your own content strategies? Let us know in the comments below, or start up your a discussion with us on the <a href="https://www.forum.www.cmscritic.com/" target="_blank">CMS Forums</a>.

Content Strategy: 5 Simple Steps to Success

grainne-logue

At this point, you’ve certainly heard what content marketing can do for your business. Heck, since you’re here, you’ve most definitely heard the acronyms CMS (Content Management System), and MAS (Marketing Automation Software).
You might not know exactly how each one can benefit your business, but what you’ve probably heard is that using them can boost the impact and return on investment of your content marketing efforts.
All too often, these tools are recommended separately from each other. A content management system like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla allows you to power-charge your website, and makes managing it a piece of cake. Marketing automation software helps you to increase productivity by making it easier than ever to create and automate campaigns, evaluate data, and more.
By themselves, they each offer outstanding benefits in particular areas of content marketing. When integrated properly, though, they have the potential to become the powerful tool that your business needs to truly turbocharge your content marketing efforts.
Now that we’ve piqued your curiosity about using both marketing automation software and a content management system, here are 5 ways that integrating the two of them can benefit your business.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/marketing_automation700x0-is.jpg" />

<h3>#1. They complement each other.</h3>
Using a content management system like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal simplifies content creation and management. It adds consistency to your website, enables you to track changes to your content, and makes it easier than ever to manage workflow.
Marketing automation software, on the other hand, is great at marketing your content – getting eyeballs on the content you’ve created, gathering data about your readers, and then using that data to create prospect or customer profiles.
Yes, a CMS can help you market, and MAS can help you with the creation of content, but at their core, they’re designed to do different things. To get the most out of each, you’re better off using them in tandem with each other.
<h3>#2. They allow you to serve your existing customer base while also reaching out to new prospects.</h3>
This goes hand-in-hand with the first reason. A CMS makes it easier for you to create and manage content designed to reach out to and inform your existing constituency.
While most content management systems offer some level of SEO optimization for your content, they are specifically designed to significantly boost targeted traffic. With the available plugins and themes, a CMS makes it easy to boost the eye-appeal of your website while presenting easy-to-read content to your existing customer base.
Chances are, you want more than to just service your existing customer base – you want to grow it. That’s really where marketing automation software shines. It allows you to automate the processes of driving new targeted traffic, capturing leads, and getting your message out to the public.
Simply going with one or the other, a content management system or automated marketing software, might offer you some benefits, but for most business owners, they’ll fall short at maximizing return on investment. Together, however, they’ll turn your content marketing efforts into a well-oiled machine.
<h3>#3. Your MAS can guide your content strategy.</h3>
An MAS can help you speed up your marketing, and when you have it working at full speed, it will give you lots of feedback about your content. You can learn what information was searched for when bringing users to your site, which of your posts are getting the most traction, and what kind of content leaves people cold and ready to turn away.
All of this is useful for shaping your content moving forward. By identifying what your audience wants and developing target customer profiles, automated marketing software enables you to personalize your content and give your users something they’ll want to share. Finally, It also lets you know when a content strategy has run its course, and it’s time to switch gears.
A CMS working on its own can give you rudimentary data, but it struggles to compete with the enhanced insights that a high-quality MAS can offer.
<h3>#4. Your MAS can learn from your CMS, and vice versa, giving your audience a personalized experience.</h3>
If you hook your contact database up to your site, your MAS can give each visitor contextual content – meaning the actual experience changes to be super-targeted to their habits and needs.
This is what Amazon does, for example. It recommends content to you based on what you’ve browsed or bought previously.
Some MAS options allow you to do the same. This way, if a committed customer is coming to your website, they can skip any marketing and go straight to the content that meets their needs. Likewise, a prospect will have marketing targeted to them, and they’ll be shown content based on what they’ve already identified as being of interest to them.
#5. Using them together allows you to decrease the sales cycle.
Because MAS and CMS give you incredibly accurate data on your customers and prospects, you can use this information to dramatically reduce the sales cycle. In fact, you can keep a close eye on your leads, so that you know exactly when to use a given message.
For example, as a prospect enters your sales funnel by visiting your website, you can monitor his activity and see what content he’s accessing. You can continue marketing to him and sending him targeted content, until he gets deeper into the funnel – say, to a sales page.
Then, your MAS can re-classify his “temperature” and transfer his info from the marketing department to the sales team. This gives your salesmen hyper-targeted and red-hot leads to work with, as well as increasing the efficiency of your marketing.
Without a strong CMS to back up your marketing automation, however, many of your leads would fall through the cracks before they ever got this far.
<h3>For Best Results, Combine Your CMS with a Proven MAS </h3>
As strong as your content marketing efforts may be, they could always use a little boost. Getting the extra “oomph” that a marketing automation software can provide could make the difference in turning a visitor into a customer.
If you’re looking to take your business’s content marketing to the next level, try integrating your CMS with a strong, proven MAS. As powerful as both types of software can be on their own, they’re exponentially more effective when used together.

5 Ways Integrating CMS and Marketing Automation Software Can Benefit Your Business

A new <a href="https://www.softwareadvice.com/cms/userview/report-2015/" target="_blank">study by Software Advice</a> has uncovered some surprising statistics to do with the rigidity of enterprise content management systems.
The study consisted of Software Advice surveying brands and businesses about their enterprise CMS experiences. Below is a breakdown of the company sizes sampled, sorted by number of employees.
<a href="https://www.softwareadvice.com/cms/userview/report-2015/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4-number-employees.png" /></a>As you can see from the graph above, Software Advice took a broad range of company sizes into account with their study. Here's what they uncovered.
<h2>Key Findings</h2>
<ol>
<li>A majority of respondents rate their CMS as “very important” in overcoming content-related business challenges, such as distributing documents and tracking changes.</li>
<li>The three CMS applications employees use most frequently are document distribution, reporting/analytics and content capture.</li>
<li>Reporting and analytics functionality is used daily by 63% of companies with over 1,000 employees, but by only 47% of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.</li>
<li>Nearly half (48%) of respondents report “moderate to major” difficulty integrating their CMS with other systems, while 37% say the same about customizing their CMS system.</li>
<li>41% of respondents describe learning to use a CMS and training others as a challenge: 35% say the challenge is “moderate,” while 6% call it a “major challenge.”</li>
</ol>
Most of these findings are to be expected. We all know how important a CMS is to both content and analytical processes, particularly in the enterprise market. However, those last two findings stand out like two particularly sore thumbs.
As we move past the halfway mark of 2015, I certainly don't expect to see almost half of the businesses surveyed to be struggling majorly with integrations. Nor do I expect to see 41% of them struggling to train their employees.
These findings expose the rigid nature of today's enterprise content management systems. It's a problem. But is it a problem that can be alleviated?
<h2>How Solvable Is This Rigidity?</h2>
The three main issues here are; integration, customization, and training. Let's take a look at each one individually.
Integration Issues
Brands are having trouble when it comes to integrating their CMS with third-party solutions.
For the most part, enterprise content management systems do a good job of making sure big guns like Salesforce, Marketo, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics are catered for. The top tier of the CRM and MAS (Marketing Automation System) industries is where most enterprise CMS align themselves.
But perhaps the company's surveyed were talking about the not-so-popular solutions. Maybe it's time enterprise CMS vendors expanded their scope in this regard. The study certainly suggests that they should.
Customization Issues
When it comes to customization, the difficulty faced here could be the symptom of an issue brought about by the brand in question, rather than the CMS.
What I mean by that is, if a company is facing difficulty when customizing the way a certain CMS performs or presents, then that may well fall under the blame of the company's CMS selection. It's unfair to brand a CMS as un-customizable when you're trying to change its fundamentals.
However, if the survey question was regarding design customization, then I agree that this is an area where enterprise platforms fall short. Brands should be able to personalize their working environments beyond simply adding their logo.
Training Issues
Here's where CMS vendors really don't have much of an excuse.
A company which adopts your software shouldn't only be offered one round of training. They should be offered adequate training in training others, too.
Brands are constantly shifting employees from one department to another, while many new recruits enter such organizations all the time. Each time this happens, new processes and functions will need to be taught all over again. A single training session (or even a single round of training sessions) at the very beginning of the vendor-client relationship simply isn't a realistic solution.
Furthermore, customized training manuals should be something we see more of. When a company works with a vendor to configure the CMS in a certain way, documentation should be provided to help the company carry on training staff as years go by.
<h2>Reaction Required</h2>
CMS vendors need to react to this study.
Exactly how they react will need to vary, depending on how much they already offer when it comes to integration, customization, and training. But there needs to be some action here, as company's are clearly struggling with these rather important aspects of their digital workload.
Integrating with only a small range of third party applications is becoming less and less acceptable, while client training is something that needs a serious re-think, from a variety of angles.
How do you think vendors should react to this study? Let us know in the comments below, or start a discussion on the <a href="https://forum.www.cmscritic.com/" target="_blank">CMS forums</a>.

The Stiff Side of CMS? New Study Shows Brands Struggling to Integrate, Adapt & Learn

Marketers everywhere are trying to get a better grip on what their customers really want. Yet many are so overwhelmed by the deluge of user data that they simply don't know where to start.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/marketing-791202_1280548x0-is.jpg" />
Sometimes it helps to ask the basic questions: what are your customers doing (trends and patterns); where is your customer base active; and why are they behaving online the way they do.
Here's some insight from the CEOs of three companies (Including CMS Critic's Mike Johnston) offering unique solutions for the elusive quest to better understand your customers.
<h2>Understanding Customers</h2>
CMS Critic: Traditionally, marketers rely on web analytics, A/B testing and Voice-of-Customer tools to try to get a handle on trends and patterns in customer behavior. How do <a href="http://www.clicktale.com">ClickTale’s</a> heat maps and session recordings help Fortune 500 companies make sense of all that data to understand why online customers behave the way they do.
ClickTale CEO Dr. Tal Schwartz: Looking at your data, it can be clear that you have a problem with conversion rates, for example, but much less clear why. Why did so many customers abandon their shopping carts, why did they linger on one web page over another, or in the case of an online publication, why did they choose to read one article over another?
Web analytics, A/B testing and Voice-of-Customer tools are a great way to gather quantitative data. The next step is to understand the “why,” which is the qualitative insights to optimize digital customer experience. For example, <a href="http://www.clicktale.com/casestudies/walmart-optimizing-christmas-shopping-experience">we worked with Walmart</a> on one case where they had introduced a very user-friendly gift finder tool timed to the holiday season.
It was a great way to help customers find what they were looking for. Yet Walmart realized soon after launching the tool that very few people were actually using it, and they couldn’t figure out why.
ClickTale’s anonymous session replays revealed what was wrong. Due to where the tool was placed on the home page, many users couldn’t see it, and you could literally see their cursors and mouses searching the site to no avail, and then giving up. Others visitors found the tool but received a JavaScript error message when they clicked on the call to action “Go” button.
With the unique insights they gained from being able to literally see their customers’ frustrations, Walmart was able to quickly fix these issues and ensure their customers encountered the smoothest experience possible. And their conversions increased as a direct result.
CMS Critic: When you gather millions of data points, you might end up with a very generic overview that doesn’t help much in determining strategy for targeted marketing campaigns. In what ways can marketers leverage wefi’s hyper-local geo-based context to map out geo-based campaigns?
Wefi CEO Zur Feldman: Whether you’re in the app business or work for a company that has a mobile app, you can get a pretty good general sense of what your data tells you about your app users on the whole. What’s more difficult is seeing hyper-local patterns and getting a sense of how your users behave within rival or complementary apps (such as how much time they spend in rival apps and how often). That has until now been a mystery.
We developed <a href="https://compariscope.wefi.com/">Compariscope by wefi</a> to offer mobile app marketers unprecedented competitive intelligence so they can better address relevant messages to their consumers. It is now possible to break down the big data into smaller pools by geography so that, for instance, you can tell that your app has a strong presence on Manhattan’s Upper East Side but your competition is crushing it on the West Side. Your marketing team might then launch a targeted ad campaign on the West Side to try to gain market share. Or say you are a marketer for a travel application.
You’d be able to see what percentage of your users engage with rival or complementary apps on a daily basis. Based on this input, the product team can implement features to improve engagement or launch campaigns that interact with apps popular with your users.
By introducing a hyper local dimension, marketers provide a win for consumers who will end up with information that is useful to them and relevant to their location, as opposed to generic ads and messages.
CMS Critic: Until now, we’ve talked about the data deluge from websites and mobile applications. Marketers gather data from a multitude of sources – from Google AdWords and Analytics to Salesforce, information from a CRM, Excel files, and Zendesk. How do we break through the siloes and get a sense of patterns across the board?
Sisense CEO Amir Orad: It’s critical for web marketers to dig deep into their data in order to truly understand the impact of marketing campaigns, content performance and user site behavior. If your data lives in siloes you are only catching glimpses without understanding the full picture of your business.
But it can be a nightmare to mash together data from multiple sources. There are modern BI tools, like ours, that can hep do that simply.
For example, <a href="http://www.sisense.com">Sisense’s</a> proprietary In-Chip technology allows non-techies to easily join large data sets from multiple sources and create one neat central repository. It then visualizes your big data so you can get straight to drawing insights.
One more item to keep in mind. What’s important for marketers to keep in mind is that you can only count on data analytics if it is error free and up to date. In other words, one version of the truth that’s current.

How to Understand Your Customers (With Insights From Three Experts)

CMS Summit 25

Find out at CMS Connect 25, August 5 - 6 in Montreal, Canada. Seats are limited.

CMS. Content. AI. Where is it all headed?

#ffffff

So you're building a new website. What's the first thing you do after acquiring a reliable hosting plan? Apart from visiting the <a href="/products/" target="_blank">CMS Directory</a>, of course.
Whenever I begin to create a new website (whether for myself or a client), I start by firing up some of my favorite tried and tested tools to help me construct a (hopefully perfect) website.
<img style="max-width:550px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/imac-606765_1280550x0-is.jpg" /> 
Over the years this list has changed many times, with <a href="https://www.capterra.com/content-management-software/" target="_blank">content management systems such as WordPress</a> making the website development process a rather easy experience even for the most inexperienced web developer.
With that in mind though, let's take a look at my personal collection of tools used to build my own websites for myself and my clients, without spending too much money, but acquiring a stellar result regardless.
<h2>1. Comindware Tracker</h2>
<img title="Comindware Tracker" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/e6ccxne.png" alt="e6CcxnE.png" />
Whether it's a personal or a business website, workflow management is crucial to getting things done effectively and on time. <a href="https://www.comindware.com/tracker/" target="_blank">Comindware Tracker</a> enables the development of an effective process for creating and updating of a website.
The solution provides effective task, data and document management within a fully collaborative work environment. Here are the key points of what the Comindware Tracker can do:
<ul>
<li>Unify all communication on one platform. Enabling the entire team to effectively cooperate, in particular: Designer, Front/Back-End Developer, SEO expert, Content manager, marketing manager, tester and finally the project manager himself.</li>
<li>Keep all data (text, design, comments etc.) available in one place.</li>
<li>Eliminate e-mail confusion by keeping all communication in one environment in the context of work.</li>
<li>Full and continuous process control by the supervisors over the creation and updating of the website pages.</li>
<li>Eliminated delays in website release due to an overall more efficient and productive team.</li>
</ul>
There are very few ways of replacing this type of workflow management, and learning these tools will allow you to build more stable strategies in the future.
<h2>2. Cubender</h2>
<img title="Cubender" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dfbum9f.jpg" alt="dfBUm9f.jpg" />
Hiring a developer to do the dirty work for you might cost you a fortune, literally. Signing up for a visual website design tool such as <a href="https://www.cubender.com/" target="_blank">Cubender</a> is going to cost you next to nothing, and give you the exact same result.
All this thanks to rapid evolvement of the Cubender <a href="https://www.cubender.com/features/" target="_blank">design a website</a> platform. Here are the key strongest points I have found from using this particular builder:
<ul>
<li>Integrated style control makes this tool a perfect choice for already established designers.</li>
<li>Beginners will find the website editor a breeze and pleasure to work with.</li>
<li>Custom templates allow to save time and get inspiration for design possibilities.</li>
<li>Core features take care of things such as search optimization, building an online store, and custom forms.</li>
</ul>
many of my client websites have been built using this exact tool, and none have complained about reliability.
<h2>3. SheerSEO</h2>
<img title="SheerSEO" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hdkausu.jpg" alt="hdkaUsu.jpg" />
Once we've got a decent project management tool and fully working website built, we can move on to some of the more interesting and rewarding parts of being a webmaster, such as search optimization.
I have been fond of using <a href="https://www.sheerseo.com/" target="_blank">SheerSEO</a> for the past couple of years due to its easy to use interface, and a great list of features that give me the necessary insights about how well my websites are performing in organic searches. Key points:
<ul>
<li>Gather all of your SEO information in one place. SERPs, PageRank, Pages in main and supplemental index, backlinks, Twitter and Facebook mentions, social bookmarking, on page analysis and more.</li>
<li>Show your clients how your work affected their rankings. Provide them with online and offline reports, and show them how well their rankings have progressed.</li>
<li>Track your positions in search engines over time and see what works and what doesn't.</li>
</ul>
There's plenty more, but these should give you an idea of what direction this tool is going to take you. It has been invaluable to my own web optimization journey, and surely will be to yours as well.
<h2>4. MassPlanner</h2>
<img title="MassPlaner" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/o1twxfz.png" alt="o1TwXFz.png" />
Social media is too big to ignore, but because there are so many social platforms to be a part of, it can become difficult to manage them all at the same time. This is where I rely on MassPlanner to take care of this problem for me.
As you might have guessed already, it's a social media scheduling app that allows you to schedule content ahead of time, to help you save time essentially. Here are the most important features to know:
<ul>
<li>You can easily manage the date and time of when content is going to be published.</li>
<li>Easily share content from your favorite publishers through RSS feeds.</li>
<li>Integrated tools such as automatic follow, like and share are bound to increase your follower base.</li>
<li>If you have access, you can post to all your groups and pages. You can even post the same content on several groups, pages or timelines at the same time.</li>
</ul>
There simply are too many social networks to be doing all of this labor manually. MassPlanner has been an immense help in getting my social streams oriented and actively updated.
<h2>5. Brand24</h2>
<img title="Brand24" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blikimu.png" alt="blikIMU.png" />
The one thing the above tool doesn't provide for is social media analytics, which in my personal experience have been one of the most crucial marketing tools to have. This is where I rely on <a href="https://brand24.net/" target="_blank">Brand24</a> to help me gather up all my social channels in one place and see for myself — what works, why it works, and how I can further improve it.
You might not realize it at first, but there are plenty of social media mentions that we miss because we don't have the right tools to dive deep into the social experience. Out of the countless features that Brand24 offers, here are my favorites:
<ul>
<li>You can now identify social media users with the highest influential score, allowing you to tap into their circles and perhaps find a golden opportunity. It's easier than it sounds.</li>
<li>Sentiment analysis allows you to filter mentions by their appropriate emotion: good, bad, and neutral.</li>
<li>Tap into the vast search functionality to find anything and everything about your favorite topics, keyphrases, etc,.</li>
<li>Gain advantage over your competitors by being able to finally monitor their own success on social media, and see what works the best for them. Unlimited potential with this feature.</li>
</ul>
We don't really think that we need these tools at first, but when you start looking at the features list, it starts to show just how much more competitive advantage we're able to gain over our closest competitors.
<h2>6. Lucky Orange</h2>
<img title="Lucky Orange" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ee6n1sy.png" alt="Ee6N1sy.png" />
The last of the essential tools that I use for building the perfect website has to be <a href="https://www.luckyorange.com/" target="_blank">Lucky Orange</a>. There is no replacement in terms of understanding how your website works, than being able to see how people interact with your design choices in real-time.
Lucky Orange is an easy-to-use heatmap tool that gives you a perspective of how your users are interacting with your website at any given time, on any given page — allowing you to adjust and optimize the site for everyone all at the same time. Here's what to expect:
<ul>
<li>Form analytics allows you to monitor the key metrics for your forms — the conversion rates, the abandonment rates, and the ability to review live recordings to see why exactly a form didn't go till the end.</li>
<li>Real-time analytics of what is going on your site at any given time. See which keywords are sending you the most traffic. (Now a defunct Google Analytics feature.)</li>
<li>Custom-built live chat software allows your visitors to interact with you directly from any page.</li>
<li>Heatmaps give you a general idea of where your users are spending their time the most on your website. Use this data to adjust design choices accordingly.</li>
</ul>
It definitely was one of those tools that I thought I didn't need until I actually started using it.
<h2>Over to You</h2>
So there you have it, a complete list of tools that can help build a website right off the bat.
Let us know in the comments about your favorite tools, or start a discussion over on the CMS forum.

6 Essential Tools For Building Your Next Website

SocialEngine has taken 2015 by the scruff of the neck so far, and it continues to do so by unveiling the roadmap for SocialEngine PHP 4.9.0.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sephp-4_9-crop.png" />In recent months, <a href="/socialengine-cloud-gets-responsive-themes-roadmap/">responsive themes have been rolled out for SocialEngine Cloud</a>, while <a href="/socialengine-php-version-4-8-9-released/">areas around importing and API have been enhanced</a>. I always like to point out progress when I see it, and it's clear to see that SocialEngine are upping their game. Good on them.Here's a closer look at what users can expect from SocialEngine PHP 4.9.0 upon release.<h2>Activity Feed Improvements</h2>SocialEngine are introducing iframely to help improve their Activity Feeds.It's a simple API that embeds content into user's feeds, making it easy to display content in an engaging way just by scraping a web link. SocialEngine will be hosting an iframely API for free (for valid SE licenses), but users will also have the option to go directly through iframely, or even to self-host using the open source version.Furhtermore, SocialEngine users will also be getting the power to upload multiple photos in the “Post Something” section, allowing community members to share moments and photos more efficiently.The ability to edit published statuses is another feature on the way. But wait, there's more. A lot more.<h2>A New Default Responsive Theme</h2>After the release of SocialEngine PHP 4.9.0, the default theme will be brand new, and able to adapt to any screen size.It will be compatible with all core modules and will ensure an excellent browsing experience for everyone. Admins will also be able to customize the theme’s color to provide for individuality and creativity.<h2>SEO-friendly Content URLs with Slugs</h2>The team at SocialEngine have also turned their attention towards making their platform more SEO-friendly.To do that, they're implementing SEO-friendly URLs with Slugs, replacing their current URL structure of numbers instead of set keywords.<h2>reCAPTCHA On The Way</h2>Yes, that’s what Google calls its new reCAPTCHA. We’re going to provide you with this experience soon by upgrading to Google’s new reCAPTCHA v2.0 (#153).Further improvements SocialEngine are aiming with version 4.9.0 include:<ul><li>Ordering feeds based on popularity</li><li>Ajax-based status posting</li><li>New Activity Feed Items for likes on content</li><li>Sort Past Events in Reverse Chronological Order</li><li>Options to disable YouTube and Vimeo Upload Options</li><li>Make video thumbnail available for selection when a video profile page url is shared</li><li>Animated GIF support</li><li>More organized Activity Feed Settings section</li><li>Ability to change position of Updates and search bar in mini menu</li><li>New widget: Column width modifier</li><li>New widget: Social Sharing buttons</li><li>Ability to set different titles of multiple HTML Blocks placed on a page</li><li>Better Social Login buttons on Login/signup page</li><li>Improvements in pagination</li></ul>Comments from users regarding this roadmap have been positive. And rightly so, considering the sheer size of this pending release.To find out more about SocialEngine 4.9, <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.socialengine.com/2015/07/09/introducing-the-se-php-4-9-0-roadmap/">check out the official blog announcement of the version's roadmap</a>.

SocialEngine PHP 4.9.0 Roadmap Revealed

At CMS Critic, we're always working hard to bring you the best content management systems so you can make educated choices for your next project.Our <a href="/products">CMS directory</a> is growing all the time, our CMS reviews are plentiful, and there's always CMS news on our homepage.But how about something to complement your chosen platform?<h2>20 Free or Inexpensive Tools to Complement Your CMS</h2><a target="_blank" href="https://ebook.www.cmscritic.com/"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/untitled277x0-is.jpg" /></a>CMS Critic's very first eBook is here, and it's totally free to download over at ebook.www.cmscritic.com.The eBook covers a range of tools to help with; landing pages, form building, eCommerce, blogging, social media management, and much more. Go ahead and grab it for yourself.Got comments, feedback, or some more useful tools to share? Get at us in the comments below, or head over to the CMS forum.

CMS Critic's Free eBook: 20 Free or Inexpensive Tools to Complement Your CMS

<a href="/products/wix">Wix</a>, one of the world's most popular website builders, has announced a new integration between Facebook and itself.The integration is the result of Wix and Facebook teaming up in order to provide Wix users with an easy way to launch Facebook Ad campaigns without ever having to leave their Wix dashboard.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wix-musa-1.png" />Interestingly, this is the first time that Facebook has ever gone above and beyond standard API integration with any other platform, making this collaboration with Wix unprecedented.<h2>Facebook Ads From a Wix Dashboard</h2>This all works via a key product within the Wix platform, <a href="/wix-shoutout-goes-live/">Wix ShoutOut</a>.Wix ShoutOut enables users to easily build, send and share professional newsletters and updates using customizable templates.This new integration automatically creates Facebook Page-post ads from the content and images of the user's ShoutOut. The campaign's target audience is automatically set using Facebook's Lookalike targeting, helping the user reach an audience that's similar to people who have liked their Facebook Page.Users can then customize the ad, configure the campaign targeting and set its budget, all from within the Wix ShoutOut dashboard. Monitoring and managing the Facebook Ad campaign thereafter can be done through Facebook's interface.Wix CMO, Omer Shai made the following statement regarding the news:<blockquote>“The WixShoutOut integration with Facebook's advertising platform and its unparalleled reach, provides our users an effective cross-channel marketing tool and a simplified gateway into a massive new audience.Over a million people have already used Wix ShoutOut to create and share beautiful content. Now they'll have the option to make their valuable content work for them multiple times and promote their business even further.”</blockquote>Facebook also chimed in via Steve Irvine, the Global Head of the Facebook Marketing Partner program:<blockquote>“Wix and Facebook are both seeking to make marketing simpler and more efficient for global businesses of all sizes.Our partnership will allow Wix ShoutOut users to extend the reach of their email marketing campaigns to Facebook in just a few clicks, getting their content in front of the people who matter most to their businesses.”</blockquote>To learn more about this Facebook &amp; Wix collaboration, <a target="_blank" href="http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/10141571.htm">check out the official announcement</a>.If you're more interested in launching your own website, you can explore <a href="/products/wix">Wix via our CMS Directory</a>.

Wix & Facebook Team Up: Facebook Ads Can Now Be Launched From the Wix Dashboard

As <a href="/prestashop-1-6-1-released-with-performance-improvements-back-office-facelift/">PrestaShop continues to evolve</a>, I was fortunate enough to ask their Director of Product Marketing, Sabrina Marechal, a few questions regarding the platform's outlook on user experience.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gi_149548_vertical-logo-2015.png" /> With the release of <a href="/hands-on-with-prestashop-1-6/">Prestashop 1.6</a> and <a href="/prestashop-cloud-review/">PrestaShop Cloud</a>, the Paris-based eCommerce platform has reached new heights. Corners have been turned, and innovative ideas have been successfully implemented.This interview is part one of a three-part interview series. So, be sure to come back and catch the rest of my conversation with Sabrina Marechal!<h2>Introducing Sabrina Marechal</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sabrina2250x0.jpg" alt="Sabrina Marechal" />Sabrina Marechal joined the PrestaShop team back in November 2007 as a Communications specialist.As PrestaShop expanded, she built a Marketing and Communications department within the company gathering 20+ team members. By early 2011, Sabrina has moved to PrestaShop's US office in order to create a Marketing Department responsible for PrestaShop's expansion in the Americas.Today, with a fully cross-border Marketing team, Sabrina now focuses on expanding the platform's area of Product Marketing.<h2>The Interview</h2> KI: With the release of PrestaShop Cloud, the PrestaShop website was revamped. Can you tell us a little bit about how the current design compares to the previous design? What was the general thinking and reasoning behind re-designing the website from scratch?SM: PrestaShop Cloud is a very important step forward for us because it signifies a new approach to ecommerce. Our goal has always been to make ecommerce accessible to everyone. Thus far, we’ve had a product that limited financial barriers. PrestaShop Cloud helps us achieve even more by also removing the technical barriers associated with launching an online shop.Our new website design mirrors that approach. We completely redesigned the website with our merchants in mind, making the entire more user-centric when compared to our previously company-centric design. We put ourselves into our visitors and users’ shoes to reorganize the pages and make it simple to find what they’re looking for.KI: PrestaShop has a “Back Office” and a “Front office”. Can you explain the core functions of these two areas?SM: Sure! The “Back Office” is the admin panel of the store, much like the mission control center is for NASA. It’s where merchants manage all aspects of their business, the product catalog, orders, customers, inventory levels and statistics. It gives a complete overview of the shop’s performance in real time.The “Front Office” is an online shop’s storefront, it’s where visitors can browse products and place their orders. It’s crucial part of the website, because it’s how our merchants drive conversions. Since v1.6, we implemented best practices for better navigation and conversion, such as quick view, cross selling embedded in the “Add to cart” pop in, as well as a fully mobile-responsive design that allows customers to shop from any device.KI: For most merchants and CMS users choosing their platform of choice, having a user friendly admin dashboard is key. What are the main strengths of PrestaShop's Back Office when it comes to being user friendly?SM: In v1.6, we put an emphasis on two key changes, statistics and mobile-responsiveness. Our merchants wanted access to data about their shop, so they know exactly how it is performing. Aside from adding dashboard that provides an overview of a shop’s performance, we also added key stats in areas where they are most needed.And of course our mobile responsive design, makes it possible for merchants to run their shop on the go! However, my favorite feature is the global back office search. From products to its features and even software settings, type it into the search bar, and you’ll be able to find it.KI: Is there a desire to expand the Front Office with even more functionality, or is there a conscious effort there to keep PrestaShop from becoming too website-builder-esque?SM: In everything we do, the merchant is always our focus. We want to offer users everything they need to sell online successfully, it’s why we interact with our Community (merchants, developers and agencies) and test new ideas via our User Club.Ecommerce is our core and we plan to stay committed to that, even as we develop connectors to external features and services. For example, merchants wanted to connect their store to a blog, to drive more traffic and improve their SEO. So, we developed a WordPress blog module that integrates into their PrestaShop store.With our Community’s help (developing 3rd party modules), we can easily expand Front Office functions with as many services and platforms as possible. It’s one of the many benefits of being an Open source and modular based software.KI: Finally, in terms of user experience for PrestaShop users themselves, is there anything in the pipeline for PrestaShop which users may be seeing sooner rather than later?SM: Right now, our Product Team is focused on improving the back-office, by making it simpler and faster to launch your shop with PrestaShop and manage your business day to day.The onboarding is a very important part of the user experience and we need to introduce new merchants all the features so they can succeed. You’ll see some very nice improvements to the admin panel later this year!Find out more about <a href="/products/prestashop">PrestaShop through our CMS Directory</a>.

The PrestaShop User Experience: An Interview With Sabrina Marechal

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a>, the digital experience company, has announced the availability of Drupal 8 on its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products-services/acquia-platform">Acquia Platform</a>, the renowned cloud solution for unifying content, community, and commerce.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal8-logo-full-shadow.png" /> With digital experiences becoming more and more reliant on mobile, apps and IoTs, the need to provide relevant, consistent, and personalized experiences is paramount. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.acquia.com/drupal-8">With Drupal 8 under its arm</a>, Acquia are hoping to give brands the power to meet those demands.You don't have to take my word for it though. Dries Buytaert, Drupal's founder and Acquia co-founder and CTO, made this bold statement regarding the news:<blockquote>“I believe the combination of Acquia and Drupal 8 delivers the most important advance in the delivery of digital experiences the market will see in the next 10 years.Drupal 8 breaks the mold for dated content management models and liberates content from the page for the post-browser era. Now we have the power to deliver the right content, to the right audience, at the right time, on the right device.”</blockquote><h2>200+ Breakthrough Capabilities</h2>Many users from the Acquia community will have been waiting for this announcement with baited breath. Mainly because of the exciting prospect of combining Acquia with the most powerful form of Drupal to date.In fact, Drupal 8 serves up 200 breakthrough new capabilities, including:● Re-imagined authoring experience. Drupal 8 provides a new content authoring experience, designed to help authors quickly and easily create content.● Mobile-first. The entire Drupal 8 user interface has been made responsive, allowing content authors to publish content on any device.● Content as a service. Drupal 8 provides an API approach to content delivery, allowing content to be made available everywhere, including websites, mobile devices, native applications, digital screens, and the Internet of Things.● Simplified deployment. Drupal 8 incorporates many of the most widely deployed modules from previous versions of Drupal into its core, speeding time to web for site builders.● Multilingual support. Drupal 8 automatically downloads language translations in more than 100 languages, and provides enhanced support for managing global sites.● Developer productivity. Drupal 8 provides extensive enhancements for developers, including RESTful APIs, object-oriented development, simplified configuration management, improved unit testing support, and more.● Improved performance. Drupal 8 includes caching improvements that speed the delivery of personalized, dynamic content.Acquia's CEO, Tom Erickson, made these comments upon the announcement:<blockquote>“Our customers expect us to keep them at the forefront of digital transformation. Drupal 8 on the Acquia Platform provides broader capabilities for both simple and complex sites than any other alternative.Though Drupal 8 is still in beta, our team is focused on mitigating any and all risks with using it. We’ve helped many organizations go live already on Drupal 8 with the careful guidance of our expert developers and security specialists. We will be assisting with resolving key issues in our customer projects, ensuring their success as we have for the thousands of existing customers we have.”</blockquote><h2>“Drupal 8 For Our Future”</h2>Without doubt, Acquia has been the largest contributor to the development of Drupal 8, through release management, performance improvements, and sponsorship of key events.To further push their efforts, Acquia has embarked on a program called “Drupal 8 for our Future,” which is made up of the following initiatives:● Sponsorship and curriculum-creation support for programs such as STEM Fuse, which brings Drupal education to high school students nationwide, and 50 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acquia.com%2Fabout-us%2Fnewsroom%2Fcoverage%2Fostraining-release-free-drupal-8-beginner-training-july-june-25-2015&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6j_dKzkwI0KvIY4Eh7rAsomKNhw">OSTraining Drupal 8 courses</a> that will be made available on Acquia Cloud Free for anyone in July 2015.● The creation of our own public Learning Management System for Drupal 8 training.● <a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fu.acquia.com%2F&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNE6X4mfkyDEjBq8sF3O8yQXDw_1OA">Acquia U</a>, a 14-week paid intensive training program that creates Drupal developers.Acquia is also offering enablement and training based on role and previous technical experience. The Drupal 8 Readiness Workshop assesses the current state of Drupal sites and lends Acquia expertise to the creation of a Drupal 8 projects.Organizations can get started Drupal 8 on the Acquia Platform today by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.acquia.com/drupal-8">visiting the Acquia website</a>.Our CMS Directory can also be used to explore both <a href="/products/acquia">Acquia</a> and <a href="/products/drupal">Drupal</a>.

Drupal 8 Now Available on the Acquia Platform

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