How Magnolia CMS Responds to the Evolving Call of Multi-channel Content Management

In the world of digital channel development – with mediums such as mobile devices and online publications, nothing stands still. New technologies, devices and ideas are constantly emerging to help bring different types of content to the end users in innovative ways.

Thus, matching that innovation with equally evolved publishing and marketing strategies is vital to reaching new audiences, and maintaining ties with existing ones.

Magnolia CMS, an open source enterprise content management system initially released in 2003, has taken – and is continuing to take – monumental steps forward when it comes to managing and publishing content across these different channels.

Create Once, Publish Everywhere

Traditionally, separate channels often required separately produced content, but that's not necessarily the case with Magnolia CMS.

Instead, Magnolia takes your original content and applies style ‘variations', making it suitable for all channel types without the need to re-create it. So, content duplication becomes a thing of a past, and future channel variations can be created and published to with much less effort.

This opens the door to publishing content across all devices and mediums, including tablets, smartphones, newsletters, ebooks and so on.

Desktops, tablets and smartphones are catered for by default, including a mobile preview functionality with landscape and portrait modes, which gives content publishers complete control over the appearance of web pages and other publication types like ebooks and newsletters on various devices.

A great example of this strategic content delivery can be found within Magnolia's case study on Airbus Group. The world-renowned aerospace corporation demonstrated how enterprise content can be published seamlessly across a wide range of mobile devices, based on Magnolia CMS.

Supreme Multi-channel Flexibility

For a variety of reasons, customizing content for certain channels can be vital when it comes to successfully connecting with different audiences with a tailored approach. Thankfully, Magnolia CMS provides such flexibility.

Magnolia's built-in multi-channel management system allows publishers to configure which content appears where, for whom it appears, and how it appears. For example, a page containing content specifically for a smartphone users, can be excluded from appearing on tablet and desktop devices, focusing the content entirely on the smartphone audience.

Additionally, custom channel resolvers enable content tailored for certain regional markets to be published exclusively for those markets, whilst other regions are excluded, or served different content. For example, a page containing content specifically produced for a North American audience, can be excluded from appearing in all parts of the world except for North America.

Custom channel resolvers such as these can be defined in a range of different ways to customise content delivery. Different pages, or even single page areas can be specifically delivered to end users based on a number of factors, including location, device, time, and so forth.

This ability to deliver content specifically allows for better tailored marketing offers and a greater chance of communicating the right message to the right person in the right way.

Looking to the future, Magnolia version 5.3 – which is to be released in the Summer of 2014, will add to the platform's capabilities with further personalization options and enhanced mechanisms to help deliver content to audiences even more specifically than ever before. More information on Magnolia 5.3 can be obtained via the Magnolia Roadmap.

Evolving with the Call

Magnolia's capabilities in the face of the ever-changing nature of digital channels is precisely what forward-thinking enterprises are looking to take advantage of.

Failure to take advantage of such capabilities would mean losing access to a range of different audiences, many of which are looking to experience content in newer, more personal forms.

So, customizing web page and publication presentation, defining custom channels, and delivering targeted content is not merely a luxury in today's every-changing market – but a necessity.

Magnolia's recognition of this fact is built-in to its multi-channel management features. They are simply evolving with the call.

To find out more about Magnolia CMS, visit their official website, where you can read and watch more about their multi-channel publishing features.

Additionally, you can explore more of Magnolia via our CMS Directory.