Legacy CMS leaving a lump of coal in your stacking? Research says the best gift could be headless

It wouldn’t be December without a Christmas story that warms your heart. Especially if it’s three sizes too small. 

Of course, every good holiday tale needs a protagonist who experiences some magnificent transformation. So let’s start with a little Scrooging before pouring the spiked egg nog.

Our merry friends at Storyblok, a headless CMS that has positioned itself simply as a “content management system,” recently published some sobering survey data. The big takeaway: 93% of marketers and developers say their current CMS is falling short of expectations, and a lot of the frustration stems from integrations.

To that end, the consensus among survey participants is that platform integration failures could impact revenue this holiday season, a time when brands and retailers are banking on digital commerce to stuff their annual stockings. 

‘Twas the nightmare before Christmas? 

Indeed. And it's likely to result in an urgent call-to-action to improve reliance on the stack – specifically the CMS layer – in 2025. 

Ho, ho, hold on a minute. It’s not to say that cheeks aren’t rosy in other areas of the digital marketing machine. The study indicated that businesses are spending an average of over $453,000 on martech per year. That’s healthy by any measure, but the effectiveness of that investment could be in jeopardy if content management systems aren’t living up to their fullest potential. 

So what’s a brand to do? It’s not as simple as asking Santa for a solution. According to Storyblok’s CEO Dominik Angerer, whom I’ve spoken to multiple times this year, the core challenges can be traced back to legacy systems that lack flexibility and interoperability – and a move to headless could turn that lump of coal into a diamond.

“This survey shows that many companies are hitting the limits of their current CMS,” he said. “They are dreaming of a CMS that’s keeping all their systems in sync without constant workarounds.”

And dreaming of sugar plum fairies who deliver an easy transition, right? Therein lies part of the problem: moving to a new CMS can be costly and time-consuming, and embracing composable architectures (more the domain of large enterprises) can take years to fully realize. Time is also tight, and organizations need to move quickly, especially when the holiday blitz is a 'Blitzen. 

This is why many platforms have embraced a multi-CMS ecosystem – with a strong reliance on headless platforms – to roadmap a more holistic solution. But is headless really the panacea for all these challenges? 

Let’s unwrap some of the data that Storyblok left under the tree.

Deck the halls with integration frustration

With customers like Adidas, Netflix, and Disney on its roster, Storyblok has cultivated deep insights around use cases and patterns for headless CMS at a global enterprise level. That was clearly a benefit when conducting the research, which reflects how some of the world’s biggest brands feel stymied by outdated legacy tech stacks that can’t keep pace with their evolving needs.

For the research itself, Storyblok surveyed 300 IT and marketing leaders at global businesses, a third of which had stated revenues of over $100 million. Participants were asked a range of questions about their company’s CMS with an explicit focus on the arc for integrating new tools and applications as part of their existing tech stack. 

One important note, which speaks to the reality of the enterprise market and a smidge of headless bias: all surveyed companies in the report use monolithic CMSes. That’s not a shocker, but it’s a relevant assumption that the data might be telegraphed around inherent criticisms of large enterprise CMS and DXP platforms. 

To that end, 93% of respondents aired grievances, specifically around the limited integration options with other services and tools in their tech stack. Two in five also stated that they are constantly in need of a better integration experience, while a quarter found integrations “difficult,” illustrating the urgency for more flexible solutions.

So much for the “seamlessly integrates” tagline that often accompanies the marketing around many platforms in the ecosystem. 

Humbug.

All I want for Christmas is up-to-date content

Outdated content is an epidemic, particularly for highly distributed global organizations – and it’s not just at the CMS layer. Maintaining up-to-date digital assets has been a precarious function as well, which is why we’ve seen significant investments in AI-powered capabilities across DAMs and PIMs. 

As Dominik Angerer stated in one of our previous interviews, “A CMS can’t just be a place where your content is sent to die." And yet, it often is for so many companies – something the research also manages to codify. 

According to the study, frustration over outdated content continues to be a widespread problem. Most respondents reported that 20% to 30% of their CMS content is no longer relevant, with only one-third updating content on a monthly basis – or less. 

To make matters worse, 37% admitted to not having an audit or update process that works for them. Translation: there’s no reliable governance, which can result not only in poor experiences for users but also financial and even legal liabilities. 

Jingling with marketers and developers

The elves aren’t playing nicely in the workshop – a fact we’ve been abundantly aware of for quite some time. As headless CMS platforms rose in popularity, marketers were left in the cold, becoming more reliant on developers to modify their digital experiences. At the same time, monolithic CMS and DXP platforms inherited more complexity (often through acquisitions), resulting in a similar paradigm.

I’ve been chatting about this with industry leaders like Darren Guarnaccia for the last few years. In 2023, he noted that while composable headless technologies are a boon for developers and technical audiences, “it’s been kind of horrible for the businesses.” This reality underscored the mad rush to add visual building, previewing, and editing capabilities to CMS tooling – from Optimizely to Agility – and nearly every platform now has it as an expected feature. 

But these new capabilities are still catching up, and technology isn’t the only sore spot. According to Storyblok’s research, the collaboration between marketers and developers continues to be strained, with 40% saying it’s either “ineffective” or “nonexistent.” That’s a big number, and likely reflects some of the cultural challenges that exist between marketing and IT functions.

What’s at the core of this rift? Basic stuff, really. For example, a marketer might want to update a post or make fast edits across multiple pages. Unfortunately, in many legacy CMS deployments, that might require the help of a developer each time (Darren referred to these instances as “tickets,” which those of us with support experience know all too well). This is because certain types of changes in a CMS are often complex and can ripple across an entire site. 

Of course, this back-and-forth can create huge bottlenecks and delays, utlimately adding months and potentially extra zeroes to the cost of a project. But Dominik feels this is where a modern headless CMS can differentiate and solve the problem. “A headless CMS can eliminate these holdups,” he said. “These flexible, integration-friendly systems meet the needs of both marketers and developers.”

Last Christmas, I gave you my content…

And the very next day? Well, at least some users start a slow, downward slide toward CMS regret. 

In fairness, the honeymoon might last a little longer. But when you’re sold on the potential of “seamless integrations,” only to find that things aren’t so seamless, it feels like Krampus coming down the chimney. 

At this time of the year, brands are under increased pressure to drive conversions and sales. Clearly, some teams are disillusioned by their experiences and most of the blame lands in the boots of the tech stack. And yet, the problems persist. Storyblok published a previous study that revealed almost half of all businesses are literally “embarrassed” by their website. Ouch. That same report also found that business leaders estimate a poor website UX leads to $72,000 in lost sales each year.

To be sure, there’s some predictable marketer’s lament in all of this (every brand pro is on a quest for what they don’t have). But it does codify how disappointing a legacy CMS experience can be for many users and organizations – despite spending all that previously mentioned cheddar on martech. 

Looking ahead, integration will continue to scale in importance. This is due to the accelerating growth of new technologies and the persistent need to manage data from multiple systems. According to Storyblok, this must be prioritized – because what’s at stake is the continued erosion of time, money, and resources.

There are many choices when it comes to CMS platforms. Most are solid in their own way, and it’s usually not just the architecture or functionality that makes them naughty or nice – it’s how they’re applied as part of a broader stack. In some cases, headless is an ideal solution. But when a decision about any CMS isn’t carefully approached, it can result in a less-than-satisfying outcome.

In terms of reaching the limitations, some practitioners might be approaching their problems from the wrong vector – and certain strategies could be employed to resolve the bottlenecks and challenges. In this case, headless CMSes have an advantage when it comes to integrating with other solutions that displace the issues or extend capabilities in the right way. That said, large enterprise DXPs have made significant headway when it comes to delivering more modular solutions for their customers, which can offer some of the same benefits of interoperability and API-driven integration. 

Do you mine a lump of coal, hoping it keeps burning? Or do you make the leap to something new? This realm of optimization is something that many organizations will be wrestling with as they assess the 2024 holiday season and beyond. The good news: we’re talking about the challenges, and working to overcome them.

Who knows? Maybe next Christmas will bring some cheerier numbers. Until then, we'll be making our list and checking it twice.

Looking for guidance on Storyblok?  Talk to us. 

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