Fun fact: Salesforce started as a SaaS CRM company, but as time ticked on, it grew into a one-stop-shop for businesses of all needs – going as far as to offer Salesforce CMS (content management system).
So whether you’re a budding startup or a well-established company, Salesforce has something to offer you in the realm of CMS – especially if your goal is to create personalized experiences for your audience, streamline internal collaboration, and drive meaningful engagement.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll go over the features, benefits, use cases, examples, and best practices of Salesforce CMS.
What Is Salesforce CMS?
Salesforce CMS isn’t your average content management system – it’s a hybrid CMS offering flexibility when creating and sharing content.
For example, if you’re a marketer, you can use it to manage and publish content across multiple channels (including blog posts, landing pages, videos, and more). Similarly, if you’re on the sales team, you can use it to centralize your sales collateral, product information, and even training materials.
But here’s the best part: you can use that same content outside of Salesforce.
This way, your content extends smoothly across all channels.
And because it’s part of the Salesforce platform, Salesforce CMS integrates with other Salesforce products, making managing content and customer data very straightforward. That’s easy and adaptable content management right there!
The Best Features, In No Particular Order
With Salesforce CMS, creating and delivering content is as easy as possible.
The drag-and-drop editor lets you effortlessly add text, images, videos, or anything else you fancy so you can craft engaging experiences for your audience in a few swipes.
Managing content versions is incredibly simple. Make changes, preview them, and hit publish when you’re ready. Your content stays fresh; if you ever need to go back, previous versions are just a click away.
Collaboration is vital, and Salesforce CMS makes teamwork effortless. Assign roles, track changes, and streamline approvals. It’s efficient and ensures your content meets all the necessary standards.
Personalization is also a big plus. Using Salesforce’s customer data platform, you can customize content to your audience’s preferences, no matter how many customer personas you may have. It’s like having a personal content assistant, leading to better engagement and higher conversion rates.
Your content deserves the spotlight everywhere. This CMS lets you share it across websites, portals, mobile apps, and email campaigns. Publish and update in real time, keeping your audience in the loop.
Finally, numbers tell a story, and the Salesforce CMS tool provides high-level analytics. Track content performance, measure engagement, and understand audience behavior. With your data in your hands, you’re in total control. And you’ll know exactly what you need to create next!
(So Many) Benefits
As you already know, Salesforce CMS brings personalized content experiences to the table, which is exactly what users need now that more companies create content online. Sadly, this means you’ll need to work harder and personalize more to stand out.
You’ll be lost if you don’t have a solid content management system that allows you to personalize on a case-by-case basis. Fortunately, that’s what Salesforce CMS is here for!
Tap into the power of Salesforce’s customer data platform, breaking down your audience into groups and serving up content that suits their preferences, behavior, and demographics. This personalized touch amps up customer engagement and gives your conversion rates a boost!
What’s more, the CMS revolutionizes your content management. You’ll get a centralized hub, so you no longer need to juggle multiple systems. No matter who on your team needs to make edits, they’ll be able to do it quickly and without prior training.
But Salesforce CMS isn’t just about managing content. This tool is a team player. It makes collaboration easier among content creators, editors, and stakeholders. Everyone can stay in the loop and jump in at the proper approval stages, so you keep things efficient and avoid the endless back-and-forths in the review process.
From creation and publishing to distribution and analytics, Salesforce CMS lets you focus on delivering top-notch content that aligns with your business goals, regardless of which stage your (potential or existing) customers find themselves in.
And speaking of analytics, Salesforce doesn’t leave you in the dark. It provides robust reporting capabilities, allowing you to track content performance and measure engagement metrics. Armed with insights into your audience’s behavior, you can fine-tune your content strategy and make informed, data-driven decisions across the board.
Here’s How You Can Put the Salesforce CMS Platform to Work
Imagine taking a CRM record, abandoning the usual rows and columns, and presto! Suddenly, you’ve got eye-catching elements like banners, tile menus, or compelling promotional CTAs. Building a dynamic content experience stops being a hassle and turns into a regular way you do marketing.
Now, if you’re eager to enhance your Salesforce-built experience with content, it’s easy with tools like Experience Builder and Commerce Page Designer. Again, just drag and drop those content components onto your website, portal, forum, or commerce storefront. They’re developer-friendly, too, in case your tech-savvy teams want to add a touch of code to the mix.
But what if you’ve got fantastic content and want it everywhere? It’s no big deal, as Salesforce CMS offers headless APIs. They allow you to smoothly deliver your content to third-party sites, experiences, or mobile apps.
That’s how your marketing materials, news articles, or blog posts can create a buzz not only on your Salesforce-built system but also on web apps or static sites hosted on different cloud platforms.
Integrations with Other Salesforce Products
In the Salesforce ecosystem, everything fits together thanks to its integration capabilities.
Salesforce CMS integrates with other Salesforce heavyweights, including Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Sales Cloud, Heroku, and Quip.
With Marketing Cloud, craft personalized content across every channel and make your marketing campaigns pay off big time. Dive into customer data, deliver targeted content everywhere, and watch those engagement and conversion rates soar.
For example, suppose you want to create an engaging email campaign to promote a new product launch. You’d start by creating the campaign content in Salesforce CMS.
Then, you could use metadata and tags to categorize the content based on criteria like product categories, target audience, and campaign themes. In the campaign setup, you can use dynamic content blocks to create areas for personalization.
Finally, Salesforce CMS pulls in specific customer data to strengthen your personalization, so every email looks and feels custom-made for that particular user.
But the excitement doesn’t stop there! The CMS teams up with Community Cloud to create personalized customer portals that offer VIP access for your audience. Think self-service options, relevant content, and customers accessing their account info whenever they need to. It’s a win-win!
Salesforce CMS and Commerce Cloud are a dynamic duo, too. If you’re in eCommerce, you’ll be able to manage content, create online stores, add automation, and ensure you’re personalizing the journey for every single customer.
Closing deals just got smoother. Salesforce CMS teams up with Sales Cloud, boosting every sales channel using smart automation. For example, your reps can easily retrieve the right materials while communicating with prospects. Forget the average 1.8 hours spent every day searching for information – Salesforce CMS gives your team the information they need when they need it.
Finally, if you want to take your collaboration to the next level, you can use the Quip integration for documents, spreadsheets, and live discussions directly within the platform.
How to Make the Most of Salesforce CMS: Best Practices and Quick Start Tips
Build a Smart Content Strategy for Salesforce CMS
Before you start: Define your content strategy. Identify your audience, content goals, and KPIs. This roadmap will guide your content creation and ensure it aligns with your overarching goals.
Once you get started: Assess your content management needs and identify how Salesforce CMS fits into your strategy.
Customize Like a Pro
Before you start: Enable the CMS within your Salesforce instance or sign up for a license if you’re new. Then, define the structure of your content architecture, like content types, fields, and relationships. Make sure you segment your audience so you can personalize at scale.
Once you get started: Start using the custom content types feature to create personalized experiences. Then, customize layouts to align with your vision!
How to Efficiently Collaborate in Salesforce CMS
Before you start: Define roles, establish workflows, and streamline the approval process to stay compliant and on track.
Once you get started: Map out your content, define structure, and keep things organized so you don’t get a content management headache.
Measure, Learn, and Optimize
Before you start: Track your content, assess engagement metrics, and understand your audience’s behavior to make the smartest possible decisions.
Once you get started: Once your content is out there, keep tabs on how it’s doing. Constantly check engagement metrics and audience behaviors. Then, use the data to tweak your strategy.
All Things Considered
Salesforce comes with a higher price tag compared to other CMS solutions. But there’s a solid reason: no other tool comes close to the level of personalization and data collection available in Salesforce. You won’t need anything else, mainly if you already use Salesforce.
Start creating, managing, and sharing content effectively, across all channels, using a single platform. Then, give your content game a boost with Salesforce CMS!
