Choosing a new CMS for your website is one of the most consequential decisions a marketing team makes. The wrong choice creates years of friction. The right one disappears into the background and lets your team focus on content. To find that fit, I follow a 5-step process. This is how I help companies evaluate which CMS actually works for their team.
My 5 steps to follow:
Step 1: Workflow Analysis
Before selecting a CMS, it is important to understand how your marketing team actually works today. You achieve this by analyzing daily content workflows. A helpful approach is the “Jobs-to-be-Done” (JTBD) concept.
What are “Jobs-to-be-Done”?
With this concept, you describe what tasks your employees need to accomplish.
For example: “As a marketing manager, I want to update landing pages and publish blog posts without waiting for a developer.” Or: “As a content editor managing six language versions, I want to translate and adapt content in a structured workflow instead of copying between spreadsheets.”
To identify such “jobs,” talk to your marketing team and content editors. Ask them about their daily tasks. Then create a list of “jobs” that your new CMS should support.
This step is important because it helps you choose a CMS that truly meets your team’s needs. Our Headless Audit covers this ground systematically. This way, you avoid wrong decisions and unnecessary costs.
Practical side effect: You’re documenting the processes in your company at the same time.
Step 2: Gather Team Feedback
Ask your team about the advantages and frustrations of your current CMS. What works? What slows them down? Where do they lose time? If you don’t have a CMS in use yet, get feedback on the manual process.
Make sure to include all stakeholders - from tech-savvy colleagues to those who struggle with digital tools.
To encourage open and honest communication, you should collect feedback anonymously. This helps introverted team members feel more secure in sharing their opinions.
Step 3: Research Providers
The next step is comprehensive online research. Ensure that the CMS provides the functionality you need and pay attention to the following aspects:
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Editor experience: How intuitive is the content editing interface? Can editors preview changes before publishing?
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Content modeling: Can you define custom content types and relationships? Is content structured or locked in page layouts?
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Multilingual support: How does the system handle multiple languages? Is translation built into the workflow?
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API access: Does the CMS provide a clean API for headless usage? Can your frontend consume content from it?
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Preview and staging: Can editors see exactly how content will look before it goes live?
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Roles and permissions: Can you define who edits what? Are permissions granular enough for your team structure?
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Performance: Does the CMS itself introduce latency? Is content delivery fast across regions?
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Hosting and data location: Where is the data stored? Is it GDPR-compliant?
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Vendor independence: Can you export your content if you switch providers? Is the format open?
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Support and ecosystem: How responsive is the vendor? Is there an active community and documentation?
Remember that a good CMS must seamlessly integrate into your daily work routine. Once you start receiving offers, our guide on how to evaluate software offers thoroughly helps you read between the lines.
Step 4: Testing Phase with Selected Providers
After research, it’s time to select the top three providers and thoroughly test their solutions. You should involve employees from different areas of your company in this process. These different perspectives are incredibly valuable in getting a comprehensive picture of the software.
Document all tests for reference, ideally recording them as videos. This way, everyone in the team can see exactly how the software looks in action, and you have solid facts to refer to.
Pay close attention to how editors feel using the system. Editor experience is the leading indicator of long-term adoption. A CMS that frustrates your marketing team in the trial will not magically improve once you have migrated hundreds of pages into it.
Step 5: Presenting Results and Decision Making
Now it’s time to share the results of your tests with the team. Present the strengths and weaknesses of each software and lay out your observations. An open discussion is necessary here to include different perspectives and opinions.
After gathering feedback from everyone, the moment of decision has arrived. With all the information you’ve collected, you can now select the software that best fits your needs and those of your team.
It’s important to remember that there’s no perfect solution and there will always be compromises to make. Choosing a CMS is an investment, not just a cost. Your goal should be to find the software that best meets your specific requirements and will be accepted by your team.
Your CMS determines how your marketing team works every day. A careful selection process now prevents years of workarounds later. If you want help evaluating your options, a Headless Audit is the best starting point.