Strategy to Separate Code from Content

During my years as a Sitecore platform strategist,  I have never found it to be more relevant and necessary than I do today.

While most content management systems allow website owners to manage their content in a fairly easy-to-understand manner, the reusable templates that they so often encompass are quickly becoming outdated and too rigid for today’s digital marketing needs. Once upon a time, these templates were excellent ways to populate sites with content, however, now they require massive overhauls and technical design skills whenever a redesign is initiated. In addition, the rigid page-template approach does not support more advanced digital marketing needs for A/B and multivariate testing or subtle one-to-one personalization techniques.

So, what other options do companies have when it comes to a CMS (Content Management System) that will provide simplicity without having to spend hours of time on complicated coding? The answer is modular web design.

I have been able to utilize this type of web design from Sitecore for years now, and there is a reason they are consistently named as one of the top leaders in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management. I wanted to share some of the reasons why I believe modular web design is the future for digital business as well as some of the benefits your company will notice from incorporating it now.

What is Modular Web Design?

The concept of modular components is nothing new; it has been utilized in a variety of industries for years, including automotive, aerospace, and construction. Businesses have seen great efficiency and productivity by taking a common component and re-using it when relevant, being able to focus more on the customization of the product versus just the building of it.

In my experience with web design, modules allow you to back away from the static layout offered by templates and instead manage pieces of content or design dynamically, all on their own. By changing how we think about our pages, we are not only making it possible for our CMS to have more control, we are also completely changing how we build out the company from an administrative and business perspective, as well.

I like to refer to this as the “Lego Block Approach”. Think of a child playing with various legos- they are able to keep each component but move it around to create different combinations however they choose. This is similar to using modular web design in the fact that it empowers the creator to reuse multiple components in a wide variety of ways with ease and plenty of personalization opportunities.

Benefits of Modular Web Design for CMS

Control

I believe that one of the biggest benefits of switching to a modular design for your CMS is that it gives you the control you lack with the more traditional CMS platforms. Digital marketing has never been more complex than it is today and marketers are required to make almost daily changes to their website based on data and analytics. Whether it be changing landing pages, rotating content offers, or other types of adjustments to drive conversions, I have seen that having the ability to make these changes within minutes, instead of days or weeks, can make all the difference when it comes to achieving your organizations’ marketing goals.

Ease-of-Use

Another benefit I have recognized is that modules on web pages are flexible and highly adaptable. Due to the fact that each module within the CMS is independent of each other, modifications to the design are extremely simple and user-friendly. This allows you to not only make quick changes based on visuals, but it also gives you the freedom to change parts of the page as you see fit, depending on what works or what doesn’t.

Quicker Deployment

Modular web design offers quicker development and deployment of content without development team involvement, which makes a huge difference in the day-to-day tasks of a marketer. With the options of flexibility that are available, you have the capabilities of launching a site with minimum content and then adding onto that as you go. With this pliability comes the added fact that management and other key decision-makers will be less likely to shy away from new designs or content, as they won’t take the long amounts of time to create and deploy as a traditional template does.

A/B and Multivariate Testing

Thanks to the powers of Sitecore’s digital marketing tools, your business can utilize modular design to support the ability of marketers to test parts of a page (i.e. a button color, call-to-action, content, etc) to drive better results. This type of testing is crucial to the current digital marketing age, and templates don’t offer these A/B and multivariate options.

Personalization

Another huge benefit of a modular web design, along with Sitecore’s visionary personalization capabilities, is how it provides the ability to tailor the experience completely to the individual users. Sitecore not only supports personalization based on location and device, but far more advanced things like real-time customizations based on personas and behaviors, as well.

Technology Considerations

Although this topic is much more complex than a few sentences, it is important to keep in mind that in order for a modular website to work, you need to have an appropriate CMS that can handle that type of design and one that actually allows you to manage your content in itself, not just webpages. The Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) framework is an excellent tool for this type of task, allowing you to build from the ground-up to support modular design.

Conclusion

While modular web design within a CMS may take more planning and design preparation on the onset, it ultimately saves hours and hours of time once content needs to be added or modules need to be rearranged to improve conversions down the line. Sitecore Experience Manager is a market-leading CMS that offers quick and easy integration of modular web design, giving you control, ease-of-use, customizations, and the fast deployment that the industry demands. I am confident that this type of marketing is the future, and it is important that your organization starts utilizing a management system that ushers it into the future.