Case Study | Want a CMS That’s Easy to Use, But Robust, Customizable and Scalable? Go Headless

If you’ve spent any time publishing content to the internet, you’re probably familiar with content management systems (CMS). Under the traditional model, users load their content into the back end (the “body” of the CMS), which then undergoes various processes to prepare it for display via the presentation layer (the “head”). These processes typically differ across digital experiences — one set of code needs to be injected for a smooth mobile app experience; another set for computer browsers; another for emails. A “headless” CMS holds off on injecting that platform-specific code for presentation, instead providing seamless integration with a wide variety of platforms.

Going headless makes it easier to repurpose content across channels, enhance collaboration throughout a campaign, and create and stick to a unified brand voice. Headless CMSs’ modularity empowers brands to get creative with design, with more tools and fewer limitations, while still delivering an optimized audience experience across all platforms. Furthermore, an intuitive UI can help more team members get involved in the publication process.

But what does that look like in practice?

Recently, the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) was experiencing unprecedented growth, and they wanted to reimagine their website to better serve their community, their customers, and their mission. They turned to us.

We at fxnction have a diverse set of skills, including design, development and copywriting, which meant there were multiple angles from which we could help IWBI make the most of a headless CMS like Storyblok.

The team aimed to deliver professional, engaging, brand-specific design with flexible page management, so scaling and maintenance would be simple.

As a Storyblok partner, we were particularly well equipped to help make our client’s vision a reality. The headless approach enabled us to unleash our creativity while delivering faster time-to-market, because each individual piece of cross-channel content didn’t need to be painstakingly, manually transformed to suit each individual channel. Instead, a piece of content was approved and then put directly into the publication work stream, easily, automatically populating everywhere our client needed it. Each iteration carried with it the same SEO strategy, compounding its effectiveness and helping the client page reach more people.

Why Storyblok?

Storyblok has proven a uniquely effective tool for us. Everyone in our varied team has something to love about the platform:

• Our developers love its content block system, which allows them to repurpose components easily, providing a clean, scalable structure that can grow with the client.
• For our system architects, Storyblok’s expansive technology support means more opportunities for exciting and impactful integrations with different technologies and front-end frameworks, such as Vue and Vue.js, which we prefer.
• Our client editors appreciate the real-time visual editor, which previews website changes in real time, as they would appear on the live website, without having to save and publish them externally.
• For those of us working on international business development, Storyblok makes defining and deploying content internationalization and localization strategies simple, helping remove barriers to delivering clients’ message in multiple countries, regions, and languages.
• Fxnction’s leadership particularly appreciates the system’s scalability, helping us consistently find new ways to deliver for our clients, with a plugin system that can extend the editor in a variety of ways, including custom fields, applications, and tools.
• And finally, our partnership managers gain access to a terrific team of Storyblok staff that are committed to our success!

Storyblok, and most other headless CMS options — can provide many advantages for brands and marketers, including flexibility and customization, streamlined content management, a better user experience, faster time-to-market, and improved SEO.

Check out Storyblok, and let us know if you’d be interested in a headless CMS system for your brand.