It’s an exciting time for web developers, as the ways people use websites continue to evolve and the technologies we use to run these sites changes and improves. One of the most interesting developments we’ve seen at conferences and in discussions online is the shift that CMSs are taking from being developer-centric to marketer-centric. As inbound marketing continues to grow in popularity, the optimization of the customer’s journey on a website is becoming more and more important.
But where does this leave CMS developers? As the CMS world continues to shift toward marketing, we’ve heard some complaints from developers that they are feeling left out, as if the emphasis on marketing means that their efforts are not as important. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The programming that allows inbound marketing to happen is more critical than ever; developers simply need to understand the goals of inbound marketing and what their part is in making it work.
Historically, CMS developers assisted with marketing efforts by developing templates for pages (such as landing pages or CTAs). But now, as marketing evolves to create a dynamic customer experience and adapt to ever-changing business requirements, developers are no longer able to build templates based on a set of standard rules. In the new age of digital marketing, templates need to include factors such as:
These factors all provide information about the customer, and marketers need to be able to use this information to target their content to more and more specific groups of customers. The site needs to be dynamic, adapting constantly to offer the most relevant experience for each customer. This adaptation doesn’t happen by simply pulling information from the CMS, but from every data source available about site visitors.
The role of the developer in bringing this dynamic site to fruition is critical, but in order to fill this role, they need to understand the concepts of marketing, including the ways marketers want to engage customers and the reasons behind them. Undergoing training on marketing best practices will allow developers to build a site which will meet the business goals and provide the best ROI.
As inbound marketing becomes more and more dominant in the world of CMS development, it’s important to understand is goals and processes and how to provide the best experience for the customer. If you’re a CMS developer or work with developers and aren’t on board with marketing, you’re going to be left behind, so you’ll want to gain the understanding you need to keep up with the current marketplace. If you’re struggling to understand marketing or need to learn more about approaching inbound marketing from a developer’s perspective, please contact us to speak with a marketing expert, or feel free to leave any questions you might have in the comments below.
