Enterprise Times met up with Neha Sampat, founder and CEO at Contentstack.
Contentstack supports marketers and developers to collaborate around content like never before. Utilising MACH technology (Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) to orchestrate superior customer journeys. In addition to deliver dynamic digital experiences across channels, audiences, brands and regions. Neha Sampat outlines her top tips for enterprises looking to get started with MACH.
1. Consider the user journey and re-think your existing architecture
Consider your customer’s needs before your own. Understanding what drives and motivates them. How they interact across channels will help you choose the tools you need to keep them engaged. Set your business goals upfront: do you need to optimise speed? Do you want to organise specific processes within the business? Are you looking for a digitally-native architecture to help you compete? These are the types of questions you should ask yourself before you launch headfirst into MACH. You will need to look at your existing architecture to evaluate pain points and processes which are not working as efficiently as they need to be. Then set your goals for your customer experience. From here, you can create a customer journey map. Furthermore, choose a Content Experience Platform (CXP) that fills the gaps and creates harmony across your technology.
2. Go headless
Content and commerce go hand-in-hand. Moving to a platform that features headless architecture disconnects your content from the channels you’re building it on. This allows businesses to deliver experiences wherever and whenever customers want. A headless CMS can grow with your business. As a result, enterprises have to invest in new technology and services every year to keep up to date. To adapt to industry changes and demand. Instead, businesses can buy best-of-breed components that meet each business’s needs. They can then move at speed with headless content delivery to all existing and new digital channels.
3. Work through digital transformation in phases
Digital transformation is just that — a transformation. It takes energy and resources across all business departments. Despite initial perceptions, going headless doesn’t require a large up-front investment. With headless, enterprises can personalise their channels and be up and running within days, hours or minutes. Start small, monitor your progress, and make sure to incorporate new technologies as they develop, tracking it against set goals. For a company looking to build localised experiences, start with the homepage. Move to a small headless site, and only then roll out to major markets.
4. Start creating in Omnichannel
Legacy CMS platforms can struggle to keep up with the changing needs of today’s consumers. The end screen is no longer just a homepage. Customers interact on the website as much as on email, social, search, contact centre, and digital billboards. Or a new emerging channel being developed. If a brand wants to strengthen its customer relationships and work faster and better, it’s time to think in omnichannel. How can a business best translate one idea into five different channels? Headless CMS allows this to be done quickly and easily within the platform. A seamless digital experience needs a cloud-based CMS that enables the business to scale easily. In addition, that has a wealth of APIs.
5. Find the right support for your MACH
The more integration points you have, the more complex your architecture is going to be. The business will need everyone on board, including your technical partners, to ensure your stacks are running efficiently.