For any business that is serious about the content it produces, some type of content management system is essential. 

But given that traditional content management systems are undoubtedly restrictive, many companies across a broad array of sectors are switching to headless content management systems to make their content production more seamless. 

With this in mind, we explain everything you need to know about headless content management systems, and introduce you to a number of reasons why it might be the time to transition your hospitality business to a more innovative and forward-thinking platform. 

What is a Headless CMS?

In a nutshell, a Headless Content Management System (CMS) makes your life a lot easier! It’s a back-end aid that serves as a content repository and makes your company’s content viewable and accessible on any device via an Application Programming Interface (API). 

Semantically, the term ‘headless’ is in reference to chopping off the metaphorical ‘head’ (your website) from the ‘body’ (your back end – where you store your content).

What does this mean? Well, it allows you to separate your content from the code that makes up your website, which makes it easier to use and share on various platforms.  

It’s important to note that a headless CMS doesn’t do away with the content head, as the name might suggest! It merely separates the head from the body and gives you complete control over how many content heads you wish to utilise. 

But why is a headless CMS advantageous? Let’s find out.

Why Choose a Headless CMS?

To understand the true value of a headless CMS, we need to take a step back. 

Today, the digital world is powered by written and graphic content that is shared between service providers and their clients. 

Traditional CMS platforms that have been used for 20+ years were initially built solely with the website in mind. But because of the rate at which content viewing platforms have evolved, this is no longer enough.

Restricting your business to a traditional CMS presents a significant content management challenge, as the content that you put out there is tangled up with code and locked in silos. 

In other words, it’s notoriously difficult to re-share via alternative mediums. But thankfully, a headless CMS allows you to structure your content in a way that ensures you can reuse it time and again.

Ultimately, this enables your business to automate changes and build your digital content at scale. A headless CMS enables multiple members of your content team to collaborate effortlessly and share the content that you create across various channels. 

How to Choose the Best Headless CMS for Your Needs?

As you might imagine, there isn’t just one headless CMS available to your bar or restaurant. You will need to take a range of factors into account to ensure you select the most appropriate headless CMS for your business. 

Here are just a few of the things that will influence your choice of headless CMS: 

Ease of use & Productivity

Let’s be honest; the very idea of a headless CMS is a little tricky for people to get their heads around! So if you have a large content team, you want to utilise a relatively straightforward system to understand and operate. 

Our advice is to select a headless CMS that increases your content team’s productivity and reduces your time to market. Opting for a fancy headless CMS with intricate complexities will have an adverse effect on your team’s productivity. 

Security

Cybercrime is a huge threat to businesses all around the world in the present day. You will need to ensure any headless CMS that you utilise is secure and protects your company’s data from hackers. 

Look for security features like ISO and SOC 2, and ensure your chosen provider complies with the basics like GDPR. You should also consider SSL encryption and whether the endpoints are secure with HTTPS certificates. 

Content Workflow Environments

The functionality of your headless CMS is so important. You should opt for a system that enables you to define and manage multiple workflows for your content teams and has functions that allow you to set roles and permissions. 

Remember, the whole point of a headless CMS is to make your life easier, so you need to find a system that comes with all of the features you would expect from an optimised content management platform.

Pricing

Investing in a headless CMS is undoubtedly worth it, but you should be mindful of the pricing strategy of the platform that you choose. For instance, what payment plans are available? Do they meet the growth aspirations of your business? 

The last thing you want to do is burden your hospitality business with unnecessarily high costs, so you need to find a platform that fits within your current budget and operational costs. 

This insightful guide explains in lots of detail how to select the perfect headless CMS for your business and is a great place to go for more information.

The Advantages of Using a Headless Content Management System in Your Business

Are you ready to make your content team’s lives an awful lot easier? If so, it’s time to invest in a headless CMS. We want to leave you with some advantages of transitioning to this new way of managing content, so you can be sure that a headless CMS is a worthwhile investment for your company. 

You Will Save Time, Money, and Hassle

Undoubtedly, the most attractive feature of a headless CMS is that a single piece of content can be broadcast via various mediums. This saves you time, money, and hassle, and ensures your content team can complete their work more efficiently. 

Downtime is Reduced 

By separating the back and front end of your content, if your headless CMS requires maintenance or updates, you won’t necessarily have to take your website offline. This reduces downtime and guarantees your content is online all the time. 

Compatibility is Increased 

Instead of merely producing website content, a headless CMS enables the management of content across a range of platforms. This is in keeping with modern technological advances and allows you to broadcast your content to the widest possible audience. 

The Bottom Line

If you’re currently using a traditional CMS for your bar or restaurant, now is the time to switch to a headless CMS. Not only will it make your life easier, but it will allow for the multi-platform broadcast of your content, which is imperative in the modern digital marketing landscape.