Adapting Editorial Strategy for Structured Content in Headless CMS
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As more and more companies deploy headless CMS to facilitate omnichannel content delivery, it's important for the editorial team to evolve alongside the technology. However, the methodology is different. Where a content strategy would work in a previously disparate environment with static pages and WYSIWYG editors, this structured environment with API access does not value content strategies. Editorial strategy is required, and this article empowers content teams with the information necessary to change their strategies, workflows, roles, and sensibilities from a static page mentality to one that embraces modular content creation in a headless CMS world.
Content Ideation from Pages to Components
In standard CMSs, editors write for the page. They generate content blocks with inline styling and place them in predetermined areas of a site layout. This doesn't mean there's not a significant difference between a headless CMS and the front end; it means the vantage point changes. However, with a headless CMS, people consume content across various channels. Content is not only published to a page and rendered; it's sent to various endpoints in different forms. Thus, editors need to consider content as components that exist independently before being leveraged into a microservices paradigm to project the final message becoming an excerpt or call to action (CTA) or even a headline after dynamic assembly. Instead of stringing together a story, they need to break the narrative down into the component parts that make sense.
Editorial Processes Based on Content Types
In a headless setting, the content types are established via schemas structured content which contains required and optional fields determining the contribution. Editorial processes need to align with this instead of allowing freeform editors and flexible opportunities for contribution. For example, fields of "teaser," "quote," "product benefit," or "FAQ answer" need to be filled out relative to their individual purposes to contribute to the whole efficiently. Management API access plays a crucial role here, enabling teams to programmatically create, update, and validate content against schema requirements to maintain consistency and enforce structure. To effectively edit and create based on a headless environment, the team needs a systematic approach that aligns with how content is schematized. This means determining writing rules at the field level, aligning editorial processes like editing checklists to the fields provided, and staggering review cycles based on the understanding that content is modular and when one field is done, it doesn't necessarily mean the others are.
Educating Editors to Write with Schema in Mind
There is a learning curve for editors not used to such systems; therefore, training is essential. Editors must learn how to fill out the fields but also why and what each field does beyond its initially intended channel and how it will help (or hinder) others when trying to collate content later. Writing with schema in mind raises awareness of clear and consistent content creation relative to purpose. For example, editors will learn that a short "promo title" is used for a card in a mobile app while "body" is the designated input for a long-form blog or email module. Offering training workshops for editorial teams empowers them with schema literacy so content can be created better across all channels in less time and with greater accuracy.
Becoming More Dependent on Developers and Modelers
The distinction between developers and editors entirely fades with a Headless CMS. Editors no longer get to work in a vacuum content modelers and developers tell content types how they'll operate and display downstream. The best teams are built from consistent collaboration between an editorial lead and developers, UX designers, and schema builders. Editorial feedback helps to adjust any content models to truly reflect what's pragmatically needed; simultaneously, the development team helps editors understand how API-rendered structured content will actually appear. This ensures that the editorial vision is completely warranted from a business need standpoint and optimal rendering perspective.
Editorial Governance with Structured Content Blocks
When it comes to structured environments, the editorial need is even greater. If something exists as a content block that will get rendered multiple ways, it should have the same tone, length, and purpose. Editors must therefore create granular-style guides; not just long-form best practices and for any fragment of an idea. Editors must have reference documentation that can act as a best practice guide for field descriptions including how to create meta descriptions, teaser copy, blurbs for product feature lists, and carousel subtitles as this minimizes ambiguity, keeps the micro voice consistent, and reduces editing cycles when elements come together. Thus, as an editor, with the proper governance, structured content can scale better across campaigns and channels.
The Importance of Reusability and Contextual Appropriateness
The greatest advantage of structured content is reusability but only when editors support the editorial approach in return. Editors must consider how their work can be reused and determine if it can stand alone or be used in conjunction with other pieces without losing context. Thus, editors should not write with situational specificity or design-oriented terms. Editors should avoid saying "above" or "on this page," as structured content needs to exist forever/contextually agnostic so that it carries the same meaning as a homepage carousel, a push notification for mobile, or a response from a chatbot. Contextual appropriateness will preserve integrity for where it ultimately lives.
Editorial Calendars Based on Modular Publishing
Editorial calendars must adapt for a headless environment to support its modular approach for structured content. For example, if previously an editorial calendar documented planned publication for an entire page or article, now a team may find itself scheduling publication of just a content block, just a new product card, just another customer testimonial, a restructured FAQ section. Editorial planning must be flexible to acknowledge these smaller tasks as accomplishments while still connecting them to larger campaigns or content goals timelines. As editorial calendars evolve to support the modular publishing model, brands can embrace this approach for flexible marketing and multichannel launches without overwhelming editors who would otherwise have to create full pages for every micro-deliverable.
Version Control and Content Life Cycle
As content becomes components to be reused, version control becomes a critical editorial concern. Where editors may have had historical masters of tracking changes routes for earlier drafts only, now when an editor changes one content block appearing in multiple locations, that one change happens across multiple touchpoints at once. Awareness of dependencies, changes in history, and ramifications of putting new iterations live needs to be front and center. Thus, a comprehensive content life cycle process allows brands to track drafts down to approvals and a structured field allows editors within a headless CMS to do so with greater ease. Selecting a headless CMS that has versioning, rollback, and staging capabilities ensures editors who want to confidently change major content blocks used in public-facing features still have regulations when that block exists in private fields.
Analytics Reinforce Modular Editorial Approach
The best editorial decisions are based on factual reporting. When headless environments allow content to be seen in more locations than one, understanding how certain pieces perform determines how many views newsletter hero images get versus its call to action button, which FAQ block led to fewer incoming support tickets helps editors determine how to refine what they do. This requires structured schemas that not only have an analytics-based connection via metadata but also requires access to reporting software for cross-referencing. Editors who can act on this data can easily iterate in certain fields, test A/B versions, and adjust efficacy at the content block level instead of viewing success through an entire page.
Brand Voice is Compromised by Fragmentation Yet Needs to Remain Consistent
When people experience content in fragmented ways from different channels to different devices and formats it complicates a consistent brand voice. For structured content to succeed, editorial teams need to capture the brand voice in smaller bite-sized pieces or modularized experiences, sometimes one headline, one sentence. Thus, the editorial strategy needs to delineate how tone, style, and messaging change with the type of structured content implemented without muddying things. A perfect example is the need for voice guidelines to support microcopy, UI content, and metadata so that all potential fragmentations wherever they fall speak the same message in the supporting spirit for brand clarity.
Editors Need Visibility and Proactive Feedback to Act Upon
One downfall of working with structured content in a headless CMS is that editors don't see what they are creating, at least not up front. When content is inputted, there is no reference point as to what it will look like across devices and platforms. Therefore, editorial teams should have the ability to preview and receive proactive feedback on what the various input fields render across output areas. This gives editors the chance to forgo better tone, diction, length, and layout decisions, but also alleviates guesswork by providing visibility without jeopardizing a strict content structure. When organizations can empower editors but not make them feel confined within invisible boxes they're more likely to produce quality.
Taxonomy is As Important for Discovery as it Is for Organizational Structure
In headless CMS, taxonomy is as important for discovery as it is for organizational structure. Editorial teams need to create and manage tagging hierarchies that support internal search capabilities, personalization, and recommendation engines. This is more than simply tagging content after the fact; it's constructing an editorial taxonomy that includes hierarchies, controlled vocabularies, and governance of tags in addition to a larger content strategy. Not only does this promote better reusability, but championed engagement offers a stronger editorial voice across personalized experiences when content can be served dynamically due to structured discovery systems.
Enhancing Editorial Strategy with a Modularized Content-Driven CMS
In the past, editors have determined success by abstract, lofty KPIs related to traffic or social shares. However, with headless and a content-agnostic approach, each piece can be measured as different contexts allow for different measurements a piece generates when stripped down to fundamentals. Editors need to work with the marketing and analytics teams to establish a modularized content-driven CMS that measures component CTR, engagement per field, conversion assists by module, and more. This ensures alignment of goals and expectations in a performance-driven enterprise approach to content creation where each piece of content 1) has a reason for existence 2) is measured for success 3) modified based on learnings.
Enhancing Editorial Strategy with Localized Structure
For many global enterprises, communicating the same message without content distortion across language barriers and regional dialects becomes complex. Delivering the same message in translated formats requires a headless CMS that allows for content stripping down to translatable fields while allowing for a unified workflow. Thus, the editorial strategy needs the localization playbook that outlines what's translated, how regional teams interface with global, and what's bland vs. what's a requirement to have differences. This allows for modularizing international content to become less duplicative, more brand-appropriate with localized relevance, while simultaneously allowing for translation at scale when the processes are established.
Conclusion: Editorial Strategy for a Headless World
Transitioning your editorial team into a structured, modular CMS is as much cultural and strategic change for how the editorial team will function as it is an operational technical endeavor. The keys to success revolve around understanding what integration with other technical partners is needed to become successful, at minimum, with modularity and schema-driven fluency. Taking into consideration past experiences with workflows, what should or should not be included in guidelines, calendar placement, and the metrics utilized will reassure you redefine how your editorial team will operate moving forward in the future. Creating content in a headless world will no longer be about creating pages but rather intelligent modulations of reusable content to drive experiences on all digital platforms.