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Hybrid headless CMS

Freedom for marketing teams, flexibility for developers.

Headless CMS is a hot topic. With infinite development possibilities offered by headless architecture, it’s become a buzzword. Headless CMS freedoms come at a cost though, with heavy resource overhead and long deployment times.

That's why our Content Cloud DXP is what we call Hybrid Headless CMS. It sits in the sweet spot between full stack CMS and a headless CMS, giving you the best of both. Combining exceptional content management capability straight out-of-the-box, with an open and composable architecture we're able to get your marketing teams up and running fast, without compromising your developers freedom to innovate.

CoreMedia Hybrid-Headless-CMS
We call this hybrid headless CMS.

The instant functionalities of a fantastic content management system your marketing teams will love, with a flexible architecture your developers can work on in a headless way.

Here are three of the most important Hybrid Headless CMS features.

  1. Hybrid headless CMS architecture. 
    Get the instant impact of a full-stack CMS alongside the flexibility and freedom of headless architecture. Designed to adapt to your needs as you grow, our Hybrid Headless CMS Architecture is open with fully accessible code. Your developers are free to customize and configure our DXP to create the perfect bespoke solution for you.  
  2. Out-of-the-box customization 
    CoreMedia also comes with over 150 pre-built connectors to 3rd party systems, including CRM, Commerce, PIM, translation and AI tools. These connectors, combined with our flexible architecture, mean your developers can easily integrate with your other marketing technologies. Bring all your favorite tools, data and technologies together with powerful omnichannel content management inside Content Cloud to create a single toolkit tailor made for you.
  3. Cloud or on-premise flexibility
    Keep your on-premise solution or move to the cloud for resilience and security. Whatever your current or future preference, CoreMedia is adaptable. If you want to stay open to migrating to the cloud in the future, we’ve taken many clients on the journey without losing the control they get from on-premise.   

Wrap your head around headless

What can a hybrid headless approach do for you?

What is a headless CMS?

Separate in your mind the back end of your CMS, the bit where the content management takes place, from the front end, the bit your customers see, aka the presentation or “head” of your website. A headless CMS is that back end piece only. It acts as a repository for your content and allows developers to access this content and display it on any device using APIs. With a headless CMS there is no built-in front end, or presentation layer. There is no ‘head’, hence the term ‘headless’. In fact, there isn’t even a user interface for content management. All these things have to be created and configured from scratch by your developers. This gives you flexibility, but it's also a lot of work and takes a while to deploy.

What is hybrid headless?

Our hybrid headless approach combines the freedom and flexibility of a headless architecture, with our much loved back end user interface (CoreMedia Studio) and the out-of-the-box content management you expect from a great CMS. It allows your teams to get up and running with content management and site creation quickly. They can use the content management features of a traditional CMS, without compromising the flexibility developers need to customize the tech to meet the current and future needs of your business.  

Hybrid headless vs traditional CMS?

In a traditional CMS there’s a tight relationship between the front end (how your end-user experiences your website) and the back end (your content creation, management and storage). Ever needed a new landing page template and had to wait to get one developed? That’s what happens when your content is so closely linked to a specific template, design or layout. With a traditional CMS there's a tight structure and set of features clearly defined. With this rigidity come limitations, and it's not anywhere near as easy for developers to create new integrations, or adapt to new channels and technologies. Our hybrid headless CMS frees you from the frustration of a traditional CMS, while at the same time offering much more structure and definition to out-of-the-box features than a full headless CMS. 

What are the advantages of hybrid headless CMS?

Hybrid headless sits in the sweet spot between full stack and headless, giving you the instant impact of a full-stack traditional CMS together with the development flexibility of headless architecture. You can combine exceptional content management capability out-of-the-box, with a composable architecture that gives freedom and flexibility to innovate when you need to. Fully accessible code means developers have the freedom to make our CMS their own. Devs can use APIs to easily connect marketing tools and configure new ways to deliver your content to devices and channels. At the same time our content management engine is available to your marketing teams so they can be up and running quickly.  

How do I migrate to hybrid headless CMS?

We know that choosing a new CMS can be a career make-or-break decision and the thought of migrating to something new can be extremely overwhelming. With CoreMedia, you're in safe hands. Our experienced and friendly experts have been migrating customers to our hybrid headless CMS for a long time. We know how to work with our partners to ensure success from day one. Hybrid headless flexibility also means that deployments are fast. Our experts can help guide your development teams in the best way to get you up and running in weeks not months.

Key USPs

Developer freedom

Fully accessible code and over 150 pre-built connectors give developers the freedom to adapt and customize to create the perfect toolkit for you. 

 
 

Fast deployment

With powerful out-of-the-box content management features ready to go, you can be up and running quickly and without fuss.

Content everywhere, in real time

Publish omnichannel content in just a few clicks. Create content once, then publish across devices, channels and locations in a matter of minutes. 

Future scalability

A future proof platform with the scope to integrate with any current or future channel or technology. Our teams are constantly working to find innovative new ways to meet future needs.

Benefits of hybrid headless

Need to create landing pages that work in tandem with your apps and other channels? Create them once in CoreMedia Content Cloud and easily re-use them across channels and devices. You get full editorial control and instant previews for full visibility of what your customer experiences, wherever they are. 

Metadata tags can be used to dynamically assemble pages and automatically find related content items. Want all videos for a specific topic displayed? Or all products listed for a specific search query? Done in one click.

Create a consistent message and experience for every customer, regardless of the channel they use to interact with your brand. Create content once and reuse it on as many digital properties as you need, from web, email, SMS, app to social, without the need for duplication.

All content in CoreMedia is categorized and classified in a consistent way through metadata and our built-in taxonomies, making finding and maintaining content elements fast and simple. It's fully customizable, so you can specify keywords for each content item to categorize your way. 

Our content-as-a-service API lets your developers assemble and aggregate content for any app, or channel exactly as it's needed, all through quick and easy configuration. Your content is easily displayed across all your platforms.

Features

Flexible development

Flexibility and freedom to build complex applications using your preferred programming languages and tools.

Globally scalable

There are no limits to the number of sites, applications, locations or technologies a hybrid headless architecture can handle.

Future-proof

Open, accessible code and an API based hybrid headless architecture means any current or future channel, device or technology can be integrated. 

Secure

Our robust and resilient cloud and on premise hosting options are proven across high volume, high risk business critical sites.

 

Decoupled development

Decoupled development means marketers can get on with creating front end customer experiences unhindered, while developers focus on building and optimizing back end features. 

In house control

Use your own preferred programming languages, frameworks, and tools to build out websites, applications, custom integrations and unique features.

Simple solutions

Digital Experience Platform

A unified toolkit.

Delight customers with seamless experiences across every touchpoint. Create omnichannel campaigns at speed. Integrate commerce and pull in customer and product data from CRM and PIM systems. Hyper-personalize with advanced AI tools.

 

Digital Experience Platform

Content management system

Compelling content. 

Content management is a joy when functionality just works. Publish, repurpose and localize content across your digital channels. Visualize how your content will look with instant preview across devices and campaign scenarios.

Content management system

(Hybrid) Headless CMS

Flexible and scalable.   

The freedom to innovate with hybrid headless architecture. Fully accessible code and over 150 pre-built connectors give developers the freedom to adapt and customize our DXP to create the perfect toolkit for you. 

(Hybrid) Headless CMS

CoreMedia Campaigns

Marketing campaigns made efficiently.   

Effortlessly plan, create, and manage multiple campaigns in countless formats, geographies, channels and languages. Orchestrate your content in a short period, all in one cloud-native application. 

CoreMedia Campaigns

Omnichannel Marketing Automation

Capitalize every opportunity.   

Trigger content to auto publish based on customer behaviors. Highlight channels, devices, regions and locations. Automate conversion follow-ups to keep customers moving through the buying journey in ways that work for them.

Omnichannel Marketing

Multilingual Content Marketing

Be relevant everywhere.  

Localize content across your global web estate. Custom workflows manage your translations. Update and sync market locations automatically. Highlight regional differences to be sure your content hits the mark, wherever in the world it’s published.   

Multilingual Content Marketing

Marketing Workflows

Coordinate your teams.  

Free your teams to deliver tasks instead of chasing them. Foster collaboration, reduce duplicated effort and feel free to create, safe in the knowledge that intelligent workflows ensure content is on brand, compliant and ready to go. 

Content marketing workflow

Digital Asset Management

Maximize your media.   

All your media assets in a single, secure location with our built-in digital asset management tool. Search, find and share assets across the entire organization using customized keywords that make sense to you. 

Digital Asset Management

Client success stories

Propelling fashion brands to the next digital level
Personalised luxury retail experiences
Personalised luxury retail experiences

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What you’ll get

  • Explore key features relevant to you
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Smart content management

Surprise and delight customers with iconic content everywhere, all the time.

  • Preview in-context before publishing
  • Unlock the power of your teams with workflow and scheduling
  • Keep it compliant with built-in DAM
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Personalized experiences

Nurture customers with personalized experiences at every opportunity.

  • Omnichannel customer targeting
  • Link customer data platforms to leverage audience insight
  • Integrate artificial intelligence driven hyper-personalization
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Real-time conversations

Convert visitors into buyers with conversational experiences, contextual content and a human touch.

  • Guide customers through their buying journey using video shopping, chatbot, live chat and more 
  • Manage all calls and gain insights into interactions from web to contact center
  • Prioritize contacts and let high-value users talk to real people, to maximize ROI
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Inspirational commerce

Grow your business by connecting the buying journey and converting sales.

  • Built-in connectors for Salesforce, SAP, HCL, Elastic Path, Spryker and more
  • Integrate live product feeds at a global scale
  • Turn rich media into one click shoppable content 
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Elevate your digital experiences.

Choosing a CMS is a big decision. We’re here to help. Leave your details for a personalized consultation on how CoreMedia can tame the complex and help you realize your digital ambitions.

 

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How digitally evolved are you?

Evolution is adaptation to change. Will you survive?

Keeping up in a fast-paced digital world can be a struggle. Whether your business is still stuck in prehistoric times, or already fully-evolved, finding out where you fall on the Digital Evolution Model will help you stay competitive.

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Digital channels

Do you have a well-coordinated, multi-channel presence?

Yes, our content is everywhere all the time! Some is and some isn't. No, our content and data is all over the place.

Content teams

Are your content teams aligned, working together across departments and countries?

Yeah, we're like a well oiled machine! Kind of, but we still waste a lot of effort. No, the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.

Data tools

Are your content, commerce and customer data tools integrated into a single toolkit?

Yes, we've got everything we need in a single software tool! Not really, we use multiple tools but they're not integrated. Defnitely not, our systems don't talk to each other at all.

Asset management

Is your brand content, product info and customer data all stored in one secure, globally accessible place?

Yes, we've got tight control of all our content and data. Some is and some isn't. No, our content and data is all over the place.

eCommerce

Can you merge brand content with commerce?

Yes, we seamlessly integrate ecommerce with our rich media content. We have commerce and rich content on the same sites, but they're not really integrated. No, our storefronts are completely separate.

Omnichannel marketing

Are your customer experiences seamless across desktop, mobile, apps and all other channels?

Yes, we are everywhere our customers need us to be! We have a good spread of channels, but not exhaustive. No, we focus mainly on desktop websites.

Campaigns

Can you update campaign content and product info across all your sites in minutes?

Yes, we can update our whole web estate at the touch of a button. It's ok, but could be faster. No, it takes an age to update all our sites.

Global control

Do you have global control of your content, with the flexibility to cater for local differences?

Yes, we can localize all day long without compromising global standards. Some control, but could be better. No, our content standards vary with no global oversight.

Personalized content

Can you personalize content so that your customers feel your sites are created just for them?

Yes, our content has the personal touch! Some personalization, but room for improvement. No. What's personalization?

Artificial Intelligence

Are you tapping into the power of artificial intelligence to turbo charge your customer experiences?

Yes, we're right at the leading edge of AI driven personalization! Not quite, but we're making plans. No, we don't trust robots!

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Stage 1: Fragmented: Multiple Channels

You’re a digital dinosaur!

You have a beautiful website, but with fragmented digital experiences, you run the risk of extinction.

It’s time to evolve.

Your audiences want a seamless experience, no matter what's happening behind the scenes. When your experience is different or difficult, it’s important to start with the basics, such as cultivating a holistic approach to online digital experiences. Realign your teams, platforms, processes, goals, and metrics around a comprehensive view of the online experience. Focus on the end-to-end customer journey cutting across channels, desktop and mobile.

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Stage 2: Integrated: Multiple channels

You’re a fish!

Signs of exciting life are starting to form. Your DX is responsive and adaptive but it’s not quite personalized yet.

Keep swimming!

The integration of your brand content across every touchpoint (website, online store, social media, emails, apps, point of sale) creates immersive experiences. These flagship sites combine content-rich brand experiences with immediate conversion capabilities. Business teams and marketing are closely aligned. However, while the digital experience is responsive and adaptive, it’s not yet personalized.

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Stage 3: Instant: Global expansion

You’re a crocodile!

You’re taking it global. Speed and scalability are key and just like a crocodile, you’re fast…but you’re clumsy.

Oh snap!

In this stage, the online digital experience becomes completely dynamic. You need content that is global, yet relevant, with plenty of local insights: Who is the user? Are they using a mobile phone? Is it raining where they are? Is it snowing? If it is, maybe they need warm, waterproof boots. All of this contextualized information creates a better user experience. With one global orchestration, you’re able to adapt everything, in whatever country or language you choose – while keeping turnaround times low. So keep evolving.

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Stage 4: Dynamic: Real time personalization

You’re a lion!

You’re reaching more customers in more countries and languages than ever before, and now you’re finally hunting and collecting info with precision.

But you can do more to keep your brand roaring!

As you graduate to the Instant level, you’re able to rapidly update everything - not just in one language and for one country, but in 20 languages and for 100 countries. Speed and scalability are key, driven by the need to roll out global campaigns in all languages and all touchpoints and make updates in minutes or hours, not weeks. But there’s still more to do to reach nirvana.

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Stage 5: Immersive: Elevated experiences

You’re Captain Content!

You’ve done it! You have opposable thumbs AND you’re saving the world with your seamless, elevated customer experiences.

You're a superhero in the digital space.

Your digital world and your physical world are blending together in the most complementary way possible. When shoppers visit your store, they’ll be greeted with their pre-selected products. Language changes dynamically depending on country of origin – it's like the whole store was set up just for your one specific customer.

In this final stage, your customer experience is truly immersive and superior, and your flagship store merges your physical and digital world into one, with a truly personalized individual experience.

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