28 Oct 2025

Content Management System: What It Is & What It Does

In all the time that you’ve been doing content marketing, I know you’re already familiar with the term “CMS”. Certainly, anyone who has included content marketing in their strategies is familiar, or at least, has basal knowledge of how CMS works. CMS or Content Management System is an essential, enriching and inescapable aspect that sits at the core of every content marketing strategy.

While important, many brands still haven’t fully utilised the true value of their CMS. Most of CMS’s potential remains untapped. Most companies don’t know its worth beyond its core function—which is to help create and publish content on the web. While not bad on its own, focusing on just that limits the potential of CMS.

Before you can tap CMS’s potential, however, it’s imperative that you know what it is and what it really does. In this article, we give you an overview of what a content management system is and why it’s important for content marketing. We also highlight some of its notable features so you get a basic rundown of aspects you must look for before deciding on a CMS solution. Finally, we end this article with a brief overview of two content management systems that the Amber Creative team uses.

Without any further ado, let’s get right into it!

Content Management System: What is it really?

Content Management System or CMS is an interface that helps users and contributors build, design and manage their content even without intricate coding knowledge. What makes Content Management Systems really popular is their ability to help even non-technical users build a website and add content without having to code from scratch.

Right now, you’re probably wondering if there’s an alternative to content management systems. The answer is a definite yes, there are ways to design and update a website other than using CMS. For one, there’s Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. This came way before content management systems appeared in the early 2000s. The case for CMS, however, is strong and for good reason.

With CMS, you can expect to have:

• Easy installation process
• Highly customisable websites
• An accelerated website creation process
• Multi-user support
• Built-in SEO features
• A chance for unimpeded collaboration with multiple contributors

Moreover, most CMS solutions also give you access to community and customer support like WordPress’s Live Chat option for their subscribers. This makes it easy for users to seek answers to their pressing CMS concerns.

For a more technical overview, let’s look at two core aspects of content management systems: CMA and CDA.

CMA stands for Content Management Application. CMA lets you create, add, and manage the content you publish on your site. CDA or Content Delivery Application, however, works behind the scene by taking the content from CMA, storing it and displaying it for your visitors and end-users to see.

Common Content Management System Features

One of the most sought-after advantages of CMS over HTML is its ease of use, which is especially helpful for non-technical users. It’s basically a gift to those who don’t have intricate web coding and programming language know-how. Most CMS solutions out in the market share this—and more. Here are some standard features that make CMS a must-have solution for anyone who owns a website, especially business owners.

Website Builder

CMS with basic or even intricate website builders allows users to drag website elements and media from a source to anywhere on the website. Most companies and organisations opt to onboard a team of expert web developers to manage their website and make necessary changes to it, but a website builder is a good way to start.

Content Creation, Editor, Management, Flexibility & Storage

Of course, what drives traffic to your website is the undisputed king—content. A CMS has easy-to-use content editors that allow users and even multiple contributors to create, edit, manage, categorise and store the content you display for end-users to see. It also optimises the website elements to improve your website’s look better. For example, some CMS allows you to resize images to the right specs so it’s optimised better for your website once published. Another indicator of a good CMS is its ability to provide you with flexible repositories that make your content structured and accessible to searchers. With flexible repositories, you get to edit content (and other parts of your website) independently.

Built-in Themes & Templates

Deciding on a website theme and template is an important aspect of website building. Well, the good news is that most CMS offers built-in, customisable themes and templates. These themes are perfect for users who are looking to publish basic websites. Not only that, but the built in themes are also especially helpful for eCommerce brands looking to streamline their processes so it’s easier to add products to their catalogues and repositories.

Third-party Integrations & Plugins

Generally, CMS solutions are inclusive. It has to be, in this competitive industry. They have great partners that transform your content and website for the better! These third-party integrations’ and plugins’ main job is to enhance your website’s design and functionality. For example, there’s Google Analytics which tracks your website’s performance. While there are thousands of plugins for your needs, be very careful with the integration itself. When you include a third-party plugin, you are ceding a portion of control over to a third party system. This can raise security issues and make your website vulnerable to hackers. So, be very vigilant in your search and research the available options for you.

Built-in (Basic) SEO Tools

Another salient feature of any content management system is its ability to incorporate aspects that help your website rank well on web browsers. Mostly, it’s related to SEO. You can incorporate the latest SEO hacks into your strategy all you can, but without a reliable CMS, it’s all for naught. For instance, WordPress has Yoast SEO which lets users add focus key phrases, meta descriptions, snippets, etc. Not only that, but its readability analysis also helps you do a spot check of your content, so you’d know its “health” and edit it before publishing. WP Explorer offers a more detailed explanation of Yoast SEO’s most important functions.

eCommerce and Marketing Features

With the continued upward trajectory of eCommerce, it’s imperative to follow eCommerce trends to remain relevant to your market. More importantly, however, is to find a solution that makes it easy for brands to integrate eCommerce features into their websites. Although almost all CMS solutions in the market offer eCommerce features, there are some that are specifically made to power eCommerce stores. For instance, there are Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce, deemed three of the most notable eCommerce CMS out there. Aside from streamlining your product catalogues and designing a good shopping experience for end users, eCommerce features on CMS also have a suite of marketing integrations that helps plan digital marketing strategies.

Content Management Systems We Use

Here at Amber Creative, we make sure to build websites that translate our clients’ needs perfectly. We create amazing and aesthetically pleasing landing pages and handle the creation of user friendly websites. With the help of CMS and our dedicated creative team and web developers, we utilise two of the best content management systems in the industry today.

Here are two content management systems we use to power our clients’ websites:

WordPress

Starting this list is the most popular content management system solution in the market. WordPress’ current CMS market share is pegged at 60.4%, while one other data says that it powers 34% of all websites on the internet. It remains to be a growth leader and managed to snag a 6.3% growth from April to September 2019 alone! It’s aggressively advantageous over its closest competitors and has tons of benefits for users.

In 2016, we wrote a short case for WordPress and briefly mentioned how its ease of use and huge community made it the industry giant that it is today. Its repository of benefits made WordPress our top choice for developing websites.

Here are some of the websites we developed with the leading CMS software:

Interior design space needs provider, Premiere Elements

Women entrepreneurs and leaders platform and magazine, LadyBoss Asia

Famed UK preschool Repton Schoolhouse Singapore

One of Singapore’s top bridal boutique shop, Labelle Couture

Creative wedding planner, Rosette Designs & Co.

Interior design firm, Juz Interior

Asia’s leading automation publication, Industrial Automation Asia

Magento

In a previous article on eCommerce platforms, we called Magento the “reliable all-in-one eCommerce system”. It boasts an all in one package that includes marketing, SEO and catalogue management tools that streamline a brand’s eCommerce needs. Magento is a great choice because it’s highly scalable. It is capable of handling large user and product increases that can happen over time.

Magento powers one of our most established eCommerce clients—stockist of health and beauty brands, Glovida.

Good content management systems make handling your content and building your website easy.

CMS enriches content marketing strategies by allowing multiple contributors to publish content on the web. Since it’s a web interface, you can access CMS softwares remotely. This adds a layer of convenience deemed important by users.

But you can do more beyond the core function of content management systems. All you have to do is tap into its other benefits and have at least a basic knowledge of its ins and outs!

Don’t be afraid to get in contact with expert web developers! They can help build and manage your website for you. Drop us a line today to find out more about this service!