Choose the Right CMS for B2B Lead Gen Websites

When it comes to internet marketing, industrial businesses tend to be a bit late to the party.

Many B2B companies are just beginning their digital journey. They may be upgrading an ancient website from the pre-social media era. Or, they may be building their first-ever website.

Whatever the case may be, B2B business leaders get a lot of conflicting website advice.

One of the most important decisions when considering a new website is the choice of CMS. A CMS, or Content Management System, is where your marketing team will spend a lot of time. A CMS is a tool for organizing, editing, and publishing all website content. It’s the brain powering your website.

Choosing the wrong CMS can cost your business a lot of time, money, and frustration. There are hundreds of different tools out in the wild. Each CMS has slightly different functionality, pros, and cons depending on its intended use case. A great CMS for one business might be a terrible choice for another. Even businesses that sell the same product may prefer one CMS to another for a variety of personal and technical reasons.

Today we’ll look at the top eight content management systems on the market for B2B industrial companies. Let’s get started!

8. Squarespace

Do you need a fast website up and running within a week? Do you have a low budget for website development? If you answered yes to either of these questions then Squarespace might be the best choice for you! This platform allows users to create full websites right from their browser. Little to no coding knowledge is required. Content management is easy, even for beginners.

Pros

• Ideal for startups or low-budget businesses.
• Easy to set up and manage.
• Offers a wide range of good-looking templates.
• Pre-built integrations make it easy to set up and use popular apps.
• No coding knowledge is required.

Cons

• Large or complex websites can become difficult to manage.
• It can be challenging or impossible to build heavily customized features in their ecosystem.
• Limited customization options on templates.
• Unable to fully optimize performance.
• Difficult to implement advanced SEO strategies.
• Risk of losing all website content if the CMS platform experiences technical difficulties.

7. HubSpot CMS Hub (CRM as a CMS)

Even if you aren’t familiar with content management systems, you might know this acronym: CRM.

Some customer relationship management (CRM) platforms offer website builders as well. This means your marketing data and website content live together in one place. This combination can be extremely powerful.

HubSpot CMS Hub is a great example of this feature. Its web and marketing features work together seamlessly. There are some limitations to this platform, but it may be a good option for companies that embrace CRM technology.

Pros

• Direct integrations with CRM tools for analytics, lead tracking, and more.
• Manage your website and marketing assets from one system.
• Sales, marketing, and management teams can collaborate easily

Cons

• Limited customization options.
• Underwhelming technical performance. Difficult to optimize.
• Difficult to execute advanced SEO strategies.
• Steep learning curve.

6. Joomla

Joomla is a free and open-source CMS. This platform helps non-developers create visually appealing websites. It comes without some of the technical challenges of more advanced platforms.

Joomla has a powerful user management system and multi-language support by default. It’s a good option for content-heavy international websites.

Pros

• Free-to-use, open-source platform.
• Easy to set up and manage, even for beginners.
• Decent for SEO optimization.
• Offers a wide variety of high-quality plugins.
• Provides advanced user management.

Cons

• Performance can be slow and may require more server resources.
• Many useful plugins require payment.
• Free templates have limited functionality.
• May encounter issues with specific browsers.
• Customization options can be limited.

5. Drupal

Drupal has been around for over 20 years, making it one of the most mature CMS platforms on the market. This platform is more complicated to set up compared to something like Joomla. Using Drupal to its full potential requires experience and coding knowledge.

On the other hand, Drupal’s customization is more powerful than simpler platforms. It is a high-performance tool for large websites. Drupal websites can handle millions of simultaneous views without a decrease in speed!

Pros

• Can handle complex and large websites with heavy traffic.
• Open source with a strong development community.
• Provides a high level of security.
• Great performance and technical customization.

Cons

• Not beginner-friendly due to a steep learning curve.
• Requires coding knowledge.
• High system requirements.
• Limited plugins (modules).
• Few templates are available; most websites are custom.

4. Shopify

Shopify is the best option for e-commerce connected websites. Despite its many competitors, none offer the suite of tools that Shopify does. It’s an easy-to-use platform for e-commerce setups large and small.

Shopify can be configured in a variety of ways depending on your needs. It may be used as a full CMS, or integrated with other platforms as an e-commerce handler.

Shopify has a robust library of plugins and templates that non-technical people can configure. Developers can edit these plugins to customize them even further. Shopify is a great platform to consider if you have any kind of online store.

Pros

• Offers tons of customizable themes and plugins.
• Simple to set up.
• Easy to add, edit, or remove commerce items.
• There are many developers and tutorials available.
• Integrates with multiple channels (Amazon, eBay, Instagram, and Facebook).

Cons

• Built primarily for e-commerce, so content management functionality can be limited.
• Not fully optimized for speed.
• Plugins can be expensive.
• Transaction fees range from 0.5% to 2%.

3. Webflow

Webflow is a popular low-code CMS solution that has gained traction in recent years. It enables designers and marketers to create dynamic websites with little or no coding experience. Unlike many other CMSs, Webflow has a plugin-free ecosystem. It features a variety of customizable templates. Compared to other options on the list, Webflow is one of the fastest and easiest. However, it is not as user-friendly as the simplest tools like Squarespace.

Pros

• No need for plugins.
• Fast development time.
• Scalable websites for small to large organizations.
• Secure hosting.
• User-friendly, allowing for easy updates and the creation of complex features with little experience.

Cons

• Limited default options for Ecommerce.
• Limited customization of code.
• Steeper learning curve compared to similar builders like Wix or Squarespace.

2. Headless CMS (Strapi, Sanity, Contentful, DatoCMS)

Traditional CMSs are monolithic in structure. This means the front end (what users see) and the back end (what editors see) are closely connected. A headless CMS decouples these two sides.

There are benefits to separating the back-end and front-end. With a headless CMS, your content lives independently from the design of your website. This makes your website more secure. It allows you to more easily change the design of your website while retaining your CMS data.

A headless CMS may also be faster and more reliable in some cases than a traditional CMS.

There are many headless CMS options. More hit the market every year. A headless CMS must pair with a front-end framework like NextJS, Gatsby, Vue.js, or NuxtJS.

Together, front end frameworks and headless CMSs create a powerful and secure ecosystem.

Pros

• Provides the most secure way to manage content.
• Offers extreme flexibility with few limitations.
• Can be custom tailored to each business.
• Advanced SEO configuration is simple.
• Easy to scale from small to large websites.
• Provides omnichannel marketing capability.
• Performance is easy to manage.

Cons

• Setting up requires diverse coding knowledge.
• Can be more expensive than other options.
• Templates must be custom created.
• Content previews can be a challenge depending on the headless platform.

1. WordPress

Our number 1 pick for a CMS is also the world’s top choice: WordPress.

WordPress is the most popular CMS, and has been for many years. Over 30% of the top 1 million websites in the world use it.

WordPress is so popular due to its flexibility, plugin ecosystem, and powerful user management tools. Although WordPress is most often used as a traditional CMS, it may be used as a headless CMS, too.

Whatever website idea you have, WordPress has the flexibility and plugins you need to make it a reality.

Pros

• Has a vast knowledge base.
• Offers plugins for nearly every problem.
• Is flexible and easy to manage.
• Can be configured and scaled for businesses of all sizes.
• Is fully open source.
• Has millions of templates to choose from.
• Offers the option for headless CMS functionality.

Cons

• Security can be an issue depending on the setup, potentially leaving it vulnerable to hacking.
• Requires updates and maintenance to use safely.
• Can become slow and unstable without proper care.
• Customization can be expensive.
• Lacks much innovation in the default setup.

When businesses choose a content management system, they must consider their goals and the tools they need to integrate. This is an important decision that can either empower a business or waste time and money. There is no perfect CMS. Companies must weigh the pros and cons of each to find the right solution. From SquareSpace for startups on a budget to headless CMSs with endless customization options, each CMS has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Are you struggling to choose the right CMS for your industrial business? Don’t worry, BlackBean Marketing is here to help! Contact us directly for a free consultation to see if we can assist you in making that decision!