As a member of the leadership team for Drupal CMS, the new product that makes Drupal more accessible to marketers and content teams, I’ve spent the last three months engaging with various teams about their CMS decisions. While I take notes on marketing tools, ease of use, benefits of open source, DXP capabilities, and SaaS options, the core of these conversations often revolves around people and culture.
Who Decides on a CMS?
The decision-maker for a CMS can vary: sometimes it’s a marketer or an IT professional, other times it’s the “head of digital,” or even an agency hired to handle the organization’s digital needs. Although many focus on features, decisions often hinge on feelings, prior experiences, and familiarity. Ultimately, the decisions reflect the experiences of those in the room.
This isn’t to say that the right technical fit isn’t important; rather, it often takes a backseat to personal experiences. it’s crucial to communicate why Drupal aligns with an organization’s digital strategy based on its goals.
Three Types of Websites: Why Drupal is a Great Fit
Let’s categorize websites into three types and discuss why Drupal suits each.
1. Cornerstone of Your Digital Strategy
Every organization needs a digital front door. For established brands, this digital presence serves as the foundation of their online strategy. A known brand must maintain consistent online expression, while an unknown brand needs to tell its story effectively, helping users recognize its voice and identity.
Users want to quickly understand if they’re in the right place and how to connect. They expect seamless integration with third-party tools and easy access to internal data.
Why Choose Drupal?
Drupal excels here because it goes beyond basic content management, offering flexibility for both internal and external users. It supports:
- Integration with third-party tools and data management.
- Enterprise-grade workflows and content management.
- Custom features and transactions.
- Tailored information architecture.
- A blend of structured content and marketing pages.
Planned Parenthood Direct's mobile-first website serves as a cornerstone of its digital strategy, focusing on creating a distinct sub-brand that resonates with younger audiences while maintaining alignment with the larger Planned Parenthood identity. The site leverages bold colours, playful design elements, and clear messaging to connect with users, driving them to download the app and access reproductive healthcare services.
2. CMS Platform
Many organizations manage a complex ecosystem of websites, often hindered by internal politics and multiple CMSs that lead to inconsistent branding.
A successful CMS platform balances flexibility with guidelines, making site creation easy while adhering to the organization’s branding and content strategy. It often requires standardization of third-party tools.
Why Choose Drupal?
Drupal’s modularity simplifies standardization across websites. It supports:
- Configuration management to allow control over customization
- Flexibility that enables governance at both the platform and individual site levels
- As a widely adopted solution in enterprises, it benefits from optimized hosting tools designed for multi-site management (e.g., Pantheon Custom Upstreams, Acquia Site Factory).
Evolving Web partnered with the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) to redesign its website, building a platform where staff can curate content and users can search across multiple data sources.
3. Marketing Microsite Designed to Scale
Not every organization is large; some startups aim to create single-purpose websites quickly. These organizations need to build fast without sacrificing security or accessibility. Often, marketers seek easy drag-and-drop tools for rapid site creation.
While Drupal has traditionally been overlooked for quick projects, Drupal CMS provides a solution that fosters familiarity among a broader audience, because it lowers the barrier to entry and speeds up the timeline to launch a website. When marketers can create a website quickly, it enhances creativity and ownership, and frees up more time to focus on content and marketing strategy. Drupal CMS will be especially important for making the case for using Drupal for these types of projects.
Why Choose Drupal?
Drupal allows for the rapid launch of marketing sites, which can later scale into a digital cornerstone for an established brand. In particular, Drupal CMS will support:
- Built-in AI tools for site building that free up time to focus on content strategy and handling the influx of feature requests and content decisions that they are often faced with
- Allowing small sites to leverage the same modules and recipes available to larger sites
- No limitations to scaling up a small website to accommodate more content, authors, or functionality
Conclusion: If Drupal Wins, We All Win
Increased usage of Drupal leads to a better experience for everyone involved—developers, site builders, marketers, and content teams. As an open-source platform, Drupal's growth benefits the broader community, including government and non-profit organizations. Improving Drupal enhances a public good rather than enriching proprietary solutions.
If you're looking to talk more about Drupal and Drupal CMS don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If Drupal wins, we all win.
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