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Blog Post

Replatforming

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What are the criteria that typically lead to a decision to re-platforming your CMS? This article outlines some of the key reasons you need to consider.

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Replatform Your CMS - The Definitive Guide

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<h2>What is Replatforming Your CMS?</h2>

<p>Replatforming your Content Management System (CMS) refers to the process of migrating from one Content Management System to another. It is a more structural/foundational decision, and differs from a redesign which refers primarily to changes to the visual identity or layout of the site. However, in some instances, a website project may roll a redesign and website replatform into one. Replatforming has become more common in recent years due to a combination of push and pull factors. </p>

<p>Some context is needed here - this article relates to commercial websites in general but primarily to B2B SaaS/technology sites. For this cohort of users, their website is an all-important factor in their success and thus the threshold for eeking out improved performance percentages is a lot lower than is the case for small business sites. In other words, there is little value in replatforming a personal blog, or website for a local service unless the pull factors are material. Whereas for fast-growth technology companies, investing in content, and seeking to generate leads, the need to replatform will likely be greater (and more frequent).</p>

<h2>What Are Some of the Common Drivers for Replatforming Your CMS?</h2>

<p>The drivers for a CMS replatform are numerous and include some of the following:</p>

<h3>1- Outdated Tech Stack/ Need to Future Proof</h3>

<p>Some websites may be running off Content Management Systems (CMSs) that are several years old and may be creaking at the seams due to <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/website-bloat">website bloat</a>, and poorly constructed pages. This is common amongst tech startups as they progress up their maturity lifecycle. In their formative years, a basic site may have been hard-coded to get something live ‘<em>on the cheap</em>’ and with strict restrictions in place to prevent someone junior in marketing from ‘<em>breaking things</em>’. While that may have been sound logic at the start, it is not appropriate for scaling startups with growth aspirations who need high-performant websites, and autonomy for the marketing team to build pages without relying on developers. </p>

<h3>2- Site Speed</h3>

<p>Again in your early years ‘<em>site speed</em>’ is unlikely to be a pressing concern. However, as you scale your business and traffic grows, it becomes increasingly important, impacting everything from your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) performance to your conversion rates. An earlier prior decision as to the CMS made in a time of more resource constraints means that you are limited in terms of how far you can go in terms of improving site speed on the current CMS. It may be simply a case of needing to migrate off your legacy CMS as a starting point before you can make a meaningful improvement on underlying speeds. </p>

<h3>3- Maintenance Costs</h3>

<p>The hidden costs of CMSs can be significant. While the cost of the underlying CMS may be nominal, you may find that there is a need for an external developer ‘<em>on retainer</em>’ to maintain the site. This is often the case with mature WordPress sites where website bloat is a major issue and the site is enhanced by a significant number of Plugins of unknown provenance. These need to be updated regularly, and as conflicts can occur, the need for a retained freelancer is paramount to ensure the site ‘<em>doesn’t break</em>’.</p>

<h3>4- WordPress Issues </h3>

<p>For those mature sites on legacy monolithic (or traditional) CMS like WordPress the need to re-platform is probably most pressing. There are a whole host of <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/wordpress-issues">WordPress issues</a> (especially on sites a few years old) that are concerning. These range from performance issues to security vulnerabilities to hidden maintenance costs. Despite being the World’s best-known and most popular CMS, <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/migrate-wordpress">migration off WordPress</a> onto a more modern tech stack is increasingly popular (especially for commercial sites).</p>

<h3>5- Security Concerns</h3>

<p>While security issues are primarily linked to user behavior (password management), there is no doubt that there is a commonly accepted view that WordPress sites can be vulnerable to hacking. CMS security is a nuanced subject, and WordPress advocates will undoubtedly argue that it is no less secure than other CMSs. However, modern approaches like Headless CMSs, have a reduced attack surface compared to traditional CMSs like WordPress and are arguably a more secure option “<em>all things considered</em>” especially as you are using specialist applications.</p>

<h3>6- Scalability and Performance Issues</h3>

<p>Another issue that tends to crop up is that your traditional CMS struggles to scale. As companies grow and marketing teams get bigger it means there are more users, creating and managing more content, leading to challenges around whether or not the ‘<em>current CMS</em>’ can scale. In many instances, it can’t - again creating a drive to upgrade to a more robust future-proof option.</p>

<h3>7- Time-Consuming Content Management Workflows</h3>

<p>Some legacy content management systems are not well designed for typical <em>‘content management workflows’</em> and in extreme cases there may be a developer dependency when looking to get new content live. This approach is suboptimal especially when some content is time sensitive. On the flip side, developers want to build new SaaS applications, not update web pages so any request is likely to be a lower priority. Many Headless CMSs reduce this developer dependency save for a reduced number of requirements.</p>

<h3>8- New Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)</h3>

<p>Another common driver is the hiring of a new CMO, with a budget and significant growth targets. A typical first 90 days pathway for a new CMO is to undertake an audit of current resourcing but also the tech stack with a particular focus on the CMS. In many instances, they’ll have references from previous companies and they’ll be keen to ensure that the core marketing infrastructure anchored by a CMS won’t undermine their marketing efforts. They’ll likely undertake site audits including speed tests, and also assess the content machine (incl SEO performance) to identify areas where they can make an immediate impact. </p>

<h3>9- Investment Raise </h3>

<p>An investment raise is also a common trigger for a replatforming. This is often done in parallel with a rebrand if the visual identity is perceived to be dated or no longer representative of the aspirations of the company. Depending on the context, they may start with some initial <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/website-update">website updates</a> unless they feel a more radical overhaul is needed. </p>

<hr>

<h2>Selecting a New CMS - What Are Some Common Upgrade Paths?</h2>

<p>The most common upgrade path is from a Traditional monolithic CMS like WordPress to a Headless CMS [<a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/what-is-a-headless-cms">What is a Headless CMS?</a>] like Contento. This in part reflects the journey of B2B SaaS Startups and scale-ups. As they mature, the teams get bigger, traffic to the site increases, and the inbound marketing engine cranks up a gear. Often they will raise money which helps fund marketing activities but also raises expectations. The key point here is that your choice of CMS is very context-dependent. What was the right decision in your formative years, is no longer likely to represent the best choice as you seek to scale.</p>

<h3>What is a Headless CMS?</h3>

<p>As referenced above, a popular migration is from traditional legacy systems like WordPress to a new category of CMS, bizarrely called ‘<em>Headless'</em>. The phrase Headless refers to the back-end or content database (or repository) where the website content resides. The front-end and the back-ends are decoupled, so the category of Headless refers to an API lead approach with different blocks/ bricks/services connected together rather than an all-in-one offering. While an all-in-one offering will appeal to a certain cohort of users, the limitations of that approach mean that a Headless CMS route is an increasingly popular approach amongst developers. </p>

<p>So what are some of the things you need to consider as you embark on this journey?</p>

<h3>1- In House Capability</h3>

<p>Moving to Headless will need some external support (or at least access to some internal developer resources to set everything up). While it should reduce developer dependencies in the medium term you will need some technical support setting it up. If budget permits, using an external web development agency is advisable.</p>

<h3>2- Alignment with Key Benefits</h3>

<p>The key <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/benefits-headless-cms">benefits of a Headless CMS</a> include blazingly quick sites, scalability, flexibility, portability (reduced vendor lock-in), etc. You need to be sure the drivers for your migration are aligned with these resultant benefits (or if not that the push factors are material).</p>

<h3>3- Total Cost of Ownership</h3>

<p>Trying to <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/compare-headless-cms">compare Headless CMSs</a> on a cost basis is nigh on impossible as there are so many different factors at play. You also have to decide what time period to view the investment over. It is hard to get an ‘<em>apples to apples</em>’ comparison. WordPress may appear a cheap option, but if you need a developer on a retainer just for maintenance at 2 days/month at $1100/day, then costs are simply moving from software license costs to headcount. When it comes to Headless CMSs, it is important to understand the drivers of cost - some of the market leaders in the Headless space are being accused of ‘<em>price gouging</em>’ as the jump between tiers is significant and the trigger points between tiers can be a little unusual (to say the least). One provider ratchets the price if you hit certain object limits.</p>

<h3>4- Security</h3>

<p>CMS security is multi-faceted as it covers everything from access credentials to the CMS, to the use of 2FA through to user behavior (password difficulty, the frequency the password is changed, where passwords are stored, etc). Headless CMS vendors typically claim that their security is superior to legacy systems like WordPress due to several reasons; including vulnerabilities associated with the reliance on 3rd party plugins, as well as the reduced attack surface with a Headless architecture, and widespread use of two-factor authentication (2FA).</p>

<h3>5- Managing the Migration</h3>

<p>Migration from one CMS to another is a fairly significant undertaking. It is recommended that specialist support is sourced especially when it comes to things like Search Engine Optimization. The last thing you want to do is trigger a collapse in site traffic due to poor URL management for example. If you are using an agency to manage the process it is important that traffic is closely monitored (before and after the switch) and that the marketing team is trained on how to use the newly installed Headless CMS. Part of the aim has to be to reduce your developer dependency and the need for freelance developers on retainer. Ideally, you select a dedicated <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/headless-cms-agency">Headless CMS agency</a> to de-risk the process for you where training is baked into the migration price.</p>

<h3>6- Measuring Success</h3>

<p>Finally, a successful migration is not just about the new blazingly quick beautifully designed Headless deployment ‘<em>on time and budget</em>’. As mentioned above, ensuring there is no traffic loss or negative impact on conversion funnels is also vital. The ability of the marketing team to manage and maintain the site autonomously needs to be factored in also.</p>

<hr>

<h2>What are the Key Features of a Headless CMS?</h2>

<p>The key features of a Headless CMS include:</p>

<ul><li><p>Decoupled Front-End and Back-End, where the Headless CMS refers to the ‘<em>content repository</em>’ which can then feed multiple ‘<em>heads</em>’ i.e. websites, mobile applications, billboards, etc</p></li><li><p>API-based approach - so it is a case of the content being distributed to the front-end via API</p></li><li><p>Uses other 3rd party applications which enables developers to build using their preferred tools and frameworks</p></li><li><p>The use of Static Site Generators (SSGs) and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) helps ensure the underlying infrastructure leads to a <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/fast-website-speed">blazingly fast website</a>.</p></li><li><p>It is a highly scalable approach that is well suited for traffic spikes without leading to excessive commensurate cost increases or the risk of the site going down</p></li><li><p>A reduced attack surface allied to enterprise-grade security amongst the leading vendors helps ensure your CMS is well protected against hackers.</p></li><li><p>The <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/structured-content">structured content</a> nature of the approach helps support Omnichannel content delivery, reducing content duplication and the related costs of trying to manage multiple content sources.</p></li></ul>

<hr>

<h2>Contento - A Headless CMS for B2B SaaS Marketing Sites</h2>

<p>Contento is a Headless CMS with several differences compared to some of the other leading Headless CMS vendors. While it consists of all the main features you’d expect from a Headless CMS it differs in a few crucial aspects:</p>

<ul><li><p>Competitive pricing - a number of our competitors ratchet pricing aggressively. Our pricing is competitive and easy to understand.</p></li><li><p>We assume you are using our Headless to manage a website - by making this assumption we can ensure the UI/UX is designed to support this dominant use case rather than letting  you loose with a ‘blank box’</p></li><li><p>B2B SaaS and Technology focus - most of our competitors are ‘<em>horizontal offerings</em>’, meaning their CMS is used by a wide range of businesses, industries, and use-cases. Our focus on growing B2B SaaS and technology companies means we can ensure that we build features supporting this primary category</p></li><li><p>Intuitive UI/UX - too many Headless CMS solutions meet the needs of developers, without catering adequately for less technical users. Our approach ensures the marketing team is not overwhelmed when logging in and that it is genuinely easy to use for the marketing team - something that is definitely not the case when it comes to many Headless applications.</p></li></ul>

<hr>

<h2>Moving to a Headless CMS - Migration Plan</h2>

<p>When it comes to a migration plan, ideally the agency will lead the process and manage it via a project management tool - it is after all a complex process with several moving parts. The following represents a non-exhaustive shortlist of areas to think about.</p>

<h3>1- Content Audit</h3>

<p>Do you need to retain all pages? Perhaps it is an opportunity to purge legacy content or update content (be that make improvements to metadata or the actual content). You can also consider a more structured content approach when moving to Headless<strong>.</strong></p>

<h3>2- URL Management</h3>

<p>Ideally, you want to ensure all URL’s map across seamlessly. Tools like Screaming Frog can help. You want to avoid the creation of broken links because of how the new URL’s render.</p>

<h3>3- Stakeholder Management</h3>

<p>The project is likely to impact several departments so ensuring there is good communication to keep all relevant stakeholders up to speed on developments is highly recommended to ensure broader alignment.</p>

<h3>4- MetaData and SEO</h3>

<p>Again the migration may allow you to improve SEO efforts and review the existing structure. Tools like SEMRush or aHrefs can be used for a pre-migration audit so you can identify pages that can be fixed as part of the migration.</p>

<h3>5- Vendor Selection</h3>

<p>You’ll need a robust process to select the appropriate Headless CMS, especially given the range of options. The web development agency can also assist here, although some internal assessments should also be made to ensure the recommended solution is a good fit.</p>

<h3>6- Integrations and Plugins</h3>

<p>If you are migrating off WordPress, there are likely a lot of applications running on the site (alongside Plugins). Again it is opportune to do a full audit on these to ensure that they are still needed in a post-migration world.</p>

<h3>7- Backups and Rollback</h3>

<p>Before the switch-over, the old site should be backed up and available if any issues arise during the migration. It is also best to do the switch early in the week picking a quiet time based on historic traffic patterns. You also want to avoid a switch on a Friday evening in case any issues happen when the team is off over the weekend.</p>

<h3>8- Training</h3>

<p>Finally, it is important that the agency deploying the new site trains several members of the marketing team so they can manage the site in-house themselves once it is live.</p>

<hr>

<h2><strong>Summary</strong></h2>

<p>In summary, a CMS replatforming represents a natural evolution for most growing startups. While it is often rolled up into a project that includes a visual identity upgrade, it doesn’t need to be. There is no doubt the migration project is a major one and brings some short-term pain, however, once the move is made a modern CMS like a Headless CMS should future-proof your website for several years.</p>

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Summary

Replatforming Your CMS is an undertaking that is due to a mix of push and pull factors. This article outlines some of the key factors as well as some of the things you need to consider.

Title

Upgrading A B2 B Saas Website

This article describes the steps you need to undertake a website upgrade (especially relevant to B2B SaaS and technology companies after an investment).

Website Update - Upgrading Your B2B SaaS Website

<h2>Website Update -  Upgrading Your B2B SaaS Website</h2>

<p>For B2B SaaS and technology companies, your website is the primary channel to generate leads. However, in the formative years, it can often fall short in driving conversions, in part due to resource constraints in the marketing function. This is typical in most early-stage B2B SaaS companies; building and maintaining a website on a shoestring makes it hard to generate a sustainable pipeline of suitably qualified leads.</p>

<p>As your B2B SaaS startup matures and hits certain goals, raising capital tends to be part of the playbook for most, which then enables the marketing team to invest in growth with better hiring, and with access to some long overdue investment for the website. In this article, we outline some key areas that those leading the marketing function should think about when you raise an investment.</p>

<hr>

<h2>B2B Scale Up - The Marketing Function</h2>

<p>The context is a familiar one for many B2B SaaS founders. Several years of making ends meet, a stressful period trying to close a round, and then the exhilaration of receiving a term sheet. Raising a significant Seed or Series A is often the catalyst for significant growth as you transition from a world of severe resource constraints to one of relative resource abundance. As ever with startup life the challenges remain. They are just different.</p>

<p>After a significant raise, capital allocation becomes the most pressing challenge, as strategic decisions need to be made to drive growth. The three main buckets that cash often flows to are the (1) Sales, (2) Marketing, and (3) Product functions with a significant portion of the capital raised in B2B SaaS companies typically designated for additional headcount. </p>

<p>When it comes to the Marketing function, it is often the case that the marketing team will have historically been chronically under-resourced. It is also likely that several members of the team will have run their course and will no longer be a good fit to lead the function in its next phase. </p>

<h3>Why is that?</h3>

<p>One reason is that in early-stage SaaS companies, the desire to keep the cash burn down means that junior hires will have been tasked with “<em>doing marketing</em>” and senior hires with deep domain expertise will simply not be present (unless they happen to have been a co-founder). A typical profile for a marketing member at an early stage B2B SaaS startup is thus likely to be someone in their first role post-university, with a very shallow B2B marketing background and a chronic lack of experience. It is very much a case of weighing the more senior hires in the early days to those building the SaaS application - with the majority of employees sitting in the product function rather than marketing.</p>

<h3>Your First Senior Marketing Leader</h3>

<p>Hiring a marketing leader (or Chief Marketing Officer) that has managed a scaling B2B SaaS team often represents a prudent first step post a raise, rather than entrusting the role to a first-time CMO from the current team, who has not had significant experience elsewhere. </p>

<p>This new CMO hire will face a heavily stacked in-tray as they play catchup after years of underinvestment, where several strategic decisions need to be taken including decisions relating to:</p>

<ul><li><p>Resourcing (talent acquisition i.e. hiring for new roles into the team and assessing current team capabilities)</p></li><li><p>Budget Allocation (agreeing on a sensible budget for investment)</p></li><li><p>Marketing Strategy (deciding where to allocate resources)</p></li><li><p>Reporting and setting Key Performance Indicators (Goal Setting)</p></li><li><p>Improving the Website (demand generation/lead generation optimization).</p></li></ul>

<p>It is this last area that we will focus on in this article - Improving the Website, a broad category that covers everything from lead generation to educating prospects. </p>

<hr>

<h2>B2B SaaS Website Upgrades</h2>

<p>The following represent some areas that are typically in need of improvement, amongst B2B SaaS startups. They will be known issues, but the startup will likely have lacked the resources and know-how to fix them up to now. In the context of the resourcing available to most pre-Series A startups, deprioritization of these will have been sensible decisions pre-investment, but will not be any longer. </p>

<p>As mentioned, in most cases, the bulk of the initial investment into B2B SaaS startups (Seed or otherwise) will have gone into “Product” followed by “Sales”. The good news is that the neglect of the marketing function has come to an abrupt end. It is time to invest in marketing. So what are some areas that need to be looked at (excluding ‘resourcing’)?</p>

<h2>5 Areas Your CMO Should Prioritize after Securing Investment</h2>

<h3>1- Visual Identity / Branding</h3>

<p>The visual identity relates to how your brand ‘looks’ ranging from your choice of brand colors, fonts, logos, typography, imagery, etc </p>

<p>For many pre-raise startups the brand identity can be pretty basic - perhaps when the company was initially formed a graphic designer was tasked with creating a logo and from there the site's visual identity emerged. While that will have been sufficient in the early days, it won’t suffice for the next phase of the journey.</p>

<p>Investing in a brand refresh/brand uplift, or full rebranding is usually an important step on the scale-up journey signalling a new era for the company. Everything should be up for grabs including the domain name especially if you’ve had to settle for an obscure suffix and “dot-com” domains are now available for a reasonable sum.</p>

<h4>Who Can Help?</h4>

<p>You will need a brand agency to help you upgrade your visual identity. When it comes to the agency selection process, it is important to focus on branding agencies that specialize in B2B SaaS given there are some branding elements and nuances that a generalist agency can miss.</p>

<h3>2- Messaging / Copywriting</h3>

<p>Again with pre-Series A, B2B SaaS companies, it is likely that very little attention will have been given to the onsite messaging. Copy normally falls under the remit of a junior marketing generalist who will have likely crafted the onsite copy on the fly. This is fine for the early days when site traffic is modest, and costs need to be managed carefully, yet again though, it is worth revisiting when you have some additional marketing budget to play with. </p>

<p>Ideally, this exercise would be done in tandem with a Front End Developer to ensure there is a tight alignment between the copy and the visuals. You can have the copywriter focus on 3-4 key high-traffic pages including your <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/saas-homepage">SaaS Homepage</a>, the main product page, the pricing page, and a generic landing page as a starting point.</p>

<p>They should look to bring the Voice of the Customer (VoC) into the copy by interviewing some customers who are best placed to articulate the value proposition and benefits rather than assuming these from in-house conversations as is likely to have been the case the first time round.</p>

<p>Finally, it is also worthwhile using them to revisit everything from your personas (Ideal Customer Profiles), to your boilerplate, through to how you position/ differentiate your company in what is likely to be an intensely competitive market. </p>

<h4>Who Can Help?</h4>

<p>There are several specialist freelance <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/b2b-saas-copywriting"><u>B2B SaaS copywriting</u></a> professionals like Kerry Campion, Pedro Cortes, Josh Garofalo, Helen Peatfield, Racheal Pilcher, and Harry Lawson who can ensure your copy is designed to convert. They will work in tandem with the design agency to ensure the final output carries the requisite impact.</p>

<p>Once complete you should validate the messaging with your target audience using a solution like <a href="https://wynter.com/">Wynter </a>- a B2B message testing platform.</p>

<h3>3- Conversion Optimization [Lead Generation]</h3>

<p>An audit of existing user flows is also an important task for the incoming CMO. Ensuring all Call To Action (CTA’s) are flowing through forms correctly and that attribution is working (where possible) is also crucial. Goal setting in Google Analytics is slightly different in GA4 compared to Universal Analytics so you may need some assistance to set up events instead.  </p>

<p>Any audit should include analysis of the funnel post the form submission stage to ensure that the leads are hitting the CRM promptly with all relevant data fields included.</p>

<p>The broader context here is that you want to ensure that all the constituent elements on the site are in situ and are optimized in advance of planned activities to increase traffic to the site. Again this is a typical journey for B2B SaaS companies and will likely coincide with a substantial increase in budget for Paid Acquisition. It is thus very much a case of optimizing funnels before looking to boost traffic by a significant uptick in activity (be that a more aggressive content creation process added to paid acquisition like Google Ads).</p>

<h4>Who Can Help?</h4>

<p><a href="https://www.theproductonboarders.com/">The Product Onboarders</a> offers a <em>“personalized 15-20 minute video identifying your B2B SaaS’ onboarding killers and providing practical suggestions to fix them.” </em></p>

<p>Digital Agency <a href="https://exposureninja.com/review/">Exposure Ninja</a> also offers a website review (free and paid offerings) that cover a range of website topics including funnel optimization. </p>

<h3>4- Site Design - Revisiting the Design of Key Pages</h3>

<p>The design of key B2B SaaS pages needs to be undertaken by a specialist Front End Designer who will likely prepare initial mockups in Figma before sending them to a developer for implementation. </p>

<p>A redesign project may include primary research, reviews of comparison sites, and liaisons with the freelance copywriter. The designer will need access to Brand Guidelines and they will typically source images, iconography, and illustrations (in some instances). </p>

<p>Finally, in terms of signalling your next phase of growth, you’ll want to avoid the ‘template’ look and feel you get with theme-based Content Management Systems.</p>

<h4>Who Can Help?</h4>

<p>There are several design agencies and freelancers who specialize in <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/b2b-saas-website">B2B SaaS websites</a>. Ideally, you can review their portfolios on the likes of Behance or <a href="https://dribbble.com/robturlinckx">Dribbble</a> before engaging with them.</p>

<h3>5- Replatforming - Upgrading The Content Management System (CMS)</h3>

<p>Again it is common for early-stage B2B SaaS startups to run their sites initially on traditional monolithic CMSs like Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, or WordPress. These represent a good choice in the formative years but are not optimal for scaling B2B SaaS companies. For example, <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/wordpress-issues">issues with WordPress</a> relating to security vulnerabilities, performance issues, and usability challenges are well known and start to grow as problems as the years pass. An investment round thus acts as a good trigger point to finally upgrade the website, where you have the resources and incentives to make the change.</p>

<h4>What are the migration options?</h4>

<p>Migrating to a Headless CMS (<a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/what-is-a-headless-cms">What is a Headless CMS?</a>) like Contento, represents an increasingly popular choice on the upgrade path for scaling B2B SaaS businesses. </p>

<p>A Headless CMS differs from a traditional CMS in that there is a decoupling of the front end and the back end. What this means is that the CMS functions more as a content repository with content served to the front end via an API. It is a more technical approach and hence you will need to have a developer involved in the process. Depending on the scale of the site, a site migration is best managed by an external agency that can ensure a smooth handover. </p>

<p>The benefits of moving to Headless include:</p>

<ul><li><p>Future-proofing your tech stack using a popular framework</p></li><li><p>Exceptional performance - the site speed will typically trump that of traditional CMSs</p></li><li><p>Enhanced security (compared to the likes of WordPress)</p></li><li><p>Developer flexibility (generally resulting in beautifully designed sites)</p></li><li><p>Built for scalability (designed to deal comfortably with site traffic)</p></li></ul>

<h4><br>Why should you undertake a migration project at this point? </h4>

<p>There is significant value in rolling these changes into one project rather than doing them separately. While it will increase the budget, the project can galvanize the new CMO and enable them to land a significant deliverable early in their tenure. These changes will also help ensure that subsequent investment in increased traffic and lead generation, will have a better chance of succeeding if the website is well-designed. Remaining on a legacy platform will likely hamper your growth potential as you scale traffic - so it is better off upgrading the site before you increase paid activity to increase traffic. </p>

<h4>Who Can Help?</h4>

<p>There are several specialist <a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/headless-cms-agency">Headless CMS agencies</a> that can help you migrate off WordPress (or other monolithic systems) onto a Headless CMS like Contento, including <a href="https://mawla.agency/">Mawla</a> (Ireland), <a href="https://www.granite.ie/">Granite Digital</a> (Ireland), and <a href="https://www.webstacks.com/">Webstacks</a> (US). Feel free to get in touch with us here at Contento, as we will also happily discuss some options with you.</p>

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<h2>One Provider or Several?</h2>

<p>When it comes to the above tasks, external expertise will undoubtedly be required. As I’ve argued above, rolling up the various activities into one ‘<em>website project</em>’ probably makes the most sense. While there is merit in merging a number of these deliverables, like the CMS migration and website development, I feel that it is more sensible to utilize an external specialist freelance copywriter who can work in parallel with the design brief. The one remaining question then becomes whether or not the web development agency is also best placed to deliver on any visual identity upgrade. I’d argue in most instances you are better off separating these too.</p>

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<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>After raising a Series A (B or C) round, CMOs of B2B SaaS companies tend to focus on executing an effective marketing strategy, driving customer acquisition, building the brand, and establishing a solid foundation to support sustainable growth in what is likely to be a competitive market. The marketing website represents the investment in the solid foundation and will play a key role in supporting the growth ambitions of the company, representing a crucial cog in commercialization. It is thus worth getting ‘your ducks in a row’ upgrading your website before you dial up lead generation activity.</p>

<h3>Recommended Reading: </h3>

<p><a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/b2b-saas-migration"><u>B2B SaaS Website Migration Checklist</u></a></p>

<p><a href="https://www.contento.io/blog/compare-headless-cms"><u>Guide to Sourcing a Headless CMS</u></a></p>

Website updates and upgrades are particularly important for B2B SaaS websites. It is not simply a case of building a site and leaving it. Sites need to evolve to support ongoing lead-generation efforts.

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