Contentful - Empowering content creation and management

Have you ever wondered how to make your online content be created faster and become more flexible and functional? There is a tool that can not only facilitate the process of creating and managing content, but also provide advanced capabilities such as creating logical tables and lists.

Thanks to Contentful, the limits of possibilities in creating various content practically disappear. In the article, we will explain why it is so important in the context of creating content of various types.

What is Contentful?

Contentful is a content management platform that focuses on providing a flexible and scalable environment for creating, editing and publishing content online. Its main goal is to enable easy and effective content management, regardless of the platform or distribution channel.

Its key functionalities include support for various types of content such as text, images, video and integration with other marketing tools.

Contentful or headless CMS

Contentful is a headless CMS that integrates perfectly with various front-end tools, including the Angular framework. Here are some key aspects worth considering when integrating Contentful with, for example, Angular:

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• Headless CMS and separation from the front-end : Contentful operates as a headless CMS, which means that it is independent from the front-end presentation layer.

• API-First approach : Contentful is based on the "API-First" approach, which means that data is available via RESTful API or GraphQL. This allows them to be used in any front-end technology.

• Easy access to content : Contentful allows you to easily manage content such as texts, images, multimedia files, etc.

• Defining data structures : In Contentful, you can define your own data models that describe what types of content will be available in the system.

• Multi-language support : Contentful allows you to manage multilingual content, which is especially useful when you create websites that support different locations.

• Making updates without having to interfere with the source code : Thanks to the integration with Contentful, content can be updated or added without having to interfere with the Angular source code.

• Content personalization : Contentful allows you to create custom fields, which allows for more advanced content management.

• Asset Management : Contentful allows you to store and manage assets such as images, CSS files, etc.

• Preview Views : Contentful offers the ability to visually preview content before publishing, which can make the process of creating and editing content easier.

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It is also worth adding that Contentful also has simple integration with front-end No-code CMSs such as Webflow, which significantly improves and accelerates the process of creating applications on the frontend and backend.

Content creation with Contentful: From template selection to personalization

Selecting a template

To start a new project in Contentful, you need to choose a ready-made template or start from scratch. In the case of this project, a template intended for an online store was selected.

Content customization

Contentful facilitates seamless collaboration between content creators by providing tools and features that enable efficient content creation, editing, and approval processes. This ensures that teams can work together efficiently to create high-quality content. Thanks to Contentful, even non-technical people can easily add content to the website.

After appropriately adjusting the view, Contentful allows you to edit the content on the page with the help of a visual preview.

Content Model

The platform enables advanced content modeling features that allow users to define and structure content elements according to their specific requirements. This functionality allows you to create rich, diverse content.

• Model generation using AI

Contentful allows you to generate models based on text description, which significantly improves the process of creating new models

After generating the model, we obtain a ready skeleton to which we can then assign references to the created models or add further fields.

• Adding relationships between models

Using the built-in visual relationship editor, we create relationships between successively created objects.

• Adding new fields to the model

Contentful has a wide range of fields that can be added to our model.

• Model editing and validation.

After creating a new field, we have many options for editing the validation of this field.

We can also define how the field will be displayed.

Media

Contentful's versatility includes support for a wide range of content types, including text, images, videos, and more. This flexibility ensures that marketers can deliver engaging content in a variety of formats to meet different audience preferences.

Deployment

Contentful provides full integration with Netlify, so you can deploy your application with one click of the mouse.

Translations

Contentful provides a ready-made translation system. In the free version we only have access to 2 languages, but for the paid version you can add any number of languages.

In the code, the translations look like this

We use translation in the code as shown below.

Contentful also has integration with many external services that help in managing and generating translations.

Integrations with external applications

One of the main advantages of Contentful worth mentioning is its integration with many external applications, which makes it easier to deliver relevant marketing and sales content, as well as making it easier to create new content on the website. Shown below is a list of extension categories.

AI-based extensions

Contentful provides many tools to help you write content using AI, as well as generating photos, translations, generating alt tags for photos and SEO optimization.

Ecommerce extensions

Contentful provides integration with many sales applications, including shopify and shopstory, which streamline the process of creating websites using a visual interface.

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Advantages and disadvantages of Contentful

Advantages:

• Integrations and Compatibility - By integrating with external vendors, Contentful enables seamless connection with CRM systems and analytical tools. This opens up new possibilities for using the data and functionality of these applications in the context of content management‍
• SEO and Contentful - Contentful supports content optimization for search engines. Thanks to this, content published using Contentful is more likely to rank high in search results.‍
• Multi-Platform Publishing - Contentful allows you to easily distribute content across multiple channels, ensuring your brand message is consistent across your website, mobile apps and social media.‍
• Analytics and performance tracking - Thanks to the analytical tools in Contentful, you can constantly monitor the effectiveness of your content, which allows you to quickly react and adapt your marketing strategy.‍
• Scalability and customization - Contentful offers flexible solutions that allow you to efficiently handle growing volumes of content, as well as adapt the platform to your unique marketing needs.‍
• Security and regulatory compliance - Contentful is committed to data security and complies with applicable industry standards and regulations, ensuring content is protected from unauthorized access and compliant with regulations.‍
• User Testimonials and Case Studies - Through real-world examples of successful marketing campaigns using Contentful, users can see the concrete impact the platform has on the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.‍
• User Interface - It has an intuitive and user-friendly interface that allows you to easily create, edit and manage content.

Defects:

• Usage costs - May be relatively more expensive compared to some other CMS solutions, especially for smaller companies or projects.
• Requires technical skills - Configuring and customizing Contentful may require some technical skills, especially when it comes to more advanced features.
• No built-in blogging system - Unlike some other CMS platforms, Contentful does not have a fully-fledged built-in blogging system.
• Dependency on Internet access - If you do not have Internet access, you cannot access the administration panel, which may limit your ability to edit and manage content.
• Barriers for Small Teams - For very small teams or one-person ventures, some of Contentful's features may be more extensive than necessary.
• Education and introduction to use - New users may need some time to learn and become familiar with the platform, especially if they are people without experience in working with CMS.

Contentful has definitely turned out to be an interesting tool that can help us quickly deliver content for our application. Its flexibility, integration with various front-end tools and the ability to easily access content are key advantages.

Contentful not only facilitates the creation process, but also enables extensive content publishing and distribution strategies, which is crucial for an effective marketing campaign.

Before deciding to use this tool, however, you must also consider the disadvantages of using this tool, such as increased costs or the time needed to master this tool.

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