The content management system (CMS) began as a platform for storing blog posts and web pages; however, today's marketing teams need something different: a system that can handle personalization, connect to multiple data sources, and let marketers work independently without constant developer support. Unfortunately, most legacy CMS platforms were not built to meet this reality. 

Strategic marketing teams overcome this challenge with targeted improvements that deliver immediate results. Here are five enhancements to help a legacy CMS become a more capable marketing engine.

Enterprise content lives everywhere: scattered across legacy CMSs, digital asset management systems, product information platforms, and commerce databases. This fragmentation creates inefficiencies and siloes, and limits creative possibilities.

The Uniform integration framework offers 70+ pre-built integrations that enable teams to access content from anywhere within a unified interface, eliminating traditional barriers between systems while preserving existing investments.

When everything connects, campaigns can pull simultaneously from product catalogs, brand assets, and editorial content. That’s orchestration. No more waiting for developers to build custom connections whenever you want to try something new.

Marketing bottlenecks often stem from developer dependencies for basic experience changes. Traditional workflows require tickets, sprints, and technical implementation for simple content updates.

Visual workspace solutions put experience creation directly into marketers' hands, exemplifying a "clicks, not code" approach that enables teams to assemble, modify, and publish experiences without technical intervention, while maintaining design system integrity.

Implement component patterns strategically and create pre-configured templates for common campaign types, such as product launches, seasonal promotions, or event announcements. This gives marketers creative freedom within guardrails that maintain quality standards.

The result: faster time to market, reduced developer backlog, and marketing teams that respond to opportunities and market changes in real time.

Most personalization tools force you to choose between fast pages and relevant content. You have likely seen flickering when pages load generic content first, then swap in personalized versions. It moves slowly, looks unprofessional, and search engines frown upon it.

Edge-side personalization solves this by processing decisions at the CDN level and delivering customized experiences at the speed of static content. Start with behavioral triggers: tracking which sections visitors explore most and adjusting subsequent content accordingly. Gradually expand to multi-dimensional personalization considering location, device, referral source, and engagement patterns.

The benefits compound quickly: better engagement metrics, improved conversion rates, and enhanced SEO performance since search engines see fast, optimized pages regardless of personalization complexity.

Complex marketing campaigns require precise coordination across multiple systems, teams, and timelines. Traditional approaches involve manual coordination, last-minute scrambles, and constant risk during critical launches.

Unified release management transforms chaos into predictable, automated processes. Teams can prepare entire campaigns in advance, preview everything together, and execute launches automatically, even during weekends or holidays.

When everything is organized this way, launches become routine instead of stressful. Your team knows precisely what to do, and there's less chance of something going wrong when everyone's watching.

Technology lock-in represents one of the most significant risks to marketing agility. Monolithic platforms that seemed perfect five years ago become constraints when business needs evolve.

Composable architecture based on MACH principles enables incremental modernization without disrupting revenue or productivity. Start with one strategic integration: connect an existing CMS to a modern personalization engine or add advanced analytics capabilities. Build confidence gradually rather than attempting wholesale platform replacement.

Preserve vendor independence while enabling continuous optimization. Teams can adopt new technologies as they prove valuable rather than constrained by platform limitations.

These five changes will transform your CMS into something that supports your marketing team, rather than slowing them down. You don't need to do everything at once. Pick one area causing the most friction right now and start there. Each improvement makes the next one easier.

Marketing will continue growing more complex; teams that get ahead of its simplification will have a real advantage. Don't spend time fighting tools when you can focus on results instead.

Discover how many of the advantages listed above can be accomplished by adding a composable DXP to the center of your stack. Schedule time now for an in-depth chat on the benefits of composability through Uniform.