Everything You Need to Know About the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) CMS
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Everything You Need to Know About the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) CMS
Keeping an evolving content folder organized and scalable is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today. Adobe Experience Manager gives you the ability to not only organize your digital assets, but utilize them as effectively as possible.
When content marketers spend an average of four hours on administrative and operational tasks alone, you need tools to help you buy back your time. Adobe Experience Manager (or AEM) is a cloud service designed to reduce your need for solutions by keeping customers and employees organized at all times.
Instead of bouncing between different content management tools attempting to organize all your information, Adobe Experience Manager lets you store, edit, and organize videos, images, 3D models, text documents, and more all in one place. That's not all, either - its design customization and web development features give it a competitive edge over more simplistic CMS.
What does this mean for your business operations? Below is a breakdown of the Adobe Experience Manager cloud service and why it could mean the difference between a smooth operation or lost business opportunities.
Key Takeaways
Adobe Experience Manager combines a content management system with a digital asset management system, streamlining workflows with an all-in-one approach.
Very little coding knowledge is needed to implement features such as custom templates, add-ons, and plug-ins.
This cloud-based tool provides custom pricing for Departmental and Enterprisal solutions.
How Does Adobe Experience Manager Work?
Adobe Experience Manager eliminates the need for several different content platforms: it combines digital asset management with a content management system for an easier workflow.
Adobe explicitly designed this cloud-based solution to be useful for both marketers and developers. AEM combines several key features in one place such as a content management system, digital asset management system, and administrative features such as organizing and sharing digital forms.
Key Features of Adobe Experience Manager
What can you expect to gain from switching to Adobe Experience Manager? One of those benefits, in fact, means you can stop switching between platforms – this tool is an all-in-one resource.
Let’s take a look below on how your entire team can finally save time on tedious tasks.
Content Management System (Experience Manager Sites)
A strong content management system shouldn’t just hold all your blog posts or landing pages. It should provide you with additional tools to analyze your content and make sure it’s reaching the right people at the right time.
The Adobe Experience Manager CMS (called Adobe Experience Manager Sites) enables you to craft a polished website with little to no coding experience. This CMS comes with practical features such as:
Segmented landing pages for different audiences
Generative artificial intelligence tools to save time on writing
Simple templates to create custom sites quickly
Digital Asset Management System
Do you struggle to keep track of all your blog posts, landing pages, and videos? Alongside Adobe Experience Manager Sites, The AEM digital asset system eliminates backtracking (such as constantly trying to find a specific file).
With this feature, employees and developers are able to store, share and access files. This streamlined workflow means workers can quickly share new digital media assets with the rest of the team or immediately access the assets they need to get a project done.
Digital Enrollment and Forms
The onboarding process for a new client can be a tedious task of back-and-forth collecting information, wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere. The Adobe Experience Manager provides an automated service with features such as:
Customizable digital forms
E-signature functionality
Automation features
Not only do workers enjoy the speed that comes with a digital signage solution and less work, customers enjoy a much faster experience with their business of choice - a win-win.
Digital Guides
Ever-evolving terminology or product features means businesses can’t fall behind. If a client receives inconsistent documentation, they may feel you’re unprofessional or even sloppy with their information.
Digital Guides automatically link and update user guides to ensure all your clients are receiving the same information at the same time. This feature eliminates the need to constantly edit or update content one-by-one whenever a feature is updated or removed.
Over 70% of customers state they’re less likely to buy from a brand that loses their trust. Digital guides is an essential feature for maintaining trust through smaller details such as:
Accurate and consistent information across all channels
Consistent formatting that maintains a professional image at all times
Timely content updates that don’t leave customers or employees in the dark
Digital Screens
Do you have trouble keeping up with new signs for products or services? Adobe Experience Manager’s Digital Screens feature is a digital signage solution that shaves down the ideation and design process.
Designed to coordinate with in-person brick-and-mortar businesses, their Digital Screens feature lets you improve the customer service experience and save time by:
Automatically customizing product suggestions depending on your target audience
Sync up different signs to ensure consistency in brand voice
Update in-store kiosks by automatically tracking user behavior
Customized dynamic menus that change depending on recent customer behavior
Adobe Learning Manager
Did you know companies who have comprehensive training programs make over 200% more than companies who don’t? Whether you need to onboard new employees or educate customers, Adobe Learning Manager takes the busywork out of the process.
Instead of tediously drafting brand new training materials from scratch, Adobe Learning Manager provides over 80,000 tools and courses you can use immediately.
Some of these employee-training tools include:
Gamification settings to transform training into a fun and engaging exercise
Leaderboards to grow a team-building culture
Automated onboarding and course assignment to save time
If you need to educate and entertain customers, you’ll also have access to tools in just a few clicks such as:
Personalized dashboards to fit every customer’s unique buying journey
A.I.-powered recommendations that study user behavior and tailor more relevant content
Automated insights and behavior tracking to learn more about your target audience
How Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Compares to Popular CMS Characteristics
Adobe Experience Manager goes above and beyond by combining a CMS with a DMS. Let’s take a look at what they offer that you may not find in similar-looking tools.
A Robust Digital Asset Management System
A content management system may give you the tools needed to edit or write content, but its digital asset management functions can be limited. One CMS may lack a cloud backup with advanced security features, while another CMS could have an outdated interface that’s difficult for employees to learn.
For example, let’s take a look at how Adobe Experience Manager compares to WordPress, one of the most well-known content management systems. While WordPress has a very user-friendly content creation system with its block editors and plenty of customization, it has a few downsides.
For example, WordPress often requires a higher level of coding experience than Adobe Experience Manager. Adobe crafted AEM to require less coding to implement features such as:
Custom workflows for specific employees (as well as automated workflows)
Scalability in storage, asset management, and disaster recovery
Perform quick image editing functions such as scaling or filters
A More Secure Working Experience For Everyone
Another element of Adobe Experience Manager that is very appealing to businesses and customers is its high level of security. While other content management systems have their ups and downs, few have the level of security Adobe offers.
For example, WordPress offers one of the most expansive and robust site templates and plug-ins online. Such an open marketplace, however, comes with the downside of potentially malicious software or poorly-designed code that breaks unexpectedly.
Adobe’s reputation precedes it as one of the most trusted SaaS businesses today. Your cloud service automatically comes with data encryption, protecting everything from submitted passwords to user and permissions features.
Additional security measures that will keep your business information safe with Adobe Experience Manager AEM include:
A Git Repository to prevent access between customer accounts
Secure network routing to prevent unwanted traffic
Ongoing analysis and updating of security features to keep your business ahead of the curve
Easy Syncing With Adobe Products
Do you need to segment your audience further? Sync your AEM with Adobe Target to create particularly subtle and relevant content in your CMS.
If you already rely on the Adobe Creative Cloud to store images and video, you can naturally integrate with AEM to further reduce the need to jump between platforms while creating or analyzing content.
Since each Adobe user interface is designed to appear similar from platform to platform, you can further reduce the training experience for employees.
Key Responsibilities and Roles of an Adobe AEM Developer
Becoming an Adobe AEM Developer is a smoother experience than many content management tools. Not only does it require less coding than average – ideal for entry-level developers – it naturally integrates with Adobe products and comes with several quality-of-life tools.
If you need an extra smooth working experience for your developers, they’ll enjoy:
Maintaining a Convenient Project Dashboard
A well-organized and properly labeled project dashboard is vital for everyone to get their work done on time. A developer may need to monitor or customize this dashboard to suit the workflows or permissions of the team – and it’s incredibly easy with AEM.
Immediately Getting Experience Manager Sites Running
The Experience Manager Sites feature requires no coding knowledge whatsoever, offering flexible drag-and-drop technology for designing and editing on-the-fly.
You don't need to be a developer to immediately getting a site up and running within a few hours. However, if you have development resources and want to customize further, you'll appreciate the features in the next section.
Using Flexible Coding Options for All Skill Levels
Just how flexible are the coding options for the Adobe AEM developer? This complex platform provides a mixture of low-code options with more elaborate customization to ensure all skill levels are satisfied.
For example, their low-code templates require very little coding knowledge to design, tweak, and implement.
Their example code feature provides instant examples to show what is and isn’t possible – this feature is essential for saving time experimenting with new code.
Enjoying Instant Access to a Robust Developer Community
Since the Adobe Experience Manager has open-source functionalities, the possibilities for customization are nearly endless.
Adobe’s robust developer community is thriving with like-minded professionals providing advice, tips, or collaboration opportunities.
A Secure and Scalable Cloud Service for Future Growth
Did you know over half of all businesses in a recent survey site unauthorized cloud access as one of their key concerns? Adobe Experience Manager’s cloud service is not only scalable, it offers multiple security features to keep your team – and customers – safe.
Your cloud service comes with must-have functionalities to reduce privacy breaches and data theft such as workflow permissions, access management and multi factor authentication. Any developer worried about their ability to handle employee or customer information will be in good hands here.
Consider Using Both Adobe Marketing Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud Tools
Adobe offers one of the largest SaaS catalogs, but which ones should you be concerned about with AEM? Below are a few quick ideas you can use to automatically take advantage of Adobe’s cloud capabilities and AEM’s features.
Adobe AEM Content and Commerce
Did you know companies with strong omnichannel customer engagement retain nearly 90% of their customers? Compare this to companies who don’t use omnichannel integration features – they only retain around 40%.
Instead of going through the exhausting process of adding plug-ins or customizing a shop from scratch, the Adobe Experience Manager comes with an AEM Content and Commerce that pools everything together. This add-on offers useful features such as:
Personalized experiences for different customers
The ability to publish on all channels simultaneously
Cross-compatibility with any commerce system with a GraphQL endpoint
Adobe AEM Integration with Their Analytics Resource
It’s not enough to create eye-catching or entertaining content – you need to analyze how it’s doing with a dependable analytics tool. The Adobe Experience Manager provides a practical analytics tool so you can track customer behavior and combine it with your business strategy.
Blending your Adobe Experience Manager with their analytics tool will enable you to:
Tracking visitor behavior through link clicked, pages visited, and transactions made
Getting vital insights to better customize your content to each customer’s unique journey
The ability to study the performance of all content such as app, email, and landing pages
Cost of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) platform
Since the Adobe Experience Manager platform offers so many different add-ons, the final cost comes down to an estimated quote for your business.
If you want to get started on budgeting, you’ll have to take into account whether or not your business is Departmental or Enterprisal.
Departmental for Smaller Teams
Adobe designed this smaller version of Adobe Experience Manager to be ready-to-use within a day. Automatic crossover with the Adobe Suite and practical collaboration features such as My Workspace mean the onboarding process will be minimal.
Enterprisal for Large, Scalable Business Solutions
An enterprise content management system comes with a few more bells and whistles than the departmental version.
One of the most significant differences is being able to send approved assets to stakeholders outside of the business, streamlining a process that could be tedious otherwise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have a few more questions on whether or not the Adobe Experience Manager CMS is right for your digital channels? Take a look below.
Is Adobe Experience Manager Suitable for Large Enterprises?
Yes. They even offer an Enterprisal package that incorporates features such as enterprise data management and scalable content creation features.
What are The Benefits of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)?
The Adobe Experience Manager combines a customer management system (CMS) with a data asset system (DMS). It provides a convenient all-in-one solution of robust cloud storage, design customization, and security features for larger teams or enterprises.
Is Adobe Experience Manager CMS the Right CMS Tool for my Business?
If you manage a large team and are losing money to lost assets, tedious busywork, or poorly made web design, Adobe Experience Manager is very well-suited to your business.
If you’re a small business or already have a content management system you’re comfortable with, Adobe Experience Manager may prove too costly.
Is Coding Required for Adobe Experience Manager?
Very little to no coding knowledge is needed. You can create the majority of Experience Manager sites with no coding due to their user-friendly editor, plug-and-play features, and add-on library.
If you want to further customize your site’s appearance or add-ons, some coding knowledge will be required.
Is Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) easy to use?
One of the most appealing aspects of the Adobe Experience Manager is its low barrier to entry. It requires minimal coding and has automatic integration with the Adobe Suite, so employees and customers need very little onboarding.
What Language Does Adobe AEM Use?
Adobe AEM uses open-source Java as well as open-source Angular Core and React.
Leverage the Competitive Adobe AEM for Your Business
When 70% of companies today admit their online business channels are fragmented and isolated, you have the potential for a very competitive edge with Adobe Experience Manager.
We understand the power of a seamless and personalized customer journey. Contact us today to deliver an outstanding experience to your customers and keep your business the go-to resource in your niche.
