July 2023 Summaries

You can store content in Contentful if it needs to be managed directly by the marketing team without a developer's involvement, is Rich Text (e.g., markup like lists or images), requires a publishing workflow, or needs translations into multiple languages. The "Keyed Rich Text" pattern is a generic approach to making segments of Rich or plain text available to your app's frontend, involving giving it a human-readable key, an administrative title, and a Rich Text field. To get content from Contentful into your React app, you can use the Content Delivery API access token, functions like getKeyedContentMultiple, and the documentToReactComponents function from the contentful/rich-text-react-renderer package to render the contents of Rich Text fields.

The Incentro Publication Manager is an integration on the Contentful Marketplace that enables users to easily publish content live per region, without waiting for other regions to be completed, allowing businesses to keep their go-to-market time as short as possible. This solution is particularly beneficial for global organizations with localized assets and complex translation processes. The manager offers two approaches to localization: field-level, which provides a centralized view but doesn't allow asynchronous publishing, and entry-level, which breaks down content into individual components that can be published independently and asynchronously. By using the Incentro Publication Manager, content teams can deliver fast go-to-market time for all touchpoints around the world, while maintaining flexibility and scalability. The solution is designed to simplify complex content operations and showcase the versatility of the Contentful App Framework.

The Contentful Developer Community is making the switch from Slack to Discord on July 20, 2023, due to growing community size and the need for more space and features. The new Discord server will replicate existing Slack channels and keep the old platform up and running for a smooth transition. Discord offers more freedom and functionality than Slack, including no message limits, deep customization options, voice chat and screen sharing capabilities, moderation tools, and virtual meetups. This change was requested by community members who valued virtual meet-ups and video tutorials, and will also introduce new community resources such as career channels, tech talk channels, and a virtual stage for real-time engagement. The transition is expected to benefit the entire community, with the DevRel team looking forward to forging stronger connections.

The engineering team at Hydrow transformed their content management by adopting a composable content platform, Contentful, and hosting it on Vercel with Next.js. This allowed for a flexible foundation to deliver high-quality content quickly and precisely wherever it was needed. The new setup enabled industry-leading speed as perceived by site visitors and search engines, offered a robust component-based design system, shifted site-operations and marketing use cases without development support or intervention, and maintained speed and consistency without friction. The team also integrated Contentful publish webhooks with the Vercel regeneration API to bridge gaps in content updates, enabling instant publishing and reducing resource consumption. This resulted in improved authoring experiences, faster turnaround times, predictable behavior, and reduced need for developer intervention, ultimately enhancing the overall customer experience.

The AI Content Type Generator is a new feature introduced by Contentful that uses generative AI to help users create personalized content types with optimized elements, such as keywords, without requiring technical knowledge of designing content types. This feature aims to simplify the process of creating structured content for reuse across experiences and reduce the learning curve for non-technical users like marketers and content editors. By leveraging AI, Contentful enables users to generate up to 20 content types within seconds, freeing up their creativity and providing momentum for higher-level tasks, ultimately helping organizations work smarter, not harder.

Ecommerce enables customers to browse, compare, and purchase physical or digital products online, offering benefits such as avoiding traffic, salespeople, and out-of-stock items, as well as lower overhead costs for launching and maintaining stores. However, establishing a seamless omnichannel experience with compelling content is crucial to attract and retain customers in today's competitive marketplace. A composable content strategy and platform like Contentful Composable Content Platform can unify and structure content for reuse, providing a customizable tech stack that supports it. This enables businesses to create inspiring content experiences that can be delivered to any channel, while also offering tools to manage analytics, collaboration, delivery, team productivity, digital asset management, marketing, SEO, localization, personalization, and translation of content. By leveraging Contentful's open platform, businesses can add, subtract, or swap out integrations as needed, creating a more streamlined user experience and increasing agility in the tech stack.

Ecommerce enables customers to browse, compare, and purchase physical or digital products and services online, offering benefits such as reduced traffic congestion, avoidance of overzealous salespeople, and no stockouts. Digital storefronts provide a platform for brands to process orders, accept payments, and manage shipping logistics with lower overhead costs than traditional stores. Establishing a seamless omnichannel experience with compelling content is crucial to attract and retain customers in today's competitive marketplace. A composable content strategy and platform, such as Contentful Composable Content Platform, supports this by unifying and structuring content for reuse across various channels and devices. By integrating ecommerce tools and other integrations, businesses can create expansive and well-crafted digital shopping experiences that make customers feel something. With a content platform like Contentful, ecommerce enterprises can create inspiring content experiences that can be delivered to any channel, offering customization, deep integration with existing tech stacks, and reuse of content across the customer lifecycle.

Ecommerce enables customers to browse, compare, and purchase physical or digital products and services online, offering benefits such as no traffic congestion, no overzealous salespeople, and reduced inventory stock issues. Digital storefronts provide brands with a platform to process orders, accept various payment options, manage shipping, and reduce overhead costs. However, establishing a seamless omnichannel experience requires a composable content strategy and platform that supports it. The Contentful Composable Content Platform provides a customizable tech stack while unifying and structuring content for reuse. This enables businesses to create expansive and well-crafted digital shopping experiences that make customers feel something. By adding or swapping out integrations, businesses can utilize the best tools to build tailored experiences as they scale. A composable approach to commerce with Contentful allows teams to sidestep traditional CMS limitations and create user-friendly interfaces for managing content and creating new page templates.

We live in a world where the past four years have changed us all, with many people moving home or changing jobs and focusing on their purpose, particularly when it comes to brands they interact with and buy from. The Storylines Tour and documentary explore community and connection, highlighting personal connections between businesses and customers, as well as dynamic ways of connecting audiences globally. Brands like Formula 1, Marks & Spencer, Unmind, and others are using story-driven experiences to engage customers. Composable technology platforms are being used by agencies like UNRVLD, which took a completely new brand in professional sport from idea to market in just six months with its work on LIV Golf. Digital storytelling is paramount for brands like F1, M&S, and Unmind, who are using personalization, inspirational content, and localization to build connections with customers. The challenge of reaching customers globally is significant, but search engines and analytics can help optimize content for local markets. A growing composable community is envisioning the future of brand experiences, with technology as an enabler that allows brands to tell immersive stories.