How Headless CMS Enables Multi-Screen and Second-Screen Experiences

When consumers are rarely even engaging with content on one screen researching a product on their mobile device while watching a how-to program on their television, or scrolling through social media posts while sitting in a stadium at a live sporting event it’s clear that multiscreen and second-screen engagement is omnipresent. Such changes complicate content with access, flexibility, and recognition of different situations. However, a headless CMS supports such experiences because it has a content hierarchy made up of content that (via APIs) can be rendered on any screen small to large, mobile to stationary, virtual assistants to smartwatches.

What is a Multi-Screen/Second-Screen Experience?

Multi-screen behavior refers to simultaneous or sequential usage of more than one screen in a complementary fashion. In essence, a second-screen experience occurs when users hold a secondary device, mobile phone, tablet, otherwise in an active capacity while consuming from a primary screen and primary device, which is commonly a television. This is usually the case within entertainment, gaming, learning, and even seminar-type environments. For brands and publishers, this poses both a challenge and an opportunity cross-device engagement management but also additional, rich, engaging content. A powerful headless architecture enables this by allowing content to be delivered seamlessly and contextually across all screens in real time, ensuring consistency while adapting to the nuances of each user experience.

Separation of Content and Presentation Creates Versatility

The idea of a headless CMS comes from the fact that content and presentation are separate. That is, content created once can be delivered anywhere via APIs. Instead of creating different versions for mobile, online and connected device access, for example, teams create content as structured, reusable components that are merely rendered differently according to screen size. This means the same promotional marketing message or hard news story can exist on a big screen, mobile app or connected watch without being an imposition upon the user experience for any of these formats.

Contextual Content, Device-Specific Delivery

One of the greatest aspects of a headless CMS to create multi-screen experiences is that delivery can be contextual based on device type. For example, using API-driven delivery with tagged metadata, one might need one version of some content in one circumstance but another in another. A cooking application for food that operates on a tablet might provide a full recipe with suggested activities. Still, when operating on a connected watch, it only needs quick prompts for timers or reminders about ingredients, these are two different experiences of the same content made possible through proper delivery and kept user-friendly through decreased cognitive load.

Real Time Cross-Screen Content Delivery Synchronization

Synchronization is often a factor with second-screen experiences. For example, people who are watching a live show on TV and simultaneously want to engage with trivia or a behind-the-scenes look can access that information on a mobile device as an interactive second screen. With a headless CMS, this real-time synchronization is made possible through content pushed to multiple endpoints at once via APIs and integrations. When coupled with developed backend services or real-time applications like WebSockets, content managers have the opportunity to schedule or trigger changes that render in one moment across devices. This encourages increased engagement and makes people feel as if they’re part of something bigger, transforming the experience into one that’s more alive, perfect for performances, launches, and live broadcasts.

Increased Personalization Across Screens

Headless CMS software allows for increased personalization across screens. Many of these software systems integrate with user accounts, user history and content preferences. For example, a user who is logged in and watching a live webinar from their laptop may find that their phone or tablet provides them access to personalized follow-up resources based on what they discussed in the webinar. Since content can be delivered via API from a centralized location, this nuanced personalization can occur across all touchpoints and not just the device where the original action took place. Supporting this kind of consistency champions brand experience and allows for content teams to maintain critical relevance instead of transformatively personalizing all pieces of content for each potential device in a frustrating manner.

Interactivity and Engagement Across Screens is a Necessity

Multi-screen and second-screen experiences are all about interactivity and engagement which is half the reason people want to consume content across various platforms. Whether it’s voting while watching a live talent show, answering a poll during an IG live or being able to purchase a product seen during an episode, having the opportunity to engage with multimodal content in real-time is necessary. A headless CMS gives developers everything they need to facilitate such engagement without having to hard code each piece of engagement for each time it’s needed. By delivering modular, embeddable content fragments from polls to questionnaires to shopping cards developers can embed access into any platform. This modularity allows for quicker development while also empowering all engaging content to connect to the same backend; thus, users have a seamless experience across devices.

H2: Content Scheduling and Management for Expiration and Publish Across Screens

Content management and scheduling can get tricky when attempting to manage across screens. Yet, with a headless CMS, such is effortless, as CMS publishers and content creators can set expiration dates, updates, and rules that automatically apply across various portal systems. For instance, a sale banner needs to go live on the smart TV app and corresponding mobile app at the same time, yet additional details only need to show up on the second-screen app; this is all possible with one set-up. Editors can control how and when it’s seen without having to re-enter the content across various devices.

Supports Modular Design Systems for User Experience Consistency and Scalability

A modular content and design system supports a consistent user experience across screens. A headless CMS seamlessly works with component libraries since it’s built on popular component-based frontend frameworks supported design systems. Developers can create UI components for reuse and render them with structured content to appear with only needed functionality and design. For example, what appears to be an overlay can become a swipeable carousel on one screen but a three-column rendition on another; as long as it’s designed properly, content flows via the CMS into pre-defined modules that appropriately respond to screen resolution and user interface options.

Cross-Functional Collaboration for Multi-Screen Implementation Strategy Made Easier

Content strategists, developers, designers, and marketers must all work together for the best experience generating multi-screen content. A headless CMS makes this collaboration easier; teams can preview in one system of record, determine what’s cross-functional, and approve it for their use. Since a headless CMS focuses on structure and not design, everyone has the same access to progress with the approval of their components, allowing them to work independently while still achieving cohesion toward a universal goal. This detail helps evade roadblocks induced by miscommunications while simultaneously working across differing development tracks.

A Screen-Agnostic Future for Content Experiences

Content will not exist on one screen in the future. Between gaming beyond consoles and wearables, content within the car and in connected infrastructure, smart homes and AR expanding, a more screen-agnostic approach is imperative. A headless CMS arms companies to comply with this operating system, treating content as agnostic data that can be served wherever it’s necessary inventing a digital overlay for someone’s smart home display, for example, or voice assistance/content rendering, or companion apps for secondary screens. Headless architecture ensures content can be malleable and expandable in predicted use cases and platforms.

Data-Driven Business Decisions from Understanding Screen Use

Understanding how and when people engage with content on one screen over another like second screens and companion applications can help refine how companies engage across various screens. A headless CMS can integrate with third-party analytic applications to assess performance across screens and make data-driven decisions. For example, it could show that a specific content type resonates and engages better on mobile than desktop or that offering X as a second-screen option increases engagement. By having access to the types of content used and when from having teams reword titles based on timing, type, and even presentation of content businesses can rely on data rather than speculation to improve UX and performance per screen.

Content Can Be Repurposed for Multiscreen Marketing Initiatives

Multichannel marketing campaigns connect with levels of multiscreen content experiences because they thrive on that connected action across multiple touchpoints simultaneously. They take advantage of the fact that in a digital world filled with smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart TVs, smart devices, smart watches, and even in-store kiosks, there is always a way to connect. Whether brands are pushing mobile commercials or using social media and Snapchat to create time-framed stories or live, interactive games on connected TV apps (news, weather, or interactive games) or companion applications in connection with physical devices sold at brick-and-mortar locations, the same message needs to resonate across fields.

Headless CMS functionality comes into play here; from the separation of content and presentation to ensure consistency across the board is critical. A headless CMS creates a scenario with structured content and modular pieces that can be pushed across channels via API. Therefore, campaigns and assets can all exist in one place without needing reiteration in its new placement. Overhead becomes simplistic for the marketer who doesn’t need to worry about reformulating the CTA or image on each platform for fear the branding will get lost.

This also speaks to the potential for reuse; a promo banner can become a product article and then an assessor review for other campaigns, dependent upon context. A product metadata can be shortened as viewed on mobile and expanded on a laptop; the CTA to purchase can be an “buy now” on an interactive TV overlay but “purchase when ready” for the connected AI device, Alexa, or Google Voice.

Through such collaborative efforts, fragmentation is avoided, alongside expensive internalized complications from a lack of cohesive identity across channels. Marketers no longer need to start from scratch-if they are connected to each other, they can expand upon a greater, more strategic approach to creativity and engagement while still ensuring that the message always matches the medium.

Reducing Development Overhead Through API Standardization 

Ultimately, historically developing and maintaining for each screen only added to the burden of content delivery. A headless CMS solves the problem, however, with content-first APIs that come standardized and are available to developers across any device or app. Thus, whether developers are creating an app for a smartwatch, smart TV, or a second-screen experience, they can apply the same backend to their benefit, reducing development time, minimizing errors and accelerating the deployment of devices seeking the same content experience simultaneously.

Conclusion

When audiences consume content across multiple screens, channels and opportunities, creating a seamless, responsive, contextual experience to not only stay competitive but to survive, is necessary. Whether people are scrolling on their phones while watching TV, gamers with handheld consoles in one hand and laptops on their desks, or students with tablets in the classroom and connected smart boards for homework, everyone assumes everything is easy and relevant from every potential access point. Thus, organizations must make sure content is rendered, available, and suitable across every screen, situation and purpose.

A headless CMS allows for such extensive content consumption and distribution. With structured, API-first architecture, headless systems separate content from presentation via an API-first architecture and deliver content through an API call across any device or channel screened devices from smartphones to wearables to smart TVs. When content is structured data instead of filled pages, designers and developers can adjust for every screen while editors can work with a single source of truth.

These creations become micro-experiences as audiences consume the same stream from different devices or secondary devices connected to primary experiences. They can operate in real-time, brands can create campaigns that launch on social media and remote devices simultaneously; educators can deliver lessons on connected smart boards and student tablets; and journalists can compose multi-layered realities that connect with each other.

Next, scalability and future-proofing considerations are crucial across any digital transformation initiative. As devices’ increasingly become new channels viewed and interacted with AR/VR, voice interfaces, smart devices, etc. organizations with a headless approach will be ahead of the game and ready to welcome the opportunities without having to change their content creation methodology.

In a world where screens connect more than ever and expectations are blurred across experiences and points of access, a headless CMS is the only way to create flexible with the intelligence and interconnectedness expected from modern creations. Then organizations can meet audiences wherever they are and however they interact.

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