Insights
From websites and mobile apps to email campaigns and social media posts, today’s digital experiences are everywhere. But behind the scenes, many organisations are struggling with duplicated content, inconsistent messaging, and inefficient workflows.
The root cause? A lack of structured content modelling.
Smart content modelling isn’t just for headless CMS users or technical architects. It’s a vital strategy for any organisation that wants to deliver relevant, consistent content across multiple touchpoints. When done right, it empowers both teams and platforms to scale effectively, personalise with ease, and simplify the complex.
What is content modelling and why it matters
Content modelling is the practice of organising content into meaningful, reusable building blocks. These blocks reflect real-world entities like events, people, products, or stories. Rather than thinking in terms of web pages, we think in terms of structured content types, attributes, relationships, and taxonomies.
This approach unlocks:
- Content reuse across channels, sites and formats
- Governance and consistency at scale
- Faster time-to-market for campaigns and updates
- A better foundation for personalisation and localisation
It also ensures that content is adaptable to new channels as they emerge — from print to voice assistants to digital signage.
The UX connection: why structure serves the user
Good UX is grounded in understanding. Users don’t care what CMS you use, but they do care about whether they can find what they need, trust the information, and feel confident in their next steps.
Content modelling plays a crucial role in delivering this:
- It helps define what content users actually need, not just what the business wants to say
- It enables simpler, clearer journeys by making information more navigable and purposeful
- It reduces repetition and contradiction across touchpoints
Our UX Masterclass boils it down: good UX makes people feel smart, not frustrated. Structured content supports this by removing friction from both discovery and comprehension.
Getting practical: a smarter way to model content
A successful content model isn’t just a list of fields in a CMS. It’s a reflection of your users’ needs and your business goals. Here’s how to start:
- Define goals and users: What are you trying to achieve? Who are you helping?
- Audit what you have: Identify duplication, gaps, and inconsistencies
- Identify core content types: Articles, events, FAQs, products, people, etc.
- Define relationships: How do types connect? (e.g. speakers belong to events)
- Use taxonomies wisely: Tags, categories, topics — for filtering and discovery
- Design for reuse: Think in components, not just templates
- Test and iterate: Validate with users and stakeholders early
This process sits at the intersection of UX, content strategy, and technical architecture. It’s not just a technical task — it’s a strategic one.
Real-world applications
Structured content shines in multi-channel environments. For example:
- Financial Services: FAQs and regulatory content syndicated across portals, email, and PDF downloads
- Membership Organisations: Events, speakers, resources and benefits reused across web, app, and CRM campaigns
- Non-profits: Impact stories and donation messaging tailored by audience type and reused across site, email and social
When content is modelled around meaning, not format, it becomes infinitely more powerful.
Avoiding common pitfalls
We’ve seen the traps organisations fall into:
- Designing content only for web and trying to retrofit later
- Overcomplicating models that no one can manage
- Forgetting about governance and lifecycle planning
- Creating flexible content structures, but poor content
Balance is key. Structure should empower, not hinder. And it should always be shaped by real user needs.
Our recommendations
Whether you’re planning a new digital platform or modernising your existing one, start by mapping your content to real-world user journeys.
- Involve UX and content specialists early
- Don’t build for one channel – model for flexibility
- Choose technology that supports structured, multi-channel content management
For many of our clients, Kentico Xperience has proven to be a strong platform for structured content. It supports custom content types, reusable widgets, and hybrid content delivery – from traditional web to headless API. But ultimately, the success comes from strategy, not tooling
Why Kalago?
At Kalago, we help organisations solve complex content challenges. We combine UX strategy with technical implementation to create scalable content models that support real business outcomes.
Whether you're managing tight compliance standards, balancing stakeholder needs, or planning for multi-channel growth, we can help you make content work harder and smarter.