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Headless Martech 101

Understanding headless architecture

Traditional martech pairs a backend (let’s call it the body) with a frontend (the head). That way, you get not just the ability to do the thing you need — whether that’s managing digital assets or content — but also to see it in a specific user interface.

That worked well when the digital world was simpler. It made sense, for example, to have a body-head connected CMS. You could create content in the body of the backend, then see how it would display on desktop browsers through the browser-tailored head.

The issue now, though, is that most martech needs to deliver to more than one platform. Your CMS needs to deliver to mobile, social, apps, smartwatches — the list goes on. Similarly, your DAM probably needs to plug into a variety of solutions, and your ecommerce needs to connect to not just your own website, but a range of other platforms.

To give themselves the flexibility and agility they need to operate across more touchpoints at a higher level, many marketers turn to headless martech.

With headless solutions, you separate the backend from the frontend. After lopping off that head, you turn to application programming interfaces (APIs) or other connectors to feed your martech backend into the appropriate channel. Rather than a single, fixed head, you build out frontend integrations to customize the presentation layer you deliver to consumers across multiple touchpoints.

Ultimately, once you’ve decoupled your backend from a preset frontend, you can display what you need in a wider variety of formats on a wider variety of platforms.

Use cases for headless martech

To give you a better idea of how headless architecture can work, let’s look at a few examples of martech that can go headless.

Headless commerce. With these solutions, you decouple your ecommerce backend from the head of your website/app. Going headless enables you to manage products the same way, but push them out to a wider variety of platforms, like third-party apps, in-store digital displays, and IoT-connected devices.
Headless CMS. Decapitating your CMS means you still create content in the backend, but you use connectors like APIs to display it across any touchpoint you need. You would obviously build a display layer for your website, for example, but you might also build one for, say, a VR headset.
Headless DAM. This headless solution usually removes the UI altogether. The appropriate stakeholders still manage the DAM backend, but the APIs plug the DAM into the variety of solutions that need to pull assets. In other words, most users never need to go into the DAM at all, instead getting access to the assets they need in the platforms where they need them.

What headless delivers

Headless martech delivers agility.

When you’re not married to any specific display layer, you can more easily pivot and more effectively tailor content to new touchpoints as they arise. It gives you flexibility to adapt your stack’s functionality as consumer expectations shift, aligning with and delivering the experiences they want.

In other words, with headless martech, you can follow new trends without needing to reconfigure your entire stack. At the same time, brand consistency and regulatory compliance stay built in because your backend doesn’t need to change to accommodate new display layers. Since marketing moves faster by the day, headless has a big draw.

Headless hybrid

All of this said, some marketers have a hesitancy to lose their ability to engage with the display of content as they create it. While many APIs come with preview options, the built-in preview functionality of your existing martech might still feel useful, or at the very least comforting.

Plus, building out a headless martech stack requires IT expertise to design a decoupled-yet-useful data model and develop the display layers. You’ll need a team with a willingness to DIY and the time and know-how to create a customized stack.

To seize the opportunity presented by headless without launching fully into the unknown, you can explore a headless hybrid approach.

With this option, you might leave your existing martech solution in place, but build additional APIs around it. You still need a site map, page structure, and components, but much of the created content can be dissected, abstracted, and structured in a channel-agnostic manner, maximizing reuse and its associated benefits, like minimizing rework and enhancing consistency.

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