Five things to consider before you migrate your content

There is a time in our online entrepreneurial or freelance journey when we are bored with our current site or cms and would like to move on.

Life moves on and so should we

         Spencer Johnson

Indeed, migration and upgrade of the current content management system is not a bad thing considering ever-changing technology space; however, is it necessary and beneficial?
Let me share with you five crucial things to consider before migrating your content, website, e-commerce platform or any other online technology tool.

1. Why. Yes, correctly, why you are doing that. Suggested by a friend or a new professional connection, advised over the free webinar or perhaps you heard it online, it may sound inspirational. Still, it does not provide a real answer to why? Take some time and consider all options; costs, pros and cons. Don't rush with swift decisions; your old system could still add value to your business with a small facelift. 
2. How. What I am talking about is a set plan. How are you going to proceed with your migration, and what are your expectations? Managing expectations is as important as knowing "Your why", otherwise how are you will measure the outcome of the migration project. Think like an entrepreneur in the form of ROI (Return on investment). If needed, obtain a professional help - hire a freelance business analyst to help you with proper planning.
3. Tools. Have you done your homework and research in finding out the best migration destination? These days you have plenty of modern content management systems, like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla. Hosting platforms and providers do offer one-click installations and setups for some of these, expecting the minimal technical experience. Then you have tools like Kajabi and Click Funnels predominantly designed to sell yourself; courses, membership programs and masterminds created or designed by you. Let's not forget about a Shopify - e-commerce platform, Wix - website creation platform and other similar tools. The offer in the market is huge, have you spent some time and surveyed for the best suitable options? Don't be shy or timid, ask around for recommendations and listen to what people are saying, sign up for trial versions and try out, obtain professional help, basically whatever you need to make yourself confident in your selection. 
4. Budget. How much can you invest? To manage your expectations and eventually calculate the ROI (we talked over the "How" question), you need to know how much can you spend. Well, can it be "Null" or "Zero"? Sure it can; it just means that you are consciously ready to invest only your own time. It will be a challenge, but you are ready. If you don't know how much you can afford, then how can you ever achieve a successful outcome. When working on your budget numbers contemplate on two figures; one you are keen to invest, second - the absolute maximum you can spend. As the work progresses, there may be hurdles along the way; it is worth putting a little reserve on the side at least.
5. Retention. How you will maintain the relevance to your current and future customers. Typically any updates and upgrades add a layer of uncertainty and frustration on top of the relationships. Do you have a plan in place to test and verify the connection of all changes and upgrades to clients? Can you check and measure the success of certain aspects of user journeys on the new system? I have deliberately put "Budget" before the "Retention", as former will define the latter. If resources are plenty, create a test environment and invite some users to try out a new experience. If limited; a video tutorial may help out to keep users updated with latest changes, a pre-launch email campaign may lessen the release tension and prepare users accordingly. The bottom line is; users, have to have the same level of belief as you have that new system will serve them better.

Hope this list of five things have helped you to prepare better for content and platform migration.