Configure Publishing Channels

Why centralize publishing channels

Content teams publish to multiple destinations: CMS for the website, Twitter and LinkedIn for social distribution, email platforms for newsletters, and sometimes additional channels like YouTube or Medium. Managing each channel separately means logging into multiple tools, reformatting content for each, and losing visibility into what was published where.

CMP’s channel configuration lets you define all publishing targets in one place. Authors create content once and distribute it to the right channels from within the content workflow.

What you will do

1. Understand channel types in CMP
2. Configure a CMS publishing channel
3. Configure social media channels
4. Configure an email channel
5. Set channel-specific formatting rules

Channel types

CMP supports three categories of publishing channels:

Channel type	Platforms	How it works
CMS	Optimizely CMS SaaS, CMS PaaS	Pushes structured content via API with field mapping
Social	LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram	Posts formatted content via platform APIs
Email	Integrated email platforms	Exports content blocks to email templates

Each channel has its own connection requirements, formatting constraints, and publishing behavior.

Configure a CMS publishing channel

The CMS channel is the primary publishing target for long-form content.

1. Navigate to Settings > Publishing > Channels
2. Click Add Channel and select CMS
3. Configure the connection:
   • CMS instance — Select the CMS environment (production, staging)
   • Authentication — CMP handles OAuth automatically for CMS SaaS. For CMS PaaS, provide the API endpoint URL and API key
4. Click Test Connection to verify communication
5. Configure default settings:
   • Default content location — Where in the CMS content tree new pages are created
   • Draft behavior — Whether pushed content starts as draft (recommended) or publishes immediately
   • Asset handling — Automatically transfer referenced assets to CMS media library

Cross-Product Integration

CMPCMS

CMS SaaS channels support bi-directional status sync. When content is published in CMS, the CMP content item’s status updates automatically. This keeps campaign dashboards accurate without manual status updates.

6. Set up content type mappings (see the Publish from CMP to CMS guide for field mapping details)
7. Save the channel

Configure social media channels

Social channels let authors distribute content snippets directly from CMP.

Connect a social platform

1. Navigate to Settings > Publishing > Channels
2. Click Add Channel and select the platform (LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram)
3. Authenticate with the platform:
   • Click Connect Account
   • Sign in to the social platform and authorize CMP
   • Select which pages or profiles CMP can post to
4. Configure posting defaults:
   • Default profile/page — Which account to post from
   • Link preview behavior — Whether to include Open Graph previews
   • Hashtag defaults — Automatically append campaign or brand hashtags

Platform-specific constraints

Platform	Character limit	Media requirements	Scheduling
LinkedIn	3,000 characters	Images: 1200x627px recommended	Yes
X (Twitter)	280 characters	Images: 1600x900px, max 4 images	Yes
Facebook	63,206 characters	Images: 1200x630px	Yes
Instagram	2,200 characters	Images: 1080x1080px (square)	Yes, via business account

CMP validates content against these constraints before publishing. If a social post exceeds the character limit, CMP blocks the publish and highlights the overage.

Configure an email channel

Email channels export content to your email platform for use in newsletters and campaigns.

1. Navigate to Settings > Publishing > Channels
2. Click Add Channel and select Email
3. Connect to your email platform:
   • Select the platform (common integrations include popular email service providers)
   • Provide API credentials
   • Test the connection
4. Configure export settings:
   • Template mapping — Map CMP content fields to email template regions (header, body, CTA)
   • Image handling — Inline images or use hosted URLs
   • Personalization tokens — Map CMP fields to email merge tags

CMP 2025.03+

Email channel configuration supports HTML export for platforms without a direct integration. CMP generates clean HTML that you can paste into any email editor.

Set channel-specific formatting rules

Different channels need different content formats. A blog post body is too long for a social post. A social caption is too short for an email.

1. Navigate to your channel’s settings
2. Open Formatting Rules
3. Define how CMP content fields map to channel output:

CMP field	CMS output	Social output	Email output
Title	Page title	Post headline (truncated)	Subject line
Body	Full HTML content	Not used	Body region
Summary	Meta description	Post text	Preview text
Featured image	Hero image	Post image	Header image
CTA URL	Link in content	Link in post	Button URL

4. For social channels, set truncation rules:
   • Where to cut long text
   • Whether to append “Read more” links
   • How to handle content that exceeds platform limits

Test each channel

Before authors rely on channels for production publishing:

1. Create a test content item
2. Push it to each configured channel
3. Verify that content appears correctly in the destination:
   • CMS: Check field mapping, asset transfer, and draft creation
   • Social: Check character count, image rendering, and link previews
   • Email: Check template rendering and merge tag replacement
4. Delete or archive test content from the destination platforms

Related content

Continue your journey with these related pages.

📖Understand the concepts

• CMP-CMS Integration Architecture
• Content Marketing Platform (CMP)

🔧Follow a guide

• Publish from CMP to CMS
• CMP REST API Integration