“The Right Stuff” for Personalized Web Experiences – What Is It?

Even the pioneers of retail knew that giving the customer a personalized experience was, and is, the key to success. At the turn of the 20th century, famed merchant and marketer John Wanamaker proclaimed, “When a customer enters my store, forget me. He is king.”

Today, retailers are again at the forefront of creating personalized experiences – in their online stores. A recent annual industry survey published by the National Federation of Retailers contained headline-making news: “For the first time in the survey’s ten-year history, retailers’ websites or online channels eclipsed physical stores as the top channel for marketers (81% for brick-and-mortar vs. 86% online). As such, retail executives say they will invest in programs that directly resonate with today’s shopper ... more than half (53%) of those surveyed say they will specifically focus on web personalization engines in the coming months, which includes such enhancements as location-based services and tracking methods unique to shopping habits.”

Personalization is surging

In retail and scores of other industries, personalization is quickly becoming a “must-have” digital capability. And there is plenty of opportunity to expand the use of personalization techniques in creating individualized online and mobile experiences.

A case in point: another recent survey, conducted by Chief Marketer, revealed that 35% of respondents customize the web content they show to some visitors based on expressed interests, or tailor product recommendations to past purchases (34%). About 29% of those polled use customize landing pages specific to some of visitors’ search keywords.

The right CMS architecture is key

As marketers seek the best ways to efficiently enable online personalization, the web content management system (CMS) plays an essential role in delivering individualized digital experiences on platforms with large screens (traditional PCs) and small (iPads, mobile phones, and soon-to-be-mainstream online TV appliances). This white paper explores two core attributes of the Sitecore Web Content Management system that empower marketers in this regard:

• The Sitecore architecture, which couples content authoring environment and content delivery – a critical enabler in creating and testing personalized content
• Sitecore’s integrated personalization capabilities.

Together these capabilities comprise “the right stuff” for delivering compelling individualized web experiences today, and into the future.

Additionally, this white paper features the insights of two highly experienced, and outspoken, experts in creating enterprise-class web solutions that deliver personalized experiences: Beau Brewer, Director of Alliances at Siteworx, Inc., and James Horigan, President and Co-owner of Digital Wave. These creative agency leaders have nearly 40 years’ combined experience in the digital arena.

Tech Talk: Comparing Coupled and Decoupled CMS

In the Sitecore system, the database is a key technology differentiator. Not to be confused with an enterprise information database like Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle, the Sitecore database manages content and controls system configuration. This includes content on the website, the languages that are supported, workflows that are available, security settings, the definition of presentation logic, and everything else that comprises the website.

Pushing content into production

In the coupled Sitecore environment, different databases are used to separate the content authoring and content delivery environments. For example, a Master Database represents the content authoring environment. The Web Database represents the content delivery environment. When content authors connect with the system, they interact with the Master Database and make changes to it. When visitors connect, they connect to the Web Database.

When content goes into production, the Master Database serves as the staging area. When Sitecore receives instructions to publish content – manually, through workflow, or programmatically through an API – the publishing process copies content from the Master Database to the Web Database. It can also copy the associated HTML files that represent presentation logic, as well as associated files and images. Any of the published content currently cached is then cleared. This ensures that the delivery server is able to pick up the newly published changes.

The Sitecore system is not limited to these two databases; additional databases can easily added to support other environments such as testing, user interface and regression testing, compliance and backup. However, at its core, publishing is the process of copying content from one Sitecore database to another.

Decoupled systems entail additional steps

In a decoupled system, the output of the publishing process is not connected in any way to the authoring environment; a publishing event produces files or pure data that are pushed out to the website. Files generated can include static HTML files or .NET files, for example. The files can also be sophisticated and powerful, containing instructions to a dynamic delivery engine – a separate system to control personalization.

If the website does not support personalization or other types of dynamic requirements, it is relatively easy to support static files that are pushed out to the site. However, any level of personalization or other dynamic change quickly escalates the level of complexity in a decoupled system, as multiple steps must be taken to:

• author new content
• programmatically manage the content’s interaction with the standalone personalization engine
• manage the high volume of content that is pushed out to the site.

Sitecore Couples Content Authoring and Delivery

Creating web content has traditionally been a two-step process: first, the content is created in an authoring environment. Then, after completing an approval process, it “goes live” on a production server, also called a delivery environment. Within the content management universe, this aspect of CMS architecture is described as either “coupled” (the authoring and delivery environments are directly linked) or “decoupled” (the authoring and delivery environments are different, and separate systems).

The Sitecore CMS is architected to be a coupled solution; its authoring and delivery environments are linked instances of the same system. In practical terms, this means that when a user is creating content in the authoring environment, it will look, and perform, identically to how it will when the content goes live in the delivery environment. This is important for two reasons:

• The more closely the authoring environment resembles the delivery environment, the more realistic (and easier) authoring will be for content authors. This allows for a democratization of content creation, empowering users of all kinds. It also allows personalized content – with its myriad variations – to be easily created, visualized and tested.
• The coupled architecture reduces the number of different systems that must work together in order for content to go live. Specifically, multiple systems translate into multiple points of failure. Although these (multiple) systems may be less complex than a coupled system, their mere existence introduces the potential for management and support problems.

Why a coupled architecture is right for enterprise needs

“At this stage, for enterprise-class websites, we always recommend a coupled CMS system,” says Digital Wave’s Horigan, with clients in the higher education and not-forprofit sectors. “Our firm has been doing this since 1993 and, over the years, we’ve touched just about all the enterprise systems out there. But it’s not so much of a coupled-vs.-decoupled decision. When you look at what enterprises require – they have lots of authors, multiple instances, multiple servers, and dozens of websites under the brand umbrella – you also have to look at the tools that authors get. Organizations want to empower users with web-based tools that don’t require IT intervention, to reduce their internal programming costs.”

Horigan adds, “We recommend coupled CMS systems because they make it easy to create personalized content, to publish content out to multiple platforms, and have content aggregation coming in or going out through social media or other streams. You can only do this cost-effectively with a coupled system; it’s very expensive to customize a decoupled CMS to handle all of this.”

Siteworx’ deep experience with Fortune 500 clients presents another, complementary perspective on the issue. Brewer explains, “In this class of enterprise clients, their top concerns are reducing risk, lowering costs and speeding time to market. They come to web content management as a cost category saying, ‘My publishing process is so broken that it costs an unsustainable amount to get content live.’ With the ROI analysis we do at these types of engagements, improved publishing efficiency is often the primary driver of cost savings.”

A coupled CMS catalyzes revenue generation

“However,” he continues, “with CMS, the sexier side of ROI is revenue generation. The high level of personalization that a coupled CMS easily enables has strong revenue generation potential. Personalization increases conversion, cart size when applicable, and lowers the bounce rate. When you can extend that personalized experience to mobile and multi-channel, as you can easily do with Sitecore, more people who come into the funnel stay because the experience is so tailored to their needs.”

Brewer sums up, “When it comes to revenue generation, coupled CMS systems like Sitecore have strong benefits for large enterprises – cost-savings is just one part of the story. Companies that view their web presence as a strategic, money-making asset, and that put a premium on personalization, are good candidates for sophisticated content management systems like Sitecore.”

Content Authoring with Integrated Personalization Capabilities

Sitecore offers a wealth of personalization capabilities, both in its core Web Content Management product and through additional functionality contained in the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform.

Sitecore democratizes content creation

In the Sitecore authoring environment, authors can see how a particular page will look if visited by a specific user persona (at an automotive site, for example, personas might include Handyman, Boaster and Family). This makes it extremely easy for content creators to visualize their ideas in real-time, and quickly optimize content presentation to fit different visitor personas. It also democratizes the content creation process by lowering the skill levels required to use the authoring system.

This type of personalized content development can also be accomplished with a decoupled system. However, doing so typically involves a custom integration of the CMS authoring system with an external personalization application. This requires time and development resources for both the initial installation and ongoing maintenance, creating risk. Again, Sitecore includes integrated personalization capabilities “out of the box,” assuring their immediate availability and optimal performance.

How Sitecore delivers personalized experiences in real-time

The Sitecore authoring system contains pre-built logic to produce personalized digital experiences. The logic assembles the various content pieces in real-time, after sensing the visitor’s persona (based on the visitor’s IP address, region, operating system, device, country and other indicators). Non-technical people can use this system easily. The Sitecore authoring user interface provides a rule set editor, web forms builder and other tools that allow users to easily create business rules to determine what visitors will see when specific conditions are met.

For example, a business user could easily configure a business rule that if:

• A website visitor has viewed at least three products in the past month, or
• If a visitor has responded to an email campaign, or
• If the customer has expressed interest in events in a certain city

One or more of the following actions (or many others) can be triggered:

• Display a list of products that are on sale at a store near the customer
• Present a coupon for 20% off a product purchase
• Pop up a form that allows the visitor to enter a mobile phone number to receive a text message when a desirable new product is available at the local store

Again, in a decoupled system, this level of dynamic personalization certainly can be accomplished. But it requires the development team to build everything on the front end authoring system, as well as the logic and the business rules on how content gets delivered.

Personalization in action: A poll

Polling is one of numerous function modules included in the Sitecore authoring system. A poll can be easily embedded in a page; the Sitecore authoring system allows content creators to embed a poll in a page and, using Preview mode, see how that page will look (and the poll will function) on a mobile device or the corporate website. The authoring system also lets users build in business rules that will predicate who sees the poll – a repeat visitor to the site will see it, but not a new visitor who comes to the site anonymously.

Building on this example, which hinges on the visitor being anonymous or not, Sitecore is additionally able to personalize based on higher-value factors. In the poll, therefore, Sitecore can also personalize on combinations of factors such as:

• Change the poll questions based on the visitor’s location
• Change the poll questions based on the visitor’s current (or past) behavior on the site

  If the visitor has ignored the poll in the past, change the formatting on the poll to better get the visitor’s attention

  Display the poll if the visitor has converted in some way (such as downloaded a whitepaper, viewed more than five product reviews, etc.)

• Use one set of questions if the visitor is located in the US and has made a purchase in the last month
• Use a second set of questions if the visitor is located in Canada or Europe and has made a purchase in the last two months
• Use a third set of questions for visitors from all other locations except for Australia, where the poll shouldn’t be shown at all.

A marketing user is able to configure and test all of these variations in the Sitecore authoring system and visualize how the various categories of visitors would see it, live. This granular level of control and visibility allow marketers to fully control and optimize the user experience, helping to ensure the most productive personalized user journeys.

The real-world impact of built-in personalization

Digital Wave’s Horigan estimates that “it’s probably a 30 percent increase in effort to customize a decoupled solution to provide a moderate level of personalization. But the real risk to the client is that they would be investing in custom code from a vendor, or an in-house programmer, that might not be around forever. The client would have to continue to go back to that resource for support or additional customization of those components.”

He concludes, “This does not pose a huge risk on the implementation side, but the real cost is the potential risk for the ongoing support of custom components, versus components that are already bundled into a coupled solution and would be evolved as you go.”

Brewer from Siteworx agrees. “Sitecore’s pre-built rulesare an important differentiator. If you want to be able to track the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign, and if you want multi-site management, multi-device and multilingual capabilities, you have to invest in a system that has them. You can invest up-front with Sitecore if these functions are right for you. A lower-end, cheaper system will provide basic content marketing, but it doesn’t deliver the advanced capabilities that Sitecore has already integrated, today. With Sitecore, you can invest a little more now, and get a lot more bang for the buck down the line.”

Summary

The CMS selection process is complex, and filled with many points of consideration. But even the most exhaustive review of features and functions may not touch on a question as fundamental as “How easily can I create personalized web experiences in the content authoring system?” With personalization rapidly rising as a marketing priority, across industries, it suddenly matters if a CMS couples or decouples its authoring and delivery environments.

Out of the box, the Sitecore solution, with its coupled architecture and built-in personalization capabilities, provides the high levels of control and ease of use that today’s marketers require.

Sitecore also is able to accommodate tomorrow’s marketing requirements. The entire system is designed to be flexible and extensible. For example, two years ago geo-targeting was not accessible to marketers. Today it is. Unknown personalization requirements lie on the horizon – but Sitecore’s design (specifically the rules and personalization engines) makes it easy to incorporate these new types when they emerge.

For organizations that place a premium on generating demonstrable value – revenues or other tangibles – through their web sites, and delivering a personalized digital experience, Sitecore emphatically delivers “the right stuff.”

For more information, please visit www.sitecore.net.

About Digital Wave

Digital Wave is a Philadelphia-based firm with more than 18 years of experience developing and implementing online strategies for many of the area’s largest not-for-profit organizations and higher education institutions such as The American Board of Internal Medicine, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Thomas Jefferson University and Rutgers University.

Incorporated in 1993 as a consultancy with a focus on pre-Mosaic Internet technologies, the company’s evolution continues to be defined by a balance of technology and user experience embodied by its principals and majority owners, James Horigan and Tony Rose. In fact, the integration of human interface design with back-end technologies became a hallmark of the company’s services to its early business and retail clients as well as its current client base of higher education and not-for-profit/healthcare.

For more information, please visit www.digitalwave.com.

About Siteworx, Inc.

Siteworx is an award-winning interactive agency with deep roots in Web content management (WCM), search and analytics solutions, and Web strategy. Through an unparalleled combination of design and technology expertise, Siteworx helps interactive marketers, Web strategists and technology leaders achieve measurable business results. By designing and building elegant, addictive and enduring Web and mobile experiences, Siteworx delivers improved online performance to an impressive roster of clients, including NPR, the American Diabetes Association, National Geographic and U.S. News & World Report. Siteworx is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, headquartered in Reston, Virginia and with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Manhattan, Raleigh and Rochester.

For more information, please visit www.siteworx.com.

About Sitecore

Sitecore redefines how organizations engage with audiences, powering compelling experiences that sense and adapt to visitors both online and in-person.

Sitecore’s leading Content Management System software is the first to cohesively integrate with marketing automation, intranet portal, e-commerce, web optimization, social media and campaign management technologies. This broad choice of capabilities enable marketing professionals, business stakeholders and information technology teams to rapidly implement, measure and manage a successful website and digital business strategy. Businesses can now easily identify, serve and convert new customers with Sitecore’s Digital Marketing System, part of its encompassing Customer Engagement Platform.

Thousands of public and private organizations have created and now manage more than 32,000 dynamic websites with Sitecore including, ATP World Tour, CA Technologies, Colliers International, Comcast, Heineken, Microsoft, Nestlé, Royal Navy, The Knot, TOP-TOY, Visa Europe and Verizon.

For more information, please visit www.sitecore.net.