You just walked out of a half-day meeting, and it is settled; you are going to upgrade to an enterprise-class Customer Experience platform. Step one…breathe, you can do this, and there are a lot of people out there that will be more than happy to help you. For now, let’s stick with you and your internal team. What do you need to know to get started?
I was asked this question at a recent Chicago, Sitecore #SBOS (Sitecore Business Optimization Strategies) team meeting, and the camera was rolling:
There are plenty of other tips, like choosing the right partner to help you determine the right platform, along with a whole slew of technical considerations, but let’s start with the high-level. If you skip or ignore these, you will feel the stress later.
3 Tips to Get Started with a CXP
- Get top-down buy-in. That meeting you just left: were the owner, CTO and CMO included and engaged? If not, make sure they catch up in the recording, a recap, or a side-meeting, and have a chance to contribute. If you do not have full financial and resource commitment, you will be fighting an uphill battle during every phase of the project. Your company has to want it! You and your team have to inspire the organization, and help everyone understand what is possible, and what is required for success. This is not only during the pre-launch phases but post-launch as well. It takes a village to manage a CXP well.
- It’s a journey. This process takes time the first time out, and if it is not the first time out…there are always updates and upgrades. Visualize a team, a department, a maturity process. You will get to the point of being an expert, only to have a whole new set of tools dropped off at your synaptic-doorstep, year-over-year. Embrace it, and get excited about the journey.
- Marketers, don’t wait. While the architects are “tect-ing,” the developers are working feverishly on your code, and servers across the cloud spin-up in your honor, get busy planning. Don’t go chasing waterfalls – be agile and start your Engagement Value and Campaign Planning workshops while site is still being setup. It will help you hit the ground running and will start to show ROI quicker because of that. (BONUS: Install FXM – Federated Experience Manager on your current site and start collecting Sitecore Analytics now! That data can be utilized in your workshops and help you plan content.)
This is the beginning. If you want to see some of the steps along the way, please visit my @Sitecordial YouTube Channel to learn more best practices on Sitecore. For a deep dive on how to personalize content, please check out my Sitecore personalization whitepaper.
As always, please comment and/or follow me on twitter: @Sitecordial
