Personalization isn’t exactly new. In fact, it’s been used successfully in email marketing campaigns for years. At its core, the whole idea is using known data and characteristics about a prospect to present content in a way that is relevant and helpful. It could be something as simple as using their first name in an email, or it could be as complex as providing recent purchase history.
While personalization in email marketing is commonplace these days, it is less prevalent in other digital channels, specifically the web.
3 Types of Data Sitecore Can Access
Sitecore allows us to collect information about the visitor, and then use that information with a rules engine to present relevant content. To understand the personalization possibilities, it helps to understand the data that Sitecore can access:
- Acquisition Data: Often in the form of query parameters (such as Google’s UTM parameters), this is information about how the visitor arrived on the site.
- Anonymous Visitor Data: This is everything that comes as part of a website request, such as geolocation or the devices visitors are using to view the site.
- Real-Time Interaction Data: The most powerful (yet underused) of the “unauthenticated” data, Sitecore can track behavior as visitors navigate a site.
So How Does Sitecore Actually Use This Data?
Everything Sitecore knows about a visitor is stored in an Experience Profile. For the technically minded out there, Sitecore uses a combination of cookies and the Experience Database (xDB) to link information across sessions. That includes pages they have visited on the site, event registration data, target acquisition information, etc. It is all stored in the Experience Profile, which marketers can use to drive content.
For example, let’s say a prospect visits XYZ company’s website for the first time. Perhaps the prospect had done a Google search, and those UTM parameters were passed in session to the site. Sitecore doesn’t know much about the prospect – yet. But it creates an Experience Profile and starts collecting information. Here is a (very over simplified) snippet of what Sitecore knows:
Profile Id: 12345
Target Acquisition: Google
Geolocation: Fargo, ND
Device: MacBook Pro
While on the site, the prospect navigates to the About Us page, the Contact Us page and finally the Employment page. Sitecore uses profile values that have been set up by XYZ’s marketing team and identifies the prospect as a Job Seeker.
Profile Id: 12345
Target Acquisition: Google
Geolocation: Fargo, ND
Device: MacBook Pro
Persona: Job Seeker
Now Sitecore has more information to use. In fact, on subsequent pages that the prospect visits on the site, he or she is presented with a special call to action inviting them to apply for a job at XYZ. And where there had been simple product ads on the homepage before, he or she now sees testimonials from current and past employees. And the prospect never had to log in or explicitly provide any additional information.
But what if Sitecore did know who the prospect was from the very beginning? Including something as easy as a CRM Id in a link in an email would allow Sitecore to identify the prospect and know all of the information ever collected for that Profile.
Profile Id: 12345
Target Acquisition: Google
Geolocation: Fargo, ND
Device: MacBook Pro
Persona: Job Seeker
Name: Joe Sundog
CRM Id: a0M3200000MFfHLEA1
Lead Score: 110
The Experience Profile is stored in the xDB, and a cookie is placed on the client computer to identify them later on. If a client doesn’t accept cookies or clears their cookies between visits, Sitecore can still use unique identifiers (remember that CRM Id?) to identify a visitor and link them back to their Experience Profile.
Want to Learn More?
The real magic of this is that the majority of this functionality is available out-of-the-box with Sitecore. If you have any questions or need advice, let us know. We’re here to help!
