First, let me start with an admission: CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization has always been intriguing to me from a voyeuristic standpoint. (Don’t judge!) If you don’t know why that could be, I’d invite you to check out Hotjar and look into the visitor recording feature. Tools like this one are widely used – and yes, you are being watched. That said, user data is anonymous to the analyst and things like passwords and credit card numbers are completely protected. Still…what FUN!
Maybe this is why there are CRO professionals that can see past the Gladys Kravitz aspects I cling to, and can use tools like Hotjar for the good of companies and consumers alike. Even more fortunate, I have the luxury of working with a leading CRO expert at Perficient Digital, Amanda Bobel – and she knows her stuff. (Talking Master’s Degree people!)

Recently, Amanda and I teamed up to talk about Sitecore, CRO, and how the two work hand-in-hand.

Built into Sitecore are many of the tools and reports that are key to Conversion Rate Optimization. These features do not remove the need for someone like Amanda to properly analyze and improve user journeys and content, but out-of-the-box, it gets you a long way down the road to success. Our conversation led to Episode 2 of my video series focused on key disciplines around Sitecore Strategy. In this episode learn:

• What is CRO and why is it important in your digital strategy?
• How can your team work with a CRO analyst?
• How are test ideas determined?
• How are test ideas executed?
• How do you specify targets?
• How do you determine test goals?
• How do you report out on test results?
• When should you test?
• How is all of this accomplished in Sitecore?

After creating this video, I was very happy to see that Sitecore is more than ready to support the important role CRO plays in digital marketing. Short of some of the features of Hotjar (makes a wish for future feature) the tools are there for success.
As always, please share, comment or reach out to me with questions on Twitter: @Sitecordial

If you happened to catch the announcement in the recent 2021 SUGCON, Sitecore released a new guide to behavioral profiling and the PDF is available now for download here.

This was another collaboration with the broader Sitecore community. I am proud again to say I am a contributor to this Sitecore Whitepaper and am always happy to be part of this great community of strategists and technologists.

Behavioral personalization is one of the quickest ways to start seeing results in your Sitecore analytics.

One of the largest roadblocks I have seen for organizations wanting to get started is just knowing where to start. This is it. Profiling is something you can apply sitewide and start to see real results quickly. From there you can add in goals, campaigns, segments, etc. to further refine your data. Profiling not only starts returning data but is immediately available to drive personalization on your components.

Download the 2021 Guide to profiling strategy.

This guide really covers behavioral profiling well; from a high level, down into the math that drives Euclidian Distance pattern matching. Go beyond the where to start and learn the how, why, when, what and who of profiling. Kudos to Jacqueline Baxter at the team at Sitecore along with the community for pulling together a clear understanding of a complex topic!

See also: a previous post on Pattern Decay Rate and my YouTube Series on all things Sitecore Marketing. Please reach out to me and follow me on all things Sitecore strategy on Twitter.

Sitecore Content Hub includes the flexibility of several modules. Key among them are the DAM (or Digital Asset Management) module which I covered in a recent post and CMP (or Content Marketing Platform). These two modules are the pair that I consider table stakes when it comes to setting up Content Hub and I if you have any futurist in your blood you will start to see why.

Content Marketing Platform…hmmm…that sounds a bit like Sitecore XP or simply any Content Management System (CMS). So similar that it would cost next to nothing to change towel monograms for that techno-couple. And it is true, there is a healthy crossover between CMS and CMP.

What is Sitecore Content Hub CMP?

First off if you want to get the TL;DR and jump to the 30 minute video on this topic, here you go:

For those of you who want the written highlights, the rest is for you.

What is Content Marketing Platform?

The best way I can think of framing CMP is managing “text-forward” content. Content Hub already has a DAM and this is where all images, videos, documents, and similar files live, but not text (other than in a formatted document). CMP is where you enter in your text content in user-defined fields and if you wish to associate an asset or two with that text, you certainly can. It is after all, connected to Content Hub DAM.

Content types and associated fields that can be set up by admins.

Why should I use the Content Marketing Platform?

CMP breaks content down into bite-sized content types and allows authors to focus on text and images without worrying about how it will look in different channels. Those content types like blogs, emails, promos, webinars, etc. all become available for other systems to consume and then display with independent presentation (look and function). So with that, think of these two main considerations, even if you already have a CMS like Sitecore XP or XM.

1. Think Omni-channel. While you may initially have CMP connected only to Sitecore XP, think of that as a beginning. Consider Sitecore in this instance as your web channel or your intranet channel; different content types “feeding” different components. Ultimately, you could feed the same content to Social Studio, Marketing Automation, and any number of channels. CMP is the source of truth. Change once – push omni.
2. Sitecore is going SaaS (Software as a Service) or even better CaaS (Content as a Service) and CMP is directionally toward this. If you have heard the term headless, Content Hub and both the DAM and CMP play a large role in true headless design. Even Sitecore’s recent Boxever acquisition points to this fact. It is the future. [Space-laser noises up and under]

Break it down!

In the video, I pick apart the individual sections of CMP that include everything from the basic search functionality, to the creation of a content type. You can also see the multiple phase workflows and powerful planning tools. The video has easy-to-use chapters, so please take a look and bookmark for reference.

More to come on all things Content Hub. Please leave any comments here, in the YouTube channel (please Subscribe) or reach out to me via twitter: @Sitecordial or @ContentHubby.

Sitecore recently (Q1 2021) acquired Boxever CDP. This is a marketer-focused digital optimization solution that is a definitive step forward in Sitecore’s move to SaaS. If you have been hearing about Sitecore Experience Edge and Content Hub, like me, you are likely seeing the puzzle pieces come together. I wanted to take a deeper look. Our friends at Sitecore/Boxever provided early access to a sandbox and I took a tour to share with you here.

Take video tour of Boxever CDP for an early look at the future of Sitecore personalization and testing.

NOTE: It is clear that there is an active team making updates (as one would expect). During the recording of this video the UI changed and I see functionality either appearing or being turned on in the sandbox. This is going to be an exciting time to watch the evolution.

Boxever CDP Home Screen

In the video I took a look at the three main elements of Boxever:

• The core CDP functionality around audience and segment management
• Creating offers and decision models
• Personalization and testing or what is defined as Experiences and Experimentation

Boxever Decision Model

Boxever Experimentation Setup

The goal of the video is to show you a high-level view of the main pieces of Boxever and to connect the dots between current state and what I think will be the future. This is meant for marketers and I do not dive into any code (as per usual) but certainly a preview for all. I look forward to working on a full JAMStack solution that includes Sitecore Experience Edge, Content Hub, and Boxever (Sitecore CDP) as a full CaaS (Content as a Solution) or even XaaS (Experience as a A Solution).

This is new to the Sitecore space and I look forward to learning with the community. Please comment below or in the YouTube comments with any thoughts. Of course you can always find me on Twitter as @Sitecordial.

Since Sitecore Content Hub emerged, a lot of content marketers, including myself, wanted to learn more about the new addition to the Sitecore family. The combination of Digital Asset Management (DAM), Product Content Management (PCM), Content Marketing Platform (CMP) and Marketing Resource Management (MRM) tools certainly sounds like a great source of truth. One that can live at the center of your content creation world, and, as you may have heard, can solve your “Content Crisis.”

That’s awesome, and so were the demos at Symposium, user groups, etc., but I wanted to dig deeper. How do I set it up? Since that time I have been badged as “Content Hub Specialized” along with Perficient. Using knowledge from that “certification” and several subsequent builds, I am kicking off a series to help peel back the onion for administrators. This series will help you understand the basics, and answer the question, “Where do I begin?” and then dive deeper into tips, tricks, updates and so on.

To start, I created a new video focused on the Sitecore Content Hub DAM Overview and Setup.

WATCH NOW

I will provide a general overview, but really my intention in this video is to help organize the process of working with assets, and then actually show you how to build some of the metadata that drives asset search, security and workflow (to name a few). Along the way I provide a look at the Image Processor, Annotation Tools, and some organization like favorites and collections. Again, this is for admins. Developers can certainly take a look but there is no code in this video.

I really hope you like this series and you can count on my digging deeper over the coming months. Please leave any comments in the YouTube channel or reach out to me on social via: @Sitecordial or my new Content Hub focused account @ContentHubby. Please subscribe, like, follow for karma.

Whether you are launching a new Sitecore XP environment in the next few months or are wanting to enhance your authoring and marketing experience, this video should be a whistle stop on your enhancements campaign tour. Originally this content was to be presented live in Budapest at SUGCON 2020 but then, well, you know. Like the rest of the world, we went virtual and this was delivered to a focused audience of Sitecore diehards and technical wizards. Since then it was also presented to a smattering of Sitecore User Groups. This is an attempt to make sure the message reaches my marketing friends and simply a broader audience.

I present this content with my good friend and fellow Sitecore MVP, Corey Smith (@sitecorey). He and I tend to rehearse, rehearse and re-rehearse our presentations until we wake up screaming segments in the middle of the night. The is video is a recording of one of those run-throughs.

8 ways crank up your Sitecore launch for your content marketers, include:

• Launching with a starting set of marketing definitions
• Importance of setting up roles and workflows
• Cleaning up your goal selection list
• Launching with custom Path Analyzer Maps
• Contact card (xProfile) enhancements
• Marketing automation tips
• Using personalization presets
• Creating “goal buttons”

Corey and I have long felt that the combination of a Developer and Marketer working together to provide Sitecore enhancements and solutions yield a more finely-tuned result. I am sure you will see that in this video. About half of the go-live solutions listed can be done with no development support, provided a full standard XP solution has been delivered. The other half include development work, and Corey has brilliantly executed the heavy lifting for you and your team.

When applicable GitHub code repositories are included via on-screen links. For your convenience they are also listed here:

Setting up Marketing Definitions (link is to my YouTube Playlist): http://bit.ly/SitecordialPlaylist

Configuring Roles (SXA): https://bit.ly/sxa-security-setup

Configuring Roles (Non-SXA): https://bit.ly/non-sxa-security-setup

Clean up Goals and Event Selection Lists: https://bit.ly/improved-tracking-cont…

Adding Custom Eras to xProfile Timeline: https://bit.ly/custom-eras-in-xprofile

Adding Gravatars to xProfile Cards: https://bit.ly/add-gravatar-to-xprofile

Hopefully this video inspires you and your organization to deliver a more complete solution. In turn it will accelerate adoption and overall excitement for your authoring and marketing teams.

The Sitecore community is truly one of those collaborative spaces that are found few and far between. Happily, here developers, ambassadors, and marketers alike continue to come together to help deliver a spectrum of enterprise-level digital experience products, while enhancing and improving the platforms or the processes on which they are built. This process example is one of which I am proud to have recently been a participant. Working with Sitecore SBOS, marketing, services and Sitecore MVP’s from across the globe, we have assembled an informative new 50-page guide on Multisite Personalization Strategy:

Planning and implementing a multisite personalization strategy

Creating the guide was an inspiring collaboration of experiences that showed what a community can do to unite and share real world knowledge. Now that the guide has been crafted and wrapped up by Sitecore (kudos), I am very excited by the quality and weight those experiences bring to bear.

Goal of the Guide

The goal was to help businesses and their marketing teams within, properly understand what it takes to consolidate multiple websites under one platform to gain the power of omni-channel insights. While gaining this “Data-Driven Certainty” companies will also provide a cohesive experience for their customers through consistency and a better user experience. This multisite process is an ROI builder as well because, as sites are added, a fair number of prerequisite tasks that are required to deliver personalization are repeatable and reusable. The offset is that the process will still take a little organization, time and effort.

What To Expect

In this guide you will find a well-defined walk-through of critical considerations for multisite personalization strategy.

Know the basic building blocks:

• Proper planning
• Company-wide buy-in
• Starting simple
• Iterating upon success
• It is a journey – plan to invest, learn and grow

Learn different strategic approaches for different types of multisite:

• Multiregion
• Multichannel
• Multibrand
• Multisegment

Lean on quick wins with proper use of the building blocks that are your marketing definitions:

• Marketing taxonomy
• Goals
• Campaigns
• Segments
• Profiles and patterns

Round out your education with best-practice tips around:

• Properly organizing your marketing control panel for multisite
• Mapping engagement value and when to look globally vs. locally
• Creating a multisite profile strategy
• Technical and privacy considerations
• Governance

Even if you are not looking at multisite, this guide will walk you through some important lessons that have been gained by combined years of experience from both inside the walls of Sitecore, and out in the field by the broader community of Sitecore MVP’s.

Of course if you are looking for some video training, please follow my YouTube channel and reach out to me with any comments or questions on Twitter.

Be sure to check out more information on our Sitecore practice, 15 MVPs, and client successes. Contact us if you want to learn more about what Perficient can provide. 

For the past several years, I have had a video series guiding marketers through accelerated training on Sitecore. While I have moved through fundamental marketing set up over these episodes, I have always promised to take a look at Sitecore’s powerful Path Analyzer. At Perficient, as a Sitecore Platinum Partner, I enjoy the luxury of talking with a lot of different companies as they move forward in their Experience Platform journey.

One constant across all product owners and content marking pros, is the love of Sitecore Path Analyzer for critical thinking around content planning and testing.

Path Analyzer – Radial View

I will continue to stress, it takes time to setup prerequisites like goals, engagement values, campaigns, profile cards, outcomes and more. But, after all of these definitions are deployed, Path Analyzer comes to life with valuable rewards. It allows authors and marketers alike to make quick decisions about content and user journeys. These decisions are supported by what has already been uniquely defined by each organization based upon what is important to their over-arching strategy. Engagement values locked into place power the Path Analyzer to visually illustrate omnichannel details around users as they accumulate value or fall away.

Sitecore Path Analyzer is absolutely my favorite reporting tool and so (as promised) I have created a video that highlights not only the basic functionality but some of its unique features. From custom paths to quick tips, my hope is this video will provide value to those already using the tool, or excitement to dive in, for those working toward it.

Please Subscribe to my channel for future videos and follow me on Twitter.

Headless. It’s a buzzword and evolving concept that has been around for a few years. To those in the development profession, this is likely old news. However, marketers are now not only sharing a seat at the table when looking at re-platforming or building new websites. But they are also often the key business decision-makers when it comes to what will ultimately be their digital marketing ecosystem. That being true, we as marketers should be able to talk the same language at least at a high-level when determining Headless vs. traditional Coupled CMS.

In referencing “CMS,” I will specifically be focusing on Sitecore DXP (Digital Experience Platform) and the unique considerations around Sitecore headless. There are some unique considerations that tie into what most marketers desire when looking at Sitecore: analytics, personalization, and content testing.

TL;DR – download the whitepaper: Understanding Development Approaches: A Sitecore Outlook.

Headless or Coupled is a consideration marketers and technology professionals must consider together. There are advantages and disadvantages in both cases. Ultimately, it comes down to a technological vision for your company. To get started, download the whitepaper to learn about the most prevalent options when it comes to Sitecore. Understanding the variables will help you make better decisions with your broader team.

Understanding Headless CMS

By definition, headless decouples the technology stack. That means that your content authors can focus on the marketing content itself and less on how it is presented on the screen. Sitecore itself has been good at this for quite some time. This is not to say that headless dumbs down your content to bland text and inline images. Rather, this means that your content that is managed in one central (secured) location and can be easily repurposed on many channels with the front-end design templates managed separately through other presentation applications like Angular, Vue or React.

Another benefit is that headless opens up the development process. With a headless ecosystem, you do not necessarily need a .net developer for your front-end. Instead, you can dip your toes into the broader pool of JSS developers to help you design across channels. At the same time, it must be clear that this is an expansion of skillsets. You still need Sitecore developers to build out the Sitecore DXP framework. These are talented, focused developers that are well versed in .net and other languages, but specifically understand how it all comes together in the Sitecore build.

Headless for Sitecore has existed for a bit, but without proper implementation, you could find yourself unable to use all of the analytics, personalization and testing tools. This is a key point of owning a top-rated Digital Experience Platform. A combination of the new Layout Service, JSS or SXA (Sitecore Experience Accelerator) now makes it possible to retain all of the marketing tools while still going headless.

Key Considerations for Sitecore Headless

Knowing these basics and understanding and what you can draw from the whitepaper, please consider these following questions when you and your team are looking at Headless vs. Coupled and Sitecore DXP.

Key considerations for marketing/business around Sitecore headless:

• Our content – is the plan to have a static or dynamic site with personalization and testing?
• How big is our content team?
• Are we looking to expand our front-end development capabilities or work with a FED partner?
• What exactly will our omnichannel experience be?
• How important is scalability?
• What type of Sitecore license do we have/want?
• Is Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) in the mix? (included with some Sitecore licenses)

Truly this list is only the beginning and your technology team or partner will have more considerations. While I personally still think a coupled Sitecore SXA solution is the best for most large organizations, that is simply a broad generalization not based on knowing your key needs.

Take time to go down the headless rabbit hole (not to say the rabbit is headless, because…yikes!) and weigh the options with your broader team. Bottom line, this is an important business decision. Knowing the basics of development approaches will enable you to talk-the-talk with your technology team and/or work with the right partner.

Sitecore Experience Editor is so 2018…will be what you say in a few years. Sure, with EE you get visual editing, a library of developed components and a great deal of control, but you are a content author, you want more more MORE! As I write this (New Year’s Eve 2018) I have a resolution – to take over the world with SXA! That being a bit much, I will stick with a strong intent to share more about Sitecore Experience Accelerator. Oh, and if you are reading this in the middle of the new year, just work with me, and consider this an opportunity for a new beginning of a superior authoring experience.

fig. 1

Business Time

Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) is not an alternative to the Experience Editor (EE). It is a toolset that sits “on top” of the Experience Editor. If you are familiar with Sitecore authoring, you will still continue to open the Experience Editor (or Content Editor and access the EE through the tree). In fact as an added bonus, a little shortcut that comes with SXA is the ability to right-click a page in your content tree and access the Experience Editor from the fly-out menu (fig. 1). Nice – it’s the little things!

fig. 2

fig. 3

Sitecore SXA Grid Control and Variants to the rescue

fig. 4

fig. 5

1. Variant Control: SXA components support multiple variants. Want a hero with no text? Text on the left with a button? Text on the right, no button? These and all the variants you can think of can be defined and made available to the author. Imagine the possibilities of a good number of your components having multiple looks and and even multiple functional possibilities all available from the click of a drop down. You can even provide thumbnails in the drop down for visual reference (fig. 5), and yes, you can control access to different variants based on page, author, component.
2. The Paint Bucket: This little icon opens the door to multiple controls and these controls can be defined individually per SXA component. Click to open the control where you will see the ability to change the variant (another way to pick the variant than the drop down on the toolbar). You will also see checkboxes that allow you to change basic styling (ie: left, right, center alignment) and anything else added per business requirements per component. At the top you will see the Grid control (fig. 6). Here’s the power of that control:

fig. 6

fig. 7

fig. 8

Advanced Grid Control

What if I want content to appear on phones but not on desktop (or other way around)? What if I want a promo component that sits in the center of three to show first on a phone instead of second (standard to responsive design)? Well my friend, click that paint bucket again in the floating toolbar on the component you want to affect.
When you see this control, first off, let’s not worry about Offset or Float. Not a fan of either. I feel they conflict with the fine CSS for which you paid good money. If anyone has a strong opinion otherwise, please share in comments or on Twitter. That said, let’s look at the Advanced tab:

Visibility

Here you can control content showing per component per device. In this example (fig. 9) I have hidden the component for phones and tablets but am showing it for Desktop (Laptop) screens or larger. Like the basic grid controls, the empty fields inherit the last declared value above it.

fig. 9

Order

Like I mentioned above, what if I have three components across a page (four-columns each) but on phones I want the content that is in the center (on large screens) to show first. Like in this example (fig. 10) I have changed the sort order to have this item first for phones and tablets and then second (center of three) on larger screens. Now, I have to define the other components order and have to take into account what container or page placeholder they are in, but the control is there and once the basics are grasped, it is easy to define the order across devices.

fig. 10

SXA Grid Controls and Variants advance the power of the page layout for the content author.

If you are quickly starting to panic and are picturing pages that look more like a bad quilt and think that this could be too much control over your brand and content, know that all of the variant controls and grid controls can be controlled per component and across user roles. Give authors complete flexibility through governance and security over (say) campaign landing pages, but lock down the paint bucket and variants on key brand pages.
Experience Editor provided the power of visual editing. Sitecore Experience Accelerator moves the needle for the content author while reducing the need for constant dev interaction for small changes. I am only scratching the surface of SXA here and look forward to diving into more details of specific components. Please reach out to me on twitter or leave comments.

I am excited to say that Corey Smith and I will be embarking on a multi-nation tour; virtual and in person. Here is a little bit about the session and running list of current dates.

This tour is the happy by-product of a Sitecore Symposium session with JSS Gold Master (officially-unofficial title) and Sitecore Technology MVP, Corey Smith. Corey and I worked together to design a micro-site that takes advantage of all the Marketing Automation, analytics and best-practice digital-marketing functionality of Sitecore, but built headless, using JavaScript Services (JSS).
As a content author, marketer and total non-dev, my focus was building out the concept, user journeys, content and automation. Admittedly, the JSS aspect was as foreign to me as you would expect it to be for any pure digital marketer. However, I have been able to learn quite a bit about this technology through Corey, while also experiencing the first-hand benefits of client-side rendering. I definitely believe this is the future of Sitecore development, and I look forward to the marriage of JSS and SXA (Sitecore Experience Accelerator). I hope you can join Corey and me, or have joined us at one of these User Groups.

Here’s what you can expect to learn about JSS and Marketing Automation.

1. Working Headless with JSS and Sitecore
2. Disconnected Mode vs. Connected Mode
3. Visitor Identification and Security
4. Best-practice Sitecore Marketing Setup
5. GraphQL
6. Working with Forms in JSS
7. Sitecore Marketing Automation and EXM

All of this is wrapped in a fun and interactive micro-site with the intention of providing plenty of key takeaways. If you were unable to attend our session at Symposium or any of the past tour stops, we hope to have you join us. Okay, here are the dates. Look for one near you.

JSS and Marketing Automation UG TOUR

2018 & 2019 Previous Dates

• • 23 October 2018 – SUG Delhi NCR
  • 5 November 2018 – Kansas City Sitecore XP Marketing
  • 6 November 2018 – SUG Sri Lanka
  • 14 November 2018 – Atlanta SUG
  • 16 November 2018 – SUG Jaipur
  • 22 November 2018 – Sitecore Dev Community Australia
  • 11 December 2018 – SUG Auckland
  • 12 December 2018 – SUG Chennai
  • 22 January 2019 – SUG Quebec
  • 23 January 2019 – SUG Montreal
  • 24 January 2019 – SUG Toronto
  • 5 February 2019 – SUG Brazil
  • 7 February 2019 – Milwaukee SUG
  • 12 February 2019 – SUG Minneapolis/St. Paul
  • 18 February 2019 – Seattle SUG
  • 19 February 2019 – Portland SUG
  • 20 February 2019 – Sacramento SUG
  • 21 February 2019 – Denver SUG
  • 13 March 2019 – Queen City SUG
  • 14 March 2019 – SUG New England
  • 13 May 2019 – Romania SUG

As part of my ongoing effort to bring insights around the key considerations for success when working with Sitecore as a digital marketer, my goal has been and continues to be, alignment with thought-leaders. So far in this series I have brought you two of my peers at Perficient Digital. Now I have the distinct pleasure to bringing you a leader from one of our well-respected partners; Coveo. Also a fellow Sitecore MVP, Simon Langevin is a Product Manager at Coveo, a Sitecore Certified Developer and an all-around great person.

In this episode Simon will cover Site Search Best Practices that include:

• Search Box Prominence
• Search Box Intelligence
• Power of Machine Learning
• The Search Interface – Make it Human-friendly
• Contextual Search
• Personalization
• Reporting

Simon’s depth of knowledge illustrates the importance of having a robust solution. One that can provide insights for your users, and data for your team, all to help drive personalization and conversion. These insights are key to delivering what we are all used to when using sites like Google, Bing, and Amazon. From there, I deliver and overview of the integration and capabilities of Coveo’s leading relevance search solution in Sitecore.

As I state in the video, there are certainly different options when it comes to site search in Sitecore, but Coveo’s deeply integrated, cloud-based solution is a personal favorite in: ease of installation, forward-thinking technology, and support.
Please enjoy the video and reach back to me or Simon via Twitter, @Sitecordial and @SilaouO – or leave comments here.
Author’s note: Simon and Vincent from Coveo are both mentioned by me in the video, but Simon ended up presenting all of the content. Both good guys!