Overview: Personalization
NOTE: Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud (DEC) was renamed to Sitefinity Insight as a part of the Sitefinity 13.0 release. However, Sitefinity CMS and its documentation prior to version 13.0 continue using the former name - Digital Experience Cloud.
In today’s dynamic digital environment, companies need to address various audiences and make sure visitors on their websites see relevant content that delivers the right information to the right type of visitor at the right time. Since you cannot appeal to everyone simultaneously with relatively generic information, personalization enables you to build personal and relevant conversation with your customers by providing them with information that makes sense and is useful to them. Thus, you can be proactive in engaging your customers and achieving your business goals.
Sitefinity CMS and personalization
Sitefinity CMS enables you to deliver different versions of content, page assets, and pages to different types of audience, that is, user segments. You define segments based on a wide range of user characteristics and data that you can combine in rules and conditions.
You can do the following:
- Content block widget personalization
- Image widget personalization
- Feather Card widget personalization
- Reuse personalized widgets
- Personalized version of a page
You can combine personalized page elements to create a fully customized page to reflect the needs of the specific target segment. You can also reuse personalized widgets between pages by using the personalized widget in the page layout. Thus, your website is content and layout flexible.
In addition, you can personalize a whole page or the layout of pages. You can then use the preview tool to view the website from different user perspectives.
EXAMPLE:
You have an online shop for computers, laptops, and mobile devices. A visitor from New York, part of segment Developer, may see a personalized page having a content block with information about local events and contacts of showrooms in New York. A personalized engagement widget displays a call to action to download a whitepaper about the best laptops for developers.
Personalization workflow
- Segment your visitors
The first step to delivering a personalized customer experience is to segment your visitors, so you can present them with what’s most relevant to them. One simple example is showing code samples to developers and whitepapers to business users.
- Personalize the presentation
After you segment your visitors, you decide which content you will personalize, for example a page. Next, you decide what elements, for example widgets or assets, will have personalized versions. For instance, you can personalize the home page for the developers segment to present information related to the technology while you serve business users with information related to how they can achieve their goals using this solution.
- Preview the experience
After you define your segments and personalize the content for them, you need to make sure you did everything right. Sitefinity CMS enables you to impersonate any segment and preview the customer experience on any device with the help of the mobile device emulators. Thus, you can be sure how your website looks and feels for every audience on any device.
- Track and analyze the results
After you have segmented your audiences, personalized their experience, and checked how your website is presented for different audiences on different devices, you probably want to measure the results of your work. You can do this by tracking customers' behavior on your site and setting goals and campaigns to increase conversion. For more information, see Progress Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud.