Digital Disruption from EX²

While Sitecore is a powerful marketing platform tool, it requires some training and experience to make the most of it. That’s why training, working with an experienced partner and committing time to the exploration process are stressed. These factors were the focus of a recent CMS Wire article on Sitecore customer tips.  

The important takeaway is that many marketers are only scratching the surface of Sitecore capabilities. With the reality that some common and not so common Sitecore tools are being overlooked or underutilized, here are 3 Sitecore tools that you should be using as part of digital transformations. 

For marketers, it is the fast evolution of customer expectations that drives digital transformations. As the future of digital transformation unfolds, businesses are looking for integrated approaches to bring it into reality with tangible results. What is clear is that without the agile technology driven by a culture of innovation, deep and accurate customer analysis and focus on the customer experience, businesses cannot compete.

It is very common to get so caught up in preparing and implementing a new solution that the finer details of using the solution are overlooked. Within two or three months, however, the initial excitement has given way to in-depth, hands-on work. It is at that point that many users discover that they need to know more about how to optimize the new technology for their own jobs. If you are looking for ways to get the most out of Sitecore, these hacks may help.

Over the last decade, the move to digital has given greater power to consumers. They are using more channels than before, conducting more research on products and brands, spending more time discussing their experiences online, and they now have more access to competing brands. They also have higher expectations - if you cannot give them the level of service they demand, they will look for someone who can.

In this mobile, always-on environment, simply communicating with your customers is not enough. You need to offer each customer the most personalized, relevant and engaging experience possible. You need to take into account where, when and how your customers interact with you. This is typically referred to as context marketing.

Integrating Sitecore and Microsoft Dynamics CRM can give marketers access to tools to make their jobs easier while providing benefits to front-line employees. From this integration, you can gain detailed knowledge from customer visits to your website, as well as create new contacts and leads that you can leverage to target different visitor segments. 

Decades ago, there was a lot of discussion involving the paperless business. The predictions called for consumers to universally embrace digital billing, files that would reside only on hard drives and virtual catalogs that could be accessed through any computer. Although all of these have been implemented to some degree, not every consumer has been willing to ban the printed word from their lives. 

As a marketing professional, you are undoubtedly aware that the landscape has changed rapidly in recent years. Consumer expectations have increased dramatically, especially when it is necessary to leverage technology to deliver the kind of engaging, personalized experience they demand. Choosing the right technology can be daunting, and it may make little difference if the implementation is poor or users fail to adopt it. Although Sitecore can be an effective and powerful marketing technology, it — like every other tool at your disposal — must be implemented properly and used correctly to achieve the desired results.

Troubleshooting Sitecore data changes can be problematic - especially if versioning and workflows are not utilized, you are contending with a number of minimally trained administrative users, and/or the system relies on multiple data integrations (both inbound and outbound).  Out of the box, Sitecore does not provide full logging of everything that happens within the system - nor would we want it.  However, there are times when creating an audit trail of system changes can be helpful.  Although I have seen various implementations for recording and reporting selected audit detail, I decided to create a new implementation to match my particular needs.

Today's consumers have more freedom to choose how to interact with businesses than ever before. Smartphones, desktop computers, tablets, kiosks, wearable tech and laptops are just some of the options consumers can choose to conduct research, make purchases or discuss a company's products, customer service or brand reputation. It has become increasingly common for customers to jump between devices as they progress through the various steps of their journeys from mild interest in a product to completing its purchase.

However, customers demand an experience that is engaging as well as seamless when they switch from one channel to another. This is where an effective content management system can help. Content management systems were once little more than a tool to make it easier to upload images and text. Over time, however, they have evolved to become the foundation upon which all Internet-enabled processes are built.