Sitecore Technical User Group Birmingham - Getting Started With Personalisation

Getting Started with PersonalisationDominic Hurst, digital services lead @LJMU

dominichurst.com | @dh_analytics playground.ljmu.ac.uk | @LJMUDigital

The story so far…

2013…

• A legacy content management system • Devolved content authors (300+) • A small but perfectly formed web team that was moved often • No investment • A requirement to do something amazing with no additional resource • Working in isolation

dominichurst.com | @dh_analytics

http://dominichurst.com

How we operate today…

2016…

• A state of the art Customer Experience Platform • Working closely with a Sitecore Partner (Mando) • With skilled professionals in house • A small and robust content team • Frameworks and governance • Appreciated by the business • Agile and driven by insight



digital servicesblueprint

blueprint strands

we’re redefining done

we’re always learning

we’re user focused

we’re insight driven

we’re open

“Use your own best practice, stop copying your competitors — they may not know what the f*** they are

doing either” - Peep Laja


To deliver better experiences we have to understand what our users are doing, thinking and their behaviours online ... We have to make decisions and be able to refocus direction with agility. This is only possible if we act on insight, not just data


What is Personalisation (to LJMU)

image cc nationalvendingblog.com

http://nationalvendingblog.com

Scaling the experience

Vanilla EXPERIENCE

Optimised EXPERIENCE

Personalised EXPERIENCE

Automated EXPERIENCE



What is Personalisation

“The idea behind personalisation is to tailor the experience from the moment it begins”

UX Mag

“Essentially, it’s the real-time individualisation of a site to suit each visitor’s unique needs and guide them through a custom

conversion funnel.” Conversion XL



Types of Personalisation

Rule based

• Location/ Weather • On page behaviour • Shopping/ account • Email or campaigns

Algorithm based

• Predictive









How to start



#1 Homework

• Remember why you are here – Organisational goals • Digital measurement models (Avinash Kaushik) • Focus - Metrics that matter (remember ROI) • Hypothesize to structure your tests

• Build the site with optimisation and personalisation in mind (tracking, componentising…)

Because we think [this] is true we think that doing [this] will mean [that this will happen]. We’ll know that this is true/false when we see this [key metric change]



#1 Homework1.1Courseengagement

59.13%

1.2Courseapplicationintent

7.01%

1.3Opendaybooking

0.00%ofuserssuccessfullybookanopendayevent

Why0%?-UnfortunatelythisareaofthewebsitecannotbetrackedduetolegacyintegrationwithourCRM

ofcoursepagesareinteractedwith

ofcoursepageswhereauserhasstartedanapplication

0.00%20.00%40.00%60.00%80.00%100.00%

0

500

1000

1500

Sep-15 Oct-15 Nov-15 Dec-15 Jan-16 Feb-16 Mar-16 Apr-16 May-16 Jun-16 Jul-16 Aug-16

bookingsstarted %completed

0.00%20.00%40.00%60.00%80.00%100.00%

0

50000

100000

150000


pageviews %engagement

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

0

50000

100000

150000


pageviews %intent



#1 Homework

• Remember why you are here – Organisational goals • Digital measurement models (Avinash Kaushik) • Focus - Metrics that matter (remember ROI) • Hypothesize to structure your tests

• Build the site with optimisation and personalisation in mind (tracking, componentising…)

Because we think [this] is true we think that doing [this] will mean [that this will happen]. We’ll know that this is true/false when we see this [key metric change]



#2 Make your best practice

• Personalising isn’t driven by the masses. What works for someone else wont necessarily work for you

• Make your own best practice • Learn and iterate • Work alongside those doing user research for depth to your insight • Share knowledge within the team



Lessons Learnt



#1 Drive the technology

• Evolve the experience platform around you, not you around the experience platform

• You can track, test and personalise anything; but that doesn’t mean you should do

• Integrate with GA/ GTM to add insight







• Evolve the experience platform around you, not you around the experience platform

• You can track, test and personalise anything; but that doesn’t mean you should do

• Integrate with GA/ GTM to add insight



#2 Back to basics

• Personalisation is about less not more - remove the clutter • Don’t underestimate “unique value proposition” • Use what you have • Words make a BIG difference • Conversion principles – (Oli Gardner)



#3 Jump straight in

• Don’t wait long after training • Start small and grow (insights, test, learn, repeat) • But don’t jump straight out!

- Think user journey/ business cycles

- Prioritize on what test will give you biggest return (remember goals)



#4 Gain buy in

For this to work (in general) you need buy in from management and co-workers

Don’t be the team that meddles and annoys people, be the team that adds value… but that’s hard

• Show • Tell • Test



What are LJMU Personalising?

Page specific

• Page behaviour - previous pages/ related pages • Account - signed in areas • Imagery/ Wording based on audience segmentation

NB Homepage - only 20% of our traffic see the homepage so minimal ROI



Thank you

Dominic Hurst, digital services lead @LJMU

dominichurst.com | @dh_analytics playground.ljmu.ac.uk | @LJMUDigital

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Sitecore Technical User Group Birmingham - Getting Started With Personalisation