Sitecore’s Composable Personalization Capabilities When to Use Sitecore Personalize

Sitecore’s cutting-edge technology proposal has historically focused on the promise to elevate your marketing strategy and provide your audience with experiences that are not just personalized but also impactful and memorable.

As part of its composable DXP portfolio of products, Sitecore offers a whole suite of SaaS products, including Personalize, XM Cloud, Content Hub, Search, Customer Data Platform (CDP), Send, and Connect, which all impact the ability to personalize.  

In this blog, we’ll explore Sitecore’s composable DXP product portfolio, highlighting those products that can drive personalized experiences. 

Personalize

Within the cloud suite, Personalize handles the core tasks of personalization. It enables you to create tailored user experiences on your site and manage A/B and multivariate tests. Additionally, Personalize can be integrated with sites built on other CMS platforms (one of the advantages of using SaaS). It offers an initial set of templates, and you can collaborate with a developer to create additional ones.

CDP

Although Personalize handles the implementation of personalization on your website, data retention is limited when used as a standalone service, and data from other systems is unavailable. Sitecore CDP combines data from multiple tools to create a centralized customer database. CDP enhances personalization by collecting data from all touch points and interactions with your product or service to help guide and inform your personalization efforts.

XM Cloud

XM Cloud comes with integrated personalization. It provides a rule-editor-type approach similar to how personalization is managed in XP. Personalization is accessible through both Experience Editor and the new Pages editor. The embedded personalization and analytics are powered by a simplified version of Personalize and CDP, making it easy to add these products to your composable stack at any time.

When Is Sitecore Personalize the Right Choice?

The inclusion of basic personalization in XM Cloud allows you to get started in personalization without incurring upfront expenses for technology acquisition, training, and development. When is the time to step up to Personalize? Here are the key situations where Sitecore Personalize can make a significant difference:

Enhancing Personalization Beyond XM Cloud’s Capabilities

If you want to deliver more sophisticated and granular personalized experiences than what XM Cloud alone can offer.

XM Cloud limits personalization criteria for defining target audiences and doesn't support the creation of custom criteria.

Sitecore Personalize provides advanced tools to craft targeted content for specific audience segments. You can collaborate with developers to extend the functionality without limits.

Implementing Multivariate Testing

For those aiming to conduct comprehensive multivariate testing to optimize content and user experiences, Sitecore Personalize, in conjunction with CDP, offers robust testing options and intelligent decision-making tools. Multivariate testing is not available on XM Cloud.

Creating Seamless Omnichannel Experiences

When your goal is to unify customer interactions from various channels (both online and offline) into a single database, Sitecore CDP facilitates this integration. This allows for consistent and empathetic customer experiences across multiple touchpoints.

Improving Customer Journey Mapping

To elevate your customer journey strategies, Sitecore Personalize helps merge diverse customer data, providing insights that enable more effective and personalized customer journey mapping.

Providing Site-Wide Personalization

For those aiming to implement site-wide personalization or target specific sections or campaigns, Sitecore Personalize delivers tailored experiences across the entire site or on selected pages. For example, this feature enables easy automation of displaying pop-ups on particular pages.

Preparing for Future Migration to XM Cloud

Future-proofing your digital marketing strategy by starting with Sitecore Personalize ensures that your personalization efforts are compatible with XM Cloud. If you are an XP customer planning to move to XM Cloud, moving your personalization to the SaaS tool ensures that you maintain your optimization results once you complete the transition.

Wrapping Up

Personalization is well represented across the breadth of Sitecore Experience Cloud products and is achievable at any stage of your journey. The basic personalization features included in XM Cloud allow you to take your first steps into personalization. If you’re not yet on XM Cloud, you can implement Personalize now, and the functionality will easily transition once you complete the move.

Incorporating Sitecore Personalize into your digital strategy is the right choice if you are ready to invest to get to the next stage on your maturity scale. Also, using Sitecore Personalize means setting new standards for customer engagement and satisfaction.

With the variety of Sitecore products available, it can be a little daunting to know which ones will work best for your business. As a certified Sitecore partner, Oshyn can help you uncover which combination of products would best suit your needs as you transition to the cloud with Sitecore.

For many companies, that transition often includes XM Cloud. Check out our guide for more information about Sitecore XM Cloud and its benefits to your business and personalization endeavors.