Simple personalisation ideas using XM Cloud

Before jumping into Sitecore CDP/ Personalize, those editors using XM Cloud Pages are able to use a Personalize “lite” feature. This is a great introduction to the world of personalisation to showcase how the tool works, but also to see results and interpret them.

Once you have ran a few and established a testing process, then you can move onto CDP/ Personalise and attack this space.

This post will run through the options (called conditions) we have and give you some simple ideas so you can start testing. I would also suggest reading the Sitecore Documentation to as this covers setting up a test, orders and groups

List of Conditions (for reference)

Name	Criteria	Type
Point of sale	The visit is to point(s) of sale	Point of sale
Region	The visitor is in region(s) during the current visit	Geo
Country	The visitor is in country(s) during the current visit	Geo
Visit day of the month (organization time zone)	The visit is on a day of the month that compares to number based on your organization’s time zone	Date
Day of the week (organization time zone)	The visit is on a day(s) of the week, based on your organization’s time zone	Date
Month of visit (organization time zone)	The visit is in month(s), based on your organization’s time zone	Date
UTM value	The visit includes a UTM type that compares to UTM value	User interaction
First referrer	The visitor comes from a URL that compares to referrer in the current visit	User interaction
Operating system	The visitor is using operating system(s) during the current visit	Device
Device	The visitor is using a device type(s) device during the current visit	Device
Number of page views	The visitor has visited page within the past x days and the total number of page views compares to number of views	Visit
First page	The visit has started on a page that compares to page during the current visit	Visit
Page view	The visitor has visited page name(s) during the current visit	Visit
New or returning visitor	The visitor is type to your site	User interaction

Examples

So some of the above are self explanatory, but where possible I’ll still give context

Point of sale

So this is an instance of a site. It could be possible that you have multiple instances, a general site and then a shop site. This condition is ideal to appeal to users who cross between the sites; maybe it could be a way to reconnect them (eg showing promotion with £10 off if we know they have come from the other site)

Region/ Country

As this is all in the moment, this is a way to target different audiences around the globe. Rather than rewarding one group, suggest this condition is ideal to reward all audiences with something that more personalised

Days of month, day of the week, month

Note this is down to the time/ date of the organisation (so look into that), but these are ideal to target low traffic or high traffic audiences. So do your research, find out optimal times in your analytics and attack these. Classic is Black Friday, but could be “Last Friday of the month”

Referrer/ UTM

These are probably the most impactful if you have a CRM or a proven referral strategy. This is ideal for rewarding cross channel activity, those who subscribe or who have picked up a lead. They tend to be more valuable users, more likely to convert so lets give them that extra incentive (5% off…)

OS/ Device

A tricky one this, on the face of it this shouldn’t make a difference. However if your strategy is to grow users of said system or device (Mobile being the obvious one) then this is ideal in targeting user groups to either reward or nudge users to move OS/ Device (something that is often a hard cultural behaviour)

Number of pages/ First page/ Specific page

These will be the most used conditions. We know customer journeys are a combination of visits and pages over time. Patterns emerge with dead ends or fruitful paths found. These conditions are ideal in guiding users in their journey, moving them from percieved dead spots back into the flow.

New or returning

Again what will be a popular test and one that will continue in CDP. Again depends on your strategy, do you want to drive new business or nurture it. This condition is ideal to make a connection. Whilst not full personalisation “Welcome back Dominic” it is still nice to connect “Welcome back” or “I see you are new”

If you have any examples, please share too.