The Episerver CMS platform is an incredibly robust tool that provides website owners with the ability to combine content and commerce, create seamless responsive content, and integrate with a variety of third party systems. In our recent webinar, we looked at how Episerver makes the creation and editing of content easy and intuitive, but one thing that we wanted to delve into a bit deeper is content personalization.
We’ve written before about the personalization capabilities that Episerver offers and how easy it is to set up custom visitor groups, but we wanted to take a closer look at how exactly these tools can be used to personalize your site to an individual user. Here are 5 scenarios in which Episerver’s visitor groups can be used to provide more value to your site’s visitors and drive conversions:
1. Target Calls to Action Based on the User’s Location in the Buyer’s Journey
It’s important to include a call to action (CTA) on every page of your site in order to let your users know where they should go next and what steps they should take to get more value from your products and services. However, these CTAs should be relevant to your users; you wouldn’t want to ask a long-time customer to sign up for your mailing list to learn more about your company, and you wouldn’t necessarily want to prompt a first-time visitor to schedule a product demo or contact a salesperson.
With Episerver, you can customize the CTAs that your users see based on where they are in the Buyer’s Journey. You can create visitor groups based on what pages users have visited, what content they’ve downloaded, how many times they’ve visited your site, and, if you integrate Episerver with a marketing automation platform like HubSpot, other information that impacts what you want to show them.
For example, you may have a CTA on your home page that asks people to download a content offer that demonstrates the value of your products or services. This CTA is great for people in the Awareness stage of the Buyer’s Journey, but it won’t provide the value that users who are in the Consideration or Decision stage are looking for. Episerver allows you to personalize this home page CTA to display different information for different visitor groups, allowing you to create a group for each stage of the Buyer’s Journey and ensure that each user will be presented with the information that is most relevant to them.
2. Offer Specific Commerce Product Selections Tailored to a User’s Interests
With Episerver, you can create visitor groups based on the individual pages a user has viewed on your site. This becomes especially helpful in E-commerce sites, allowing site owners to customize the products and content that users see based on their interests.
For example, if you have a site that sells cameras and camera equipment, you could create visitor groups based on a user’s level of expertise. If a visitor looks at blogs and browses products that are geared toward intermediate photographers, they can be automatically added to an “intermediate” visitor group. Then, the content that is displayed as they continue to browse the site (CTAs, tip sheets, products, blogs, etc.) can be customized to show them what intermediate photographers would want to see, guiding them toward the information they are looking for and the products that would best meet their needs.
3. Display Protected Content that Is Otherwise Unavailable
At times, you may have information that you would like to make available, but only to certain customers or prospects. Typically, this requires the creation of a membership login or customer portal that allows people to sign in to your site to access protected information. However, Episerver allows you to use visitor groups to display content only to authorized people, without requiring a login.
To do so, you can create a list of contacts within your MAP or CRM, and then create a visitor group that consists of members of this list. Then, you can make certain pages or documents only visible to members of that visitor group.
For example, you might have a product information sheet that you only want to send to people who have spoken to a salesperson. Once a salesperson speaks to a contact, they can add them to the list of approved contacts and send them a link to the page on your site that contains the information sheet, which they will now be able to view. This makes the process of providing access to proprietary information simple, without requiring a cumbersome registration and login process.
4. Rescue Abandoned Shopping Carts
One issue that any E-commerce site experiences is people who add products to their shopping cart, but never complete the checkout process. With Episerver, you can rescue these abandoned shopping carts by creating, for example, a visitor group that includes users who have an open shopping cart that is more than 24 hours old. When these users return to your site, you could display a message reminding them to complete their purchase, and possibly even offer them a discount code that will encourage them to do so.
5. Target Content Based on a User’s Industry
When someone visits your website, it makes sense to show them information that is related to their industry. For instance, if a visitor works in higher education, you’ll want to display case studies or testimonial quotes from other higher education clients.
With Episerver, you can create visitor groups based on a user’s industry. This can be done by including users in a visitor group based on whether they are in a list of existing contacts, or if they’ve visited your site from a link in an email campaign. Utilizing a solution like Diagram’s HubSpot-Episerver Connector makes the creation of these visitor groups easy and intuitive, and it allows you to surface the content that will be relevant to your users, demonstrating how you are able to address their problems and meet their needs.
Don’t Be Generic!
These are just a few examples of how Episerver’s visitor groups can be used to provide value to your site’s users and drive conversions. Remember, people’s attention spans are short, and you don’t have much time to demonstrate that you have the solutions that will meet their needs. Using visitor groups to personalize content will make sure that the information your site visitors see is as relevant as possible and provides the value that they are looking for.
Content personalization is all about providing the right information to the right person at the right time. If you’re looking to implement this type of targeting, we can help! Please contact us to speak to a Solutions Engineer, and we’ll work with you to determine the best approach and help you find success in your digital strategy. We look forward to helping you turn your website into a conversion machine!
