XM Cloud offers not only Sitecore's CMS functionality, but also includes analytics and personalization capabilities. In this article, we will show you how this works.
Marketing function
Two main marketing functions are offered to sites built and operated using XM Cloud.
- Analytics - You can view the performance of your site. You can view analytics data for the entire site and by page.
- Personalisation - allows switching between pages when certain criteria are met.
As the site is built headless, unlike Sitecore XP, which processes on the server side, it uses a system that tracks using tags. In fact, this mechanism is provided to XM Cloud as part of the Sitecore CDP + Personalize functionality, and the library used is based on the Sitecore Engage mechanism as it is.
Setting
If you are already using Headless SXA, the configuration is very easy since the Sitecore Engage library is also built in. First, select the Site identifier item on the administration page.
If the site identifier has already been created, it will be displayed, but if it has not yet been created, use Create new to create it.
A new site identifier is created by setting the above items.
Next, add the above settings to the site. In the site settings, there is a field called Site identifiers. Enter the identifiers you have already created. Note that the identifiers will be different for each language.
The above settings will add the required fields to the Developer settings.
Use the above settings as the variables for deploying the external site; in the case of Vercel, it is fine if the three items are added as follows.
Check Analytics
You will get Analytics data from wherever it is set up for your site. First, when browsing Analytics, select Analyze from the menu on the left side of Pages.
The above screen is the screen of the report embedded in XM Cloud. Incidentally, if you are using CDP, the screen will look like the one below.
You can confirm that XM Cloud is using Analytics, which is provided as a function of CDP. In the case of XM Cloud, you can also see the performance per page.
Personalization
XM Cloud offers personalization, which we will introduce as we go through the process of creating a personalized page. First, select the appropriate page and click the Personalize button on the left side.
Clicking on the Create variant button allows you to create a new page type.
The Create your audience screen will then open.
Clicking on the Add first condition button will take you to a screen where you can create segmentation.
Clicking on the Add first condition button will take you to a screen where you can create segmentation.
- Geo - This is a form of information tied to an IP address. The following two are available
- Region - A very large grouping of regions, such as Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, etc.
- Country - This is a country, so it can be more detailed than Region.
- Date - Personalization will be based on the date. This is based on the organization's time zone.
- Month - Set based on month
- Day of the week - Set based on weeks
- Day of the week - Set based on the day
- User interaction - Can be personalized according to user behavior
- UTM value - Personalization according to UTM values
- First referrer - Use the site you visited before as a referrer. Example: I came from facebook.
- New or returning visitor - Have you made a previous visit or is this a return visit?
- Device - The device you are accessing is the target
- Operating system - Determines which OS is being accessed
- Device - Determine device type, mobile, desktop, tablet, etc.
- Visit
- Number of page views - Page views visited by visitors during the past 30 days
- First page - Triggered when started from a specific page
- Page view - Triggers when a page is referenced. You saw the search page, for example.
More details can be found in the following pages.
For example, if you want to use UTM values, select the above items to create a rule.
As you can see from the above rules, this is basically personalization using items that can be taken from access analysis, and does not include personally identifiable content. In fact, this part is made possible by using CDP + Personalize. The image is as follows. Note that more detailed regional information than country information is also available through CDP + Personalize.
Operation check
We would like to create a pattern for the simplest, first-time visitors and return visitors. The only rules are the following
This time we will prepare the Rich Text data as a separate item. The item was created in the Content Editor as follows
When you return to Pages and open the variant you created, you will be able to specify which parts to personalize.
Click on the Rich Text component at the top to display the Personalization section.
If you specify an item that you have created in advance, the settings will change as follows.
Now that you have completed the setup, click on the Publish button to publish the required item(s). You are now set up for personalization.
Summary
In this case, we confirmed that it is not just a content management mechanism, but that personalization for visitors is now possible. This is a sufficient functionality for basic marketing practices, and we also confirmed that it is possible to easily change to CDP + Personalize when it becomes more in-depth and user-specific.