I n the world of marketing, establishing a connection with the key demographic and the individual is essential. Without a connection, clients have no reason to feel anything and need to a company. Instead they may turn to the competition, taking their business with them.
While marketing through traditional means does require some element of a wider generalization when reaching specific audiences, website personalization allows companies to tailor each visitor’s experience to better fit their own needs. This goes a long way in establishing a connection with the potential customer, increasing the chance of the visitor turning into a customer or, at the very least, a new potential lead. This is exactly why all business owners need to implement CMS personalization into their website.
What is a CMS?
More than likely, an enterprise is already going to run a CMS, but for those who don’t or those who are unsure of the system in place, CMS stands for content management system. It is a software application used to assist in the management and creation of digital content. While not exclusively for, a CMS is most commonly used at the enterprise level for managing the massive amount of information coming in and leaving a website (at the enterprise level it may also be referred to as Enterprise Content Management, or ECM). A CMS is essentially software for organizing and delivering the website to the world.
When an individual visits a website, they leave a trail of all sorts of useful information. From previous websites that they visited to the pages they access on the corporate page and how long they stay on a specific page, a considerable amount of data gets captured. With the help of a content management system, it is possible to collect all of this user data in one place. Having all data on hand in one location makes analyzing visitor information easier and more accurate (Tech Target, 2014). It also allows for easy access to the information to customize the experience. One simple example is using the geographic information of where the visitor is located to show relevant promotions for local events on the site rather than an event 1000 miles away.
Important Features of a CMS
There are dozens of service providers offering a content management system at the enterprise level. Each service provider does bring specific benefits and features to the table. However, nearly all CMS software does come with a handful of features. Some of the most important features available in a CMS includes:
- Indexing
- Format Management
- Revision Features
- Publishing
Indexing, searching and retrieving information in real time is important for any business. The ability to recall files and other information in real time makes performing edits and upgrades to a website to better fit the needs of a customer easier.
Websites may not include a host of different format types. While the majority of pages are written in an HTML document for Internet viewing, others are uploaded as PDF documents for easy downloading.
There are times when a website edit may not provide the desired results. A quality CMS provides revision features that allows Website admins to revert back to a previous release of the website. This way, even if new changes are made to the site, if these changes do not prove beneficial everything can be restored without issue.
Along with revisions, a quality CMS should provide publishing features, ranging from templates all the way to tools designed to help a website designer gain valuable methods to modify the website whenever necessary (HubSpot, 2011).
Personalization of the Internet
Personalization is not something that simply happened over night. While it may have seemed to come about relatively suddenly, services such as Google and Amazon have been experimenting with providing a unique, customized experience to visitors for nearly a decade. According to Search Engine Land (2009), Google released new personalized search services on a large scale in 2009 (although Google had been releasing gradual updates providing semi-personalized searches for several years prior).
Companies such as Google and Amazon have the ability to profit a considerable amount off of personalized searches. By showcasing similar search results based on a user’s past search history, stores such as Amazon can make sure visitors not only identify what they logged online for with less effort, but they may find additional products they originally had no interest in buying, but end up buying anyway, all due to website personalization. By implementing CMS personalization into a website, businesses around the world have the ability to offer a customized, unique visitor experience, which in turn boosts sales and helps convert more website leads.
What Can CMS Personalization Do for Your Team?
The bread crumb trail of data website visitors leave when searching a particular page can paint an in-depth picture of the individual. It not only indicates how they arrived on the page (Google, Facebook, direct link or so on), the device they are using, their geographical location, how long they visit and potentially more specific information. All of this information can then be used by the CMS to create a personalized, custom experience for the visitor. If a company provides services in a half-dozen different states, the information obtained through the user’s IP address can notify the website of their location, which in turn loads the correct information. This way, a user in Michigan may see visuals of the Great Lakes while someone in San Diego may see the Pacific Ocean. The localized personalization is just one way to produce a unique website experience.
As an individual interacts with the website, the site itself grows smarter and can produce a finer-tuned image of what the visitor might want. This may inform the website to recommend a specific product, or highlight a service the individual already clicked on. By showcasing what a visitor wants, CMS personalization has the ability to dramatically transform a company’s e-commerce presence (CMS Wire, 2017).
The True Benefits of Personalization
The fact of the matter is customers want a personalized experience. In a recent report published by Accenture, 75 percent of all consumers said they are more likely to purchase products and services through an e-commerce website that knows their name and can provide desirable recommendations based off of previous purchases. Additionally, 63 percent of consumers in the survey said they hold a specific company to a higher level and think more positively of the company by recognizing them upon visiting the site. Beyond all of it, one of the most telling statistics is nearly 80 percent of all consumers will only engage with a website that provides personalization and 77 percent of shoppers said they made purchases based specifically on recommendations from a service that recognized them (Accenture, 2016).
Nearly every study done on the subject points towards the importance of website personalization. At the enterprise level, additional assistance is required in order to implement these personalization elements. With the help of CMS personalization, any business can boost exposure and increase both sales and potential leads.
In the modern day of Internet browsers, users now experience a certain level of personalization. Due to more and more customized experiences while surfing the Internet, the need for instant customer gratification becomes much more vital in turning a website visitor into a potential customer or lead. With the help of CMS personalization, a website offers more information and content of interest to every single person who visits the page. So by taking advantage of the powerful connective aspects of CMS personalization, the business will grows its e-commerce department while converting more website leads at the same time.
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