Blog
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Hayley Wilson
Sitecore OMS From the Marketer’s Perspective
July 6th, 2011
Every Monday I pull our Sitecore Online Marketing Suite (OMS) Visitor Report and send a company wide email identifying the visitors who have come to our website within the past week. Unfailingly, employees old and new are fascinated by the analytics and send me follow-up requests: When was this visitor on our site? What was viewed? For how long? What was the referring source? The beauty of these questions is that they can all be answered through quick analysis of the OMS.
Sitecore is masterful at creating easily digestible interfaces and platforms that even the most technologically amateur can understand. I know this because I also work with their CMS content editor on a daily basis. Given the horror stories I hear around the office of clients desperate to transition from their clunky content management platforms to something more versatile, I am constantly reminded of how fortunate I am to have something as easy as Sitecore (and of course amazing developers to customize it). The OMS, much like the CMS, is straightforward and manageable. Though I risk losing the mystery and awe surrounding the visitor reports from those only familiar with Google Analytics, I have to confess that viewing and filtering however I desire – by constituent, industry, georgraphic location, etc – is simple and fun. While I like Google Analytics for the overall picture and infographics, the detail of the OMS creates a much more intimate picture of our site traffic and is the fuel behind much of our marketing efforts.
The other week one of our Senior Business Consultants was curious what a certain prospect was viewing on our site. The prospect, he said, had fallen off our radar, so it was surprising to see them back on our site. A quick filtering showed me the prospect’s unique visits over the past several months, and I was able to easily map what was being viewed. This particular prospect had recently viewed several industry-specific case studies. With this knowledge, our Consultant sent a targeted email, cross-referencing the design and technology services we highlighted in the various case studies. The result? An incoming RFP within three days of the email.
Granted, visitor traffic analysis is mere child’s play when compared with the entire suite. A slough of metrics, including top landing and exit pages, internal site search, external search keywords, and traffic sources, alerts us to what content is drawing and retaining visitors, and which content needs improvement. Campaigns let us track what visitors complete a Goal, like a Newsletter Subscription or Webinar Registration, and generates conversion rates that are incredibly helpful for content targeting. We have also recently forayed into OMS Persona/Profile Creation feature of the Marketing Center. Here, we can conduct testing based upon who we believe is accessing our site, and organize our content in a way best marketed to their interests.
Keep in mind, the OMS is a powerful tool, and it takes time to fully capitalize on all of its features. Since our Sitecore training, our team has become comfortable and confident in the suite, and already see its positive effects on our lead generation. We’ll wait to see what’s in store with Sitecore’s second-generation marketing suite: Digital Marketing System.
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