The ability to deliver personalized, engaging content is crucial in today’s digital experience marketplace.   As evidenced - in our industry - by Contentful’s recent acquisition of personalization product company Ninetailed and the overall environment and consumer expectations for personalized experiences (Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, oh my), getting personal is now a near prerequisite. 

As the digital experience industry has moved from more all-in-one, on-premise solutions towards decoupled and best-of-breed Martech stacks, personalization may have waxed and waned in and out of that transition.  It was potentially a part of that previous all-in-one scenario - whether it truly delivered or not is a different question.  But as we moved to API and cloud-driven solutions, personalization became another product you really needed to individually select and procure into your stack.   

For customers moving towards headless content management systems (CMS), while they understand and are told that a headless CMS is supposed to just do content management at the highest level, it became harder to come to terms with the fact that it does not and is not really supposed to do more by design.  See above Contentful-Ninetailed tie-up for example.  For Sitecore, the Digital Experience Platform leader who has been through the transition itself from all-in-one monolith to suite of headless solutions, it has brought some of the beneficial aspects of the previous way into its modern tool set.   

Sitecore XM Cloud, Sitecore’s cloud-native, headless CMS, offers a powerful solution for developers and marketers to efficiently create omnichannel experiences. One standout feature of XM Cloud is its embedded personalization capabilities, which allows organizations to create customized, targeted content for various audience segments directly from their web pages and without the need for another license.   

What is Sitecore XM Cloud? 

Sitecore XM Cloud is an all-in-one platform that bundles several essential tools for building, managing, and delivering personalized digital experiences. These tools include: 

• Sitecore Experience Manager (XM) – The latest version of Sitecore’s flagship content management system. 
• Pages Content Editor – A user-friendly interface for managing web content. 
• Sitecore Experience Accelerator (SXA) – For rapid site building and deployment. 
• Headless Services – For delivering content seamlessly to any device or channel. 
• Sitecore JavaScript Rendering SDK for Next.js – For front-end development. 
• Experience Edge – A cloud-based content delivery network. 

With these tools, Sitecore XM Cloud enables businesses to deliver dynamic, relevant experiences to their audiences. 

Embedded Personalization 

XM Cloud Embedded Personalization is a built-in feature that provides out-of-the-box personalization functionality, allowing marketers to target specific audience segments and tailor content based on audience behaviors and characteristics. This feature is particularly useful for websites looking to deliver personalized content to anonymous users, without the need for extensive setup or additional tools. 

Key Features of Embedded Personalization 

1. Targeted Audience Segmentation: Embedded personalization allows businesses to define specific audience segments based on various criteria such as user behavior, device, geolocation, and more. These segments can be easily configured using pre-built templates, making personalization accessible even for non-technical users. 
2. Page Variants: For each audience, businesses can create up to eight page variants, where different content, layouts, or components are displayed based on the audience segment. This flexibility ensures that the right message reaches the right audience at the right time. 
3. Personalization Rules on the Edge: The personalization engine works directly on the Edge, delivering the correct content variant based on predefined rules. This ensures fast, real-time content delivery, improving the user experience across all devices and locations. 
4. Preview Mode: Marketers can preview how each audience segment will experience the content directly in Pages. This feature ensures that all variants are properly configured and displayed as intended. 
5. Analytics: Embedded analytics track the performance of each page variant, allowing businesses to measure the effectiveness of their personalization strategies. These insights can help optimize content based on traffic and engagement metrics. 

How Does Personalization Work in XM Cloud? 

Personalization in XM Cloud is designed to be intuitive and accessible. It’s applied at the page level, meaning that a specific page variant is shown to a particular audience segment. This page-level approach simplifies the process of personalizing content and ensures that marketers can quickly implement changes without extensive development work. 

For example, personalization can be based on: 

• Site Behavior: Tailor content based on the visitor’s current browsing behavior, such as viewing a specific product page. 
• External Referrals: Personalize content for users referred by external campaigns, like social media ads or email newsletters. 
• Session Data: Deliver content based on the visitor’s location, device, or browsing history. 

Marketers can personalize specific components of a page variant or replace entire components based on the audience’s preferences. This flexibility allows businesses to make meaningful, relevant adjustments to their content without rebuilding entire pages. 

Out-of-the-Box Conditions for Personalization 

Sitecore XM Cloud’s embedded personalization comes with a fixed set of out-of-the-box conditions, including: 

• Time-based Conditions: Deliver content at specific times or on certain days, perfect for timed promotions. 
• Device-based Conditions: Show different content depending on the visitor’s device, such as mobile-specific offers. 
• Geolocation-based Conditions: Tailor offers or messages based on a visitor’s country or region. 
• Page View-based Conditions: Deliver content based on the number of times a visitor has viewed a specific page. 
• User Interaction-based Conditions: Customize content based on the referrer or UTM parameters from external campaigns. 

These conditions can be combined using logical operators (AND/OR), giving marketers the ability to fine-tune their audience segmentation with ease. 

Expanding Capabilities with Sitecore Personalize 

While XM Cloud’s embedded personalization offers robust capabilities, businesses that require more advanced features can upgrade to Sitecore Personalize. This upgrade provides additional control over personalization rules, access to experience APIs, and advanced audience targeting features, such as identity resolution and unification, which are essential for personalizing content for known users. 

Sitecore XM Cloud Embedded Personalization provides a powerful, out-of-the-box solution for delivering targeted, engaging content to anonymous users. Its real-time data collection, page variants, and built-in analytics make it easier than ever to personalize content at scale. For businesses looking to go beyond page-level personalization, Sitecore Personalize offers additional flexibility and control. 

Contact us today to explore how Sitecore Personalize can elevate your personalization strategy!