With rules-based personalisation in Sitecore, you can state the conditions under which relevant and tailored content on your website is delivered to a visitor, at the right time, in the right place.

Many B2B and B2C companies choose Sitecore choose as their content management system, and ecommerce and digital experience platform, for its advanced personalisation capabilities. Rules-based personalisation is just one approach amongst many.

75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognises them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history (Accenture)

How does rules-based personalisation in Sitecore work?

Personalisation relies on data.

Sitecore allows you to pull data in from various sources to help you understand your website visitor’s intent. You can use this data to set up rules and provide your visitors with the content they need, when they need it.

You can set up rules based on various attributes and data-points, including:

  • Inbound source: Where did the visitor come from to get to your website? Was it a Google search? Was it a click on one of your online advertising campaigns? Was it an email you sent out to your prospect database?
  • Digital fingerprint: Where is the visitor physically located? Is it in your country? Is it overseas but where the same language is spoken? Is it somewhere hot, or somewhere cold? All these things give you information to set up rules to serve appropriate content.
  • Website activity: What pages have they visited? Where did they start their journey? What content have they viewed or engaged with? With Sitecore, you can see this information historically or in real-time.
  • Other systems: If your website is integrated with your CRM system, your call centre system, or your data management platform, to name but a few, you can get even more data and an even deeper insight into your website visitors.

Sitecore can use data from all these sources to create a visitor profile that you can use as the basis for relevant, powerful personalisation that drives better conversions and increased revenue. Our article Sitecore Profiling covers how they're created in Sitecore.

Data is at the heart of Sitecore personalisation 
Source: Sitecore
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Rules-based personalisation based on inbound source

When a website visitor arrives at your website they'll display some kind of intent or purpose, depending on the link or campaign they clicked.

To map the inbound source in Sitecore, you'll need to set up a Sitecore token, or Campaign ID.

You can then append this Campaign ID to the URL you add to your search or display ads, your Facebook posts or ads, your LinkedIn posts and ads, and your email campaigns.

Sitecore then uses this data to personalise the experience for the website visitor, based on the inbound source / marketing campaign.

For example, you could set up a rule in Sitecore to say: Where Campaign ID equals ABC, show the ABC banner on the home page.

Rules-based personalisation based on geo-location

Geo-location provides data such as a person’s country, state, city etc.

You can use this data to decide and deliver content specific to the country or area. You can even provide them with directions to your nearest shop location and a discount offer if they visit the same day.

The opportunities with geo-location personalisation in Sitecore are endless.

To do this in Sitecore, you just need to enable personalisation based on geo-location, which is even easier if you have bought the Sitecore IP Geo-location Service, and create an appropriate rule in order to personalise a page or a component.

Brands who create personalised experiences achieve revenue increases of between 6-10 percent (Qubit)

Learn more about Sitecore personalisation:

Want to know more?

Sitecore is a powerful digital experience platform that combines content, commerce, and digital marketing tools that helps you to deliver personalised experiences to your customers. This results in an improved digital experience and better marketing and business results.

If you’re thinking about Sitecore as your website platform or if you already have a Sitecore website and want guidance on its marketing features, including rules-based personalisation, we can help.