Customers are demanding not only quality products but a sophisticated and attentive experience where they can effectively engage with brands. She is increasingly aware and knows exactly what she wants — round-the-clock service, relevant information, prompt interaction, seamless transaction — and the list is endless. Every interaction or transaction that customers have with the brand defines the customer experience. Accenture Pulse Check 2018 found out that 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations.
The ‘modern’ marketer faces a constant challenge like never before – to deliver consistent ‘personalized’ customer experience by accessing data, information, and other assets across cross-functional environment. To address this issue and assist in digital transformation, numerous digital platforms have emerged in the marketplace that helps marketers gain valuable customer insight using which they can strategize on delivering personalized digital experience.
This is where the right technology becomes all-important. With Artificial Intelligence (AI), businesses are able to create and deliver highly personalized customer experiences. Not only that, marketers can efficiently optimize their opportunities for future customer interactions as well.
Having said this, it is also essential to focus on leveraging the power of AI along with the existing human effort. It is essential to pair machines alongside humans and determine a fair balance or partnership between the two. Machines excel in prediction, while humans have the power of judgment. Digital experience platforms gain competitive advantage when AI smoothly glides towards IA (Intelligent Augmentation).
Unleash the capabilities of Sitecore AI to power real-time personalization
As a global leader in multichannel marketing automation software, Sitecore has always thrived on its capability to offer personalization. Recently Sitecore announced its new Machine Learning (ML) framework – Sitecore AI – empowering modern marketers to deliver personalization in real time. The framework, built and fine-tuned through a pilot program conducted with Microsoft, offers auto personalization. The machine learning capabilities of the framework promptly identifies user segments, providing the marketer with relevant data whenever required. This helps the marketers in making informed decisions and determining the needs of the customers, while freeing up time to assist in planning and strategizing towards business goals.
What Sitecore AI offers (Key features of Sitecore AI)
Sitecore AI is a powerhouse of automation capabilities designed to meet the marketers’ requirements in every way possible.
Auto personalization: The key feature of auto personalization in Sitecore AI offers 1:1 experience by automating most of the tasks. No more guesswork. This first of its kind solution for automated personalization offers automated customer segmentation and behavior analysis. This helps to understand the customer journey better and there is clear visibility on the customer’s progress along the sales funnel. The framework automatically captures data on each customer, gathering trustworthy information and insights instantly that can be interpreted, shared, and deliberated upon for arriving at better business calls.
Case in point: L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics company wanted to revamp and relaunch 600 of its websites for a total of 15 brands within a timespan of three years. Through this digital transformation, L’Oréal wanted to improve the online experience and offer a personalized shopping experience to around a billion consumers that daily interact with the company’s website. The company chose Sitecore to create the digital platform because of the rich personalization capabilities and the speed of deployment at a global scale. This is the largest implementation in Sitecore’s history. L’Oréal’ leverages Sitecore Experience Database (xDB) within Sitecore XP to gather and analyze visitor data to create a personalized and unique shopping experience for its numerous consumers. In the words of Anne Guichard, L’Oréal’ Websites General Manager “AI is a never-ending source of inspiration and innovation, enabling L’Oréal to meet consumers’ diverse needs.”
Extensive analytics: Sitecore AI efficiently gathers data across various channels and makes it available in a central repository to be profiled and analyzed to gain perspective on various customers. Say goodbye to scattered data now. The framework allows easy fine-tuning of data; makes exporting and importing data much easier; provides a complete profile on unique customers allowing accurate performance analysis and much more. Personalization suggestions help to find out what works best for whom, which marketers can optimize accordingly.
Case in point: Dine Brands Global’s iconic brands Applebee’s Grill + Bar and IHOP wanted to streamline its online ordering and maximize its business outcomes. Using Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) and Sitecore Experience Database (xDB) Dine Brands websites integrated with its e-commerce vendor. This integration permits embedded ordering within the Sitecore platform itself without relying on the e-commerce vendor. The Sitecore solution improved the capability for advanced onsite ordering across all devices as well as offered customer profile synchronization into xDB analytics and enhanced geolocation-based interaction. Happy with the outcome, Charlie Jones, Executive Director of Digital and Guest Facing Technology, Dine Brands said, “Through Sitecore, Dine Brands is leveraging technology, data, and analytics to drive business success.”
Marketing automation: Marketing processes can be highly automated using Sitecore AI. By streamlining information and content related to each customer, the intuitive interface of the framework helps nurture customer relationships by creating targeted conversations, getting one-on-one with customers, and adapting the thought flow of communication to tailor experiences as required. Cross-channel campaigns can be set up and executed automatically via the Sitecore platform.
Case in point: The German multinational and leading sports brand of the world, PUMA felt that the company website did not convey the core attributes of the brand. PUMA wanted to create a new website and achieve 1:1 global user experience. Not only this, the company wanted the content handling process to be smooth with fast output time. All of this was achieved in less than a year’s time using Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) based on a refined user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) technology concept. As a result, the new corporate website of PUMA increased visibility, simplified backend operability, reduced page load, and generated more traffic and higher accuracy. PUMA efficiently achieved improved content management process and better user experience at the same time.
With reduced manual efforts and increased productivity, marketers (human resources) have more time on hand. AI cannot replace all that humans can do or are better at. Thus, marketers can zero in on higher tasks that involve creativity. Leveraging the available data and coming up with creative and improved ideas to run campaigns and offer superior customer experience can be the point of focus for marketers.
How can marketers leverage Sitecore AI
Striking the right balance between the human element and machines, here is how marketers stand to gain from Sitecore AI.
- Marketers no longer have to worry about the content crisis that they always seem to face. Through Sitecore AI, data processing and data analysis is tremendously accelerated. This helps in making relevant content available across channels at all times to be accessed whenever possible.
- By leveraging the power of AI, the Sitecore AI framework automatically offers intelligent solutions. It automatically identifies new customers, analyzes each customer behavior, and categorizes customers into the right segment. This granular personalization keeps segment-specific content ready for marketers to be analyzed, customized, and optimized as required.
- This smart tool generates comprehensive data-rich customer profiles, offering all relevant information on specific customers at the marketers’ fingertips. Marketers can then focus on analyzing these data, testing, optimizing, or learning from the available information to strategize better. Marketers can build a richer profile as necessary, execute campaigns, and create meaningful conversations with their customers using the intuitive interface of the Sitecore AI framework.
That’s not all. Marketers can get creative and harness the potential of Sitecore AI with due deliberation and practice. Using this connected platform, it becomes much easier to engage in targeted conversations personalized to perfection. Digital marketing strategies can be efficiently tailored to generate increased ROI and strengthen the brand presence.
How can Sitecore AI drive the new-gen customer experience
- Sitecore AI provides a holistic view of the humungous data that marketers are so wary of and clears the bottlenecks in their path. The platform or framework efficiently aligns the marketing lifecycle with the customer lifecycle generating smart insights by collecting and connecting the rich data available across channels. It provides marketers with the ability to engage with their customers on a one-to-one basis with flexibility and agility.
- This powerful solution offers automated personalization by instinctively identifying customer trends, tracking customer behavior, and generating customer segments to assist the marketer in making informed decisions on each customer. Once all this granulated data is available at a central location, it becomes easier for marketers to analyze and optimize their relationship with customers, taking personalization a notch higher.
Closing thoughts
Understanding customers is challenging and utilizing that understanding to generate positive business growth is an arduous task. To efficiently deliver and reach the set business goals, it is important to embrace new thought processes and new technologies that help bring about positive possibilities. To successfully move into the future, it is the right time to leverage the potential of emerging technologies such as AI with a human-centered approach, translating ML-generated insights into superior customer experience and meaningful business outcomes.
Be ready for the AI future! The fear that AI or machine learning will lead to elimination of human elements is irrational. Artificial intelligence or machine learning is playing an important role in the field of marketing right now. Sitecore AI is a crucial tool with the ability to address the operational challenges that marketers face each day. A one-of-its-kind solution, Sitecore AI truly delivers contextual data, enabling marketers to derive actionable insights from the same and optimize the personalization for customers offering unique customer experience, leading to increased conversion rates and improved business results.
AI initiatives into the marketing world are here to stay. So look no further and exploit its full potential.
