Marketing automation’s role in personalization and contextualization
For large organizations that have already invested in marketing automation solutions such as Eloqua and Marketo, moving to Sitecore to manage the content while retaining the functionality of the other products is a good option. “These products have a lot of feature depth, and the organizations that use them can feed the data back into Sitecore to integrate the information they collect with other enterprise data,” Floisand says. Similarly, to gain a full picture of purchasing, the customer’s history from e-commerce sites such as Magento or Hybris can be imported into Sitecore, which helps with segmentation.
The latest major update in Sitecore XP 8 was a revision to the business users’ experience to allow them to easily perform testing, content optimization and validation. “These functions used to be the domain of people who had a deep understanding of multivariate analysis and statistical sampling,” says Floisand. “Now, non-technical editors can change a landing page and run an A/B test on the two versions. They can set a confidence level that determines the decisions they make once the results are in.”
Digital marketing focus
Some organizations already have legacy content management platforms and have decided to add a marketing software solution, and many options are available. HubSpot is positioned as an inbound marketing solution designed to draw customers to websites by providing interesting and relevant content. Founded in 2006, HubSpot’s software was designed as a response to customers’ changing buying habits. “Many businesses have not adapted to changes in consumer behavior,” says Jeff Russo, head of product marketing at HubSpot. “HubSpot is aimed at attracting and engaging customers by delivering inbound experiences that are helpful and personalized.”
Designed for small to medium-sized businesses (10 to 200 employees), HubSpot allows marketers to develop complex marketing workflows through drag-and-drop interfaces. It enables users to automate and analyze their campaigns, while aggregating visitor interactions in a single-view timeline. The interactions can include Web pages, e-mail, Tweets and other forms of contact. Depending on the customer’s responses and profile, different marketing content can be automatically sent out.
A significant number of HubSpot users are also Salesforce customers who integrate the two products, allowing databases from each product to be synchronized. Leads that come in through HubSpot’s inbound marketing are automatically transferred to Salesforce. “Through HubSpot Connect, we can integrate out of the box with many solutions,” Russo says, “and we have hundreds of APIs that can connect with many others.” The value of HubSpot within the Salesforce environment comes in part from its focus on longer sales cycles supported by inside sales teams; it is aimed less at short-term impulse purchases.
HubSpot has several levels of product: Basic, Pro and Enterprise. The Enterprise version has A/B testing to compare different types of content. “Users do not need to have any technical knowledge,” explains Russo. “The platform will split the sample and measure the level of statistical significance so the user knows which content was more effective.”
Included in the product is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that integrates information from data sources that traditional CRM systems might miss, such as website page visits, social media clicks and e-mail activity. The CRM system is an attractive capability for smaller companies that do not need a high-end call center-based system. “It allows us to cover the entire customer lifecycle from the first contact through the completion of the purchase and beyond,” Russo says.
“Buyers have more power than ever,” Russo adds. “Before they interact with a brand, they’ve already done most of their research into products and services, and they know the market. HubSpot allows the marketer to work with the buyer and create a better experience over time, to build a relationship.