Published on by Karim Marucchi, CEO
Welcome to our ongoing series about Open Source Alternatives to Sitecore. Right now you're reading Part Three: Personalization and A/B Testing, when you're done, there are two other articles you might be interested in: Part One: Sitecore Content Management and Part Two: Customer Data Management.
Welcome Back!
You might also be interested in Part Two of our ongoing series about Open Source Alternatives to Sitecore, which covers Customer Data Management.
Welcome Back!
You might also be interested in Part One of our ongoing series about Open Source Alternatives to Sitecore, which covers Sitecore Content Management.
Navigating the labyrinthine world of Content Management Systems (CMS) can be a daunting task, especially when you're searching for the features that will make your digital marketing strategies shine. Sitecore has long been a go-to solution in the enterprise landscape, but our clients have been surprised by how well Open Source alternatives stack up in functionality and scalability.
In our ongoing series, “Open Source Alternatives to Sitecore,” we are going to dive into “Personalization & AB Testing” and explore how Open Source can offer similar, and many times better, capabilities at a fraction of the cost.
Open Source
Alternatives to Sitecore
In this ongoing article series, we'll explore cost-effective Open Source alternatives to proprietary platforms like Sitecore.
- Part One: Sitecore Content Management
- Part Two: Customer Data Management
- Part Three: Personalization & A/B Testing
THE PROMISE → OUR SOLUTION
Personalization & A/B Testing
Optimize Every Customer Interaction with
A/B Testing and Personalization
Build Connected Customer Experiences
In today’s digital world everyone wants to “create an integrated digital experience across multiple channels.” Marketing managers often struggle to seamlessly connect their e-commerce store, email campaigns, and customer support ticketing system. Every time a new customer makes a purchase, manual processes are required to sync their data across platforms, leading to missed opportunities and delayed communication. Where Sitecore promises to centralize these experiences in an “all in one,” the overhead cost becomes prohibitive. The beauty of Open Source platforms like Drupal or WordPress is the vast array of plugins and third-party integrations available. When a customer makes a purchase, their details can be automatically synced with the brand’s CRM, triggering a personalized welcome email. If the customer has a query and raises a ticket, the support team can instantly see their purchase history and provide more tailored assistance. The result? The brand delivers a cohesive, multi-channel experience, reinforcing customer trust and loyalty, all while utilizing cost-effective Open Source tools and integrations.
Make Smarter Digital Decisions
Sitecore “recommends real-time actions that align with both customer needs and business objectives,” but Marketers have found that the cost of adoption and maintenance of following a monolithic singular product roadmap is straining to their budget. Maybe the biggest advantage to basing your DXP on an Open Source platform, like WordPress, is its tens of thousands of “plugin” modules. While these off-the-shelf add-ons can be used “out-of-the-box,” the true power of this ecosystem is that these modules can be used to quickly and cost-efficiently create deeply customized solutions that have advanced integration capabilities, incorporating machine learning tools that analyze visitors’ browsing patterns, past purchases, and even the time they spend on particular pages. These intelligent systems can then dynamically make recommendations to customers, offer bundle deals, and nudge visitors with personalized suggestions in ways that become unique for each brand’s needs. All of this produces a significant increase in average order value and customer retention. These Open Source solutions not only conserve resources but also empower businesses to make data-driven, smart digital decisions that resonate with their audience.
Personalize Every Customer Interaction
Sitecore promotes that “real-time personalization enables you to tailor user experiences in the moment.” Brands can personalize experiences in real time, but this comes at a steep price. However, with an Open Source platform like WordPress and off-the-shelf additional modules/plugins like DXP ToolKit, Brands can achieve the same level of personalization without the hefty cost. These offer real-time personalization by tracking user behavior, gathering data, and instantly customizing content based on visitor profiles. With these additions, as soon as a customer lands on the site, it tracks their behavior, integrates their preferences based on local and 3rd party application data, and instantly curates content that creates a bespoke real-time personalized action. This direct and relatable content increases the chances of advancing the sales funnel, customers making a purchase, segmenting the audience further, and ensuring that they feel understood and valued by the brand. Open Source tools make it affordable for brands to make every customer interaction count.
Deliver Lightning-Fast Performance
Many marketers think that only SaaS platforms are “built for speed and scale, delivering fast-loading, personalized experiences.” But when it comes to performance, nothing beats a well-optimized Open Source platform. When faced with site load times lagging, leading to abandoned carts and decreased user engagement, marketers can rely on their hosting partners with their finely-tuned systems, or if they have their own data centers, brands can integrate performance-boosting options like objectcache.pro. With these flexible options and/or adopting a headless CMS approach, content management can be separated from content presentation, resulting in blazing-fast page loads regardless of the user’s device. This shift alone can lead to an immediate decrease in page abandonment and a noticeable surge in completed transactions. This saves on SaaS fees but also transforms this site’s performance, proving that Open Source solutions can indeed compete with the best in the industry.
Test, Analyze, Optimize, Repeat
Sitecore delivers “A/B testing and analytics to refine your digital experience continually.” When our clients encounter roadblocks in creating hyper-personalized experiences from multiple data sources, we gladly demonstrate how A/B testing can be even more adaptable using Open Source software. With an Open Web system, you can choose either 3rd party off-site static testing, or multi-application real time on site testing. Simultaneously, the Google Analytics integration can provide insights into visitor engagement, bounce rates, and conversion paths for each version. When the data reveals which design leads to a higher conversion rate marketers can confidently optimize the brand’s homepage, leading to increased sales and engagement. These informed, iterative decisions for the brand’s digital presence are fundamental to growth and ROI and, when done at a fraction of the cost, allow for investment into other areas of the business.
FEATURED CASE STUDY:
Open Source Personalization & A/B Testing
Insperity, an industry-leading HR services provider, sought Crowd Favorite’s expertise to create a modern, easy-to-manage site that would support rich gated content and a sophisticated lead generation system.
Crowd Favorite migrated over 1,000 pieces of content to WordPress, and built custom form functionality to create an elaborate user profiling system powered by gated content. Using the forms to collect client data and adding personalization to blogs, Insperity was able to drive traffic and complete client profiles.
The Open Source Advantage
Marketers today do not want to overlook the potential of Open Source alternatives. They not only provide similar functionalities but also offer the added benefits of community support and greater flexibility at a fraction of the cost. Happy exploring!
Ready to find out more?
Interested in finding out where Open Source solutions can take your business? We are ready to partner with you on this journey, providing the expertise and support you need to achieve optimal outcomes. Contact us today, and let’s unlock the power of your digital infrastructure together!
