The Core of an Enterprise-Level Marketing Technology Stack
Updated November 11, 2015
The Core of an Enterprise-Level Marketing Technology Stack
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Software Version
8
Overall Satisfaction with Sitecore Web Content Management
As a Sitecore partner since 2005, we help our customers solve digital marketing challenges by leveraging Sitecore experience platform. We also use the platform ourselves. Sitecore is typically the "hub" of the marketing technology ecosystem in that it provides 1) web content management, 2) multi-channel experience management, 3) user experience optimization/personalization/automation, and 4) rich data to fuel these capabilities and empower marketers.
In brief, Sitecore provides a single platform that reaches across many needs without the need to piecemeal many applications together.
In brief, Sitecore provides a single platform that reaches across many needs without the need to piecemeal many applications together.
Pros
- Open and Scalable Content Management: At its root, the CMS capabilities offer complete customization while maintaining data integrity so that organizations can manage large amounts of content efficiently not just on the web presence but across email, social, mobile and print.
- Experience Marketing: On top of the CMS foundation, organizations can optimize the experience of their customers through multivariate testing, personalization and engagement automation. This improved experience can also be quantified by the analytics concept of Engagement Value that is baked into all tracked interactions.
- Application Integration: Sitecore enables organizations to create seamless user experiences across the entire enterprise by making it possible to tightly integrate other applications, whether they be ERP, CRM, E-commerce or any business-specific solutions.
Cons
- Ease-of-Use: This has greatly improved in version 8 but naturally when a platform offers an immense amount of features, the usability becomes more challenging. For those organizations that can truly take advantage of the enterprise-level capabilities, proper training and onboarding (organizational change management) is a must-have in order to see the vision fulfilled.
- Email Marketing: In particular, the email marketing capabilities are still maturing along with volume capacity. The basics are solid, but the more advanced features still have some caveats in their function. Version 8.2 of Email Experience Manager shows some potential in rounding out the capabilities.
- E-Commerce: While perhaps not a weakness in technical capability, there are currently multiple e-commerce solutions both directly from Sitecore and from closely-integrated technology partners, making it challenging to determine which is the proper solution for each business situation.
- Meaningful Data: Ability to track Engagement Value of visits and details about visitors and integrate with CRM makes it easier to identify how digital marketing is meeting/failing organization's business objectives.
- Improved Lead Conversion and Customer Retention: Personalized content marketing allows digital marketing teams to effectively be marketing on a 1:1 level on a mass-marketing scale.
- Centralized Platform Management: Teams require knowledge of fewer systems to conduct digital marketing efforts due to the "all-in-one" nature of Sitecore.
Content Author / Administrator
1,000-10,000 pages
Sitecore Digital Experience Platform Feature Ratings
Sitecore Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Using Sitecore
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using | Slow to learn Lots to learn |
- Multi-Tasking: Ability to be a "power user" and have multiple windows open at once to toggle between tasks
- Inline Editing: Ability to simply browse to a page, view it and make changes inline in the same manner the website is viewed by end-users
- Personalizing Content: Ability to create a condition and apply alternate content to be displayed when the condition is true.
- Reading Analytic Reports: Navigating and intuitively understanding the meaning behind the out-of-the-box reports can be challenging.
- Managing Forms: In some cases, there are too many potential paths a user can take in creating/inserting/modifying/publishing forms on a page.
Yes - I have been able to access Sitecore via my phone and easily change and publish content. The workflow RSS is a powerful, yet under-utilized mobile capability as well.
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