Practical Sitecore 8 Configuration and Strategy: A User Guide for Sitecore's Content and Marketing Capabilities

327 Pages·2016·18.854 MB·English

by  Phillip Wicklund

Practical Sitecore 8
Conf iguration and
Strategy
A User Guide for Sitecore’s Content
and Marketing Capabilities
—
Phil Wicklund
Practical Sitecore 8
Configuration and
Strategy
A User Guide for Sitecore’s Content and
Marketing Capabilities

Phil W icklund
Practical Sitecore 8 Configuration and Strategy: A User Guide for Sitecore's Content and Marketing
Capabilities
Phil Wicklund
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-1237-0 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-1236-3
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-1236-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015957384
Copyright © 2015 by Phil Wicklund
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I dedicate this book to my wife Sarah and our
five children—Adalyn, Noah, Molly, Henry, and Teddy
Contents at a Glance
About the Author ...................................................................................................xiii
About the Technical Reviewers ...............................................................................xv
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................xvii
Introduction ............................................................................................................xix
■ Chapter 1: Introduction to Sitecore 8 ....................................................................1
■ Chapter 2: Managing Content ..............................................................................31
■ Chapter 3: Experience Personalization ................................................................79
■ Chapter 4: Experience Optimization ..................................................................107
■ Chapter 5: Marketing Campaigns ......................................................................127
■ Chapter 6: Web Forms for Marketers ................................................................161
■ Chapter 7: Experience Analytics ........................................................................193
■ Chapter 8: Security ............................................................................................223
■ Chapter 9: Governance ......................................................................................247
■ Chapter 10: Appendix ........................................................................................263
Index .....................................................................................................................311
v
Contents
About the Author ...................................................................................................xiii
About the Technical Reviewers ...............................................................................xv
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................xvii
Introduction ............................................................................................................xix
■ Chapter 1: Introduction to Sitecore 8 ....................................................................1
Web Content Management—A Brief History ....................................................................1
Web 2.0 ...................................................................................................................................................2
R.I.P. WCM—Long Live CXP ....................................................................................................................2
Key Priorities for a Customer Experience Platform ..........................................................4
Easy to Use .............................................................................................................................................4
Real-Time Personalization ......................................................................................................................5
Single View of the Customer ..................................................................................................................5
Search Engine Optimization ...................................................................................................................5
E-Mail and Automation ...........................................................................................................................5
Multilingual Support ...............................................................................................................................6
Omnichannel Support .............................................................................................................................6
Social Media Support .............................................................................................................................7
Mobile Support .......................................................................................................................................7
Integration Flexibility ..............................................................................................................................8
Developer Friendly ..................................................................................................................................8
Enterprise Grade .....................................................................................................................................9
vii
■ CONTENTS
Key Features and Capabilities of Sitecore ........................................................................9
Sitecore Solution Architecture ................................................................................................................9
Unifi ed Content Management ...............................................................................................................13
Analytics and Experience Optimization ................................................................................................17
Experience Automation .........................................................................................................................18
Experience Profi les ...............................................................................................................................20
Experience Personalization ..................................................................................................................21
Federated Experience Manager ............................................................................................................22
Email Experience Manager ...................................................................................................................22
Print Experience Manager ....................................................................................................................23
Quick Tour of the Sitecore Admin GUI .............................................................................23
What’s New in Sitecore 8? .............................................................................................27
Summary ........................................................................................................................29
■ Chapter 2: Managing Content ..............................................................................31
The Sitecore Hierarchy ...................................................................................................32
Templates .............................................................................................................................................34
Content .................................................................................................................................................35
Layouts and Components .....................................................................................................................38
Content Editing Fundamentals .......................................................................................40
Getting Started .....................................................................................................................................42
Managing Rich Media ...........................................................................................................................44
Working in the Experience Editor .........................................................................................................47
Managing Thousands of Items with Buckets ........................................................................................59
Archiving Content and the Recycle Bin .................................................................................................61
Content Versions and Multilingual Language Support ..........................................................................62
Content Cloning ....................................................................................................................................70
Workfl ows and Publishing Overview ..............................................................................72
Summary ........................................................................................................................78
viii
■ CONTENTS
■ Chapter 3: Experience Personalization ................................................................79
What Is Personalization? ................................................................................................79
Rules-Based vs. Predictive Personalization .........................................................................................80
It All Starts with Personas ....................................................................................................................84
Predictive Personalization Terminology ................................................................................................87
Personalization Testing in the Experience Explorer ..............................................................................90
Confi guring Personalization ...........................................................................................94
Confi guring Ad-Hoc Personalization .....................................................................................................94
Confi guring Persona-Based Personalization ........................................................................................98
Summary ......................................................................................................................105
■ Chapter 4: Experience Optimization ..................................................................107
Experience Optimization Considerations ......................................................................107
What Is A/B and Multivariate Testing? ................................................................................................107
Good Expectations (1% Rule) ..............................................................................................................110
Landing Pages vs. Corporate Web Site ...............................................................................................110
Calculating Statistical Signifi cance ....................................................................................................112
Optimization Gamifi cation ..................................................................................................................115
Running Your First A/B Test ..........................................................................................116
Creating a New Page Test ...................................................................................................................116
Creating a Multivariate Page-Level Test .............................................................................................120
Summary ......................................................................................................................125
■ Chapter 5: Marketing Campaigns ......................................................................127
Sitecore Marketing Automation ....................................................................................127
A Looking Glass and a Rudder ............................................................................................................128
Tactical (t) versus Transformational (T) ...............................................................................................128
Sitecore Marketing Building Blocks .............................................................................131
Events, Failure Events, and Goals .......................................................................................................131
Outcomes ...........................................................................................................................................137
Campaigns ..........................................................................................................................................139
ix
■ CONTENTS
Engagement Plans ..............................................................................................................................141
Taxonomies .........................................................................................................................................144
Creating Your First Engagement Plan ...........................................................................147
Email Experience Manager ...........................................................................................156
Summary ......................................................................................................................159
■ Chapter 6: Web Forms for Marketers ................................................................161
Overview of Web Forms for Marketers .........................................................................161
Building Your First WFFM Form ....................................................................................171
Adding a Form to a Page ....................................................................................................................171
Adding Fields to the Form ..................................................................................................................174
Confi guring Form and Field Validation ................................................................................................177
Confi guring Save Actions ....................................................................................................................181
Localizing/Translating the Form .........................................................................................................191
Summary ......................................................................................................................192
■ Chapter 7: Experience Analytics ........................................................................193
Creating Your Measurement Strategy...........................................................................195
Out-of-the-Box Analytics ..............................................................................................198
Analytics Dashboard ...........................................................................................................................198
Language and Location Analytics .......................................................................................................203
Location Analytics ...............................................................................................................................204
Pattern Matches .................................................................................................................................205
Acquisition Analytics...........................................................................................................................206
Campaign Analytics ............................................................................................................................207
Keyword Analytics ..............................................................................................................................208
Behavior Analytics ..............................................................................................................................208
Conversion Analytics ..........................................................................................................................209
Experience Profi le ...............................................................................................................................211
Path Analyzer ......................................................................................................................................212
x
■ CONTENTS
Self-Service Sitecore Business Intelligence.................................................................213
Excel PowerView Reporting ................................................................................................................215
PowerBI for Teams ..............................................................................................................................219
Summary ......................................................................................................................222
■ Chapter 8: Security ............................................................................................223
User Management ........................................................................................................224
Creating a New User ...........................................................................................................................226
Creating New and Custom User Profi les .............................................................................................228
Administering Users ...........................................................................................................................230
Access Rights ...............................................................................................................232
Out-of-the-Box Access Rights ............................................................................................................232
Access Viewer ....................................................................................................................................233
Roles ............................................................................................................................234
Out-of-the-Box Roles and Role Inheritance ........................................................................................235
Assigning Roles to Items ....................................................................................................................238
Security Presets .................................................................................................................................244
Adding Users to Roles.........................................................................................................................245
Summary ......................................................................................................................246
■ Chapter 9: Governance ......................................................................................247
What Is Governance?....................................................................................................247
Policies .........................................................................................................................248
Procedures ...................................................................................................................254
Ongoing Tasks and Audits ............................................................................................256
Roles and Responsibilities ...........................................................................................258
Governance Committees ..............................................................................................259
Summary ......................................................................................................................261
xi