Visitor Centric Content Improves Online Sales

An outside-in content management approach converts better  than the traditional inside-out way of providing content to online visitors.

State-of- the art web content management systems have the ability today to create, update and publish content by following some artificial content rules and policies. Websites which integrate and use web analytics data to the automated process of content publishing are better and more effective in achieving online sales goals.

Many WCM systems today provide dynamic functions that will change and show specific content blocks that are more relevant for specific visitor groups. Third party content providers use web analytics data for A/B testing and recommendations and so dynamically create relevant content which converts better. The use of web analytics data for content optimization improves the effectiveness of any WCM system. The best of breed technologies are incorporating real time web analytics data instead of a more common way of use which is based on historical information about click behavior, segmentation and other relevant information of online visitors.

Visitor centric developed websites focus on content personalization, targeted marketing and  give visitors a greater extent of the  “ME factor” and more important it will increase online conversion rates and sales. One other reason for companies to focus more on a visitor centric or web analytics based website is the current change in our economical environment. Many companies are facing a decrease in online sales as consumers are more and more focusing on primary needs and goods when shopping online. Increasingly less interested in buying irrelevant products as they were used to in the past.

Aggregated or individual visitors behavior can be translated to automated content decisions and rules for content management systems by different ways. A visitor might be using a website search function looking for specific content, has historical purchases in the same shop or based on a representative set of visitors; the experience is that most purchases are done at the beginning of the day and specific product groups are selling better over weekends. All kind of information can be extracted from web analytics data and is available for using to provide a visitor an optimal user experience so it will convert better.

However, it is not always necessary to automate and integrate complex visitor analysis for getting a step forward to online success. Simple content policy rules also work. For instance, a visitors’ IP address can be used to identify the geographical location so a content management system can generate the requested content in the language of visitor, or show/hide specific products that cannot be sold or on the other hand is more popular for the specific location. The same sort of technology can be used to identify visitors using a mobile phone for browsing a website. In that case a CMS can forward the visitor to a template which is optimized for mobile online browsing. This relative simple feature generates visitor friendly content following just a couple of predefined content policies and rules and is proven to lead to better conversion rates and online sales.

Using advanced web analytic information helps producing content policies in a greater extent by providing a more detailed and in dept view of specifications, behavior, paths and demands of visitors. They simply result in a better understanding and segmentation of online users when properly used.

If your website’s content is not yet (partly) visitor centric or based on web analytics data and doesn’t features any automated personalized content I would really advice you the look into this effective way  of targeted marketing optimization. Although it will take some resource investments I strongly believe it will convert in the long term.

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