We - a Belgian leading online agency - decided to redo our own website in Sitecore 8. This is the story of how it made us eat our own dogfood.

1. How Sitecore 8’s
personalization features
made us eat
our own dogfood

2. We are The Reference
Cobbler’s kids, etc. so it’s time for a new
website goddammit.
The setting

5. We are The Reference
Cobbler’s kids, etc. so it’s time for a new
website goddammit.
The setting

6. “It’s just a website”

8. Further deepen knowledge of Sitecore 8
Improve on current situation by using S8
features:
More power in the hands of the marketeers
Personalization
Website project goals

9. Personalization

10. “It’s just a website.”
with a dash of personalization
added to it

11. Perform our usual
website building magic
The journey towards the launch
as we imagined it
Prepare for
and implement
personalization

12. Personalization
Relevance is simply the noun form of
the adjective "relevant," which means
"important to the matter at hand."

13. What is important for our customer?
What is our customer’s matter at hand?
Relevance =

14. Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy

15. Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy
Easy

16. It’s not that we don’t know…
… it’s that we have to get everyone on the
same page so that there’s minimal need
for oversight/management/procedures.
Fact is:

17. It’s not that we don’t know…
… it’s that we have to get everyone on the
same page so that there’s minimal need
for oversight/management/procedures.
Fact is:
Which is what our
clients struggle with too.

18. It’s not that we don’t know…
… it’s that we have to get everyone on the
same page so that there’s minimal need
for oversight/management/procedures.
Fact is:
Which is what our
clients struggle with too.
Which is what we
help our clients with
e-ver-y day.

19. It’s not that we don’t know…
… it’s that we have to get everyone on the
same page so that there’s minimal need
for oversight/management/procedures.
Fact is:
Which is what our
clients struggle with too.
Which is what we
help our clients with
every day.
And yet we thought we knew better.
You know, it’s just a website.

20. It’s not that we don’t know…
… it’s that we have to get everyone on the
same page so that there’s minimal need
for oversight/management/procedures.
Fact is:
Which is what our
clients struggle with too.
Which is what we
help our clients with
every day.
And yet we thought we knew better.
You know, it’s just a website.

21. It’s not that we don’t know…
… it’s that we have to get everyone on the
same page so that they can make this a
success without needing
oversight/management/instructions.
So…

22. Who is everyone?

23. Business analyst (KPI’s, goals, …)
Information architect, interaction
designer, functional specs designer
Visual designer
Functional analysts
Technical architect and analysts
Developers
Testers
Online marketeers (copy guidelines,
dashboarding, SEF, …)
Content producers
Who is this “everyone”?
Implementation Exploitation
Business consultants for continuous
optimization re business goals and
changing contexts
Implemenation team for continuous
improvement
Online marketeers for tactical
operations and hard data reporting
Content marketeers feeding the engine
BUT ABOVE ALL: THE REST OF THE
COMPANY (sales, operations, C-level,
…)

24. Business analyst (KPI’s, goals, …)
Information architect, interaction
designer, functional specs designer
Visual designer
Functional analysts
Technical architect and analysts
Developers
Testers
Online marketeers (copy guidelines,
dashboarding, SEF, …)
Content producers
Who is this “everyone”?
Implementation Exploitation
Business consultants for continuous
optimization re business goals and
changing contexts
Implemenation team for continuous
improvement
Online marketeers for tactical
operations and hard data reporting
Content marketeers feeding the engine
BUT ABOVE ALL: THE REST OF THE
COMPANY (sales, operations, C-level,
…)
Everyone.

25. Getting everyone on
the same page

26. Things we need to clear out first
Search online Google
Hungry, don’t want to cook, home alone pizza.be
Need running shoes Nike
Improve career Vlerick
… The Reference
“The matter at hand”

27. Strike the right
balance between
relevance and
distinctiveness for
our target
customers
Things we need to clear out first

29. Define what we want to personalize for
Business goals
Marketing objectives
Engagement goals
(and not the other way around)
Increase market share
20% must be decision
taker
Increase sign-up for
whitepapers and
collect DMU & role

30. Features & functionalities

31. For content and its promotion;
For delivering relevance;
For continuous improvement;
For configuring the experience
management tools (S8)
We now have a blueprint

32. Continuous optimization
Perform our usual
website building magic
The real journey
Define the
digital value
proposition
Touchpoint mapping Touchpoint journeys Experience design
Content marketing
Sales / Account Management /
Marketing / HR / Operations / C-level
Goals & KPI’s
(incl.
personalization)

35. The “shiny new toy”-trap is STRONG;
Even if you are conscious of it, you can will
still fall victim to it.
What did we learn?

36. Even if we’re doing this every day, we
shouldn’t think we “just know” how to do
it.
We know perfectly well how to use the
tools, but we need to take the time to
explicitly define what to use them for.
What did we learn?

37. Sitecore facilitates and enables us in
reaching our goals; i.e. no technological
restrictions to our business endeavours.
What did we see validated?

38. Thanks!
www.reference.be
@TheReference
mdhondt@reference.be