Why you should use localisation as part of your personalisation stack?
Localisation or GeoIP based tactics are high on our list of must haves in your digital experience optimisation plan.
As with any other personalisation tactic it is good practice to begin with the audience segments you want target and build hypothesis around their unique user journeys as they enter the site, engage with content, and eventually exit. We seek to define the behaviours that we are aiming to influence throughout their experience and emphasise the importance of developing a clear hypothesis that you want to prove or disprove through your localisation tactic.
At a high level, our approach is designed around defining the: who, what, why, when and how the visitors are engaging with the site content, then overlay their geographical location, language, and any other relevant factors. We examine Google Analytics (GA), conduct desk research, stakeholder interviews and Sitecore interaction data to group common usage patterns, volume of traffic per location, and then co-design and prioritise specific tactics. It's critical to also set (and stick to) a test cadence to a create rigid operating rhythm so tests are always running for the same period to avoid skewing the data. A simple A/B test where we serve a percentage of the audience localised Vs control content will provide good definition of how well the approach is working. We craft these experiments as small, low risk and scalable then continuously monitor the performance of your localised content, tracking and testing for metrics like engagement, conversion rates, and user satisfaction.
Our approach emphasises data-driven decision making, collaboration, and a focus on the user experience.
By following these principles and continuously iterating based on the results - we can drive improved user engagement and conversion rates over time.
Some of the localisation opportunities we like to explore as part of the above framework include:
Adding localisation preferences functionality enabling the users to manually select their preferred language or region and opt in/out of personalisation.
Integrating multi-lingual items into selected areas of the site such as news feeds, when the user meets certain interaction conditions.
Localising navigation menu and structure to accommodate different languages and regions.
Segment prioritisation by location to ensure that you focus efforts where they can have the most significant impact.
Exploring device personalisation and where content tailored for mobile devices, or low bandwidth - such is in remote or regional areas.
In terms of exploring personalisation opportunities more broadly, we have a formal three-part process that focuses on co-designing your program as part of a bespoke DX blueprint. This aligns localisation and personalisation efforts to digital goals, then platform strategy to CX and brand objectives. We partner with you to regularly review data, experimentation outcomes, and develop tactics to drive continual improvement, and gain insights about audience interaction and quality of visit.
A key part of the process is defining digital segments, where to start and how to prioritise.
One of the framework we use is the PIE framework to uncover:
1. Potential – how valuable is this segment?
2. Importance – how many users sit within this segment?
3. Ease – how easy is it to recognise this segment based on their interactions with the site?
With these foundations win place, some of the personalisation opportunities we would hope to explore with you could include:
Pattern matching users that explore similar content - enabling serving of related topics.
Implicitly personalising content to likely profile and intent.
Retargeting digital segments to reinforce messages, calls to action.
Serving content based on date, day of the month, time of day or season.
Asset downloads - and prioritising these as a user preference.
Goals converted - and moving users to next logical stage in their journey.
Localised news or announcements.
By Device - Desktop, Mobile, Tablet.
Visit number (new vs. returning) - as a way of building digital dialogues.
Matching regional imagery and content.
Location (Geo-targeting or campaign/data match).
Campaigns triggered – online referral from digital media (serve related content on arrival to the site).
Pages visited (content relevancy for progressive profiling).
These potential personalisation tactics would be backed by our proven A/B/n testing and experimentation approach to ensure almost anything can be tested on your site, some of the common elements we would suggest including:
Page layout, and location of key components
Messages, information, CTAs
Images and videos
Copy size, fonts
Buttons (size, shape, colour, font)
Menus, navigation elements
We have built an extensive knowledge base on how to approach and implement personalisation, experimentation, and optimisation - a great deal of which is an evolution of Sitecore’s own Business Optimisation Service (SBOS) that we have invested significant time with. It’s a huge topic, and one we are extremely passionate about!