Ektron 9.00

Creating Personalized Web Experiences with Personas

Personas are categories of users who fit a targeted demographic, attitude, or behavior, and therefore may be interested in similar information, products, and so forth on a website. Personas embody characteristics and traits that you have identified and prioritized for your business. For example, a persona could be Ted the Technical Decision Maker. You know Ted’s title, and a few pieces of data to identify him, such as his industry, business challenges, and so on.

Persona Management lets you create personalized Web experiences by leveraging this knowledge to engage site visitors in meaningful and relevant ways, where content is matched to a visitor's unique interests, thereby driving more marketing qualified leads to your sales team.

As site visitors navigate your website and take actions, such as completing a form, Ektron tracks the activity and matches the behavior pattern to a defined persona. As Ektron collects more information about a visitor (during an initial and subsequent visits), you can present increasingly relevant content that may result in a conversionoccurs when a visitor takes action as a result of subtle or direct requests from marketers, advertisers, and content creators. See also CTA..

How Persona Management works

Ektron's Persona Management is based on the VisitorContext data class in the Ektron.PersonaManagement.Common.dll, which represents a site user's context and matches a site visitor user to one or more personas. The VisitorContext data class has the following properties.

  • Cookies—The current user's cookies. By default, Marketo and HubSpot persona providers can use a site visitor's cookies.
  • Headers—All HTTP headers associated with the current Web request. As of now, no persona providers use them.
  • URL—The current URL being browsed. As of now, no persona providers use this.
  • UrlReferrer—The current user's IP address. As of now, no persona providers use this.
  • Properties—Can be used for any additional visitor information.

Ektron uses the VisitorContext data to pass collected site visitor information, including any third-party IDs. For example, if a site visitor submits an HTML form that is mapped to an external application through DxH, Ektron passes that information to Persona Management.

The following process shows how a persona is assigned to a site visitor, and tracked:

  1. On initial page load, the Persona Management http module launches an asynchronous process that...
    1. Checks for persona matches in cache. Persona Management returns personas that match the current user.
    2. If no matches are found, the module calls the Persona Management application and passes the user's visitor context. The page is loaded.
    3. Persona results are cached.
  2. On second page load, personas are retrieved from cache.
    1. If persona matches are found, they are added to cookies.
    2. If the page is a PageBuilder page that has a Targeted Content widget, the first Targeted Content rule that includes a matched persona determines the visitor's site experience. See Also: Creating Personalized Site Experiences for Personas
    3. The first persona match is sent to Google Analytics. See Also: Reporting Persona Activity via Google Analytics (Administrators)
Creating personas (marketers)

Creating Personas (for Marketers)

Before creating personas, first gain an understanding of site visitors' attributes, goals, and behaviors. To do this, conduct user interviews and field observations to gather information about how visitors interact with your site. Analyze what distinguishes some users from others by asking questions such as

  • What is the target site visitor’s role?
  • What goals/tasks are they coming to your site to achieve?
  • How can you best position your content to get this person to take a desired action?

Next, design personas. They should target the current stage in a site visitor's decision-making process. Finally, for each persona, create a personalized set of site features and content to guide the person through the sales process and, ultimately, have the person perform the desired outcome.

Building persona rules

Building Persona Rules

Persona Management bridges the gap between what your internal systems know about site visitors, and what the site knows about them. By building rules that connect persona names/descriptions to attributes that define those personas, you can target content and learn more about the visitors who are using your site.

A persona consists of a title, description, attributes, and rules.

A persona description is text that explains the demographics and story that make up a persona. This information helps users create Targeted Content that is appropriate to the persona. The description is not required.

Attributes are data fields that define the qualities of personas, using information stored in your CRM (such as Salesforce), marketing automation system (such as Marketo), or any other DxH connection. Examples of persona attributes:

  • industry = healthcare
  • annual revenue = $10 million
  • position = Chief Technology Officer

If you determine that a site visitor with those qualities fits the profile of an important buyer of your products/services, create a persona rule using those criteria. Alternatively, you may use a persona in other marketing channels and want to track those users as a site visitor.

Rules are logical statements that include an attribute, an operator, and a field. For example,
HubSpot (Connection)Industry(Attribute)is(operator)Healthcare (value)

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Each rule consists of an attribute, an operator, and a value.

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  • The attribute is a field in the connector.
  • The operator indicates how to match the field and value.
  • The value represents possible choices for the field in the connector.
Additional Information

Additional Information

The following external Web links offer advice for creating personas to help you develop a method for defining personas.

Creating a persona

Creating a Persona

  1. Access Persona Management. Your system administrator provides sign-on instructions. See Also: Part 3: Providing User Access to Persona Management

    If you are logged on to the server on which Persona Management was installed, access it by clicking the Windows Start button > All Programs > Ektron > Persona Management > Persona Management.

  2. Click Add (). A new persona is created with the title Anonymous Persona, and generic description text.
  3. Edit the title and description by clicking on them. See Also: A persona consists of a title, description, attributes, and rules.
  4. To apply attributes to the persona, click the Attributes button.
    Choosing attributes

    When choosing attributes, you can choose from among the following:

    • data—display all attributes
    • connection—display attributes for one external application
    • Search field—display attributes that include certain characters only

      You can also find attributes from the search field drop-down. Enter some characters to retrieve only attributes that contain them.

    You can combine the connection criteria with the search field. For example, you can find HubSpot attributes that include b.

    NOTE: By default the Connection drop-down lists all connectors, even those that are not enabled in DxH. To suppress unused connectors, your administrator should open C:\inetpub\PersonaManagement\ektron.persona.app.config and comment them out.

    NOTE: If you see no attributes for a connection, and you previously saw them, ask your administrator to research possible problems with the connection. For example, is its license still valid?
    Even if a connection is missing, you can still remove rules that use its attributes.

  5. Click an attribute that defines this persona. It appears below + add attributes.
  6. Choose an operator and value(s) to complete the rule.

    NOTE: An operator's initial value is Choose. Click it to see available operators.

    Operators correspond to the attribute's content type. For example, if the content type is string, operators are: is, is not, contains, starts with, ends with. The external application determines an attribute's content type.

  7. Add rules until you completely define the persona.
  8. Click Save (). Changes are saved and the persona collapses
Editing a persona

Editing a Persona

  1. Access Persona Management. Your system administrator provides sign-on instructions. See Also: Part 3: Providing User Access to Persona Management

    If you are logged on to the server on which Persona Management was installed, access it by clicking the Windows Start button > All Programs > Ektron > Persona Management > Persona Management.

  2. Click the title of the persona that you want to edit. It opens up.
  3. Edit the title, description, or attributes by clicking then editing.
Viewing/Editing/Deleting a persona's attributes

Viewing/Editing/Deleting a Persona's Attributes

While editing a persona, click Attributes to view its attributes and rules. Edit them as needed.

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To delete a rule, click its field then click Delete ().

Canceling an edit

Canceling an Edit

If you are editing a persona's title, description, or attributes and then decide to undo all changes since you began editing, click Cancel (). If you do, current edits are ignored, and the persona collapses.

Deleting a persona

Deleting a Persona

To delete a persona, click Delete (). Then confirm your decision.

You can delete a persona whether it is currently open or closed.

Creating personalized site experiences for personas

Creating Personalized Site Experiences for Personas

After creating personas, Ektron site administrators can use them, along with the Targeted Content Widget, to develop personalized site experiences that move individuals through the sales process. For example, if the persona is CTO in the data storage industry, offer to download white paper "Widespread adoption of flash in the enterprise data center."

On the other hand, if the persona is CTO in the Web Analytics industry, offer to download the white paper "Latest research in Web analysis, conversion optimization, funnel analysis and decision support systems."

The Targeted Content widget lets you reference personas and other criteria to define a site visitor. For example, a content list only appears if the site visitor

  • matches the persona of CTO Data Storage
  • resides in the US or UK

NOTE: Familiarize yourself with the Targeted Content Widget before using it with Persona Management.

When using personas to personalize a Web page, follow these steps.

  1. Create a persona. See Also: Creating a Persona
  2. Log into your website and navigate to the PageBuilder page on which you want to display personalized content for a persona.
  3. Drag and drop a Targeted Content Widget onto the page.
  4. In one or more Targeted Content Widget conditions, use the persona that you created in Step 1.
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  5. To each condition, add fields to further identify the site visitor who will receive personalized content. In the above example, the site visitor's country must be United States or UK.
  6. Below the Targeted Content Widget, drag widgets that appear only if the site visitor matches the conditions. Typical widgets might be: content block, content list, and collection.

If a user matches more than one targeted content rule, the first matching rule (as ordered in the Targeted Content widget) determines which content appears.

Installing Persona Management (administrators)

Installing Persona Management (Administrators)

You can install Persona Management (PM) on the DxH or Ektron server. Consult a certified Ektron partner when planning a Persona Management deployment.

The following image shows setup tasks for communicating between Ektron, DxH, and Persona Management.

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  • You can install Ektron, DxH, and Persona Management on the same server.
  • You can install Ektron on one server, and DxH and Persona Management on another.
  • You can install Ektron and Persona Management on one server, and DxH on another.
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Persona Management requirements

Persona Management Requirements

  • An HTML5 CSS3-compliant browserAll browsers are supported EXCEPT for the following versions *and older*: IE 8, Chrome 3 and older, Firefox 3 and older, Safari 3 and older, and Opera 10 and older..
  • A server that meets the Ektron System Requirements.
  • Ektron 9.00 or higher is installed. See Also: Installing Ektron
  • DxH 2.0 or higher is installed See Also: Installing DxH

    NOTE: You need the path to that DxH. To obtain it, log onto the DxH server and click the Windows Start button > All Programs > Ektron > DxH > DxH Connection Url.

  • A connection established for every external application whose attributes will be used on the Persona Management screen. See Also: Setting Up the Digital Experience Hub
Part 1: Running the Installation Wizard

Part 1: Running the Installation Wizard

  1. Contact your Ektron account manager to obtain a link to download the Persona Management installation file. See Also: Contact Ektron
  2. Download and run the Persona Management installation file as an administrator.
  3. Accept the license agreement.
  4. Click Next. Select a folder in which to save Persona Management installation files.
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  5. Click Next. Enter the path to the DxH with which Persona Management will connect. To obtain this, log on to the DxH server and click the Windows Start button > All Programs > Ektron > DxH > DxH Connection Url.
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  6. Click Next. Enter database connection information—see details below.

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    • Server—Enter a database server in which to store Persona Management information. To set up the database on this server, accept the default. Otherwise, enter a SQL or SQL Express server that already exists. For a local SQL, this would typically be (local). For SQL Express enter (local)SQLEXPRESS.
    • Username—Enter the user name that will be used to access the database.
    • Password—Enter the password that will be used to access the database.

      NOTE: If you want to use NT authentication, leave the user name and password blank. This sets up a trusted connection.

  7. Click Next. You are prompted to press Install to begin installing files.
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Part 2: Updating Persona Management in web.config

Part 2: Updating Persona Management in web.config

  1. On the Ektron server, open the Ektron siteroot folder/web.config file.
  2. Remove the comment from the following tag.
    <!--<add key="PersonaManagementEndPointUrl" 
  value="http://localhost"/>-->
  3. For the value of PersonaManagementEndPointUrl, enter the path to the Persona Management application. To obtain this, click the Windows Start button > All Programs > Ektron > Persona Management > Persona Management. Make sure the path has no trailing slash (/).
  4. Remove the comment from the following tag.
    <!--<add name="PersonaManagementMatchesModule" 
  type="Ektron.Cms.PersonaManagement.HttpModules.PersonaMatchesModule, 
  Ektron.Cms.PersonaManagement" preCondition="integratedMode" />-->
Part 3: Providing user access to Persona Management

Part 3: Providing User Access to Persona Management

After installing Persona Management, you have 2 options for granting access to users who will manage personas.

  • Install Persona Management on an internal server, and restrict access to authorized users.
  • Use Windows authentication to control access to the Persona Management site.
Changing the DxH context bus URL

Changing the DxH Context Bus URL

During installation, you identify the path to the DxH context bus. If you later need to change this path, open C:\inetpub\PersonaManagement\web.config and edit the value of the ContextBusEndPointUrl element.

Controlling persona attributes (administrators)

Controlling Persona Attributes (Administrators)

By default, these data sources and objects populate the Persona Management attributes list.

Data source Object
Marketo Lead Management Lead
Salesforce Lead, Contact, Account
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Lead, Contact, Account
HubSpot Contacts

The following image illustrates the attributes list on the Persona Management screen.

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Adding/removing objects from the attributes list

Adding/Removing Objects from the Attributes List

To add to, or remove supported objects from the attributes list for a data source:

  1. Open persona.app.config in the directory where Persona Management was installed.
  2. Find the data source that you want to modify. For example, Salesforce.
    <add dataSourceId="Salesforce" dataSource="Salesforce" 
  type="Ektron.PersonaManagement.DxH.SalesForceAttributeProvider, 
  Ektron.PersonaManagement.DxH.DataSources" 
  whiteListObjectNames="Contact" 
  blackListObjectNames=""/>
  3. To add objects to the attributes list, find the whiteListObjectNames property. After any existing objects, insert a comma (,) then object names.

    Alternatively, enter objects to exclude in the blackListObjectNames property. If you do, unlisted objects appear in the attributes list

    If both are left blank, the data source's objects are available.

Removing data sources from the attributes list

Removing Data Sources from the Attributes List

You may want to eliminate data sources from the Persona Management screen. For example, if your site does not use HubSpot, there is no need to see HubSpot attributes in the list.

To remove a data source and its attributes from the attributes list:

  1. In the directory to which Persona Management is installed, open persona.app.config.
  2. Comment out the data source. In this example, Salesforce is commented out.
    <!-- <add dataSourceId="Salesforce" dataSource="Salesforce" 
  type="Ektron.PersonaManagement.DxH.SalesForceAttributeProvider, 
  Ektron.PersonaManagement.DxH.DataSources" 
  whiteListObjectNames="Contact" 
  blackListObjectNames=""/> -->
Setting up analytic tracking for Persona Management (administrators)

Setting Up Analytic Tracking for Persona Management (Administrators)

  1. If you do not already have a Running Google Web Analytics account, create one.
  2. Open siteroot/web.config.
  3. Under <appsettings>, add the following key. 
    <add key="Persona_GoogleAccountId" value="UA-*****-**" />
  4. Replace the value parameter with your Google AccountId.
  5. While in web.config, uncomment the following element.
    <add name="PersonaManagementMatchesModule" 
  type="Ektron.Cms.PersonaManagement.HttpModules.PersonaMatchesModule, 
  Ektron.Cms.PersonaManagement" preCondition="integratedMode"/>
  6. Register Ektron.PersonaManagement.Analytics.js in the master page(s) or any page on which you want to track persona, using this code.
    <script src="Workarea/FrameworkUI/js/Ektron/Ektron.PersonaManagement.Analytics.js">
</script>
Reporting persona activity via Google Analytics (administrators)

Reporting Persona Activity via Google Analytics (Administrators)

You can track persona activity on your site using Google Analytics. You can discover the following information about users who match a persona:

  • visit duration, bounceleaving a site rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site. rate
  • geographic location, language
  • new vs. returning visitors
  • paths visitors took through your site
  • browser, network information
  • top content, top landing and exit pages

You can use analytic information to refine a persona's Web experience, and in conjunction with other Ektron features like Multivariate Testing, ultimately increase their conversionoccurs when a visitor takes action as a result of subtle or direct requests from marketers, advertisers, and content creators. See also CTA. rate.

NOTE: While Google analytics can track this information for any visitor, Persona Management provides insight into persona behaviors on your site. Persona Management gives a face (or in this case, a persona name) to the analytics available in Google Analytics.

The following image shows communications between Ektron, DxH, and Persona Management.

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When Persona Management tracks analytic activity, these events typically occur. (It is assumed that you already set up the persona described in Step 2.)

  1. An Ektron website visitor completes an HTML form that maps to an external application, such as Salesforce. See Also: Setting Up a Connection to an External Application
  2. If a field value on the form matches a persona, a cookie is placed on the person's device. For example
    • on the HTML form, the user entered Chief of Operations into the Title field
    • the persona definition contains attribute=Title, operator=contains, and value=Chief.

    NOTE: If a site visitor matches more than one persona, only the first one (as ordered on the Persona Management screen) is applied to that user's activity.

  3. Google Analytics uses the cookie to track the user's activity, and categorizes it under the persona identified in Step 2.
  4. Within Ektron, use the Google Analytics feature to track persona activity.