Source: Merritt Group

EPiServer Brings Web Content Personalization to the Marketing Masses

Easy-to-Use Application Lets Interactive Marketers and Content Editors Create More Engaging Visitor Experiences by Delivering Relevant Content and Interaction to Website Visitors

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - April 4, 2011) - Web content personalization is no longer the domain of high end eCommerce sites, news sites and Web developers, as EPiServer, the world's fastest growing provider of platforms that drive online engagement, today launched a new version of the EPiServer platform that combines personalization across content, community, commerce, and communication. EPiServer now empowers interactive marketers to deliver targeted and personalized content on websites, commerce sites, and online communities based on users' demographic information and online behavior.

Unique and relevant content can be served to visitor groups based on virtual roles, such as potential or current customers, new or returning visitors, press, influencer/analyst job seekers, and others created and customized by the marketer. Demographic and behavioral data such as location (geo-ip), number of visits, pages viewed, references, search terms, and more are used to easily and clearly identify visitors and assign them within the pre-defined roles. Interactive marketers and content editors can use EPiServer to automate content delivery to target segments and move them further down the sales funnel, surface content that a visitor might otherwise not seek out, and identify high profit customers and make them more profitable.

"The top news organizations, social sites such as Facebook and high end eCommerce sites have effectively used content personalization to drive revenue and grow the bottom line. Now, it's the interactive marketer's turn to leverage content personalization on company websites, commerce sites, and branded communities to better engage with customers," said Bob Egner, Vice President of Product Management and Global Marketing at EPiServer. "Maybe a prospect in New York browsed your products. Why not offer him a contact form to the local sales office for more information? Or, perhaps a visitor viewed a product page 3 times. You now have the ability to offer them a discount on the spot to entice purchase of the viewed product. EPiServer makes these types of activities highly intuitive and easy for marketers."

According to a Web Management Online survey conducted in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific by Forrester Research, more than 64 percent of the respondants selected personalization as the number one strategy for enhancing customer experience. It was selected ahead of rich Internet applications, audio/video, localization, discussion forums/talkbacks and others.

The new versions of EPiServer CMS, Composer, Relate, and Commerce are based on 100 percent .NET 4, MVC 2 and VS2010 to streamline site development. The products are designed for use by marketers and editors to:

  • Easily define visitor groups to set personalized content criteria, as well as target various demographics depending on geography, background and interests.

  • Edit content directly on the targeted site without going through IT or Web developers.

  • Create defined personas for visitors to identify interests and promotional categories.

  • Enable dynamic content preview for full time editors, as well as drop down list for editors to manipulate content on specific areas.

  • Enhance editor experience by marking where personalized content exists on the site to easily manage changes.

  • Track visitor group activity on the site with metrics included in the OnlineCenter dashboard.

This software is available immediately. For further details on all EPiServer products, visit www.episerver.com.

About EPiServer

EPiServer, the leading supplier of solutions that enable true Web engagement and drive business results for end customers. 3,500 customers worldwide use EPiServer's technology platform that combines content, community, commerce, and communications with a configurable metrics dashboard. EPiServer CMS is the foundation for more than 10,000 websites and is used by more than 130,000 web editors daily. The EPiServer platform is delivered through an extensive network of over 500 partner companies in 30 countries. EPiServer combines the stability and support of a commercial product with EPiServer World, a thriving developer community of more than 12,000 developers. EPiServer is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with an AAA-ranking by Dun & Bradstreet since 2000. The company was founded in 1994 and has offices in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. EPiServer is controlled by the IK2007 Fund. IK Investment Partners is a European private equity firm with Nordic roots, managing EUR 5.7 billion in fund commitments.