by Devin Cook, on November 29, 2021
There are lots of creative ways to improve a website visitor's experience. You can A/B test written copy, design captivating graphics, and help potential customers find the information they need.
Marketers and website designers use data in lots of interesting ways to optimize the user experience. They are constantly testing and making adjustments to help visitors find exactly what they are looking for with less clicks.
One emerging method involves the relationship between your CMS (content management system aka website platform) and your CRM (customer relationship management) system. With this connection, you are able to augment the visitor's experience if you have an existing contact record in your CRM for personalization.
An example of this is how Arkatechture can leverage publicly available data from the National Credit Union Association (NCUA). Since we're primarily working with credit unions and community banks for our data analytics platform Arkalytics, we can use this data as a resource to populate our CRM with each company as a unique record.
The CRM database has tables for Contacts and Companies. When a known contact from a credit union visits our Arkalytics page, we can look at multiple data points and then make a recommendation for where they should go next.
Using our CMS and CRM in unison, we can program 'smart rules' that change the text or images on the page based upon what we know about the visitor. Here is what those rules look like in practice:
- IF contact is UNKNOWN, THEN display 'Page A' (default page)
- IF contact is KNOWN AND is associated to a credit union, THEN display 'Page B'
This way, we can provide a more personalized message and content for each visitor.
'Smart content' is similar to how you would treat a regular at one of your branches or a frequent customer at your shop. Welcome them and offer up their favorite order or a special offer since you've already developed a relationship together.
Can it come off a little creepy? Honestly, a little bit yeah. Mostly because a computer is doing it instead of a friendly, familiar face.
As individuals, we value our privacy and don't want to be tracked everywhere we go. However, as businesses, we want to leverage data to save people's time and only deliver content that will resonate with them (rather than blowing up their inbox with irrelevant messaging). In the world of advertising, this is even more important.
At Arkatechture, we value transparency which is why this blog post is linked anywhere we use smart rules and smart content on our website.
If you'd like to learn more about how you can use a CRM for your business, let us know below and we'll be happy to make a recommendation and educate you on the benefits and value of tools like Salesforce, Hubspot, or CRM Next if you're a credit union or other banking institution.
