Sitecore is a global leader in experience management systems. The Sitecore Experience Platform is powerful, robust and scalable.

End user Sitecore features are focused on editors and marketers. Sitecore’s editing and digital marketing capabilities make it the ideal system to create exciting websites.

Sitecore features have advanced capabilities that enable editors to produce content at ease, and for marketers to use that content to enhance the digital experience.

So that users can get the best from Sitecore, we’ve compiled a list of 15 Sitecore features that every Sitecore user needs:

Sitecore features:

Of all the Sitecore features, the Experience Editor should be the most commonly used editing tool. This Sitecore feature has a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) feature that makes creating and editing pages simple.

Pages are configured to accept specific content. The ‘Add Here’ function helps users identify areas on the page that content can be added to. The benefits of using the Experience Editor are:

Easily create content: Edit text and images in real-time using the WYSIWYG feature

Optimise: Test and personalise content

Advanced editing: Use the extendable navigation ribbon to create new pages, view and validate HTML mark-up, set publishing restrictions, and more

15 Sitecore features: The Extendable navigation ribbon in the Experience Editor

If the content structure is known, creating a page in the Sitecore Experience Editor takes less than a minute!

Workflows

Workflows moderate content. They allows users to create one or more workflows based on business requirements.

For example:

Content Team A produces content for Section A of the website, which is approved by Approver A

Content Team B produces content for Section B of the website, which is approved by Approver B

Workflow A and Workflow B are created in Sitecore to reflect the content teams. This ensures the right content is being sent for review to the right content team



Workflows consist of three elements:

1. States (assigned to Workflows): The various stages of content creation

Example of workflow states: (a workflow must have at least 3 states)

Draft: Content in progress

Awaiting Approval: Submitted content for review

Published/Approved: Approved content that has been published

2. Commands (assigned to States): Moves content from one state to another.

Example of workflow commands:

Submit: Submits content to next workflow state

Approve: Approves content and makes it ready for publishing

Reject: Rejects content and reverts it to ‘Draft’ state

3. Actions (assigned to Commands): Triggered actions when they are in a particular workflow state.

Example of workflow actions:

Auto publish: Approved content is automatically published

Email: Sends an email to configured recipients informing them whether content has been submitted, rejected or approved

Auto-submit: Auto-submits item to another workflow state

Each state of ‘workflowed’ content is visible in the Workbox. This is where approvers can select workflow/s to see which state each piece of content is in so they can approve/reject accordingly.

15 Sitecore features: Workflows

Published content assigned to a workflow is auto-versioned when a user ‘Locks and Edits’ a piece of content. For instance, if version 1 is already published, when ‘Lock and Edit’ is selected version 2 is automatically created.

Selecting the ‘History’ tab displays an item’s workflow history.

Read our complete guide to Sitecore workflows.

Security

Users can create Users, Roles, and Domains.

User: An individual Sitecore use. For example, John Smith

Role: A collection of users. Roles enable administrators to assign access rights to a group of users instead of to an individual user. For example, Author



Domain: A collection of security accounts. For example, extranet



Assigning security permissions to roles helps safeguard against users accessing content they’re not meant to.

Security permissions to items are assigned in the Security Editor and viewed in the Access Viewer feature. Each item in the content tree displays the access rights that roles are assigned with.

15 Sitecore features: Security

Versioning allows users to create new versions of content. There are two types of versioning:

1. Numbered versions: Items in the same language are versioned.

For example:

Version 1: (Original page) is created promoting the 'Joys of Summer’

Version 2: Content is changed by user to reflect the ‘Joys of Autumn’

Version 3: Content is changed by user to reflect the ‘Joys of Winter’

Version 4: Content is changed by user to reflect the ‘Joys of Spring’

Roll back to Version 1 for Summer

2. Language versions: Items in different languages are versioned,

For example, users can create a specific language versions of a page (French) and populate it with French content.

With Sitecore versioning, users can see the differences between versions and which editors created them. This is especially useful for keeping track of who created which content, and when.

Personalisation is the process of delivering the right content, to the right people at the right time. With personalisation users can assign rules to deliver an enriched user experience.

There are 18 personalisation categories (or conditions). Each condition has its own set of rules that can be assigned to personalisation.

List of personalisation conditions:

Campaign

Channel

Date

Device

Fields

IP Geolocation

Item hierarchy

Item information

Item version

Marketing Automation

Security

Sitecore query

System

Tracking

Venue

Visit

Visitor

xDB (Experience Database)



Personalisation in 6 easy steps:

Open a page in the Experience Editor

Select a component

Choose the 'personalise' icon

Create a new Condition

Add rules/s

Assign personalised content

15 Sitecore features: Personalisation

Read our step-by-step guide to creating a personalisation roadmap.

Users can configure the following tests:

Page tests: Also called A/B Tests or Split Tests, these test two or more variants of a page

Component tests (Multivariate): Tests multiple combinations of page elements at once. For example, a Call-to-Action (CTA) can be tested against an alternative CTA (with a different message) to see the visitor engagement of each

The Experience Optimisation feature enables users to create A/B and Multivariate tests. Users can configure traffic allocation, duration and confidence levels.

The Experience Optimisation dashboard also suggests tests on pages so conversion and engagement are maximised .

15 Sitecore features: A/B and Multivariate Testing

Campaigns can either be created in the Campaign Creator feature or in the Marketing Control Panel. Each method generates a unique campaign link. There are two ways users can track campaigns:

Item association: Campaigns assigned to specific pages

Campaign tracking codes: A unique campaign link generated, appended to a URL and triggered when the page is visited

Goals are a Sitecore feature that measures the effectiveness of actions throughout the user journey. Goals are created in the Marketing Control Panel and assigned Engagement Value Points (EVP).

When goals are triggered, analytics calculates the average engagement value per visit. Results are presented as the Value Per Visit metric in Sitecore Analytics. This allows users to identify the most engaging website pages.

Events, like goals, can be tracked on actions like downloads, searches, video play/pause, registration and more. Events are triggered in goals and campaigns when visitors achieve digital objectives.

15 Sitecore features: Campaigns



Marketing Automation is the process of nurturing website visitors by delivering real-time, automated responses triggered by actions visitors complete during user journeys.

For example:

Trigger: A customer abandons their shopping cart

Automation: An automated email is sent to remind the customer they’re cart is abandoned. The email may even offer a discount for completing the purchase. This is marketing automation process was triggered



Action: Customer completes purchase

Automation: An automated ‘thank you’ email is sent

The Marketing Automation feature is an integrated system available from the main dashboard.

Triggers and actions are configured in the Marketing Automation drag-and-drop interface. This allows for quick and easy use, ensuring automation campaigns are created efficiently.

15 Sitecore features: Marketing Automation



The Email Experience Manager (EXM) is a powerful tool that enables users to:

Create Regular or Automated Email Campaigns

Construct an email from a designed template

Create recipient lists

Personalise email communications

Monitor the activity of recipients

The EXM analytics dashboard gives users greater insights into recipient behaviour like click-through rates, open rates and more.

15 Sitecore features: Email Experience Manager



Taxonomies categorise marketing activities in a hierarchical structure so that activity is tracked in greater detail.

There are four taxonomy types:

Channels: Email, social etc.

Campaign Groups: Categorise campaigns into groups

Assets: Consumable content like PDFS, videos etc.

Venues: Location based - like events



Users can also create custom taxonomies to suit business needs.

15 Sitecore features: Marketing Taxonomies



Content Profiling is the process of tagging content with defined profiles to track visitor behaviour during user journeys.

Content profiling helps users gain a better understanding of how website content is consumed.

The 5 content profiling elements are:

Profiles: Categories

Profile Keys : Describe the attributes of the profiles

Profile Cards :Used to identify and segment contacts and are assigned to relevant content

Personas: Fictional characters that represent customer types

Pattern Cards: Used to map profile values to specific types of visitors. Pattern Cards are used to implement personalisation



How it works

Values are assigned to Profiles Keys

These values are then used to assign Profile Card and Pattern Card Values against the Profile Keys based on relevance. For example, if you have a Profile Key called ‘Sitecore’ with a maximum value of 10, and a Profile Card called ‘Interested in Sitecore’ then the Profile Card Value against the ‘Sitecore’ Profile Key would be 10, and so on.

Profile Cards are assigned to relevant content

As visitors navigate through the website Pattern matches are made based on the accrued value of the profiled pages



15 Sitecore features: Content Profiling

Sitecore Analytics provides great insights on the patterns website visitors are matching. This allows users to have a better understanding of visitor behaviour and and the type of content being consumed.

Forms is an advanced Sitecore feature accessible in the Forms application.

In Forms, users can:

Create simple and complex forms, including multi-step forms

Assign save actions like ‘Send an Email’ when the visitor clicks ‘Submit’

Configure prefill values on form fields

See how visitors interact with the form



15 Sitecore features: Forms

Cortex is an advanced marketing feature that uses AI and machine learning to drive digital strategy and marketing outcomes.

Cortex key features

Cortex uses ‘Contextual Intelligence’ to gain greater insights about visitor behaviour

Its machine learning capabilities can perform automated personalisation so that enhanced visitor engagement is achieved

Based on visitor data, Cortex can detect opportunities like new customer segments and increased sales potential

Cortex eliminates the ‘big data’ issue by processing data in real-time – quickly

15 Sitecore features: Sitecore Cortex

Sitecore Experience Commerce is an enterprise-grade commerce package. It has everything to create secure, seamless and personalised online shopping experiences.

Experience Commerce has 11 key features:

Shops

Catalogue

Inventory

Shopping cart

Payment

Checkout

Fulfilment

Orders

Pricing

Entitlement

Promotions

With these 11 core features users can configure shops using seven essential tools:

Merchandising: Creates and manages Catalogues, Categories, and Sellable Items.

Inventory: Organises sellable items and controls their availability for different channels

Pricing: Manages pricing

Promotions: Can be qualified using Date/time, Catalogue, Shop, or Customer Order History

Orders: Enables users to view essential information on customer orders

Customers: Stores all essential customer information

Relationship Definitions: Establishes relationships between sellable items for cross and up sells



15 Sitecore features: Sitecore Experience Commerce

Read about why Experience Commerce 9 is the full e-commerce package

Sitecore Analytics has three advanced reporting tools presented in dashboards and radial views:

1. Experience Analytics

The Experience Analytics dashboard is split into 4 metrics:

Audience

Acquisition

Behaviour

Conversions

Each category has its own set of sub-metrics ranging from Devices and Pattern Matches to Campaigns and Entry Pages, all of which are presented as line graphs, bar charts and pie charts.

15 Sitecore features: Reporting, Experience Analytics

2. Experience Profile

The Experience Profile is a detailed view of website activity.

The interface lists website contacts (Name, email, location, etc.) that when clicked upon display in-depth information about a visitor’s website activity, i.e. which campaigns and goals the visitor triggered, did they match a pattern, are they part of a marketing automation plan?

Data is accessible through tabs in each visitor’s profile. From here users can see useful information:

Overview: Displays an overview of the visit

Activity: Visits, Outcomes, Campaigns, Channels, Goals, Marketing Automation Campaigns, Keywords

Profiling: Pattern matches

Details: Contact details of identifiable website visitor

To comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Sitecore can also anonymise visitors should they wish.

15 Sitecore features: Reporting, Experience Profile

3. Path Analyser

The Path Analyser tracks paths website visitors take during user journeys.

Its unique interface presents maps in three basic elements:

Path: Visitor’s entire visit

Tree: Route structure of Path Analyser map

Node: Sequences of pages in a path

Maps are viewed in Radial, Vertical, Horizontal, Table and Dashboard views. All maps display a vast array of metrics that allow users to understand paths visitors take. Users can also create custom paths based on entry points and journeys.

15 Sitecore features: Reporting, Path Analyser

The Publishing Service reduces the time it takes to publish a large amount of items (pages, images, etc.).

The Publishing Dashboard improves the user experience by displaying the state of items in the publishing system:

Active jobs: Items being published

Queued jobs: Items in the publishing queue

Recent jobs: Items recently published

Users can also 'Publish all items' listed on in the publishing queue.

15 Sitecore features: Sitecore Publishing Service

