The new Sitecore Online Marketing Suite (OMS) is accelerating sales and marketing initiatives for companies that are leveraging the Sitecore CMS. Released in June, 2009, the Sitecore product has been called a “breakthrough solution for organizations,” providing measurable results without the complexity of third-party integration. The suite is a solution package that extends the Sitecore CMS to provide advanced online marketing capabilities such as campaign management, web analytics, visitor profiling, multivariate testing and more.

The suite is an invaluable tool for marketers, which has combined easy administrative controls and robust tools in order to understand, measure and communicate a website’s success. Many of our current Sitecore clients are now learning the potential of the suite and are making plans to customize the OMS to best fit their needs.

We thought it would be helpful to pose some frequently asked questions in order to outline some information on the Sitecore Online Marketing Suite.

How do I get the Sitecore Online Marketing Suite?

Sitecore’s Online Marketing Suite is available to any owner of Sitecore CMS 6.0 or greater and is included within the purchase of the Sitecore CMS Professional and Enterprise Editions. For those of you who have, or are considering a Primary Edition license, you can obtain the OMS module at a competitive ad-on cost. However, make sure you check with your Sitecore rep because depending on the date (Jan/2009 through Jan/2010) of purchase you may have been grandfathered-in. Upgrades are available for older versions and it is recommended that you contact your Sitecore representative for the best path. The OMS was created to replace the StatCenter module that had been made available for older versions.

How can the Sitecore Online Marketing Suite improve my business?

The Online Marketing Suite can help in several different areas. First, it gives you the ability to manage a better web experience for your users by identifying user challenges. This will ensure that when people visit your site they get the information they need and if they aren’t, then the OMS will help you determine why. It evaluates the user experience at different segment levels through the site and offers constant testing capabilities such as messaging through ads or other campaigns, including email.     

Secondly, the OMS helps you understand and improve your online advertising performance and reporting. Sitecore’s built-in analytics and reporting can measure multiple campaigns, goals and actual conversions throughout your entire enterprise of web properties. Having everything in one place has become a tremendous asset to organizations - saving time and money.

Additionally, the Sitecore OMS is making it easy to close the loop between on and offline marketing initiatives. For many marketers, the fight to understand the value of campaigns is challenging, especially when they are offline. The OMS is allowing users the ability to track campaigns and revenue generation, understand customer touches through email, web and direct channels as well as determine the overall conversion efficiency.

Lastly, the OMS is advancing sales efforts by allowing users to customize a lead scoring system, which helps with understanding the quality of leads. The Online Marketing Suite can tie into your CRM and help reinforce the tracking of leads throughout the sales cycle. Measuring  a campaign’s true return on investment.  

Who can help us implement and customize the Online Marketing Suite?

Verndale of course...A Sitecore certified partner is your best option, making sure that best practice implementation standards are followed. Strategy, as well as basic business and system requirements, should be outlined prior to customizing the OMS. Once the basic foundation is in place the system is easily maintained and modified by administrators.

Is training available?

Sitecore now offers an OMS Certified Marketer course for administrators. Additionally, an organization can leverage Sitecore-specific administrative training or work with a certified development partner on the specific implementation.  

Sitecore is keeping customers happy and ahead of the curve with their continued product development and game-changing solutions like the Online Marketing Suite. For more information contact your friendly integration partner at Verndale or visit Sitecore.