Articles - Page 115

What I Mean to Say: A Practitioner Perspective on AI, Semantics, and Content Evolution

msalvatierra

We have focused heavily on <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Sitefinity</a> over this past featured week here at CMS Critic, and it’s now time to see the product off with an overview of its massive user base.
Telerik Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management system, eCommerce solution, and marketing platform.
As I will soon discuss, thousands of brands make use of Telerik products, and for good reason.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" style="max-width:400px" />
Recently, Sitefinity CMS received the 2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS.
During the recent CMS Critic North American Tour, Mike Johnston had the chance to interview Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product Marketing. Mike also had the pleasure of witnessing a detailed Sitefinity walkthrough delivered by Telerik’s Product Marketing Manager, Svetla Yankova.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the many organizations that benefit from Telerik’s line of enterprise-grade products.
<h2>Serving Brands Everywhere</h2>
Sitefinity CMS serves over 11,000 customers across the globe, from a wide range of different industries.
Big names making use of Sitefinity include Toyota, NASA, Nestle, BBC, KIA, Gatorade and Heinz. An impressive selection of customers indeed.
I previously spoke about some of the benefits that Americaneagle.com were seegin there customers gaining from using Telerik Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud. However, that success story is simply a few of many.
Take the following testimonials as a few examples.
<blockquote>“Being able to control content 24/7/365 has greatly increased our ability to quickly inform clients about current happenings within the company. Sitefinity has proved to be user-friendly and a valuable tool in running our website and business.”
– Jeff Doepker, President of The Doepker Group</blockquote>
<blockquote>“The Sitefinity CMS was selected for the amount of out-of-the-box robust and extensible modules and functionality, which reduced the need to custom-build the functionality and ultimately, provided for a more rapid implementation.”
– Shelly Murray, Habanero</blockquote>
<blockquote>“Sitefinity has given us the flexibility to distribute content through an easy-to-use administration facility with approval processes, saving on administration costs. It has assisted us in fine tuning our efforts in search engine placement which has led to a number of new business opportunities.”
– Ray Desmond, CEO of Radmix</blockquote>
Learn more about some of the <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/customers/overview">industries, brands and organizations served by Telerik</a>.
You can also read through a long list of <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/customers/showcases?country=All">company case studies right here</a>.
For more details on Sitefinity <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

Far & Wide: A Closer Look At Sitefinity's Broad Customer Base

mike-johnston

As our featured coverage of Telerik continues, I’m taking a closer look at the platform’s analytical capabilities behind the <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/digital-experience-cloud" target="_blank">Telerik Digital Experience Cloud</a>.
Telerik Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management system, eCommerce solution, and marketing platform, with the Telerik Digital Experience Cloud making up the product’s marketing arm.
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" />
The newly launched Digital Experience Cloud is designed to work in sync with Sitefinity CMS, but can be leveraged by non Sitefinity CMS websites, helping marketers to analyze trends, segment audiences and eventually convert more custom.
Thousands of brands across the world trust Telerik products with their online presence, including the likes of Toyota and NASA. Recently, Sitefinity CMS received the 2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS.
During the recent CMS Critic North American Tour, Mike Johnston had the chance to interview Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product Marketing. Mike also had the pleasure of witnessing a detailed Sitefinity walkthrough delivered by Telerik’s Product Marketing Manager, Svetla Yankova.
<h2>A Digital Command Center</h2>
The video below shows, Tim Ahlenius, the Director of Experience Marketing at Americaneagle.com, give a useful insight into how the Telerik Digital Experience Cloud works, and how it benefits marketers, and the brands with which he works.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l_cx-5oPves?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The impact of Tim Ahlenius’ words are magnified by the fact that he works directly with organizations that are leveraging the Digital Experience Cloud. Here’s some quotes which I found particularly interesting:
“The Digital Experience Cloud provides marketers with a digital command center, that unified all the data from all their systems, and takes the guesswork out of their job.
The segmentation capabilities within the Digital Experience Cloud will provide [marketers] with the ability to specifically engage and provide a personalized experience for each of the different segments.
The predictive analytics engine will allow them to engage with their users in order to provide the correct content at the correct time.”
<h2>Campaign Tracking, Conversion tracking &amp; Predictive Analytics</h2>
I previously touched on <a href="/an-overview-of-sitefinitys-content-management-digital-experience-features/">some of the general features of the Digital Experience Cloud</a>, but it’s now time to take a closer look at three specific dimensions of the marketing solution.
First up, conversion tracking in the Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud provides a historic view of any conversion, short or long term, along with data about which campaigns and assets contributed most.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conversion-tracking.jpg" />
More importantly though, this feature uses past conversion data to provide predictions and recommendations, aiding marketers with their decisions and future campaigns.
Speaking of campaigns, the Digital Experience Cloud’s campaign tracking feature validates current performance and conversion rates against conversion rates the system predicts.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/campaign.jpg" />
Tracking how different activities affect results provides visibility into the effectiveness of each campaign.
Finally, the Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud also calculates a very important number for each audience segment: the potential conversion increase in the next 30 days.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/recommendation.jpg" />
This predictive analytical engine helps marketers optimize their conversion rates so they can focus on the activities and programs that carry most impact. The educated predictions constantly provides new recommendations for a “Best Next Action” to drive customers toward the desired action.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/digital-experience-cloud">Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud</a>.
For more details on Sitefinity <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

The Analytical Engine Behind The Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud

As our featured coverage of <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Sitefinity</a> continues, I’m taking a look at Sitefinity as an eCommerce solution.
Recently acquired by <a href="https://www.progress.com/" target="_blank">Progress</a>, Telerik Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management system, a marketing platform and an eCommerce solution. A CMS powerhouse, to say the least.
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" />
Over 200 brands worldwide trust Sitefinity to power their online retailing systems. Recently, the platform received the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-net-cms/">2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS</a>.
During the recent CMS Critic North American Tour, Mike Johnston had the chance to interview Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product Marketing. Mike also had the pleasure of witnessing a detailed Sitefinity walkthrough delivered by Telerik’s Product Marketing Manager, Svetla Yankova.
Recently, I touched on <a href="/designed-to-engage-convert-retain-a-look-at-sitefinitys-content-management-philosophy/">Sitefinity’s extensive content management features</a>, as well as the platform's <a href="/an-overview-of-sitefinitys-content-management-digital-experience-features/">digital marketing functions</a>.
Let’s now delve into Sitefinity’s enterprise-grade eCommerce features.
<h2>Personalized Product Catalogs &amp; Multi-store Management</h2>
The Sitefinity CMS platform provides everything an online retailer expects and needs, before offering a little more.
With personalization already being such a large part of the Sitefinity CMS story, let’s first take a look at the solution’s personalized product catalogs.
Marketers can easily set up and manage all necessary product catalogs and departments from a central system, promoting the right product for a specific customer more easily than ever before.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/product-catalogs.jpg" />Sitefinity CMS also gives merchants an avenue into improving sales in regional markets through multi-store management.
Differing storefronts, shopping carts and checkout processes are easy to configure, catering for localized markets in any language or currency.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/multiple-storefronts.jpg" />
Furthermore, automatic updates of real-time exchange rates from XE or ECB help to reduce currency risk on localized pricing. A massive time and money saving feature if there ever was one.
<h2>Targeted Offers, Powerful Order Management &amp; More</h2>
The personalization features seep further into the Sitefinity CMS eCommerce offering with targeted offers, designed to help merchants appeal to the right audiences.
For example, retailers can offer special promotions, discounts and custom pricing targeted at specific customer and partner segments, defined by none other than themselves.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/targeted-offers.jpg" />
Marketing teams can also schedule and run promotions easily, set pricing tiers and have more control over campaigns across multiple channels, including web, mobile, email and social media.
As for order management, Sitefinity CMS enables merchants to easily process online and offline orders and manage their pending, paid, shipped or returned status.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/order-management.jpg" />
Sitefinity CMS also helps marketers monitor sales trends with an order reporting dashboard.
Merchants also have the ability to offer customers a wide range of popular payment gateways. These include PayPal, Authorize.Net, SagePay, PayFlow Pro, eWAY and more.
Meanwhile, real-time rates from FedEx, UPS or USPS make up the shipping options.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/ecommerce">Sitefinity CMS as an eCommerce solution</a>.
For more details on Sitefinity CMS <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

Getting to Know Sitefinity as an eCommerce Solution

<a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">Telerik Sitefinity</a> is the latest platform to receive our featured week treatment, and it’s now time to delve into the philosophy behind its powerful content management features.
Telerik Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management and marketing platform. Some of the world’s biggest brands trust Sitefinity with their websites, including Toyota, Audi, Kraft Foods and NASA. Recently, the platform received the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-net-cms/">2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb_400x0.png" />
Mike Johnston recently <a href="/cms-critic-interviews-robert-mattson-of-telerik-sitefinity/">interviewed Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product </a>Marketing while on the CMS Critic North American Tour. He also had the pleasure of witnessing a detailed<a href="/telerik-sitefinity-walkthrough-video-with-cms-critic/"> product walkthrough delivered by Telerik’s Product Marketing Manager, Svetla Yankova</a>.
Now, back to those content management features.
<h2>Great Customer Experience Starts with Great Content</h2>
The act of producing and presenting content is at the heart of every website and digital marketing campaign.
Sitefinity CMS empowers marketers with user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces for when it comes to general content management such as in-line page editing, as well as form building.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/web-content.jpg" />
The inline editing feature enables marketers to add and edit all forms of content on the fly, right there on the page. Not only does this streamline the entire process, but it also simplifies it so that almost anybody can make changes.
Content administrators can also benefit from features like approval workflows, versions histories and granular permissions help to keep both content and marketers in check.
Sitefinity CMS also employs powerful digital asset management, enabling marketers to manage assets from a central location, giving them organizational features such as hierarchical libraries, categories and tags.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/digital-assets_1.jpg" />Naturally, this unified method of digital asset management saves an abundant amount of time and money, while also serving to help marketers produce better content, faster.
Sitefinity CMS also offers a centralized approach to website management. The platform’s multisite management makes it easy for organizations to manage a collection of websites and microsites through a centralized interface.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/content-management">Telerik Sitefinity’s content management features</a>.
<h2>Personalized Customer Experiences at Scale</h2>
Converting customers in today’s market demands a personalized experience.
The first step is always to segment your audience, before delivering the content most relevant and valuable to each segment.
For this, Sitefinity CMS provides marketers with a simple interface for defining segments through various criteria such as where the visitor came from, what they searched for, their location, duration of their visit, etc. You can define custom criteria and have any combination of AND/OR criteria to define your segments.
Sitefinity CMS then enables allows marketers to serve different content and information.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization.jpg" />
For example, visitors of a business background will need to be presented with articles and whitepapers discussing relevant topics. Whereas, visitors with a developer background will want to see some code samples. Sitefinity CMS caters for all of this, and more.
All the final results can of course be tested by marketers, as Sitefinity CMS allows for the marketer to impersonate a visitors from each segment, so that they can test each personalized experience first hand. Of course, analytical data including key performance indicators can also be reviewed.
Social media integration makes up another dimension of Sitefinity CMS ’s’ personalization power.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/social-media_1.jpg" />
For instance, customers can log in with their existing social media handles, while marketers can improve social media presence by adding social sharing buttons to website pages, pushing content to Twitter and RSS feeds automatically, and more.
Sitefinity CMS also serves up targeted email marketing features along with A/B testing to hone campaigns.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/customer-experience-management">Telerik Sitefinity’s personalization features</a>.
<h2>Integration For The Sake Of Retention</h2>
Retaining customers is an ongoing, multi-faceted process. However, it’s fair to say that exercising integration capabilities can play a key role.
As well as the social media integration previously mentioned, Sitefinity CMS also integrates with a number of popular CRMS, DAMs and marketing suites.
Among the popular tools and platforms which play nice with Sitefinity are; Google Analytics, Akismet, PayPal PayFlow Pro, Dropbox, Salesforce, Marketo and Microsoft SharePpoint.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/integration-platform.jpg" />
Naturally, this wide range of integratable platforms only extends the power of Sitefinity CMS as a content management solution.
Perhaps more importantly though, such integrations will help marketers retain customers by making use of third-party customer relationship managers, analytical data, and more.
Furthermore, the overall user experience can be enhanced thanks to integrated tools and solutions such as PayPal and Akismet.
Learn more about <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/website-integrations">Telerik Sitefinity’s integration options</a>.
For more details on Sitefinity CMS <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

Designed to Engage, Convert & Retain: A Look at Sitefinity's Content Management Philosophy

As we enter our second featured week here at CMS Critic, our focus turns to the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">Progress Sitefinity platform</a>.Recently acquired by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.progress.com/">Progress</a>, Sitefinity is an ASP.NET web content management and marketing platform. The solution is trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands, including Toyota, Audi, Kraft Foods, and NASA.Mike Johnston recently traveled to Telerik's California headquarters while on the CMS Critic North American Tour, where he <a href="/cms-critic-interviews-robert-mattson-of-telerik-sitefinity/">interviewed Robert Mattson, Telerik's Director of Product Marketing</a>. Mike was also given a highly detailed product walkthrough before his visit was over.Crowned winner of the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-net-cms/">2014 Critics' Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise .NET CMS</a>, Sitefinity is a platform to be reckoned with.To kickstart our featured coverage, let's begin with an overview of the powerful features of the Sitefinity platform for both enterprise-grade content management and digital marketing.<h2 id="simple,-even-when-complex">Simple, Even When Complex</h2>“There’s usually an ease of use to complexity curve. You can be easy to use, but can you still be easy to use when things get tough and complex? That’s something I think [Sitefinity CMS] excels at.” – Robert Mattson, Director of Product Marketing, Telerik.On top of crisp presentation across the platform, Sitefinity CMS maintains its simplicity by making use of drag-and-drop interfaces for when it comes to general content management such as in-line page editing.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/web-content.jpg" />Furthermore, approval workflows, versions histories and granular permissions help to keep both content and marketers in check.When it comes to gleaning information from customers and visitors, marketers can enjoy the Sitefinity CMS intuitive form building features, which can once again be managed through the drag-and-drop interface.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/forms.jpg" />Sitefinity CMS also employs powerful digital asset management, enabling marketers to manage assets from a central location, giving them organizational features such as  hierarchical libraries, categories and tags.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/digital-assets835x0.jpg" />The platform also provides ample SEO features to help push websites further up Google’s rankings.Learn more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/content-management">Progress Sitefinity’s content management features</a>.<h2 id="a-digital-marketing-command-center">A Digital Marketing Command Center</h2>Since the latest release of Sitefinity back in March 2015, the platform now works in tandem with its standalone Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud (DEC), serving up what the company calls a, “Digital Marketing Command Center”.By using Sitefinity CMS and Sitefinity DEC together, organizations can benefit in the following three ways.1. Gather Omni-channel Information: With data connectors pulling information from Sitefinity CMS, Salesforce.com, Marketo, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, mobile apps  or other sources of customer interaction, the customer journey repository in the Sitefinity DEC becomes a single source of truth.Having this extensive context enables marketers to see interactions between an anonymous site visitor, known prospect or existing customer, and all aspects of a company’s sales and marketing functions. Thus, the marketer can make far better informed decisions about how to hone the entire process.2. Enhanced Insight: The Sitefinity DEC uses machine learning to relate how groups of customers and prospects interact through all channels. Interestingly though, the platform then provides specific recommendations for how to move those customers toward their goals more effectively.3. Real-time, Actionable Data: The solution unveils trends that enable marketers to target their actions and run and adjust campaigns in near real time.The Sitefinity DEC provides predictions toward opportunity improvement, while the Sitefinity CMS enables marketers to personalize and optimize marketing programs, or restructure web properties on the fly, to guide people on a personalized customer journey.Hence, the two platforms working side by side help to streamline the job of monitoring and acting on incoming information.Additional Sitefinity DEC features include persona management, third party data source integration, advanced customer analytics, automated lead management, and more.Learn more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/digital-experience-cloud">Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud</a>.For more details on Sitefinity <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">visit their website</a>. You can also explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

An Overview of The Sitefinity Platform's Content Management & Digital Experience Features

In this video, Svetla Yankova, Product Marketing Manager for Telerik Sitefinity shows Mike Johnston of CMS Critic (https://www.cmscritic.com) through the product and answers his questions while demonstrating the powerful new features that are included with this release.
https://youtu.be/PC2GfuKt1ZQ
For those who are unfamiliar with Sitefinity, this video really covers the product well. Tune in for all of the details on this great release!
For more details on Sitefinity visit <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/products/sitefinity">https://www.cmscritic.com/products/sitefinity</a> or visit them on the web at <a href="https://www.sitefinity.com/">http://www.sitefinity.com/</a>

Telerik Sitefinity Walkthrough Video with CMS Critic

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

As part of the ongoing CMS tour, I've been visiting vendors throughout the US, Canada and (soon) Europe.  During my recent trip to California, I had an opportunity to touch base with the fine folks at Telerik.
In this video interview, I chat with Director of Product Marketing for Telerik Sitefinity, Robert Mattson about their recent acquisition by Progress Software, Sitefinity CMS and more. 
https://youtu.be/fR7vf7ZUEnM
Learn more about Sitefinity here: <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/web-content-management">http://www.sitefinity.com/web-content-management</a><a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015"> </a>

CMS Critic interviews Robert Mattson of Telerik Sitefinity

As most of you know by now, I am currently touring North America and visiting vendors as I do so. Having just completed the west coast portion of the tour, I'll be heading to Toronto to meet with two more vendors, then New York, and finally over to Europe to begin the European leg of the tour.
I'm looking forward to meeting with all of the amazing CMS vendors that have signed up for this year's tour. This has been a wonderful way to put faces to the names of those of you whom I deal with on a regular basis (and those who are new as well!).
<img style="max-width:346px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1013548_572346312803124_529629804_n.png" />
Our first featured vendor that we visited was <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com">DNN Software</a> followed by the folks at Telerik (<a href="http://www.sitefinity.com">Sitefinity</a>) and <a href="http://www.getmura.com/">Mura CMS</a>. I'll soon be meeting with the <a href="http://agilitycms.com/">Agility CMS</a> and <a href="http://dotcms.com/">dotCMS</a> teams before heading to Europe to meet with <a href="http://www.jahia.com">Jahia</a>, <a href="http://www.onehippo.com/en">Hippo</a>, and <a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-7559855-11191667-1427914873000">1&amp;1 Internet</a>.
You'll be seeing <a href="/featured-weeks/">featured weeks</a> throughout the site where I share my video interviews, walkthroughs of the product, and more. Stay tuned and keep up to date with us on <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cmscritic">Facebook</a> to see pics from our journey.
As always, thanks for being a reader, and don't forget to sign up for our newsletter to make sure you never miss an article. It's weekly and we'll never spam you.

Preparing for the European Tour

<a href="http://designmodo.com/?u=1182" target="_blank">DesignModo</a>, the company behind <a href="/startup-framework-review/" target="_blank">Startup Framework</a>, has released a new version of their increasingly popular WordPress plugin, Qards.
Qards brings drag-and-drop website building features to WordPress, enabling users to visually edit their pages. Each “Qard” makes up an individual page section, which come together to form a one-pager style end result.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed1079x0.jpg" />
Qards 1.2 focuses on speeding up the drag-and-drop page building process, eliminating the lag found in previous versions. Also, users can now activate Qards on any page, instead of having to set up separate “Qards Pages”. 
Furthermore, Typekit integration brings a wider range of fonts to the Qards experience.
To get the full breakdown of Qards 1.1, checkout the official features page.

Qards 1.2 For WordPress Released

<a href="https://plushforums.com/" target="_blank">PlushForums</a> is one of the newest, yet most exciting forum solutions on the market.
Founded in 2014, PlushForums is a commercial fork of Vanilla Forums. The platform was named as the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-commercial-forum-solution/" target="_blank">2014 Critic's Choice Winner for Best Commercial Forum Solution</a> in the most recent CMS Awards.
<img style="max-width:200px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/vopggzde_200x0.png" />
I also had the pleasure of carrying out a <a href="/plushforums-review/" target="_blank">review of PlushForums</a> not too long ago.
In recent months, PlushForums has received a number of updates. Here are the highlights, provided by founder Adrian Flitcroft himself.
<h3>Platform</h3>
PlushForums has expanded the capacity of all plans, more than doubling the $49 tier from 75 to 200 concurrent active members. That's sufficient to run a really sizeable forum at a very reasonable price.
The platform has also benefited from reduced the latency of real-time discussions and conversations by 66%. This means that they now update as quickly as a Facebook chat.
<h3>Billing</h3>
A 14-day free trial for all new PayPal subscribers has been introduced.
Furthermore, credit/debit card subscriptions for people who can't use PayPal have arrived, while registration forms have been done away with, speeding up the sign up process.
<h3>Features</h3>
Further to the above enhancements to the overall PlushForums experience, a number of smaller, but notable features have also been released:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://plushforums.com/blog/pre-moderation" target="_blank">Pre-moderation</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://plushforums.com/blog/rich-links" target="_blank">Automated rich links</a>, ideal for product-focused communities:</li>
<li>Linked replies: tags that connect one post with another, allowing a discussion to stay flat but with context.</li>
<li>New Member Welcome Message: a means to communicate with members before they make their first post, to lay out rules, advice or other information.</li>
<li>Colourful Letter Avatars for new members, Android-style.</li>
<li>Support for YouTube embeds with specific start times, Vine support, and support for direct MP4 and MP3 embeds.</li>
<li>Support for CloudFlare out of the box, including their free Flexible SSL mode.</li>
<li>An Onboarding API, which allows you to automatically send forum invitation codes to new members, as well as revoke/enable their access to the forum.</li>
<li>Seamless SSO with WordPress.</li>
<li>Streamlined account creation process with customisable password strength checker.</li>
<li>A refined and reskinned Dashboard control panel.</li>
</ul>
To find out more about PlushForums, <a href="https://plushforums.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>.
Also, you can explore more of PlushForums via our CMS Directory.

PlushForums Undergoes Heavy Improvement

2014 was not just another year for <a href="https://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">Prestashop</a>.
The eCommerce giant, which powers over 230,000 websites, took leaps towards becoming one of the most powerful and accessible online store solutions in existence. And that’s no mean feat.
They did that by revamping their entire platform with Prestashop 1.6, before launching Prestashop Cloud, a totally free and cloud-based eCommerce solution.
Yes, you did read that correctly.
The launch of Prestashop Cloud was an exciting move by Prestashop at time time, it still is today, and it probably always will be. That’s why I’ll be focusing on it with this review.
Here’s a video to kick things off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KZLXokFnl8
<h2>Prestashop Cloud &amp; Prestashop Download: The Difference</h2>
So what’s the difference between Prestashop Download and Prestashop Cloud?
Well, not a lot, really. That’s the beauty of it.
Prestashop Cloud gives you a quick, automatic installation, followed by totally free cloud hosting.
The only drawback is that Prestashop Cloud users don’t have access to the source code or database, whereas Prestashop Download users do.
Other than that, it’s the exact same product — both of which are free.
<h2>How Can PrestaShop Cloud Be Free?</h2>
It’s hard to imagine such a comprehensive and cloud hosted platform being completely free, but Prestashop cloud really is just that. Free.
I’ll let PrestaShop themselves explain how that’s possible:
“PrestaShop Cloud and PrestaShop Download are entirely free and ready to support your ecommerce activities.
PrestaShop earns money through modules-specific features-you can add to your store using our marketplace, PrestaShop Addons (it's like the Apple Store for iPhone or the Play Store for Android).”
<h2>Initial Thoughts</h2>
If you are familiar with my reviews, you’ll know that I start my journey as any customer or client would, which is with the vendor’s website.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-181079x0.png" />
Prestashop’s website (which was revamped along with the launch of Prestashop Cloud) is sleek and inviting.
The features of the platform are well laid out and simply explained, and that’s accompanied by a live demo of the product, which anybody can quickly get into.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-191079x0.png" />
It’s a shame more products don’t offer such accessible live demos, as they do a great job of showing potential users the interface first hand.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
It all starts with clicking “Cloud” on the Prestashop homepage.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-20.png" />
You can then type in your store’s name, followed by your email address.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1.png" />
After that, you can configure your store’s URL (which, by default, is your store name), along with your location and why you’re using Prestashop. This includes “I am just trying Prestashop” and “I have a physical store”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2.png" />
The final step asks you for your first and last name, as well as a password.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-21.png" />
Now, the signup process isn’t long or difficult. But it definitely could be made shorter and simpler.
I don’t see why the user needs to specify what kind of customer they are using Prestashop. I also think that their location and full name could be configured later on within the Prestashop dashboard.
An email, store name and password should suffice at this stage.
<h3>Prestashop Cloud Dashboard</h3>
Once you get past signup, you’ll be presented with your admin dashboard. Here, you can see all of the stores you have control of, along with a bunch of administrative options.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3.png" />
The dashboard enables you to configure the more technical stuff, like your domain name, password, and other settings.
You can also access help and support from here, but I’ll be touching on that later on in this review. To get access to your store, you just have to click “Manage My Store”.
<h3>Back Office</h3>
Prestashop's admin panel for each store is also known as the back office. Clicking “Manage My Store” will take you there.
However, I was surprised to see that I needed to log in again, despite just clicking a link from my Prestashop dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5835x0.png" />
But as for the back office itself, it’s pretty damn sleek.
As I mentioned in my hands-on preview with PrestaShop 1.6, it's a colossal improvement on the previous PrestaShop admin panel.
It isn't text heavy, nor does it suffer from crammed menus and pages. Instead, it’s spacious and modern.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-221079x0.png" />
The top menu, which provides access to latest orders, registrations, messages, achievements, and more, is very neat and unintrusive, even with its drop-down menus. The left-hand sidebar contains the bulk of available features and functions, all of which are listed below a handy search bar.
The biggest attraction though, is the array of stats and facts presented on the main page of the dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-23.png" />
You can monitor the amount of visitors currently online, active shopping carts, order totals, net profit, and much more. It’s a thoroughly impressive hub of statistics, all of which are relevant.
I covered Prestashop’s love affair with statistics recently, if you would like to know more.
<h3>The Tour</h3>
Prestashop Cloud gives users a quick, yet very useful guided tour to get their stores up and running.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-241079x0.png" />
It’s the first thing you see when logging into your back office, until you complete it. (Although there really should be a way to close it without having to actually use it first).
The four steps of the tour are; “Customize Your Shop”, “Add Products”, “Configure Payments” and “Choose Your Shipping Options”.
<h3>Customize Your Shop</h3>
The first step takes you to a page where you can adjust some of the default theme’s settings, including your logo, invoice logo, website icons and so on.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6.png" />
Clicking “Theme Configurator” will present you with a range of theme options (which will change depending on which theme you’re using).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7.png" />
Such options include the appearance of social media icons, banners, logos and so forth.
Clicking “Advanced Settings” will enable you to define things like the number of products displayed per page, column positions and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-171079x0.png" />
<h3>Adding Products</h3>
The process behind adding a product is perhaps the most important element of each eCommerce platform.
Prestashop lets you get to uploading quickly, by clicking the “Quick Access” button on the top menu, followed by “New Product”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-9.png" />
The page for adding products is initially quite simple, letting you configure a name, condition, description, and more. You can also specify whether the product is physical, virtual or a pack of products.
However, Prestashop Cloud also lets you get technical and very, very detailed. If you want to.
The list of options down the left include pages dealing with SEO, images, product features, attachments, and much more.
<h3>Configure Payments</h3>
Configuring payment gateways is relatively easy.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-111079x0.png" />
The default options are bank wire and payment by check, although PrestaShop Cloud has a nice variety of free options in the form of modules.
PayPal, Stripe &amp; Skrill are amongst the popular names. Further options like PayPal Pro are available, but only at a price.
<h3>Shipping &amp; Taxing</h3>
When it comes to shipping options, PrestaShop does a solid job of allowing you to set up different carriers as you would expect. Additional options include the ability to set handling charges, default carriers and so on.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-131079x0.png" />
If you wish, you can also configure at what order value free shipping begins at.
Things get a little confusing when it comes to taxing though. To set up taxes for different locations, you need to head over to “Localization”, and then “Taxes” on the sidebar.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/tax_700x0.png" />
Firstly, you can simply add the name of the tax, before giving it a percentage value.
However, to actually configure tax rules for these same taxes, you'll need to navigate to another page called “Tax Rules”, where you may then select your existing taxes, before assigning things like location, zip/postal code range, etc.
I don’t see why these options can’t be presented on the same page.
<h3>Front Office</h3>
The front office of Prestashop Cloud lets you see your store as though you are a visitor. But there are also some further settings which you can access by clicking on the gears button located on the left.
Here, you can adjust the colours of your theme, and also the fonts used across the store.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/frontoff2_700x0.jpg" />
I personally expect there to be some further settings here, though. Setting colours and fonts is great, but things like logos, favicons and so forth should also be present on the same menu.
Also, the “Reset” and “Save” buttons at the bottom of the menu can only be seen once you close either the theme colour or font sections, which are open by default. This issue is compounded by the fact that there is no scrolling feature on the menu.
For me, Prestashop could go a few steps further with their front office feature. It’s a little light when it comes to functionality beyond simply previewing your store.
<h2>Apps &amp; Extras</h2>
Prestashop Cloud users get the exact same access to apps as Prestashop Download users.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-29.png" />
As previously mentioned, Prestashop’s primary income stream runs straight through their app and theme marketplace. It’s no surprise then, that the marketplace is filled with a wide range of extensions to help with everything from marketing to website design.
Over 2,000 templates are hosted there, some of which are made by Prestashop, while the rest are from partners and the community.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-30.png" />
PrestaShop Module Marketplace also hosts hundreds upon hundreds of modules to browse through, many of which are free of charge, to be fair.
However, many modules aren’t free. Many are quite expensive, actually.
In fact, some modules can be as expensive as $260, while the most expensive template on offer comes to a sum of $245.
Although in fairness, the templates demanding such fees are generally extremely well crafted. The same can’t always be said for the free templates, but that’s hardly surprising.
One thing's for sure though, Prestashop offers a great deal of flexibility and extensibility with an array of modules and templates.
<h3>Stats &amp; Real Time Profit Margins</h3>
The “Stats” page found on the left hand sidebar offers metrics for things like; best product categories, best customers, best sellers, search engine keywords, visitors, best vouchers and many more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/stats.png" />
PrestaShop really flexes it's statistical muscles here, giving you a huge amount to monitor. Yet, the simple graphs and lists associated with each parameter makes that monitoring a piece of cake.
Another unique Prestashop feature comes in the form of “Real Time Net Profit Margin”, which enables you to keep track of your takings in real time.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/9.png" />
<h3>Intelligent Merchant KPIs &amp; Forecasts</h3>
Two highly interesting Prestashop Cloud features worth mentioning, are intelligent merchant KPIs and forecasting.
Firstly, remember all of those stats found on the Prestashop Cloud dashboard? Well, forecasts can be found alongside those.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16.png" />
As the name suggests, the feature literally forecasts your store’s sales based on recent activity and sales records. It’s a supremely useful and downright interesting tool.
The graph forecasts traffic, conversions, average shopping cart values, and sales.
As for intelligent KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), they are non-obtrusive metrics which appear on numerous pages within the back office.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/7_700x0.png" />
They offer up statistics which are relevant to the page you’re viewing.
For example, the Intelligent Merchant KPIs found on the “Orders” page display conversion rates, average order values and net profit per visit over the last 30 days, along with abandoned carts per day.
In the grand scheme of things, this feature is but a small touch. But those small touches across the Prestashop back office definitely add up.
<h2>Getting Help</h2>
You might think that a free and cloud hosted solution would need to scale back it certain areas, but Prestashop continues to impress when it comes to support.
This is mainly due to the awesome Prestashop community, which is arguably the backbone of the support system as well as the platform itself. <a href="/a-closer-look-at-prestashops-global-community/" target="_blank">You can read more about Prestashop’s community right here</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-311079x0.png" />
Official support options include a helpline which is open during business hours only, along with a standard contact form. It should also be noted however, that there is a large quantity of documentation available from the PrestaShop website, which provides help and support concerning the platform's different features and functions.
Despite this, I felt that the most useful support feature was located within the dashboard itself. A “Help” button is located in the top-right corner of every page on the back office.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/help_700x0.png" />
When clicked, the Help button brings up a window with information relevant to the page you happen to be viewing. For example, if you hit Help on the Statistics page, you will be presented with a window detailing all the workings of the Statistics page.
I found this little feature to be extremely useful.
Finally, it's worth noting that Prestashop Cloud users are given 10 free support tickets to get them started.
<h2>The Verdict</h2>
PrestaShop is a very sleek and very detailed platform, which offers a heavy dose of statistical data for merchants to study and work with.
All the core functions needed for an ecommerce solution are present, and in good working order. Meanwhile, additional features like Intelligent Merchant KPIs and Forecasted Data add further quality.
In fact, those graphs and counters all work in tandem to make PrestaShop a seriously powerful ecommerce analytics engine, on top of being a well oiled ecommerce solution.
Also, I previously mentioned the “small touches” dotted around Prestashop’s back office. These include the intelligent merchant KPIs, module suggestions, help buttons, stats and more.
For me, these small, individual touches come together to give Prestashop Cloud an edge. It feels like the platform is constantly speaking to you, and that’s pretty damn awesome.
And finally, Prestashop’s bubbling community and expansive module and theme marketplace help to round off the product quite nicely indeed.
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Prestashop Cloud is totally free and cloud-hosted, and that’s nothing short of epic.</li>
<li>The dashboard is sleek, modern and easy to use.</li>
<li>Stats and helpful facts are everywhere, and yet are not overwhelming.</li>
<li>Product creation can be quick and easy, but the options to set up more complex products are all there too. </li>
<li>Huge amount of modules and templates, many of which have been developed by PrestaShop and certified partners. </li>
<li>Templates are generally of a very high standard, while various front end features make shopping easy.</li>
<li>Unique features like Intelligent Merchant KPIs and Forecasting adds tremendously to PrestaShop's statistical prowess.</li>
<li>Getting support is relatively easy</li>
<li>Prestashop has a global community which is as helpful as it is massive.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>No access to the source code or database for Prestashop Cloud users.</li>
<li>Although many templates are of a good standard, the pricing system concerning community built and premium themes in particular, are in need of review. </li>
<li>Module &amp; template prices can add up quite easily if you're looking for a truly professional set up. Not a great amount of built-in marketing options.</li>
<li>Minor menu display issue in Prestashop Cloud’s front office.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Final Remarks</h2>
In case I haven’t spoken about it enough during the course of this review, Prestashop Cloud being totally free is seriously epic.
It’s the kind of thing that friends and family won’t believe straight away. “There’s got to be a catch”, they might claim. But there isn’t.
Sure, the Prestashop Addons marketplace is where you’ll likely spend a few bucks, but there’s no necessity on that front at all. Plus, the marketplace offers its fair share of free content, too.
The platform itself is stellar. There’s no denying that Prestashop is now one of the world’s best eCommerce solutions, as it combines simplicity with optional complexity like very few other platforms can.
Prestashop has come a long way, and thanks to its community, open-source nature and cloud offerings, it’s here to stay.
To conclude, it’s safe to say that there is simply no other software available that’s as good as <a href="https://www.prestashop.com/" target="_blank">Prestashop</a> which also offers a free, cloud-hosted route into the world of eCommerce.

PrestaShop Cloud Review

To complete our featured coverage of DNN Software, we're taking a look at how <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a> handles day to day content management.
Over the course of this week, I have delved into Evoq 8's <a href="/a-closer-look-at-dnn-evoq-8s-integration-options/" target="_blank">integration options</a>, <a href="/how-dnn-evoq-8-charges-advocate-marketing-with-gamification/" target="_blank">advocate marketing features</a>, <a href="/blending-analytics-personalization-for-optimum-results-with-dnn-evoq-8/" target="_blank">analytics &amp; personalization features</a> and more. Mike Johnston was also given a <a href="/a-video-walkthrough-of-evoq-content-by-dnn-software/" target="_blank">personal product demonstration</a>, before his <a href="/mike-interviews-navin-nagiah-ceo-of-dnn-software-video/" target="_blank">interview with DNN's CEO Navin Nagiah</a>.
For those of you who still aren't familiar with DNN Software, the .NET giants are trusted by over 2,000 brands across the globe, including a number of Fortune 500 companies, DNN was named the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
<h2>Craft &amp; Manage Content (Without Calling IT)</h2>
In my coverage of <a href="/blending-analytics-personalization-for-optimum-results-with-dnn-evoq-8/">Evoq 8's analytics and personalization features</a>, I mentioned that DNN Software's CEO, Navin Nagiah, recently said that:
<blockquote>“Websites are now being owned more and more by marketers. But if you go back five, eight, ten years ago, website were owned by IT.
So the CMS [Evoq 8] had to pivot to be one for marketers. Super easy to use, super simple to update content.”</blockquote>
Obviously, the words of the company's CEO are reflected in the finished product that is Evoq 8. The platform has been designed from the ground up to be used by marketers, rather than by IT.
Adding pages is a simple process, with details like page descriptions, titles and tags being easy to configure.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-add-page.png" />
Evoq 8 also provides pre-built page layouts for marketers to choose from, alongside the option for them to craft their  own and save it as a template for re-use.
This includes the ability to drag-and-drop resizable page elements in order to perfect the design of each page with ease.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-341079x0.png" />
Marketers can also resize, crop and rotate images on the page without accessing an external image editor. Evoq 8 automatically resamples the image for best quality.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-image-editing.png" />
<h2>Every Asset, One Interface</h2>
DNN Software has done very well to streamline the entire asset management process with Evoq 8.
The platform <a href="/a-closer-look-at-dnn-evoq-8s-integration-options/" target="_blank">integrates with a number of popular storage solutions</a> including; Box, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Azure Storage and Microsoft Sharepoint.
More impressively though, DNN Evoq 8 doesn't just integrate with these individual solutions. It centralizes them, bringing every asset from every storage solution to one manageable interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-creation-asset-manager1079x0.png" />
As with all other interfaces, the asset management page within Evoq 8 is sleek and beautiful. Files and folders are neatly tiled, while convenient search options top the page.
Furthermore, marketers can subscribe to notifications in order to be alerted any time a file or folder is added or changed, in any connected repository.
<h2>Lexus-like</h2>
I'm going to end our featured coverage of DNN Software with another quote from the company's CEO Navin Nagiah, which I found highly interesting.
<blockquote>“We're like a Lexus. Very good value for money, high utility, really well designed, and we're going to stay with you for a while.”</blockquote>
Find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8 by <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visiting their website</a>.
Also, you can explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

DNN Evoq 8: Getting To Grips With Content Management

Our featured coverage of DNN Software continues this week, and this time we're looking at the analytics and personalization features of <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">DNN Evoq 8</a>.
Trusted by more than 2,000 brands worldwide, including a range of Fortune 500 companies, DNN was named the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-small-to-midsize-business-net-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Small to Midsize Business .NET CMS</a>.
DNN Evoq 8 was released with a focus on a few different fronts, including both analytics and personalization. Let's get into how the platform helps marketers combine the two.
<h2>The Metrics Come Easy</h2>
Evoq 8 serves up detailed and relevant metrics, in a way that's both stylish and yet easy to process. Even for laymen.
<a href="/a-video-walkthrough-of-evoq-content-by-dnn-software/" target="_blank">Much like the rest of DNN Evoq 8</a>, the analytics dashboard is very easy on the eyes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/page-level-content-analytics700x0.png" />
The sleek nature of the dashboard doesn't come at the cost of functionality though. With it, marketers can easily:
<ul>
<li>Track Page View activity over any length of time, comparing time periods as well as visitors to views.</li>
<li>Monitor the average time spent on each page, along with the bounce rate for the time period.</li>
<li>See the top referring domains driving traffic to the page, top operating systems used, and the top conversion activities.</li>
<li>Understand which traffic channels are driving visitors to the page, and which devices those visitors are using to access the page.</li>
<li>Analyze how are visitors are navigating to and from the page, segmented by traffic type.</li>
</ul>
In other words, Evoq 8 provides marketers with ample information regarding their visitors, arming them with the information they need to adjust content and form marketing campaigns.
However, what really caught my eye, was the presentation of these stats and facts.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/analytics-nav-summary.png" />
The use of flow charts, pie charts, and line graphs may not be anything new, but Evoq 8 actually makes them fun to look at. And that's new.
Everything is quirkily colour-coded, while the interface itself is elegantly minimal on every area of the analytics dashboard. In short, these are seriously important metrics presented in a brilliantly casual way.
<h2>Multi-layered Personalization</h2>
DNN Evoq 8 is capable of tailoring content based on device, behavior, location, or user profile. The end goal is of course to increase both engagement and conversions by dishing out the most relevant content to each visitor.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dnn700x0.png" />
To craft personalized experiences, Evoq users can set personalization rules.
Through these rules, marketers can arrange specific and tailored content which will only be seen by select groups, all of which are determined by the initial personalization rules.
For example, a banner promoting a North American competition can be configured to be displayed on the website for US and Canada based visitors only.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization-rules_1.png" />
A simple rule can be set to display this version of the website specifically to North Americans, while the rest of the world are shown another version, perhaps without the banner.
Naturally, Evoq 8 lets marketers view, edit, and delete their different page versions.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/personalization-pages.png" />
The natural link between these two marketing features is obvious. Without the stellar analytics system, DNN Evoq 8 users would have trouble identifying their customers, making personalization almost impossible.
Likewise, DNN's personalization features would be of little use without the helpful information provided by its analytics system. Together, they offer valuable stats and metrics, paired with some powerful tools designed to make optimum use of them.
<h2>The Marketer Shift</h2>
Evoq 8's supremely simple approach to both analytics and personalization is no accident.
During <a href="/mike-interviews-navin-nagiah-ceo-of-dnn-software-video/" target="_blank">Mike Johnston's recent video interview with Navin Nagiah</a>, DNN Software's CEO made these telling comments:
<blockquote>“Websites are now being owned more and more by marketers. But if you go back five, eight, ten years ago, website were owned by IT.
So the CMS [Evoq 8] had to pivot to be one for marketers. Super easy to use, super simple to update content.”</blockquote>
I'd say that the shift towards marketers is on track, as “super easy” and “super simple” are two apt descriptions of the analytics and personalization features within Evoq 8.
To find out more about DNN Evoq Content 8, <a href="http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content?utm_source=cmscritic-article-april-2015&amp;utm_campaign=cmscritic-april-2015" target="_blank">visit their website</a>. Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/dnn-evoq-content/" target="_blank">DNN Evoq Content through our CMS Directory</a>.

Blending Analytics & Personalization For Optimum Results With DNN Evoq 8

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