How on-site search leads to better engagement

Search-driven technologies are uniquely positioned to make these types of experiences possible.

“Marketers need to own search, because they are the most deeply invested in the site’s overall success, the most knowledgeable about the customer and their evolving tastes, and the most aware of changing market conditions and the competitive landscape,” said Tucker Hall, Director, Market & Industry Communication, Coveo. “Marketers can drag-and-drop various modules to quickly design search pages; they can use a simple rule-building engine to tune the relevance of results based on specific visitor profiles; they can build personalized, search-driven content pages with a few clicks (and zero programming or coding skills.)”

Properly produced search pages and properly used data results in better personalization for brands – especially in the mobile space. According to Hall search will become even bigger for mobile brands because it simplifies navigation on smaller screens. He suggests coupling a search-based infrastructure with responsive design. And, he says, watch for crowd-sourced personalization in the near future.

“One of the current challenges of personalization is that it still requires some manual effort – to develop visitor profiles, to map relevant site content and products to these profiles, and then to test your assumptions and adjust accordingly,” said Hall. “But the technology exists to automate much of this process, using predictive analytics. For example, using Sitecore and Coveo, marketers can develop their profiles and then the technology will track how visitors of different profiles engage with various content on the site.”

This allows marketers to target content based on anonymous profiles to reach a broader audience segment.