The Aware Blog

Aware Wins Sitecore Site of The Year

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:18:00 -0500

Aware’s client Uponor has been named a Sitecore North American Site of the Year in the 'Best Innovator' category. This annual award recognizes companies that leverage Sitecore’s technology to develop outstanding websites.

9 Questions to Ask When Auditing Your Sitecore Solution

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:51:00 -0500

One of the key differentiators with Sitecore is its open framework, providing you with endless options on how to configure and deploy your website solution. Regardless of how you develop your solution, there are some key best practices to follow to ensure your solution is scalable, maintainable and operates with peak performance. With over 80 deployments under our belt at Aware Web Solutions, we have fine-tuned our best practices to make sure these goals are met.

How to Get the Most From Sitecore Analytics - Starting Today

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:05:00 -0500

A good marketer becomes great when armed with solid data on how prospects, customers…and even competitors interact and digest their online content.

Introducing Swift Analytics, a fast and flexible way to analyze your Sitecore Analytics data from within the Sitecore Desktop UI.

7 Keys to a Successful Virtual Workplace

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:12:00 -0500

Aware Web has been delivering web solutions to clients for nearly 15 years. Nothing unusual about that - except the fact that Awarians have been working remotely since before the invention of Skype and during a time when operating virtually was not necessarily on the list of things the “cool kids” did.

7 Keys to Automating Your Online Marketing

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:54:00 -0500

In today’s competitive landscape, marketing automation is critical…and it’s no easy task. Below we’ve identified seven consistent keys that organizations of all shapes and sizes have benefited from when automating their marketing efforts.

Aware Awarded Expert Level Certification in Mobile and Social Partner Specialization Categories from Sitecore

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:42:00 -0500

Aware is proud to announce expert certification in two new categories of the Partner Specialization program - Mobile and Social. Aware is honored to be one of the elite partners in North America who has earned all six specializations.

Your Digital Brand As Seen In 2013

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:02:00 -0600

Hey, that 160 character Twitter bio sure sounds nice, but what if someone was to Google you? What would they find? Would they know what drives you to get up each morning and find your Space Jam or would they find themselves in a tangled web of short statements followed by hollow actions or a case of MDPD (Multiple Digital Persona Disorder)?

Aware’s Joel Konecny Receives Sitecore MVP Honor

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:25:00 -0600

Aware is proud to announce Joel Konecny has been selected and honored with a 2013 Sitecore Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award. The program recognizes exceptional technical expertise and community leaders who encourage the objective exchange of web content management knowledge.

Aware Web 2013 Kickoff Party

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:33:00 -0600

As we wrapped up 2012, not only were we able to reflect on the past 365 days of hard work, but also the opportunity to kickoff 2013, welcome our new team members, and proudly enter our 15th year of serving up web solutions. Yes, we’re turning 15 in 2013! And how do we kickoff such a year as this?

How Aware is Using Sitecore's Email Campaign Manager

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:21:00 -0600

The Email Campaign Manager (ECM) is Sitecore’s module that allows you to create large scale e-mail campaigns to proactively engage and interact with your users. The beauty of the ECM is the front- end functionality and its tight integration with Sitecore CMS, Digital Marketing System and your CRM if you choose. Out-of-the- box, ECM will integrate with Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce but customization will be necessary to integrate with homegrown or other CRMs. ECM takes the data held within your CRM and makes it actionable data for targeted email campaigns.

New Ebook: The Quick-Start Guide to Sitecore DMS Success

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:58:00 -0500

Being a marketer in today’s online environment can be a challenge. There are a seemingly infinite number of tools designed to help track and manage marketing efforts. Fortunately, for marketers whose websites are built on Sitecore, the Digital Marketing System (or DMS) can help make order from this chaos by turning Sitecore into a sophisticated marketing engine for your site.

5 Myths about Designing for CMS - It’s Not as Bad as You Think

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:55:00 -0500

From a creative person’s perspective, designing for a content management system used to be akin to torture. The limitations imposed by those older systems would box designers into the most basic layouts. It was like giving a kindergartner nothing but a black crayon to color with.

5 Deadly Sins that will Effectively Kill Your Website – Key Usability Don’ts and How to Fix Them

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:59:00 -0500

Deadly Sin #1: Structuring your site according to how your company functions internally instead of how your users think

This is one of the biggest mistakes we see on the web today. People are deeply ingrained in their own business, talking about what they do and how they sell, and using internal jargon and nomenclature that only they would understand. And because it comes so naturally to them, they think people outside their walls will understand it too. Nine times out of 10, this is not the case.

Create More Value From Your Sitecore Analytics Data with Swift Analytics

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:20:00 -0500

Aware Web Solutions is excited to announce a new Sitecore analytics tool called Swift Analytics. The tool was developed by Aware to fully integrate into your existing Sitecore solution.

SitecoreUser.com is Turning One!

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:00:00 -0500

Over the years, we kept getting asked by clients for additional Sitecore training resources to supplement training for their growing and changing website teams. Almost one year ago SitecoreUser.com was born (built on the Sitecore platform of course) out of a vision to create an online resource for users to learn more about Sitecore CMS through short, informative videos on everything from basic content editing to more advanced marketing features.

A Match Made in Heaven – Sitecore and InDesign

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:21:00 -0500

Marketers, your wish has come true. Sitecore and Adobe InDesign are now integrated – can you say match made in heaven? Thanks to this dynamic duo, online and offline channels are finally coming together. Gone are the days when you had to live with outdated content stuck in print collateral that didn’t match your website. Instead picture this: quickly laying out brochures, sell sheets and catalogs using a branded template and content like descriptions, imagery and pricing stored in Sitecore. The final output can be a PDF for website users with trackable interactive links or an optimized print ready file to send off to your printer. What’s even better is you don’t even need to know how to use InDesign.

Vegas or Bust!

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:56:00 -0500

Aware is gearing up for the 3rd annual Sitecore Symposium, a professional development and networking event for Sitecore customers, developers, partners and executives October 22-24 at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

Shabby Chic is Not Fashionable Online

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:59:00 -0500

Does it feel like your site is a little tattered or dated? Chances are if you’ve noticed then your users probably have too by leaving your site and finding your product or service elsewhere. Good news…small enhancements can go a long way. Adding new functionality or features is a great way to not only update your website, but also provide an enhanced user experience. The following 3 tips provide a few ideas to quickly boost user engagement and take your site from shabby to chic.

Sitecore Multivariate Testing is a Marketer’s New Best Friend

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:20:00 -0500

Testing and optimization are the mantra of any online marketer worth their salt. Good marketers spend a huge amount of time tweaking and testing their page content, images and calls to action to dial in the most effective combinations. As part of Sitecore DMS, the multivariate testing tool offers a powerful option for marketers to measure and optimize their site’s performance. In today’s post we’ll review some of the features of the tool and compare it to the A/B testing tool available with Google Analytics.

Planning for Personalization: How Aware is Personalizing SitecoreUser.com

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:10:00 -0500

One of the more exciting features of Sitecore’s Digital Marketing System (or DMS) is the ability to personalize content to different groups of users based on their implicit or explicit behavior on your site. However, tackling your first personalization project in DMS can be a bit daunting.

How Much Do You Value Conversions? Creating a Scoring Strategy That Works Using Sitecore DMS

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:03:00 -0500

For many websites, user engagement is measured through a fairly basic methodology; users who convert are considered engaged and users who don’t convert aren’t engaged. This isn’t because there are only two levels of user engagement, but because the incremental levels of engagement prior to a conversion are difficult to measure. With Sitecore’s Digital Marketing System (or DMS) engagement of individual users can be measured based on the actions they take and content they interact with on your site. However, engagement scoring can be complex and requires a thoughtful, strategic approach prior to implementation. In today’s post, we’ll walk through how to develop a scoring strategy that accurately values a user’s engagement level and how to create and assign engagement scores to your site’s content.

Sitecore DMS Personas and Profiles - How to Avoid an Identity Crisis

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:00:00 -0500

Understanding your customer is a critical component of any successful marketing effort. But how do you understand a customer in an online environment? Web analytics do a great job of quantifying the big picture of visitors and their activity, but often don’t provide much insight into how unique groups of users are interacting with your site. What does each customer group want? How are they trying to achieve their goals? These questions can be difficult to answer when relying on analytics data alone.

Modal Windows and Sitecore - How to Give Content Authors More Flexibility

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:14:00 -0500

Some time ago, one of our clients expressed a need to use modal dialogs to display biographical information about the members of their governance committee. The expected end result was to produce a modal dialog (a kind of pseudo-popup, often referred to as a “lightbox”) whenever certain links are clicked. The dialog needed to display text in the title bar and rich text content in the dialog window’s body.

Sitecore DMS Demystified - 6 Must Have Marketing Features

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:28:00 -0500

Sitecore CEP, or Consumer Engagement Platform for the uninitiated, is the combination of Sitecore’s award winning Content Management System with their new Digital Marketing System (DMS). When used together, the two tools provide online marketers with a 360-degree view of a web visitor’s experience. The amazing new capabilities help to create a deeper level of user engagement to improve your understanding of your customers'. Tracking how that increased engagement impacts site performance will lead to better conversion rates thereby creating more value for your organization.

Customizing Sitecore’s Hyperlink Manager to Track “OnClick” Events

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:07:00 -0500

I was reviewing some code for a past client with a colleague of mine recently, and they became very excited about one particular feature. We had customized the Hyperlink Manager so that it would automatically include a Google Analytics tracking event when the link was rendered – allowing the client to maintain an extensive analytics store when transferring to a Sitecore-based site.

Sitecore Names Three “Awarians” to the 2011 Sitecore Most Valuable Professional (MVP) List

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:38:00 -0500

Aware is proud to announce Eric Nordberg (Solution Architect), Jason Hedlund (VP of Technology) and Ben Golden (Solution Architect) have been selected and honored with a Sitecore Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award. MVP nominees are evaluated by a special Sitecore panel for their technical expertise and voluntary community involvement in the areas of general technical advocacy, input via blogs and forums and content development over the past year. Aware received three out of the fifty-two MVPs named for 2011.

Ask Better Questions to Hire the Best Sitecore Partner

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:30:00 -0500

It can be a challenge. You’re about to begin a new project implementing Sitecore CMS and you’re interviewing potential Sitecore certified partners to help you.

So, where do you begin? How can you quickly cut through the sales speak, slick presentations and endless promises to arrive at the right partner for you and your unique project?

6 Ways to Optimize Your Sitecore Experience Today

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:55:00 -0500

Just beginning to plan a project using Sitecore? Already completed a Sitecore implementation? Ready to leverage Sitecore’s more advanced tool set (DMS)?

No matter what stage you’re in, there are ways to optimize your Sitecore experience.

Aware Awarded Site of The Year by Sitecore

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:30:00 -0500

Aware’s client, Ripon Athletic RiponAthletic.com, is named Sitecore’s North American Site of the Year for “Best Retail, Wholesale and Consumer Site”.

Sitecore Awards Aware Expert Level Certification in All Four Partner Specialization Categories

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:23:00 -0500

Aware is proud to announce certification in all four categories of the Sitecore Partner Specializations program.

Sitecore Hosting Architecture Considerations – How to determine the environment that best suits your needs - An interview with Eric Nordberg.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:15:00 -0600

I recently sat down with Eric Nordberg, one of Aware’s Solution Architects. Eric wrote a blog post for us titled, “Sitecore Hosting Architecture Considerations.”

Sitecore Hosting Architecture Considerations – Consider the “why” and not just the “how.” - An interview with Eric Nordberg.

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:06:00 -0600

I recently sat down with Eric Nordberg, one of Aware’s Solution Architects. Eric wrote a blog post for us titled, “Sitecore Hosting Architecture Considerations.” This post has been well received and has consistently been one of our most popular posts on AwareWeb.com.

Congratulations to Lunds and Byerly’s

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:14:00 -0500

Congratulations to our long-term client partner, Lunds and Byerly’s on the grand re-opening of your all-new Byerly’s Ridgedale grocery store in Minnetonka, MN!

Customizing Sitecore’s Rich Text Editor Dialogs [video interview]

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:23:00 -0500

One of my cohorts recently posed a great question: How hard would it be to customize the hyperlink manager dialog in Sitecore’s rich text editor? While there is a well established protocol for creating a completely custom dialog, customizing one of the built-in dialogs was not something I had seen before. Of course, I couldn’t let the question go unanswered.

SaaS vs. Cloud

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:22:00 -0500

SaaS-man, meet your nemesis, Mr. Cloud

If these two were comic book superheroes, Mr. Cloud would have his heel on SaaS-man’s throat while covering poor SaaS-man in kryptonite.

Web Globalization Strategy. It’s more than just speaking the language [Video Interview]

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:00:00 -0500

There’s a lot of talk about web globalization these days. And rightly so. Doing business on a global scale is a real part of today’s worldwide economy, thanks in no small part to the ever spreading reach of the Internet.

Nine Strategic Web Globalization Considerations [Video Interview]

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:53:00 -0500

If you want some guidance on how to implement a globalization solution based on sound strategy and planning, this post is for you.

Ceremonial Groundbreaking Downtown

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:47:00 -0500

Congratulations Lunds and Byerly’s on the construction of your newest grocery store in downtown Minneapolis!

Should You Change Your Top Level Domain Strategy?

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:54:00 -0500

A generic Top Level Domain or gTLD is an internet extension such as .com or .edu. There are currently about 25 gTLDs in use today but with the expansion of the new program there could be an endless number of gTLD.

MIMA Event Recap – Mobile Relationship Management

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:55:00 -0500

MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) does a great job of hosting breakfast events with smart speakers on timely, relevant topics. With mobile getting as much buzz as it has, it was great to hear Julie Roth Novack of Vibes speak on integrating mobile marketing into existing mobile channels.

Four Considerations When Building a Mobile Strategy [Video Interview]

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:38:00 -0500

At this point in its maturity it is fair to say mobile use is an accepted and popular form of computing. Mobile may continue to change and mature as technology continues to advance but it is a preferred way of performing what used to be considered desktop computer-only tasks. The growth of the Android platform and the popularity of Apple’s iPhone have made mobile activities a need and not just a novelty. Many of our clients are aware of the growing need for a mobile-friendly site but are unsure where to start and how to plan for what seems to be a moving target.

Online Marketers, Time to Get Ready for EU Privacy Directive

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:51:00 -0500

On May 25, 2011, Directive 2009/136/EC, an amendment to a similar 2002 privacy directive, went into effect in the European Unions, requiring websites to seek permission from website users to place cookies on their browser.

Selecting the Best CMS Today - 5 Key Takeaways from the Online Marketing Summit [Video Interview]

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:50:00 -0500

Aware’s own Jeremy Ziegler (Chairman/CEO) and Deb Francis (VP of Client Engagement) recently presented at the Online Marketing Summit. Here are five key takeaways in case you missed it.

Profile Specific Style Sheets

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:31:00 -0500

When creating content within Sitecore, or any CMS for that matter, you would like to view the content exactly how it will appear on the live site. Sitecore allows you to specify a CSS file to load into the RadEditor. This lets you view the styles in Design mode as they would appear on the published site and also populates the Apply CSS Class dropdown list with available CSS classes. Unfortunately, the standard behavior only allows a single style sheet and any class defined within it will be made available in the class dropdown. Often times this is less than ideal. Frequently, certain pages or elements of a page have special style rules that are not shared across the whole site. In this post we will show how to extend Sitecore to allow you to specify a style sheet and the classes available in the Class dropdown as part of the editor profile.

Designing for Content Management Systems-Part 2

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 10:35:00 -0500

This is the second half of a two-part series about designing for content management systems. The first half, which focuses on Flexibility and Manageability, can be read here.

Designing for Content Management Systems Part 1

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:48:00 -0500

Part 1: Flexibility and Manageability
Today's robust content management systems can handle the implementation of even the most complicated website designs with very few restrictions, but that doesn't mean designers should feel free to go hog-wild, designing and coding with utter abandon.

In addition to the typical things a modern web designer must consider with each project (such as usability, information architecture, functionality, user experience, and basic aesthetic principles), we also need to focus on optimizing our designs and code for the following interrelated considerations when designing for implementation into a CMS system:

Are You Still Not Listening? How to Get Up to Speed in the Social World

Mon, 16 May 2011 11:33:00 -0500

If you’ve considered incorporating social media into your overall marketing strategy, but just haven’t quite pulled the trigger, listen up. The world (and most importantly, your competitors) is passing you by. For every moment that you stand on the social media sidelines, they are taking full advantage of the benefits you are not.

Using Stakeholder Interviews to Create a Winning IA

Mon, 09 May 2011 10:51:00 -0500

For most companies, the website is a constantly-evolving tool serving multiple audiences and supporting a variety of internal initiatives. This complexity can make the development of an information architecture challenging when so many groups have a seat at the table. In these situations, stakeholder interviews during a redesign project discovery phase can go a long way towards helping the strategy and design teams better understand the overall goals of the project while creating buy-in and alignment within the client’s organization.

Sitecore Multilingual Solution Considerations

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:18:00 -0500

At Dreamcore North America 2011, I attended a presentation by Alex Shyba titled "Building Successful and Efficient Multilingual Solutions with Sitecore". Overall, the presentation was great and Alex is to be commended for the topics he highlighted. About 1/4 (or 1 div 4 for you xsl gurus) of the way into the presentation Alex started mentioning architecture and strategy considerations and I couldn't help but notice a number of nodding heads and "light bulb" moments around the room. As Alex alluded, an effective multilingual strategy is not as simple as turning a key (nor should it be). Consequently, my goal with this post is to outline a number of key considerations you may need to address when implementing a multilingual solution.

Sitecore Rules Engine - Managing Top Level Navigation Inclusion

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:02:00 -0500

At Dreamcore North America, I was excited to see how Sitecore is applying the Rules Engine to introduce conditional logic. Specifically, they demoed it in combination with DMS (digital marketing system – aka OMS v2) to handle personalization. This was ridiculously easy in the Sitecore 6.5 Page Editor. Also, it was used for mobile browser detection in the Mobile Device Detector shared source module.