How to personalize your site based on user reading history

PlaybooksBy Mariana Bonanomi

Creating personalized content based on blog posts users have read can be a powerful tool for driving engagement and building strong customer relationships.

You can craft targeted messaging by leveraging data about readers’ interactions with your articles. This information has a lot to say about their interests.

In this playbook, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step on how to intuitively put that into practice by using our personalization platform — from segmentation to defining which content to display.

Table of contents

Find out how Aegro increased conversions

Discover how this Brazilian agribusiness startup leveraged reading history user data to boost results.

How to create a personalized experience

You can create a personalized experience in a few easy steps.

First, access your Workspace, then click Experiences and New. Now, we'll show you:

  • How to create user segments
  • How to select the website section where you want to deliver the personalized messaging
  • And how to define the content you’ll display to users coming from a specific blog post.

Audience

Screenshot of Croct's admin. A breadcrumb defines steps for creating an experience. A side drawer shows a form for defining audience name, ID, and criteria.
How to create an audience

Click on New audience and enter a CQL expression that matches the target audience.

Here’s an example of segmentation criteria based on the blog post the user accessed when starting a session:

  • session's landingPage matches ~/web-personalization/

Slot and content

Slots are any personalizable elements of your application.

Three wireframes highliting newsletter form, hero section, and announcement bar slots you can personalize.
Newsletter form, hero section, and announcement bar slot examples

Some popular choices are the newsletter form, hero section, and announcement bar. Still, you can also personalize any page section to include targeted information.

Screenshot of Croct's admin. A breadcrumb defines steps for creating an experience. A drop down menu displays options of slots you can personalize.
How to select a slot

Select the slot you want to personalize, and finally, click on Content to specify elements such as images, copies, and button colors you want your audience to view. Be creative!

Screenshot of Croct's admin. A breadcrumb defines steps for creating an experience. A side drawer shows a content form for images, copies, and colours of the personalized content
How to define personalized content

Extra options

After creating an audience of users who read a specific article and defining both the slot you want to personalize and the content you want those users to view, everything is almost up and running!

You can also prioritize this experience over others, choose a different time zone, and schedule its start to whenever you prefer.

Screenshot of Croct's admin with buttons with options of scheduling, prioritizing, and choosing a time zone for a personalized experience.
You can schedule, prioritize, and choose a time zone for experiences

Next, publish your experience or go to the preview to see the magic happen!

Wrapping up

Creating personalized communication on your website is a great strategy to grab the user’s attention, generating more engagement, and increasing conversions.

Here are some extra reads to help you tailor your messaging:

Sign up for a free account today and explore our platform to enhance your content delivery and improve your brand authority. Happy personalization!

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