Key Behavior Cache

Abstract

Use a contact's interaction history to personalize based on past and current interactions with your brand.

The Key Behavior Cache is a cache that an administrator can configure to store information about a contact's recent activities across all channels in the content delivery environment. The Key Behavior Cache is the part of the contact entity which is stored in the shared session state and is read-only. At the start of a session, Sitecore queries the Experience Database (xDB) to get the contact's historical behavior, which is then stored in the cache.

Rather than focusing exclusively on a contact’s current interaction with your brand, you can use the information about the contact's interaction history to create and implement personalization rules based on a contact's past behavior.

The Key Behavior Cache includes information on the following types of interactions:

  • Campaigns

  • Events

  • Goals

  • Outcomes

  • Channels

  • Venues

You can also create custom categories that track contact behavior and are stored in the Key Behavior Cache.

System requirements

To use the Key Behavior Cache you must have:

  • Sitecore XP 8.1 or later

  • xDB enabled

Note

The Key Behavior Cache is not available during aggregation or reporting. It is only available in the content delivery environment.

Personalization and the Key Behavior Cache

Once the Key Behavior Cache has been populated with data from the xDB, you can create and implement personalization rules based on the contact's past interactions. This enables you to provide contacts with content that is relevant to their past behavior, and not just their current interaction with your brand.

For example, if a contact visits a website in the current month and subscribe to a newsletter, and then they buy a product from the website, this triggers the customer outcome. Information about all these activities – the triggered events, goals, and outcomes – are stored in the Key Behavior Cache.

On your website, you can implement personalization rules that contain conditions that check for behavior from the Key Behavior Cache. For example, you can set rules that hide the content that prompts a particular contact to sign up for a newsletter and instead provide information about something more relevant, such as joining a customer loyalty program.