The world of today is online, and the digital consumer — your customer — expects a consistently memorable customer experience (CX) across channels.
Enterprises that are ahead of the curve are creating personalized experiences with predictive analytics, seamlessly delivering omnichannel content, using augmented reality and virtual reality in their apps to create life-like experiences, implementing AI-powered chatbots, and more.
The benchmark for good CX is high. Thoughtful personalization and omnichannel content delivery are now table stakes for businesses in most industries. Enterprises need the ability to anticipate what customers want and deliver it to them at the right time.
Monolithic or legacy CMSs are made to create and manage content and media for a single channel. When it comes to multichannel content, they struggle to keep up. Adding new functionality requires multiple integrations, creating technical debt and vendor lock-in.
Instead of forcing legacy CMSs to do something they weren’t designed for, enterprises can get closer to their business goals by leveraging modern digital experience platforms (DXPs) – either by building or buying the right-fit solution.
What is a DXP?
DXPs belong to a new category of enterprise software. DXPs are what CMSs have evolved into: instead of only focusing on content management, DXPs allow enterprises to manage the entire user experience.
Gartner defines a DXP as: “an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences. ”
Simply put, a DXP is an integrated technology suite made up of a number of products that work together. Products that could be part of a DXP solution include content management systems, personalization tools, ecommerce applications, digital asset managers, customer relationship management solutions, and more.
The main difference between a DXP and a CMS is how a DXP works with data from different sources. A DXP integrates different technologies, bringing together all of an enterprise’s customer data in one central hub. This makes it easy to pull insights from the data, giving the enterprise the ability to deliver exceptional experiences to customers at all stages of their journey.
Read The Key Ingredients of an Ideal Content Management System
Why do you need a DXP?
DXPs are a good choice for enterprises that are prioritizing their digital transformation. They can be used to achieve the following:
Easily manage a highly distributed multisite setup: A DXP enables large organizations with operations in many countries or with several brands operating under one umbrella to quickly launch multiple sites using a single backend installation. Options to customize the themes, languages, etc, make it possible for new sites to be spun up easily by employees rather than requiring the support of IT vendors.
Effortlessly plan and deliver cross-channel experiences: DXPs offer the ability to centrally manage all digital assets. Content can easily be repurposed and reused across channels. This makes it easy to plan and deliver content across a variety of touchpoints.
Gain actionable insights and improve decision-making: A DXP operates as a single source of truth, bringing together data from multiple sources such as sales, marketing, customer support, finance, etc. With all this structured data available to you in one place, you can draw data-driven, actionable insights that don’t just help you deliver better customer experiences but also help you make better decisions across business functions. This is one of the most compelling benefits of a DXP.
Offer better personalization: By leveraging a DXP’s integrated analytics and combining this with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, brands can offer more personalized experiences to their customers.
Flawlessly execute memorable digital campaigns: With easy content delivery across touchpoints, marketers have more control over the customer journey. They can tailor each interaction in as granular a manner as desired and execute digital campaigns that are truly unforgettable.
Improve customer satisfaction and boost retention: Delivering personalized experiences allows brands to build meaningful relationships with customers across the customer journey and increase retention.
As an example, consider a healthcare service provider that has built different systems over the years to manage outpatient bookings, laboratory tests and reporting, and pharmaceutical sales.
If these are built using different technologies which aren’t integrated, patients might have to log in separately to each system. Patient data residing in one system can’t be shared with other systems, so the healthcare facility’s staff aren’t able to quickly access patient histories. This could lead to costly and even life-threatening delays in making critical decisions.
A DXP offering the right composable experience could break these silos and make the data easily available to staff across departments, improving the quality of care provided to patients. Further, automation could be used to remind patients to schedule tests and follow-ups, and AI/ML could be used to make personalized recommendations around nutritional supplements, specialized diets, or fitness plans.
Read Break Down Silos with an Agile CMS
Is a DXP right for every enterprise?
Understanding how to choose a DXP or a composable CMS and making the right choice is key for businesses looking to build a differentiated offering. The benefits of a DXP are considerable for organizations that are mainly digital and have complex needs from their digital platforms, such as:
- Organizations that need to plan complex customer journeys across a large number of touchpoints
- Organizations that need to deliver personalized experiences across channels to a diverse audience
- Organizations that need to orchestrate impactful digital campaigns
They’re also a good choice for organizations that find themselves limited by their existing CMS and other siloed backend systems. Moving to a DXP can help organizations streamline and unify their tech stack and help your marketing and development teams get more from the tools at their disposal.
If you fit any of the above criteria, and you have an ambitious team that’s driven to innovate, a DXP is probably the way for you to go.
But proprietary suite solutions can be expensive – both in terms of cost and the relearning involved for your teams.
For such organizations, it would be better to opt for composable DXPs – where your teams can leverage existing technologies that they’re comfortable with, while having them seamlessly integrated between each other. The right technology partner can help such organizations quickly create and deliver composable experiences using a selection of best-of-breed solutions that suit their feature requirements and budgetary constraints.
Boost ROI and accomplish more with a DXP
If your business has complex digital requirements, or if you’re struggling to see clear ROI from the disparate technologies in your martech stack, a DXP could be the right choice for you. DXPs eliminate silos and give you access to all your data from different tools and channels in a central hub. Whether the goal is growth, retention, or acquisition, DXPs allow you to effectively manage the entire customer journey and deliver integrated, meaningful experiences. In the hands of innovative marketing and development teams, the benefits of a DXP are enormous and have the power to transform businesses and create endless opportunities.
As the digital landscape matures and evolves, enterprises that opt for a DXP may find it easier to differentiate — bringing them one step closer to realizing their long-term ambitions.
