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DXPs engage customers with well-thought-out, personalized, consistent, and connected digital experiences. They also offer businesses the opportunity to improve their performance.
Digital experience platforms can bring significant benefits to businesses. It can increase customer engagement, conversion, advocacy, and loyalty by streamlining the digital experience.
It facilitates the delivery of digital experiences, which reduces time to market, lowers costs, and increases team productivity. It reduces risk by automating many processes involved in creating, managing, and delivering digital experiences. It also improves brand equity through its consistency.
Content management systems today offer flexible and scalable capabilities beyond just managing content. Modern CMSs can deliver digital experiences across channels and devices with flexibility and customization that surpasses those of older CMSs.
What is a Digital Experience Platform?
A digital experience platform (also known as a DXP) is software that allows the creation, management, and delivery of digital experiences across various channels and contexts.
DXP is different from a CMS in that it can deliver to multiple digital media and has scales and commerce built-in.
The digital experience platform's core competency is managing and delivering digital user experiences, primarily on web pages, mobile apps, and other content types.
Content management system (CMS) systems have met this need for a long time.
Although CMSs have allowed marketers to take control of websites from the IT department (responsible for the initial web), marketers' requirements have outpaced CMSs in recent years.
Businesses have gone through digital transformations to improve efficiency, stay competitive, and adapt to changing customer behavior. Marketers adopted other technologies to enhance the capabilities of their CMS to perform all that modern marketing requires.
Why do Businesses Need a Digital Experience Platform?
Although you can market online with a DXP, you will need it to be able to do as much or as efficiently as you can with one.
There are several benefits to consider when deciding whether your company is ready for a DXP.
Tailored Services to Customer Needs
You can now wholly mold your message and make it resonate with your target audience, unlike in the past. This is possible by using the power of digital customer experiences.
This allows you to offer your customers more value and increase their satisfaction. You can personalize the content your customers see by analyzing and reviewing key metrics, such as the time spent on each page and customer registration.
Customers are Smarter
Although it is evident that online commerce is not new, the market has changed how it interacts with suppliers over the past two decades.
Smartphones have made it possible to access services anytime and from anywhere. In the past, customers could only access transaction points in-store or via a computer.
However, they can easily access them today with a few clicks on their smartphone.
Better Touchpoints
DXPs allows brands to distribute content across touchpoints online and offline platforms.
DXPs can scale to meet increasing touchpoints beyond the web, mobile, and chatbots, voice assistants, customer portals, kiosks, and other devices.
This is essential because brands must provide consistent experiences to customers wherever they go. A survey by Aspect Software found that businesses that adopt omnichannel strategies have 91 percent higher customer retention rates than those that do not.
Intelligent Architecture
DXPs work so well because of the agility and flexibility that microservices, also known as microservice architecture, offer.
Microservices are architectural styles that organize an application using a set of services.
- Highly maintainable and easily testable.
- Loosely coupled.
- Independently deployable.
- We are organized around business capabilities.
The microservice architecture allows for the continuous delivery/deployment of large, complex applications. This enables an organization to improve its technology stack.
This allows developers at the back end to make changes and improvements independently without affecting any other store parts.
Customer Loyalty
Business owners can get a complete view of their customers from this system. This allows them to create a 360-degree picture of potential clients and tailor their offerings to meet client needs.
Customer satisfaction is directly related to the quality of personalized content. People love it when they can get what they need quickly and efficiently.
People also like to feel that they are being cared for by the service provider.
A digital experience platform is a great way to build long-lasting customer relationships.
Long-Term Cost-Effectiveness
DXPs can be expensive. However, the results can be more than worth the initial costs. They may lead to flexible architecture and integration capabilities or customer loyalty, leading to higher sales.
Once you clearly understand the benefits and definitions of the digital experience platform, you can start to look into the DXP vendors to incorporate the platform into your development strategy.
Various Types of Digital Experience Platforms
Different DXPs have different characteristics. Three digital experience platforms have emerged, each based on a specific organization's use case.
There are three types of DXPs.
Portal DXPs
These platforms are designed for B2Bs/B2Cs in manufacturing and fintech for post-sale CRM, customer-support initiatives, loyalty, retention, renewal, and other related activities.
These platforms can be integrated with corporate intranet portals to use the support of suppliers and partners. Portal DXPs typically include features such as CMS and mobile devices support.
CMS DXPs
Creative agencies, such as advertising and marketing firms, must have more capabilities than a simple CMS.
CMS DXPs provide analytics solutions and persona-based segmentation to assist pre-purchase consumer-facing efforts such as customer acquisition, demand generator, and accelerating the sales funnel.
Commercial DXPs
These platforms are used primarily by retailers to promote their e-commerce sites.
Commercial DXPs offer pre-purchase, fulfillment, product return programs, shopping carts, and payment and inventory management.
Top Digital Experience Platforms in 2022
More than unique content is needed to deliver special content on every channel. Companies must also ensure that their offering is consistent and connected.
Companies need flexible and scalable digital solutions to provide a personalized experience that engages their target audience.
These platforms enable businesses to overcome these challenges through a digital experience.
These platforms can deliver exceptional digital experiences that encourage customers to trust you more.
Adobe
Adobe is a digital platform that offers personalized and rich DX experiences. It has an open architecture and can be customized with digital asset management and content management systems.
Using its intelligent tools and services, you can quickly create custom web applications to meet your business needs.
Adobe is a DX platform that offers forms, communication processes, web content administration, and easy handling of high traffic.
This platform automates and monitors your digital experience strategy.
Adobe products have many features. Adobe tools can seamlessly integrate component building blocks with flexible workflow integration.
It's a great digital experience platform for large enterprises.
Drupal
The Drupal platform allows businesses to manage unique content across channels and deliver customized experiences that connect with their target audience.
Drupal is committed to meeting the growing demand for personalized content. Drupal allows you to engage customers, generate leads, and measure revenues.
It also allows entrepreneurs and marketers to manage websites easily, multi-channel digital experiences, and shopping experiences and integrate a diverse digital ecosystem.
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Salesforce
Customer 360 is the foundation of Salesforce's digital experience platform. Salesforce DXP helps companies deliver faster digital experiences across all channels.
Salesforce DXP enables you to grow your business while engaging more customers through data-driven portals, sites, and mobile apps.
Salesforce offers personalized and consistent digital customer experiences. Salesforce provides seamless, efficient, and fast digital customer service.
Salesforce's digital experience platform assists users in customer-centric development. It creates personalized content, strengthens relationships, and improves branding.
Salesforce customer 360 solutions transform the customer experience with data-driven portals, sites, and applications.
Sitecore
Sitecore development has made several SaaS acquisitions to improve customer data management, market resources management, and personalization strategies.
Sitecore leverages new AI and data functions to cater to CX-centric scenarios and B2B use cases. Researcher also identifies the importance of its global alliance network as a positive. This provides significant support for clients who embark on a journey to digital transformation.
Sitecore, a well-known content management system (CMS), has expanded its capabilities with data analytics, marketing automation, and personalized content delivery across all touchpoints.
Multilingual sites can be created, and cross-channel campaigns can be run to enhance client interactions. Machine learning tools can help you decode data and properly use it.
IBM
Top-rated Digital Experience software, IBM, has been a constant leader in reports. It is both IT- and marketing-friendly.
Its core capabilities include the following:
- An intuitive content management system.
- Personalized content delivery integrated with internal procedures.
- Intelligent data analysis.
Progress Sitefinity
Progress Sitefinity allows you to create your custom DXP using the required functionality. Your custom-made DXP may include the following:
- Omnichannel delivery, internal productivity features, integrations, and security (Sitefinity).
- Cloud support (Sitefinity Cloud).
- Personalization, AI, and analytics (SitefinityInsight).
- Ecommerce Support (Ucommerce for Sitefinity).
Sitefinity is also recognized for its ease of use, form-building tools, and good features.
SAP Fiori
SAP Fiori can be integrated with SAP's enterprise software suite, including the popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
This allows you to create user-friendly and consistent apps across all devices. SAP Fiori is designed to speed up company onboarding in growth phases and reduce training time.
SAP Fiori also features machine learning and integrated information, allowing you to tailor your program with time.
Kentico Xperience
Kentico Xperience combines digital marketing personalization and content management to create e-commerce experiences.
Kentico's focus on ecommerce and its ability to use low-to-no-code make it stand out. Kentico's focus on e-commerce makes it an ideal choice for marketers who need to deploy interactive solutions without any coding quickly.
Kentico is a powerful solution that can be used for both ecommerce and non-e-commerce businesses.
- Integration with headless CMSs.
- Drag-and-drop widgets.
- Digital asset management.
- Personalization
- Automation
- Email marketing.
Integrations and APIs that are not included in the box, such as Zoho or Salesforce
OutSystems
OutSystems is an AI-powered, low-code solution that supports omnichannel customer journeys. Although it is mainly marketed as an app-building platform, OutSystems also offers visual tools to connect content across multiple channels.
You can also create apps for any device and simulate user flows and interactions. You can also integrate with many technologies (such as GPS and barcode readers).
Positive user reviews are also common. One user stated, "OutSystems is an amazing platform that allows you to develop amazing applications. The community is extremely helpful, and one can solve a problem quickly with other peers in the forums.
Integrations with other systems can be a huge plus."
DXP vs. Content Management System (CMS)
Content management systems (CMS) are single-channel predecessors of digital experience platforms.
A CMS allows you to format all content for your website. It can be translated to other channels, requiring little interaction from users to reach other web channels.
DXPs can manage your company's web page content and digital content for social media, apps, and chat. A headless CMS is an option.
However, it doesn't store the digital content but distributes it.
These CMSs offer more flexibility than traditional options. You can often take the same content creation and show it across multiple channels.
DXP vs. Web Experience Management (WEM)
While web experience management systems are more flexible and offer personalization than CMS, they have a different level of integration than CMS.
Web experience management systems (WEMs) have basic functionality similar to CMS. They can track user interactions and collect data. However, they offer more personalization options as well as data collection capabilities.
They are not able to target specific market segments.
DXP combines the best features from both CMSs and WEMs into a single platform. You have greater control over user experience and content.
It treats these elements as related tasks rather than separate tasks.
Do Not Ignore These Digital Experience Platforms Trend
Brands looking to expand their reach continue to benefit from contextual experiences and personalized content, resulting from customer demand and the ongoing development of AI/ML.
The momentum for DXPs is only going to increase. Marketers should be aware of the following five areas in the coming year.
Time to Go AI
AI can provide deep insights and accurate predictions through data analytics. Companies need to be more confident in AI's ability to identify the most intelligent actions based on the data it analyzes and processes.
This activity is already evident, with algorithms dominating search engine optimization (SEO). It is not easy to go AI-first. But it will be worth it. Brands should be able to anticipate what customers want and then direct them immediately.
Being Flexible Will Take you to the Top
Success in adapting to change and striving for future-proofing will be constant business principles. The adoption of microservices and the move to cloud computing are the two most significant changes in the business world.
Both of these innovations provide greater agility and scalability to systems and processes. They are also purpose-built for new business requirements such as AI, data analysis, and voice technologies.
Digitally Integrated Businesses Are Future-Proof
All businesses need corresponding data to succeed in the future. An integrated modular approach simplifies workflows across all departments and management tools.
It provides greater visibility into the impact of each department's work on the rest of the company. It offers a cohesive customer experience at every touchpoint. A marketing automation platform can be paired with your DXP to make it easier to market to customers.
Voice in User Interfaces Will Rapidly Evolve
Smart speakers are an area that has yet to be mastered. Brands that can do this well will be able to dominate in this competition.
Voice-assisted searches are what consumers want, but they don't want to be void of value. Many visionary speakers are being developed that cater to human speech patterns. This interactivity will revolutionize UI design, especially for mobile apps and systems.
Customer Privacy is More Important Than Ever
Companies' handling of customer privacy has changed dramatically since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was passed.
This is not a marketing problem. Data policy must be updated for every department, including sales, lead generation, and customer support. Customers must trust that brands will respect their privacy.
This alone can be a competitive advantage.
The Key Takeaway
There is no turning back in a digital world. Marketing-wise, this is a great thing. Digital innovations have enabled brands to connect with consumers in new ways that were impossible just a few decades ago.
That's what is most important for both sides. Businesses should be able to understand their customers' needs and provide the products and services they need in a seamless, simple, and satisfying way.
Consumers desire to make quick, sometimes impulsive decisions and want an enhanced experience when searching for a list of products and services that will positively impact their lives.
For this reason, digital experience platforms have replaced one-dimensional web content management systems. No matter where businesses are in their digital transformation, they will need one in the future to achieve their business goals.
