Comparison of Digital Experience Platforms (DXP)

Digital-Experience-Definition: What is Digital Experience (DX)

The term "Digital Experience" practically describes the experiences that individuals of a group have when interacting with certain digital media or channels. In an economic context, DX generally refers to the use of typical online marketing and online sales channels by target customers, such as a company website, email, an online shop, social media, an app, etc.

Why are Digital-Experience-Platforms (DXP) needed?

The Digital Experience serves here as a kind of all-encompassing metric for the quality of the user experience across all used digital channels. However, a concrete measurement is difficult. It can only be achieved through the combination of many metrics of the individual channels, such as the duration of stay, the bounce rate, the conversion rate, etc.

The goal is - or should be - to create a positive Digital Experience. That means, target customers should be optimally served at every point of their customer journey or at every typical touchpoint for the respective expectation context in all digital channels of the respective company. "Personalization" is the key word: The more accurately content is tailored to the requirements of the target customers, the more useful they appear. If everything works optimally, a good Digital Experience (very similar to the Customer Experience and User Experience) considerably contributes to building trust, increases the chances of customer acquisition and retention, and provides a clear competitive advantage for brands.

This is not an easy task or a lot of work. This is where Digital-Experience-Platforms or Digital-Experience-Platforms (DXP) come into play (also simply called Digital-Experience-Software, Digital-Experience-Tools or Digital-Experience-Systems). A corresponding solution forms a central platform for the data-based organization of the Digital-Experience in the used digital channels. At the center are the management of contents that are ideal for the individual touchpoints and the collection of data about the use of this content.

How does a Digital-Experience-Platform (DXP) work?

At its core, a DXP functions similarly to a Content-Management-System (CMS), or almost always includes one. The Digital-Experience-System also allows content to be played out and managed in a variety of ways. However, it can do much more or covers a wide range of additional helpers that are supposed to help achieve an ideal Digital Experience. A DXP can combine content, analysis, customer data, automation, planning and more into one system.

In general, a DXP (similar to a CMS) focuses on the practical implementation of a company's digital goals. It serves as an interface for digital content, e-commerce and target customers in a single application.

With the help of specific personalization and automation tools, users can distribute content highly target group-specific and performance-oriented. These tools normally work with target customer information. That's why data plays a crucial role in the context of Digital-Experience-Platforms. Only through them is optimal personalization possible at all.

Through directly integrated or externally connected data systems, such as a CRM program, analytics and other information-storing software, companies can cleverly network all available data with each other. In this way, they can create a perfect - because precisely adapted to the needs of the respective user or target customer - Digital-Experience very efficiently.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Digital-Experience-Platforms (DXP)?

The following central advantages can the use of a DXP bring to companies.

• Optimization of the Marketing-Software-Stack: Depending on the solution type, industry and size of the company, a DXP can make some of the separately used marketing technologies redundant. A DXP generally comes with numerous functionalities in one package. Ideally, all features that are already in use in single software to create a good Digital-Experience are connected. Companies that have not invested much in their marketing technology stack get a comprehensive solution. Even with specific applications, marketing-driven firms can make their existing stack more efficient.

• Optimal use of content: Companies strive for loyal regular customers who ideally attract additional customers as advocates of the brand. One method to achieve this or to support corresponding developments is personalized content. This brings real added value, builds trust and brings customers back again and again. As soon as companies have a deeper understanding of who their customers are, what content they are looking for and where they are in the purchasing process, they can employ a DXP. With this they use the data to provide personalized content across numerous channels based on context, interaction history, preferences as well as various other factors. In this way, DXPs ensure that the entire customer lifecycle is consistent. On the other hand, a good DXP also provides certain customer information itself, which in turn can be used for the generation of maximally useful content.

• A single control center: DXPs enable the control of many important online marketing and online sales contexts on a single platform. This eliminates the need to switch between different programs to perform different tasks. This makes it easier to track user behavior across numerous touchpoints, analyze the data and provide relevant content. A positive impact is made on time optimization, cost savings and not least higher customer satisfaction. In addition, the error rate when using a single system is usually significantly lower.

As with any digital solution, there are also certain disadvantages or - better said - challenges associated with the use of a DXP. The following problems are particularly common:

• Onboarding and Implementation: DXPs are packed with features. As a result, it can be a considerable challenge to understand how to effectively use all parts of such a toolkit. Without a comprehensive, cross-team establishment or introduction, companies may spend a lot of money on a DXP, the possibilities of which their team does not fully exploit. All teams using a DXP should be trained in their specific components and know how the components impact and interact with each other. Efficient cross-team communication and cooperation are essential to get the most out of a DXP. However, not a few companies have deficits in the aforementioned prerequisites.

• Set of functionalities: The possibilities for expansion are generally lower in a comprehensive Digital-Experience-Platform suite - despite a holistic approach often pursued here - than in classic Content-Management-Systems. You work with the features that the DXP developers provide. Such products can be far less flexibly adapted - there are not as many plugins as with the large CMS.

How to choose a suitable Digital-Experience-Platform (DXP) or what to pay particular attention to?

A Digital-Experience-Platform generally combines various components, such as a Content-Management-System (CMS), Digital-Asset-Management (DAM) and analytics, on a common basis. This is then used according to the respective requirements.

The number of DXPs on the market is - despite the relatively new approach - already large and only difficult to oversee. Here, finding the truly perfect solution for one's own needs is anything but easy for most companies.

In this context, the most important thing is to ask specific questions that relate to current and future requirements. The following points should always be considered when selecting an Experience Platform.

Does the DXP support the specific requirements for composing, curating, reviewing and publishing content?

The requirements vary depending on the type of company, the industry, the size of the company, etc. Interested parties must be aware of their needs and choose a DXP that can actually meet them. Only companies that know the intricacies of their own marketing or sales requirements and their publishing environment can ensure that the DXP they choose is actually able to serve these.

Does the platform have the necessary data and analysis features?

What data should be collected and how should the insights gained be used for the Digital Experience? A realistic idea of the data sources to be integrated is extremely helpful when choosing the right DXP. It should not be forgotten that the Digital Experience cannot be optimized without the right data - or only inefficiently.

What are the business or marketing or sales goals?

The technology for Digital-Experience-Optimization should not be at the top of the agenda. Rather, it should effectively support the implementation of a specific strategy. The strategy, in turn, is working towards precise goals. Interested parties should define these before purchasing a DXP and create a roadmap, with the help of which the Digital Experience is to be optimized. Only then should a solution be sought that enables all of this.

Is the platform also suitable for future goals?

Customers and companies are in a constant state of change. This also affects marketing and sales requirements. Interested parties or those responsible within a company should therefore ask themselves before purchasing a DXP where they want or need to be in the coming years to remain competitive. Can the selected platform also serve its own requirements in the long term?

Is the DXP easy to use?

The usability of a DXP is a very important criterion for it to be used comprehensively and thus be able to develop its full potential. Interested parties should accurately assess the abilities of their own users and choose a correspondingly simple system. Especially for extensive suites, trainings and good support are often decisive for a maximally purposeful use.

Which basic functions are needed to achieve the goals?

Are commerce, advanced analytics, automation, and/or special omnichannel delivery features needed? Interested parties should make a precise list and sort the function requirements according to tools that are already available and those that need to be added. It still needs to be decided here whether to replace the entire software stack in connection with the Digital Experience or whether perhaps individual existing parts can be integrated into the new solution.

As mentioned several times, DXPs consist of a series of integrated technologies, each with its own granular set of features. The following lists the typical software components within DXPs and their role within the DXP ecosystem in detail.

Responsible individuals should always take these elements into account when choosing a Digital-Experience-Platform.

• CMS - especially hybrid or headless: Hybrid or Headless CMS is a fundamental component on which modern DXPs are built. With such a CMS, users are not dependent on a frontend generated directly with the system when planning, designing, and deploying. This streamlined, system-independent organization or distribution of content allows companies to focus on the content itself and on how it can be personalized and optimized.

• Personalization: The efficient personalization of digital experiences is the overarching goal of DXPs. The personalization tools within DXPs can work very effectively as they have direct access to many customer or user data. Companies often store this kind of information in various, unconnected silos, making manual personalization difficult. DXPs integrate all these data stocks into one system and thus enable a very purposeful personalization.

• Marketing Automation: Marketing automation provides a far-reaching and very efficient marketing orchestration by retrieving customer and user data from CRMs or data management platforms and using this data to push the Digital-Experience with content from various stores across multiple channels.

• Digital-Asset-Management (DAM): DAM tools are content management systems that are specifically designed for the storage and provision of marketing materials. DAMs are a central component within DXPs. Other components - especially marketing automation tools - can quickly retrieve content from them when orchestrating perfectly personalized content campaigns. Alternatively, manual access is also possible.

• Data Management Platform (DMP): DXPs usually also integrate a DMP into their offering to store and organize customer and user data. DMPs are sometimes integrated with Customer-Relationship-Management solutions to include more customer data. DXPs are highly dependent on the data contained in this component to efficiently create personalized content.

• Translation and localization: DXPs sometimes contain translation and localization tools that are useful when companies try to personalize digital experiences based on the preferred location of target customers and/or multiple languages.

• E-Commerce platforms: Many DXPs also offer typical features of an e-commerce system, so companies can operate an online shop on the basis of the same platform that also manages the rest of their Digital Experience. Special e-commerce features enable various online functions that a conventional web content management software does not offer, such as integrations with inventory management, product searches and special navigations as well as payment gateways.

• Digital Analytics: The collection of user data and the application of analysis are other key components within DXPs. Companies use digital analytics to measure the performance of content or the user experience. The insights gained can then be used to further improve the Digital Experience.

What do Digital-Experience-Platforms (DXP) cost?

DXP providers usually deliver comprehensive software suites with a range of different products for managing digital experiences. Good or comprehensively equipped solutions are almost always high-priced. To achieve good cost control here, the suites are often offered modularly and not as a big bundle. Furthermore, the prices are usually not staggered on the websites of the providers, but are only available on request. In general, there is an individual calculation based on the respective needs.

Then a DXP is either paid for once or the license fees are to be paid annually or monthly in a subscription model. Costs of several hundred euros per month are not uncommon.

The market also offers free versions. However, these only have severely limited functional ranges. Companies are usually not happy with these solutions. For all interested parties, however, the use of a demo or trial version, which many providers offer, is recommended. Here, they can clarify quite accurately in advance whether the respective system meets their requirements. Considering the substantial costs of DXPs, this is of course very advantageous.