As digital technologies rapidly advance, Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) can be crucial players in companies' digital strategies. They are transforming the way businesses interact with current and potential customers, and as a result, they may come to play an increasingly important role in many strategies.
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Whether you work in marketing, sales, or customer service, you'll find that many (if not all) of your tasks are driven by data. Nearly all areas of business operations are now data-driven. Therefore, it's no longer enough just to acquire data. It's now more important than ever that you also understand what your data means and use it to make more informed and, therefore, more rewarding decisions on behalf of a company.
This need, along with the increasing focus on personalized, data-driven processes, has led to the proliferation of Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) that we are witnessing today. DXPs enable teams across marketing, sales, and customer service to make the most out of their data and extract valuable insights for their decision-making processes.
When you operate or are a part of a digital business, it is crucial to find the right technology, especially when you have a range of ambitions and goals to achieve. However, it is not always easy to make the right choice, considering that the digital landscape today is full of seemingly good and well-established solutions.
If we look at the large number of Content Management Systems (CMSs) that have also undergone rapid development in recent years, many of these have evolved into platforms that can drive not only digital processes but also digital experiences. These are what we call DXPs.
This means that more players have entered the field.
What is a Digital Experience Platform (DXP)?
A Digital Experience Platform (DXP) encompasses a set of technologies that support businesses in managing, delivering, and optimizing digital experiences. It is an open platform that easily integrates with other systems and departments, enabling companies to create personalized experiences for their customers. It is the technology that assists in the management of current and potential customer experiences.
DXPs consolidate functions that have traditionally been spread across various applications and offer tools that you may be familiar with from a Content Management System (CMS), but they also connect these tools with various other functionalities. And for you, it means freedom—significant freedom. You can design a platform that aligns precisely with your company's needs, your business strategy, and your IT priorities. It's the path to a future-proof solution.
A DXP can be a standalone product, or it can be a software suite consisting of multiple integrated applications. Regardless of its form, it is a digital experience platform that both collects and organizes customer data to enable you to generate more value. An essential function is the standardization of data from different sources, allowing you to measure performance across multiple systems. This function also facilitates data processing by your various teams.
For example, let's say you receive a potential customer's name and email address through event registration, and later you also obtain their phone number because the customer contacts your company with additional event-related questions. A DXP will ensure that all this information is consolidated into the same customer profile, despite the data being collected at different times and through different channels. This reduces organizational friction when the customer profile becomes accessible with information beneficial to sales, marketing, and customer service teams.
With that said, a significant part of a DXP is content management, but you will also find tools for data analysis, optimization, marketing automation, and e-commerce. A DXP thus unifies all data points, from websites and customer portals to social media and anything else you may need to provide the best experience.
Through a single system, your teams can create a strong and seamless customer experience.
Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) - a new generation
Today, your current and potential customers expect more from your company than ever before, which poses demands, especially for relevance and a better customer experience. That's why we are now encountering the next generation of Content Management Systems (CMSs). This is the generation that ensures an integrated customer journey.
On this journey, there's a need for exceptional customer experiences that can ensure your company's online success. Ensuring both customer satisfaction and loyalty is vital. And here is where a DXP can be a valuable ally.
By implementing a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) as part of your digital strategy, you can create a more cohesive and, most importantly, personalized customer experience across all the digital touchpoints you have in place. This means that your customers can expect consistent quality in their interactions with your company, regardless of where they occur. This applies whether the customer is on your website, using your mobile app (if you have one), or engaging on social media.
With the advanced analytics tools available in a DXP, you can collect and process customer information, allowing you to better understand their needs and preferences. As a result, you can deliver tailored content and offers, which can be the cornerstones of increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Prioritizing the customer experience will not only lead to repeat customers but also help you build strong and lasting relationships that can boost your revenue and strengthen your position in the market.
When should you consider a Digital Experience Platform (DXP)?
You should consider implementing a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) when your company is facing specific challenges or wants to leverage digital opportunities more effectively. This could be when you want to enhance your company's digital presence, create a more cohesive customer experience, and use data to make more informed decisions – all of which can help better position your business to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
DXPs can be beneficial in several scenarios:
When you operate on multiple digital channels
If your company operates across various digital channels such as websites, mobile apps, and social media, and you want to ensure a consistent and cohesive customer experience across these channels, you should consider a DXP. A DXP helps integrate and manage content across various platforms, allowing you to deliver a more consistent brand and a unified message.
When you aim to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction
If you want to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction, a DXP is worth considering. A DXP enables you to collect and analyze data on customer behavior and preferences, allowing you to create and deliver personalized experiences and offers based on real data. This can increase customer satisfaction and retain your customers.
When you want to optimize digital processes
If your company aims to optimize its digital processes, a DXP can help increase efficiency. This can include automating various processes and integrating different systems and applications.
When you are working headless
DXPs can facilitate simpler and lighter headless architectures while reducing the amount of work the user's device needs to perform to load a specific page. This is a method for optimizing your website's performance.
How to choose the right Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for your business
When you are making the critical decision to choose a Digital Experience Platform (DXP), you embark on a crucial process that can have a significant impact on your business operations. It's a decision that should be thoroughly grounded, including considerations of costs. In addition to the direct costs of implementation and licenses, you should contemplate the long-term operating expenses and support. Are these costs your company can bear?
It's also essential that you define your goals and needs. You must understand what you want to achieve with a DXP – is it to improve the customer experience, increase the efficiency of your digital processes, something entirely different, or perhaps a combination? Also, consider your company's future growth and scalability. A DXP should be capable of accommodating changes in your company's size and requirements over time.
Next, think about your target audience(s). What do your current and potential customers expect from you? What are their needs and preferences regarding the services you offer? A DXP should be able to deliver the experiences that appeal to your target audience based on your desires.
Take a look at your existing systems and technologies as well. Consider how a DXP will integrate with these and whether it can work seamlessly with them. Security and compliance with various rules and regulations can also be critical here. Therefore, make sure the chosen DXP adheres to the necessary security standards and legal requirements, especially if you handle sensitive data in your business.
Choose a powerful Digital Experience Platform (DXP), choose HubSpot
HubSpot can almost be seen as a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) - there is a need for an e-commerce integration. It is designed to assist companies in delivering an engaging digital experience to current and, most importantly, potential customers.
HubSpot consists of 5 Hubs (CMS, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations), each with its own functionalities. They can be used individually or combined interchangeably, with the most powerful setup experienced when you assemble the Hubs that provide the most value for your business.
With HubSpot CMS Hub, you gain access to a user-friendly CMS that makes it easy to build and manage websites. It includes drag-and-drop functionality, template usage, and a wide range of customization options, enabling businesses to create and organize content efficiently - of course, with the CTAs, pop-ups, and forms you need.
HubSpot Marketing Hub is renowned for its marketing automation, allowing you to create and automate marketing campaigns. You can segment your audience, create automated workflows, manage your social media posts, advertise, personalize content based on user behavior and preferences, and track the results of your marketing efforts. This is crucial for delivering a personalized digital experience that engages and satisfies your customers.
And additional layers can be added with HubSpot Sales Hub, which can be the channel for your sales team. Here, you can work with deals, pipelines, tasks, appointment booking, and much more, while HubSpot Service Hub allows you to create a content library (Knowledge Base), create surveys, and let your customer service team have a voice with a ticket system.
The final touch is provided by HubSpot Operations Hub, which allows you to synchronize, clean, and update customer data while automating your business processes even further. Operation Hub provides access to enhanced integrations, data synchronizations, and programmable automations, enabling your departments to work even more closely together.
In summary, HubSpot is an integrated platform that combines content management with powerful tools for marketing automation and sales, aiming to help you deliver a cohesive and targeted digital experience.
Choose a best-of-breed solution, choose Umbraco or Shopify
There is a wide range of Content Management Systems (CMS) and e-commerce systems that, by themselves, are not considered Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs). A DXP is typically a more comprehensive platform that includes features such as content management, marketing automation, personalization, and integration with multiple digital channels beyond e-commerce.
However, due to the many possibilities, including integrations, a strong DXP can be assembled from different solutions that are not traditionally labeled as DXPs. This is especially true for Umbraco and Shopify.
Umbraco operates in open source and open APIs, and over the years, they have maintained continuous work on their CMS, offering a streamlined editor experience and extended developer flexibility today. Umbraco can also integrate with a wide variety of third-party solutions that are relevant to the overall system experience. This means that there are now over 1,700 integrations across different Umbraco versions. But it doesn't stop there.
Umbraco can be extended with integrations to third-party software vendors. This involves partnerships and the development of integrations with everything from major global suppliers to local suppliers in key markets. This can include e-commerce, personalization, and PIM - something that already works closely with CMS in a DXP. With Umbraco, you can enjoy a modular DXP solution by taking the CMS to the next level by adding specialized components.
When the relationship between Umbraco and another vendor is solid, and a common integration is created, it becomes easier for you to connect the two technologies and enjoy the benefits of a modular DXP. At the same time, you can avoid being locked into a supplier and potential transaction costs - meaning you can quickly get your DXP solution up and running.
Shopify is known as an e-commerce platform and is therefore not typically classified as a DXP. However, like Umbraco, Shopify has some features and options that can help create a more comprehensive digital experience.
These include the ability to create and manage e-commerce with the addition of a wide variety of themes, apps, and extensions. They can be integrated as extensions of functionalities, adding levels of everything from marketing automation, personalization, and analytics to CRM. Shopify also offers integration with various third-party applications and services, allowing you to connect with DXP-like tools for marketing, analytics, and customer management.
All of this can help improve the overall digital experience.
Compared to dedicated DXPs, both Umbraco and Shopify, as standalone systems, are limited in their ability to deliver comprehensive digital experiences across channels. However, a well-functioning setup can be developed with various integrations and additions. If you desire the full experience in terms of advanced marketing automation features, content management, and personalization across different digital touchpoints, it may be necessary to consider a more traditional DXP.
However, remember that a DXP can often be integrated with your CMS as well.
