7 Steps to Digital Transformation with a DXP

Why Your CDP Needs a Digital Experience Platform

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Philip Mandelbaum
03/10/2023

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Even standardized, validated, deduplicated and consolidated customer data used to create customer profiles for advanced targeting needs a conduit. Customer data platforms (CDPs) allow marketers and sales and CX professionals to use data for modeling, segmentation, targeting, testing and more, improving the performance and efficiency of your lead generation, nurturing and conversion efforts. They also integrate with end channels, like email marketing or digital advertising platforms. But they don’t do everything. And that’s where the digital experience platform, or DXP, comes in, leveraging the CDP’s “solid bedrock of data” for “the delivery of personalized experiences that consumers have come to expect and demand from brands.” This is how you initiate your digital transformation.

DXP and CDP FAQs

What is a DXP?

A DXP, or digital experience platform, is “an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences,” according to the popularly accepted definition developed by Gartner. The best, like Bloomreach, Optimizely or Progress Sitefinity, comprise a single collaborative platform powered by AI to create frictionless omnichannel digital journeys; other DXPs would be better described as complicated marketing tech stacks, customized internally to function like a single platform. Either way, DXPs can prove highly valuable not only for consumers (B2C) but also employees (B2E) and business partners (B2B). For many organizations, the DXP has become the central hub for all these functions. Its core capabilities include content management, personalization and context awareness, customer journey mapping, and presentation, delivery and orchestration; they can also assist with eCommerce, product management and digital asset management.

To be included in the most widely read DXP comparison guide, each platform has to meet the following criteria:

Content management capabilities for managing various content types, including (but not limited to) textual content, graphics and other rich media, web content, mobile app content, chatbot content and voice content.
Rich, extensible, interoperable and well-documented production/consumption APIs.
Support for multiexperience presentation, orchestration, delivery and assembly of digital experiences via hybrid and/or headless capabilities.
Cloud capabilities. Each DXP had to be available for cloud deployment as PaaS (with or without managed services) and/or SaaS.

They must also enable the following, at least via integration:

Account service capabilities, including registration, login and password management with authentication and access control.
Customer data management capabilities.
Customer journey mapping capabilities.
Personalization, analytics and optimization capabilities.
Practical applied AI capabilities.

What is the difference between a DXP and a CDP?

DXP providers argue that the CDP will inevitably be absorbed by the DXP — with the CDP collecting, sifting, optimizing and delivering the data the AI-powered DXP uses to strategize and implement streamlined, consistent, authentic, empathic, personalized and predictive experiences via third-party integrations like email or social media marketing platforms. Other DXPs have capabilities that essentially mimic the functions of the CDP.

While a DXP is fundamentally designed for the management, creation and performance analysis of the content and experiences you provide customers, clients or employees, the CDP was built for the real-time collection, management and implementation of data — to optimize that content and those experiences. As DXP provider Sitecore explains, “the CDP’s segmentation and decisioning capabilities refine the experience, allowing marketers to ‘read the room’ and ensure campaigns are perfectly pitched for their target audience.”

With a DXP, you can manage all the technical and tactical components of your digital marketing, sales and CX strategies, including eCommerce, digital asset management, customer relationship management and marketing automation; with a CDP, you can collect and organize data from all sources, online and off, including DMPs, CRMs and MMHs — or replace them entirely. (Don’t believe me? Read this.)

With a composable DXP, you can decide which components you need; if you’ve already mastered your CDP, you may want to identify a composable DXP solution that incorporates your existing tech, whereas you might’ve otherwise preferred a DXP with CDP capabilities.

What is a composable DXP?

The newest advancement in the DXP space is the deconstruction of the DXP; the composable DXP functions like a tech stack, with its parts combined into sets of PBCs (packaged business capabilities). Truly customizable, these next-gen, cloud-native and API-driven DXPs can be quickly purpose-built — and then rebuilt as needs, goals, opportunities and obstacles shift.

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7 Steps to Implementing the Right DXP at Your Organization

As with any new technology investment, it can be tricky to convince your CEO, CTO, CMO, sales director or HR lead to transform how you centralize all your marketing, sales, CX and employee experience functions. The following steps will help you make the case for a digital experience platform:

1. Identify the primary stakeholders, form a working group and design a comprehensive digital experience strategy

Implementing a digital experience platform can impact employees across your organization and even kickstart a firmwide digital transformation. It also requires a strategy, encompassing all digital touchpoints across the organization.

To finetune and streamline the process, invite and include a diverse group of workers who:

Have proven themselves to be strategic thinkers
Collectively represent the most impacted areas of your business

This should include engaged employees — up and down the proverbial ladder — from marketing, sales, CX, employee experience/HR, procurement, IT, data science/analytics and legal (but should be unique to each organization).

2. Solicit input from each stakeholder on tech and data usability issues

Employees across your organization face different obstacles throughout the digital journey, resulting from tech deficiencies and incompatibilities and the inadequate management and use of data. Ask each member of your working group to create a list of the tech and data limitations impacting their productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and employee experience.

3. Create a master list of issues from commonalities across job functions

Review each list, and document commonalities as well as disconnects. Analyze all the issues in terms of pain points, and how they’re impacted by tech and data weaknesses. Then, create a list stack-ranked by business impact; double-check it to ensure adherence to DEI principles.

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4. Review the benefits and weaknesses of your existing marketing, sales, CX and HR tools, and clearly outline how a DXP can address your pain points and advance your strategy

To summarize for your C-suite what a digital experience platform could mean for your organization, first articulate how your existing investments are falling short, causing marketing, sales, customer experience and even employee experience teams to underperform against critical KPIs. Then, be sure to address the following:

The types of data your DXP would (and wouldn’t) need to collect
The tools your DXP would replace, and why
The tools with which your DXP would integrate, and how
The types of workflows your DXP would support
The ways your DXP would address each department’s greatest gaps and obstacles
The ways your DXP would allow the marketing, sales and CX teams to improve digital asset management, marketing automation, eCommerce, customer relationship management, and more
The marketing, sales and CX goals your DXP would help you achieve, such as better conversion rates, fewer abandoned carts, greater customer satisfaction (CSAT) and higher net promoter scores (NPS) and earned growth rates

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5. Compare and contrast DXP solutions based on predefined criteria

Before requesting demos, be sure you know exactly what you want your DXP to achieve — including must-have features, such as:

Cloud service
Headless
Omnichannel
AI-powered
Scalable
Easy-to-use interface (UI)
Security and compliance
Experience management
Content management
Digital asset management
Customer data management
Learning management
Integrations
Advanced analytics and reporting
Digital commerce/eCommerce
Bug report and feature request logs
Seamless updates

To aid you in the competitive analysis process, use these criteria:

Product/Service, or the core offering capabilities, features, quality and scalability
Operations, or the business model, organizational structure, staff and systems that enable effectiveness and efficiency
Market position, including current competitive rank and ability to adapt and innovate according to shifting market dynamics
Viability, or whether the vendor can be expected to continue to invest in and upgrade the product/service
Sales execution, including pricing and negotiations, deal management and even pre-sales support
Onboarding, or the implementation and training processes for new users, as well as the level of support and personalization provided
Customer experience, or the quality of technical and account support, as well as the availability and usefulness of user groups and self help portals
Case studies, or past examples of success in/with your industry, geography and/or target audience

6. Demo the DXP solutions that most meet your criteria

Start with the 10 best DXPs:

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7. Train, test, monitor, analyze and upgrade your DXP solution

Many DXP providers offer trial periods, vendor/partner onboarding guidance, and support through implementation, utilization and upgrades, so:

Run rigorous testing with multiple pilot groups covering all key business areas, and leverage support to address any pain points
As you work out the kinks, continue to communicate with your support representative
Make use of your DXP’s bug report and feature request logs
Ensure you’re always updating and upgrading as applicable
Consider employing a creative technology company like EX Squared to take your digital transformation to the next level

Need Help Creating or Amplifying Your Content?

Even with a powerful DXP and the most organized data in the industry, you may not see the performance results you seek. Work with Customer Engagement Insider to craft (and promote) value-add custom content that generates the right leads for your organization. It’s what we do best!

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