3 Ways a DXP Can Help (or Hinder) You in Achieving Your Goals

A digital experience platform (DXP) is an integrated technology designed to compose, optimize, and deliver digital content experiences across the customer journey on your website. DXPs have grown out of CMSs (content management systems) limitations in creating engaging customer experiences. DXPs have become a critical addition to the eCommerce tech stack as 80% of brands that prioritize the customer experience having reported revenue increases.

In a recent "State of Marketing" report, Salesforce found that 84% of customers say the experience of interacting with a company is just as important to them as the products and services the company provides. Therefore, making it clear that creating a consistent, mobile-friendly, content-driven experience for consumers is essential to drive conversions and increase ROI. (Like that stat? check out  The Complete Guide to Digital Experience Statistics to learn more about that one and 100 more stats that every marketer needs to know.) 

3 important factors you should consider when evaluating a DXP:

1. Time to value: the length of time to implement, onboard, and publish digital experiences.

The truth is that there is always more that could be done in marketing, and it always comes down to time and resources. For example, when implementing new software or platform, the onboarding and initial integration can take months. Unfortunately, this means that it's going to be several months or a year before you start to see a return on your investment. A DXP explicitly designed for marketers knows that time is precious and needs to be up and running in days.

Be sure to look for a DXP that seamlessly integrates with any CMS or platform; with connectors that can be established in hours or days, not weeks or months. In addition, ensure your marketers are also able to immediately start publishing content directly to their site, without any coding or additional IT, development, or third-party resources - all those things that prolong your time to value. We're proud that brands using Creator as their DXP see results immediately, and a boost in eCommerce sales within the first month.

2. A focus on ROI: features that drive sales and ensure loyalty by making the shopping experience enjoyable for customers.

Shoppability should be at the core of any DXP. Empower marketers to publish engaging digital content that drives more eCommerce sales. For example, every product image across your site should be shoppable, without disrupting the customer journey. This means that when they see something they like in a lifestyle image on the homepage, a category banner, in a digital catalog, or a blog they'll be able to add the product directly to their cart. 

A DXP should also equip marketers with the ability to create engaging and interactive content easily. It's important to regularly publish new content to entice customers to return to your website to boost SEO scores and sales. Consider the benefits of being able to quickly develop and publish customer-centric content like buying guides, catalogs, quizzes, and other fun ways for consumers to discover more of your products and services.  Throughout all content across your site, providing a shorter path-to-purchase that makes it easy to make purchases without distracting customers from enjoying your digital experiences is vital. 

3. A solution that empowers the marketers: complete control of the content, publishing process, and ongoing optimization.

Many DXPs have a complicated back end that makes publishing content difficult, time-consuming, and often requires help from IT/development teams. The problem with handing designs over to dev teams is that functionality can be lost in translation and the design compromised. The entire process can take months, making it expensive when external resources are required or ongoing changes and optimizing need to be made. It shouldn't be this way.

With Creator marketers can design in any format they usually use (Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma, Sketch, and more) and then upload it, add interactivity and shoppability, then publish it directly to their site, without writing a single line of code. Not only does this put the creative control back into the marketing team's hands, free up the development team's time, and save on external resources, it also reduces content creation time by about 90%.

A DXP designed specifically for marketers will be up and running in a few days and immediately prove ROI. The platform should be easy to use and reduce content creation time by eliminating developmental help when publishing. This is what the Creator platform is all about. Learn more in the 3 Ways Legacy DXPs Fail eCommerce Brands guide.

Interested in learning more, schedule a 30-minute demo and see the game-changing power of a DXP designed specifically for marketers. 

Resources:

How The Right DXP Can Future-Proof Your Tech Stack: 3 Ways Legacy DXPs Fail eCommerce Brands

Salesforce: State of Marketing Report

Blog: How Shortening Customers' Path-To-Purchase Increases Conversions

The Complete Guide to Digital Experience Statistics: 100+ Stats Every Marketer Needs To Know