DXP features explained

A DXP can provide the structure that helps brands deliver optimal customer experiences by leveraging a robust architectural foundation and DXP integrations. But that only scratches the surface of what a DXP is and the benefits it can provide for brands. Organizations also need to be aware of the features of a DXP and how it can boost customer orientation.

The customer experience gap can be closed relatively quickly if brands focus on the right areas. According to Forrester, “the perfect experience for your customers is the one that fulfills your brand promise in a way that’s meaningful to them.”

One way of fulfilling that brand promise is by delivering personalized content that helps build long term relationships with customers and leads to customer loyalty.

However, the gap between the customer experiences that brands have been able to provide and the experience that customers crave has continued to widen. In fact, one-third of organizations believe that their technology isn’t up to the required standard to deliver the customer experiences necessary today.

The good news is that DXPs can bridge the gap and help you deliver the experiences your users are looking for. In this article, we explain the features that compose a DXP and how you can benefit from them.

At its core, a DXP makes it easier for brands to create multichannel experiences for their audiences, by allowing them to effectively manage all of the content necessary to create those experiences and to capture and use data that augments the value of that content.

DXPs leverage the power of integration to deliver a cohesive experience for not only your customers but the members of your organization who use it every day. Unlike previous suite approaches that favored an all-in-one platform that handled everything, the MarTech space has evolved to a best of breed approach that makes adapting to changes easier.

The DXP is the centerpiece of that best of breed approach. Here are the main features of a DXP in our vision:

While DXPs represent the next evolution of CMS, it's important to note that a CMS remains a fundamental component of a DXP. Content management is crucial in digital experience management, enabling digital marketing teams and other business users to effectively leverage a DXP's power.

In the digital world, content can be found in many forms, including social platforms. Written content, videos, images, gifs, audio, and more combine to make up brands' content options today. Some of this content acts as customer portals, providing insights into customer behavior and tailoring experiences to individual customers.

Similar to its CMS predecessors, like the headless CMS, a DXP contains a backend repository designed to store and manage all this content at scale. A content management hub allows marketers to aggregate, access, and organize all businesses' content in a single platform. This makes it easier to find specific internal assets, incorporate external assets, and deploy them as part of marketing campaigns. Magnolia gives you complete control over your digital content and even allows you to customize business processes to suit your internal needs and enable seamless customer experiences.

Magnolia’s content hub allows businesses to bring all their content from different sources, such as other CMSs or custom-built solutions, into one place. This aggregated data can be organized and made available to content authors working in the DXP. It provides simple tools for effectively creating and organizing material. Because Magnolia’s solution supports multichannel content delivery via API, publishing content to various digital channels is possible.

Content authoring and orchestration involve creating and managing digital content in a structured and efficient manner. It encompasses creating, editing, and organizing content assets, such as text, images, videos, and documents, while ensuring consistency and quality across different channels and touchpoints.

While legacy CMS platforms managed content for one platform, headless CMSs delivered content to multiple frontend presentation layers. DXPs allow organizations to deliver content to multiple frontends and create, edit, and optimize it for each channel.

However, experiences are more than just one size fits all, and a DXP can make the experience much better for individuals through advanced personalization and contextualization. Also, marketers can rely on A/B testing to determine the highest converting content to display for each visitor. The components of an experience management hub help marketers create experiences and focus on the personalized experiences their customers want. With Magnolia, you can ensure that your customers receive consistent experiences no matter which channel they interact with. You can also improve digital customer experience with tailored business intelligence leveraging Magnolia’s core digital technologies.

Magnolia acts as an Experience Management Hub by offering features and capabilities for personalization, digital journey orchestration, A/B/n testing, analytics, and integration. These capabilities include the Page Editor, Personalization, and Campaign Manager. Organizations can use it to provide tailored experiences, map customer profiles, experiment with content and optimize layout, and get knowledge through analytics.

Of all the available DXP components, personalization is one of the most sensitive due to the increased expectations for highly contextualized customer experience journeys. The explosion in the number of channels customers now use to engage with brands leads to one conclusion: a flexible, customizable, easy-to-use, and integrated composable DXP is the solution.

Integrations are what make a DXP click. With the help of REST APIs, digital experience platforms can integrate with multiple connectors that extend their capabilities. Other content management systems sometimes struggle to connect the pieces of the MarTech stack. In today's environment, where many organizations favor a best-of-breed philosophy rather than a suite approach, integrations become even more critical.

Transitioning to another content management system can bring tons of headaches for brands that sell online products via ecommerce or rely on marketing automation to improve conversion rates. With a best-of-breed DXP, however, a complete makeover isn't required. Instead, connectors allow brands to connect their favorite software tools and view them natively in the same interface as their content.

A DXP helps businesses take control of their entire technology stack. This includes using digital asset management tools to store and organize all digital assets, as well as analytics tools to provide actionable insights. Magnolia offers multiple Connector Packs that allow businesses to easily integrate with various tools, thus enhancing the customer experience.

Magnolia provides pre-built connectors, RESTful APIs, webhooks, data import/export capabilities, and a configurable integration framework to address integration connectors. By enabling seamless digital interaction with external systems, these features make it possible to exchange data, sync content, and automate workflows. Magnolia's integration connectors enable businesses to establish connections with well-liked third-party systems, create unique integrations, and guarantee seamless data transfer between Magnolia and other applications. Magnolia can act as a central hub for orchestrating and integrating numerous systems within a company's technological environment, thanks to its integration flexibility.

Magnolia’s integration capabilities include connectors for ecommerce and marketing automation systems, allowing organizations to connect and integrate these platforms with Magnolia's functionality seamlessly.

The driving force behind the transition from CMS to DXP has been the proliferation of new touchpoints and digital channels. DXPs are channel-agnostic and provide more flexibility for delivering content to new and emerging channels. A DXP can make development and deployment times much faster for IT departments, allowing them to build the features that help marketers get the most out of new channels.

Websites, mobile applications, digital kiosks, digital assistants, IoT devices, and any other customer touchpoint can become a delivery channel for marketers. Customers are becoming increasingly accustomed to switching between multiple devices as they go about their days, which is reflected during brand and customer interactions and shopping journeys. The digital customer journey continues to evolve and is no longer limited to one or two touchpoints. 

Now, the B2B customer journey, for example, is characterized by multiple touchpoints spanning across various channels. According to Gartner’s New B2B Buying Journey & its Implication for Sales, the buying journey is not linear, and “77% of B2B buyers state that their latest purchase was very complex or difficult”.

A digital channel platform means that businesses can leverage these customer data platforms to make the transition between channels seamless and deliver a true omnichannel experience. This touchpoint architecture increases customer expectations.

Magnolia not only delivers traditional websites to desktop computers and mobiles but also experiences to any channel. Some of the most frequent use cases are mobile apps like Single Page Applications (SPAs) or Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) that content authors can visually manage in Magnolia like traditional websites. Other use cases include VR, digital signage, or smart speakers. Some customers even use Magnolia to deliver images to print.

While upholding quality and compliance, Magnolia's digital strategy and content governance capabilities guarantee seamless connectivity and product information management across digital touchpoints. Organizations can effectively distribute information, modify it for various devices, offer a consistent user experience across numerous touchpoints, and deliver a true omnichannel experience with Magnolia.

All these DXP features working together like a fine-tuned orchestra will help any business create and deliver better digital experiences for their customers.

Brands are continually looking for ways to bridge the gap between themselves and their customers, and many have found that providing relevant content is the way to do that.

However, to create content in this ever-changing digital landscape, a traditional or even a slim headless CMS won’t provide marketers and developers with the tools they need to delight customers.

Magnolia’s digital experience platform blends the best capabilities of a hybrid headless CMS with the DX architecture and flexibility that is required today to deliver the ultimate customer experience.