Guide: A modular approach to digital experience platforms

Magnolia, a digital experience (DX) software company, recently published a guide which explores their modular approach to digital experience versus a “suite” approach. The guide, “DX Suites: The Glass Ceiling of Your Digital Transformation,” compares the pros and cons of DX suites, which can be expensive and complex to implement, with an open platform like Magnolia.

Content produced in collaboration with Magnolia.

What is a digital experience platform?

Magnolia defines a digital experience platform as, “a set of technologies that enables organizations to deliver contextually-relevant content across many channels.” DXPs achieve this by integrating functionalities and data from multiple tools and touchpoints in one place.

Magnolia lists six concrete examples of how companies can leverage a DXP system—here are three of them:

Contextual Intelligence & Relevance: DXPs enable companies to deliver personalized and/or individualized content to their customers by analyzing customer analytics from a variety of sources. Often, machine learning is implemented to assist with disseminating content in a contextually relevant way.

Provide better shopping experiences: Customers expect a seamless shopping experience no matter what platform or device they use. DXP systems enable retailers to expand the capabilities of their commerce platforms by adding customer experience management capabilities such as product content management, personalized shopping carts, and integrated payment or billing functionality.

Reign in Digital Asset Management: Organizing digital assets such as images and video can be cumbersome for large organizations. A DXP that integrates with a digital asset management (DAM) solution can help companies organize and manage digital assets from one central location.

Writes Magnolia, “Choosing the best application or tool for each specific functionality and your particular organization is the surefire way to an effective DXP.”

Starting the digital innovation journey

As with most large initiatives, companies should establish clear goals before investing in technology aimed at digital transformation. To this end, Magnolia outlines four POVs to include when considering the technical aspects of digital transformation as well as the user’s needs.

The customer/stakeholder aspect: This POV considers what your customer or stakeholder needs from a service perspective. You must have a comprehensive understanding of why and how customers use existing channels so you can create scenarios to fill digitization gaps.

The business aspect: A successful digital transformation initiative should incorporate your current and future business goals and establish realistic measures for success.

The organizational aspect: The structure of your organization plays a part in determining what DX approach will work for you. By defining how your teams are distributed geographically, who will take ownership of the initiative, and what processes are essential for maximizing flexibility and autonomy within the larger initiative, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.

The technical aspect: An audit of your current tech stack is an essential first step in the planning and implementation of a digital experience platform. Magnolia writes, “You should take a close look at the current technologies you have in place and determine how your tech stack limits your organization’s ability to meet its business goals.”

Defining outcomes and a checklist for success

Once all relevant stakeholders have weighed in on why your company needs to undergo digital transformation, Magnolia recommends defining very specific goals. These range from pre-sales goals (e.g., brand awareness and customer education) to sales goals (e.g., increasing sales, lead management/nurturing) to post-sales goals (e.g., increasing retention, improving cross-selling). All these goals have one thing in common, they need a good content strategy.

Writes Magnolia, “Content teams have to stop thinking about a particular channel and a single context, and instead put an emphasis on content reusability and shareability.”

The guide provides a 7-point checklist aimed at helping companies build a successful DXP. The checklist focuses on a modular approach. Here is an outline of the steps included:

1. Define your target audience and create precise segmentations
2. Define your brand communication strategy and core messaging (including brand strengths)
3. Determine your touchpoints and channels (these may or may not include web, mobile, email, wearables and more).
4. Figure out how you’re going to deliver your content (e.g., blog posts, videos, webinars, etc.)
5. Create a personalization strategy—this typically begins with audience segmentation, but Magnolia lists several important details to consider.
6. Focus on your tech stack—this is where the modular approach comes into play, particularly when choosing the key capabilities you’ll want to consider.
7. Foster a DevOps culture as this will be crucial for deploying features quickly and delivering timely, relevant digital experiences to your customers.

Modular DX stacks vs. DX Suites

The guide ends with an outline that compares the DX suites approach with the modular DXP approach. Aspects to look at include speed of implementation, omnichannel capabilities, overall flexibility, pricing and cost effectiveness and vendor support.

The full guide provides details about each approach as well as a breakdown of Magnolia’s capabilities for digital experience. “DX Suites: The Glass Ceiling of Your Digital Transformation” is available to download for a limited time.