Episode Summary

In the digital marketing and technology space, understanding tools and platforms shaping customer experiences is crucial. Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) are emerging as the backbone of seamless, integrated user experiences across various online channels.

Of course, there are many DXPs to pick from and considerations to choose the right option for your business.

We brought together our senior experts from the website development and digital strategy sides of the house to share their thoughts on the benefits of DXPs and platforms we recommend:

• ‍Hajar Mitchell, Whereoware’s Senior Digital Strategist
• ‍Matt Damon, Director of Engineering, Optimizely
• ‍Eric Mackenzie, Chief Technology Officer

Hear their perspectives in the brief video or read our highlights below, to learn more about the evolution of DXPs, what to look for in a DXP partner, and why more clients are migrating from Sitecore to Optimizely.

Featured Panelists

‍Starting with the basics:

Understanding Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs)

“A DXP is a digital platform that enables businesses and marketers to create digital experiences. It has evolved from pure content management to include tools for personalization, analytics, optimization, experimentation, and delivering multi-channel experiences. A DXP allows marketers to pull everything into a single system, but also offers the flexibility to pick and choose different pieces,” Eric MacKenzie shares.

Also referred to as ‘composable technology” the idea is to select tech from the ‘best that’s out there’ to empower your teams with what your company is set out to achieve.

The Evolution of DXPs: How Have Marketing Tools Evolved from a Traditional CMS to a DXP?

The evolution from a traditional CMS to a DXP represents a shift towards integrated, all-in-one platforms. The need to consolidate tools aligns with other trends: marketers delivering campaigns across channels; doing more with less; and needing integrated data to better understand customer insights.

From a developer’s point of view, Matt Damon shares, “This evolution includes the integration of tools that allow developers to seamlessly work across core technology components, making deployments easier and providing good visibility into systems and infrastructure."

Hajar Mitchell adds, “For example utilizing experimentation and analytics tools, marketers can track and manipulate a customer’s journey from top to bottom.”

What are Some Key Considerations when Selecting a DXP?

When exploring which DXP is right for your business, Damon iterates the selection process should consider the technology's:

• ability to scale
• content authoring experiences
• personalization and segmentation capabilities
• integration with other platforms

The intent is to build out these desired experiences, using simple and visual editors, to support the marketing team – rather than calling in the development team. It enables marketers to have more flexibility and ownership over the customer experience.

Mentioning an example of scaling, “A business that’s busy on a certain day of the year, say Black Friday or a Game Day, your DXP needs to be able to handle the influx of traffic and scale nicely in a way your customers and marketing teams rely on the platform to work,” says Damon.

A DXP not only needs to provide the right experience for the end-user or customer, but provide a seamless experience for the marketer or content admin.

MacKenzie reiterates, “think about your marketers day-to-day and ask: how easy is this system for them to manage? Are they able to easily build and create experiences seamlessly?”

It's crucial to evaluate how a DXP can support your business needs today and in the future, including its approach to emerging technologies, like AI.

Which Platforms are Leading the DXP Industry?

Both Damon and MacKenzie praise Optimizely as their DXP leading frontrunner, for many solid reasons.

Optimizely consistently ranks high in industry analyses by Gartner and Forrester. Not only in DXP, but Optimizely excels in CMS, commerce, and the overall experience building, offering strong e-commerce capabilities and flexibility in creating customized experiences.

Newly released, Optimizely One, is a full package that supports marketers in building top-notch experiences. From content management experimentation, testing and personalization, to creating headless experiences – all in one platform.

Let’s not forget about how ecommerce ties in. “Not many platforms are truly integrated and have ecommerce capabilities built in. Optimizely shines in all of these areas, which makes them very appealing for many organizations in different industries,” says MacKenzie.

Tech Trends: Migrating From Sitecore to Optimizely

Hajar mentions, over the past few years there have been some big shifts of customers moving away from platforms that used to dominant in the space, like Sitecore.

Damon and MacKenzie Agree on Why:  

Optimizely has a culture of continuous improvement. Every couple of weeks they release new versions of their system.

Optimizely upgraded to .NET Core based technology shortly after Microsoft released it.

“Their culture of innovation, and the little wins build up to a bigger, stronger platform. It's woven into Optimizely’s DNA.”

Damon brings up a common situation, “with other vendors, their clients face multi-100-hour upgrade paths, costing valuable time and money, just to keep up. With Optimizely, if you stay current, these types of situations typically don’t happen.”

Hajar calls out an important note during the sales process, “It’s common to be sold on upcoming technologies that will be part of the system in 5 years. But then, 4+ years down the road, you’re looking for those product announcements, to discover no such progress and ultimately you learn you were just sold on an idea.”

The moral is keeping promises matter, and Optimizely continues to deliver time and time again.

What Should Organizations Consider when Migrating or Re-Platforming to a DXP?

When considering a migration or re-platform, organizations should evaluate the platform's roadmap, current capabilities, and its approach to future technologies and AI. (For readers using Sitecore, learn more about Migrating from Sitecore to Optimizely in our detailed breakdown.)

Does the DXP support your needs now, and what about in 2-3 years? 5-10 years?

• Will the platform work with what you have road mapped for the future? This affects the DXP investment you will make today.
• MacKenzie considers AI to be at its infancy stage. However, how important a platform provider considers AI to be, and continues to evolve its capabilities within its platform, matters.
• Take current capabilities into consideration. Your business needs to establish whether it’s looking for its various systems to come together (integrate) or seeking an all-in-one platform (Optimizely One).

Final Thoughts

Hajar, Matt and Eric have emphasized the importance of continuous improvement and innovation in the DXP space.

Companies should plan their technology investments with a clear roadmap, considering how a platform's capabilities will align with future business goals. As the landscape of digital experiences continues to evolve, staying informed and choosing the right technology partners will be key to success.

We are an Optimizely DXP Platinum Partner, let’s start a discussion on how we can help your business build better experiences.