DXP vs CMS

The best way to capture a consumer’s attention and trust is by providing an excellent experience. DXP platforms (Digital Experience Platforms) enable business users to create and manage a wide variety of digital experiences such as websites, landing pages, microsites, and digital product guides. The DXP meaning is a software solution that integrates various digital tools to create, manage, and optimize seamless and personalized user experiences across multiple digital channels and touchpoints.

Join us as we explore DXP examples, DXP technologies, and the overall DXP meaning. By the end of this guide, you will become more familiar with creating and managing digital experiences and how they differ from Content Management System (CMS) solutions.

What Is DXP?

Before diving into the meaning of DXP, it's best first to understand what a digital experience is. A digital experience is both art and science and takes some testing to become more personalized in your outreach and marketing campaigns.

Digital experiences need to spark a passion and interest in your business so that the client is interested enough to stick with it to the end and fully understand the offer. A large spectrum of solutions can aid an excellent digital experience, including captivating microsites, interactive websites, comprehensive digital product guides/sheets, and landing pages with a high conversion rate.

What Is the Role of DXP?

DXP companies work tirelessly to craft the best product and offer it to the organizations that need them the most, with all the features they require to streamline operations. Some key characteristics of DXP platforms like Lumavate include:

Constructing appealing front-end designs without the need for coding
Allows complete customization and management of content creation
Integrates well with critical systems, such as Digital Asset Management (DAM) software.

The primary purpose of DXP is to allow all divisions within the organization to make proper contributions to the products, services, or solutions the company offers. The overall owner of this entire process is the Digital Experience Manager, who will form a team within the marketing division. Therefore, business users within marketing teams can take the driver's seat in creating beautiful and relevant experiences without requiring extensive digital resources.

What Does DXP do?

The DXP has one singular role within the organization: to be a comprehensive solution for compelling end-to-end digital experiences. With all this said and done, what does a DXP actually do? Here are some core functions that a DXP can do for your brand:

A Holistic Digital Experience Management

DXP technologies offer an integrated suite of core technologies that consolidate a mix of digital marketing features. It becomes a centralized platform that streamlines how you compose, manage, deliver, and optimize highly tailored and contextualized digital experiences that are relevant and make an impact on your customers.

Unifies the Marketing Toolset

For marketers, a DXP eliminates the need to juggle multiple tools by combining important digital marketing functionalities into a cohesive platform. This unification simplifies both large projects and day-to-day tasks.

Makes Digital Experience Creation Easy

A DXP is a comprehensive software solution that allows users, particularly business teams in the marketing division, to create poignant digital experiences. These experiences include websites, landing pages, microsites, product catalogs, and digital product guides.

"Drag-and-Drop" to Success

DXPs, such as Lumavate, distinguish themselves by providing a no-code (or low-code) environment. Even without technical expertise, the creative team can effortlessly pour their passion and innovation into their creations.

How Does DXP Work?

The benefits of DXP are evident, but how it works depends on the DXP provider’s available functionality. A DXP is a platform designed to have the tools necessary to empower the workforce to create and manage digital experiences without writing code

Web content, digital assets, vital business processes, and even customer data are analyzed and improved upon to help further the team's understanding of a great digital experience.

It is not enough to create; DXPs help deliver these solutions where they are needed most. DXPs provide a personalized touch, intelligent reporting analytics, and omnichannel delivery, which enables you to stay relevant. DXPs such as Lumavate offer full integration with a host of software you may need, allowing marketing campaigns and e-commerce efforts and enhancing website management.

The marketing and sales teams can also provide better customer service interactions with integral accounts by tailoring their knowledge to what the customer finds best.

When combined, a DXP fully optimizes digital customer experience, which helps to drive top-line revenue growth. The increased customer satisfaction reduces operation costs and increases the share of each client's wallet with each transaction.

In short, a DXP turns your customers into champions of your brand, which will help increase word-of-mouth referrals and further reduce marketing spending and acquisition costs per new prospect.

What Is the Difference Between DXP and CMS?

Content Management Systems (CMS) are a critical toolset many organizations use to store and manage already-created content. It acts as a centralized storage place so that the key can access it. Users provide a wide range of control so that only the proper departments can access the necessary information. Besides storing content, a CMS cannot empower the creative team to create a digital experience, which hinders the buyer journey.

A digital experience platform helps create and store digital experiences for later use. It also provides analytical tools that help to determine impactful decisions your team can make to craft a more tailored and customized experience for the entire buyer's journey. It also provides the creative team with the toolset of originating the right content to put everything together.

Both CMS and DXP platforms and technologies are beneficial and almost integral to your organization's arsenal, yet they serve different functions.

What Is the Difference Between Headless CMS and Digital Experience Platform?

A headless CMS focuses on the backed infrastructure of content management and the storage of that content. A headless CMS, therefore, separates content creation efforts from its management. In contrast, a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) integrates tools beyond content management, encompassing data, analytics, personalization, and multiple digital touchpoints for a comprehensive and optimized user experience across channels.

While both handle content, a DXP extends to managing broader aspects of digital interaction beyond content delivery.

A Headless CMS provides a back-end content repository where users can create and manage content but doesn't dictate how content is displayed. It delivers content via APIs, allowing it to be used across various platforms and devices, giving developers more flexibility in front-end presentation.

A DXP is a broader platform that often includes content management capabilities but extends beyond content delivery to encompass customer data management, analytics, personalization, and often includes marketing and e-commerce capabilities.

Does DXP Replace CMS?

A Digital Experience Platform (DXP) doesn't necessarily replace a Content Management System (CMS) entirely but rather extends its functionalities. While a DXP often includes CMS capabilities, it goes beyond content management to encompass various tools for optimizing the overall digital experience.

DXPs are a comprehensive solution that works with other integrations to provide a holistic content creation and management approach. Some businesses might find that a comprehensive DXP meets their needs, while others might continue using a separate CMS alongside a DXP, leveraging the flexibility and specific strengths of each system for different purposes within their digital strategy.

Is CDP Part of DXP?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is used to collect, organize, and unify customer data from various sources into comprehensive customer profiles. It is crucial for businesses that want to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and interactions across multiple touchpoints. They can be combined with analytical tools to predict behaviors, analyze buying patterns, and infer the type of experiences and content they need from this data.

CDP is not a part of a DXP per se, but integrating a CDP is fundamental to tying everything together, making it a near-mandatory component. A CDP helps filter customer data to create personalized digital experiences that seem witty, clever, brilliant, and relevant.

DXPs such as Lumavate integrate CDP as part of their comprehensive package, which, when combined with a DAM and a Product Information Management (PIM) tool, creates a powerful and effective way to create truly engaging experiences at the right place and at the right time.

What Is an Example of a DXP Platform?

It is no secret that a powerful and robust DXP platform can make a significant difference in the competitive landscape. When conducting your due diligence, you will come across various digital experience platform examples — but selecting the one that is right for you can be challenging.

Below is a curated list of DXP examples:

Adobe DXP

Robust Features: Adobe DXP is well-known for its extensive features, which makes it a one-stop shop for many large enterprises.
Global Scalability: This DXP grows with your company but requires a strong starting point. The best features are marketed towards organizations that have a tremendous global presence.
Complex Implementation: Due to its global recognition, the implementation and integration process is longer and more complex and requires a specialized consultant or account manager to ensure the solution is used to its fullest potential.

Sitecore DXP

Personalization: Sitecore is a strong DXP known for its ability to make many experiences feel personal and relevant.
Developer-Friendly: Functionalities can be extended, making this a developer-friendly solution. However, this means that templating may be more scarce, which increases the need for technical expertise.
Learning Curve: When compared to other DXPs, Sitecore has a steeper learning curve for its users outside the core functions.

Oracle DXP

Integration with Oracle Products: Oracle is a giant in the industry, offering digital solutions since its inception. Oracle integrates with other Oracle products, meaning companies can integrate easily if plugged into the ecosystem.
Enterprise Solution: Oracle DXP is an effective solution, but it leverages its time on the market to tackle the more prominent players in the ocean. Oracle can work for everyone, but its best features are available at higher price points for large enterprises.
Intricacy: Implementation and maintenance may require specialized skills and resources, especially as the solution is hyper-focused on the company's niche struggles, making deployment specific and complicated.

Optimizely DXP

Flexibility: Optimizely is a core solution that provides simplicity and can be used without needing a large or technically complex coding topology.
Scales with Small Businesses: Focusing on simplicity, Optimizely can be implemented by smaller teams and is an excellent solution for those who are experiencing growing pains regularly.
Limited Native Features: Core functions exist, but additional features may be lacking compared to other DXPs.

Liferay DXP

Open Source: Liferay is an open-source platform that provides transparency and flexibility for customization and personalization. The disadvantage is that non-technical professionals can also provide feedback, which can sometimes mislead users.
Collaborative: Liferay has built-in tools for collaboration, which, when combined with an open-source nature, makes it easy to build a community that involves your vendors and other channel partners.
Made-to-fit: Open-source solutions can be used for various purposes, which is a great boon for companies looking for something specific. Open source must be repurposed and shaped to be fully effective, drastically increasing the in-house learning curve.

Acquia DXP

Cloud Hosting: Acquia DXP is a primarily cloud-based solution that allows teams to streamline and work effectively despite their location.
Developer Community: Acquia integrated well with Drupal, a well-known CMS, and benefited from the developer's expertise.
Budget Transparency: Cost considerations must be well-researched, as Acquia does not publicly list its pricing for all features. A discovery or sales call will need to be booked for more information, extending the due diligence phase.

Lumavate

Fast Implementation: Lumavate has a quick turnaround time in terms of deployment, even taking less than a day in some circumstances to be up and running fully with your system integrations.
Expansive Functionality: More than just a DXP, Lumavate provides DAM, PIM, and Product Experience Management (PXM) functionalities in addition to 40 out-of-the-box integrations.
Cost-Effective: Lumavate publicly lists its pricing and is generally 75 percent more cost-effective than similar solutions.
No Technical Resources Required: Lumavate prides itself on its no-code and low technical requirements, which means the marketing department can function as a cohesive unit in its creativity.
Purpose-Built for Manufacturing: Tailored to meet the needs of companies that sell physical products, Lumavate enables users to centralize product data, manage digital assets, and create digital product experiences.

Is Salesforce a DXP?

Salesforce is a widely known Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that provides customizable widgets and integrations that pair well with the sales endeavors of an organization. It includes follow-up opportunities, storage of customer information, and other relevant information and data that can help in both inbound and outbound outreach efforts.

Salesforce also provides a CMS solution, but it pales compared to the DAM functionalities offered by a DXP solution. A critical difference between Salesforce and a proper DXP solution is its core features. Creating digital experiences is beyond the capabilities of Salesforce, so designing relevant content, websites, microsites, and deploying assets would be complex with Salesforce as a standalone solution.

Businesses seeking a way to combine the creation and management of their assets and digital experiences would need to employ the help of a DXP.

Lumavate: Your Comprehensive DXP Software

Digital experiences are a great way to win over the hearts and minds of your customers. In the era of information, users are less concerned about whether they are well-informed and more concerned about whether they are pairing the right solution with a reputable and trustworthy brand that can keep providing these solutions.

Lumavate's DXP is a powerful, user-friendly solution that allows team members across divisions to coordinate with all marketing efforts to provide a single source of truth for assets, content, and information. Companies within the manufacturing industry can benefit significantly from the feature-rich advantages that Lumavate provides.

Our commitment to efficiency is demonstrated through the ability to deploy quickly and rapidly — often in less than a day — to integrate into your operations fully. We expand on our DXP to encompass DAM and PIM functionalities as well as text messaging functionality, form builder, and more than 40 out-of-the-box integrations.

Demo Lumavate today to learn how investing in a comprehensive solution can significantly benefit your company and maximize cost-effectiveness.