Pimcore: The shift from CMS to a DXP

Efficient content management is one of the pillars of good online business. More and more businesses are shifting from content management to Digital Experience platform.

Or it is better to say, expanding their current Web Content Management to become an efficient Digital Experience Platform. 

After we collected our experience at Pimcore Global Partners Conference, we came up with the highlights you need to know:

Today’s customers are bypassing sales reps and getting most of the information online. Buying decisions are made even before the customer enters the store and therefore, the content management system has to put the focus on interoperability, flexibility, integration, personalization and AI-driven content management capabilities.

So, standard Web Content Management won’t cut it.

The Digital Experience Platform (DXP) provides highly adaptable, targeted, and dynamic digital experiences for every customer and it’s part of the Pimcore development. 

 

 

 

Pimcore is an open-source platform that is perfect for the creation and implementation of an efficient Digital Experience Platform. It can be described as a platform for managing digital data and a fully integrated software stack for CMS, DAM, PIM, and eCommerce. As a mobile and web developing company, we use Pimcore development for numerous projects.

 

 

 

Based on our in-depth Pimcore DXP whitepaper, we are bringing you 6 ways to build a Digital Experience Platform:

 

 

 

1. Personalization: For Stronger Customer Relationships
2. Interoperability: For effective coupling with Technologies, Services, and Information sources
3. Taking the CaaS (Content-as-a-Service) Route
4. Move towards More Advanced Content Management
5. Enabling AI-driven Content Management Capabilities
6. Architecture: To Ensure Sound Content Delivery

 

 

 

Let’s dive in one way at a time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personalization; a way to a Stronger Customer Relationships

 

 

 

Personalization is one of the leading trends in today’s content management and ecommerce world. It centers around creating relevant, individualized interactions, based on customer insights and behavioral data.

 

 

 

So, to deliver personalization, the business needs to adjust existing app/website to suit customer’s individual needs, based on the gathered information. How does Digital experience platform exceed this? 

 

 

 

Contrary to standard Web Content Management, that is heavy and slow in gathering information and providing the efficient connection between departments, Digital Experience Platform should provide:

 

 

 

• Location sensing by using beacon-based technologies 
• Use of predictive analytics and machine learning
• Agility in marketing personalization
• Real-time decision making 

 

 

 

All this can be achieved through the use of Pimcore platform in an easy and effective way. Since Pimcore allows data storage in one centralized place and ease of access as well as management, it is perfect for creating a personalized experience.

 

 

 

Content creation and management can be run by your marketing team and you can provide a great omni-channel experience. 

 

 

 

Interoperability: For effective coupling with Technologies, Services, and Information sources

 

 

 

In order to provide a unique customer experience businesses have to connect all teams and departments as well as secure a high interoperability level. This often comes hard, especially with large companies. Consequently, there is a rise in inconsistencies and inefficiencies in the content management process, leading to fragmented Customer Experiences. 

 

 

 

Just how can you assure a high level of interoperability within your company and with the result of a unique digital experience for each customer?

 

 

 

The standard Web Content Management can be heavy and inefficient. If you, for example, use Pimcor’s workflow management which allows internal and external stakeholders to join processes and methods quickly as well as keeping all of your data in one hub with the ease of access for every team, you can achieve a high level of interoperability. 

 

 

According to the guide published on Pimcore’s pages, three steps to creating an interoperability strategy are:

 

 

 

1. Begin at your end objective – Create the best possible scenario in which teams, systems, and processes work together with a high level of interoperability. 
2. Take stock of the silos – Take all existing data silos (digital marketing, websites, digital commerce)  and put it all in one repository. 
3. Act upon it – Create a rough sketch of achieving optimal customer experience and improved ROI, with the help of your CXOs. 

 

 

 

Once you have a full strategy that is aligned with the company’s long term strategy, you will be able to provide a great digital experience to each customer. 

 

 

 

Taking the CaaS (Content-as-a-Service) Route

 

 

Today’s customers travel through multiple devices in their buying journey. They could be sliding through your product page on their phone, then switch to the laptop in order to add products to cart and finish the buying process. Multichannel is becoming standard customer journey and in order to provide a great digital experience, you need to deliver great content across multiple channels. 

 

 

 

Content as a Service or shortened CaaS, refers to a case where authoring of content is independent of the place it is used. Also, content is made accessible via a web service and is delivered through APIs. Therefore, there are three main content delivery approaches:

 

 

 

1. 1. Traditional CMS or coupled CMS – have a standard presentation process and a solo development platform, restraining the building of more user interactions.
   2. Headless CMS – it enables content creators with the tools to get their workflows readily consumed in a content-as-a-service environment. Doesn’t have a display layer and uses APIs to send content.
   3. Decoupled or hybrid CMS – Same as headless CMS but it enables front-end delivery capability, in case it’s needed. 

 

 

 

Pimcore allows the creation of both headless and hybrid Customer Management System and therefore, represents a perfect tool to enable multi-channel experience and build a true Digital Experience Platform!

 

 

 

Advanced Content Management

 

 

 

We already pointed out that the key to the creation of Digital Experience Platform is in tailoring personalized, the multichannel journey for every customer. To do so, you need to move towards more advanced content management based on real-time customer data. 

 

 

 

Pimcore platform will allow you to gather real-time user data, store it in one place and easily manage it, and at the same time, create personalized content. The ongoing circle should start with:

 

 

 

• Gather real-time customer data
• Keep enriching customer profiles with new insight
• Design engaging customer journey
• Create relevant noise on customer-preferred channels 
• Capture and analyze customer responses
• Improvise and work towards creating new customer journeys

 

 

 

By staying in the loop of this circle, you will continuously provide a unique digital experience for each user on your platforms. In doing so, you will improve customer satisfaction and increase your revenue. 

 

 

 

Analytics is an essential element in your business. Your marketing team needs deep insights about visitors, features on your site, segmentation of your visitors/buyers. To do it correctly, they can’t stop asking questions like:

 

 

 

• How can we give our visitors relevant offers and recommendations?
• Are we able to measure all visitor experiences?
• Why are they leaving our website without making the purchase?
• Do we have more inquiries, visitors who research our shop or abandonments on our website

 

 

This photo was taken from Pimcore.

 

 

 

To answer all of these questions, your marketing team needs to:

 

 

 

1. Set goals
2. Measure success
3. Report what happened during the period
4. Analyze why some elements work, and some don’t
5. Optimize customer journey and again set goals based on your previous test
6. Continuous improvement of this circle

 

 

 

Incorporating AI-driven content management capabilities

 

 

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm. It has become one of the most popular ways companies gather and process data as well as determine their customer personas.

 

 

 

The application of AI is numerous. From the creation of customer personas based on different content journeys taken by the target audience, to testing for personalization. AI is the next new thing and a great way of building a Digital Experience Platform!

 

 

 

Use AI to:

 

 

 

• Keep track of your website or mobile app health and performance
• Fast track your A/B testing
• Predict customers choices 
• Generate personalized content
• Connect with other AIs 

 

 

 

Architecture: to ensure sound content delivery

 

 

 

To ensure good quality content delivery, the company has to build a good structure and have a healthy ecosystem. The structure is fueled by the company’s vision, strategy, and plan based on business needs and customers insights. Thus, every company decides how to utilize content based on its structure. 

 

 

 

We already talked about content delivery approaches traditional CMS, headless CMS, and hybrid CMS. More and more companies are adopting an API led approach in order to support content management technology. Also, the chosen approach will, of course, depend on the architecture of a company.

 

 

 

The main goal is to create a supporting company’s structure on the basis of which you will choose a CMS!

 

 

 

Create Digital Experience Platform with Pimcore

 

 

 

Now that you know 6 ways to shift from your Web Content Management to Digital Experience Platform, we will demonstrate why you should do it with Pimcore!

 

 

 

We already wrote about the benefits of using Pimcore, but here are some of our favorites:

 

 

 

• A simple solution to managing complex and multi-channel webshops
• Creation of content that speaks values of your shop
• All information about your products, vendors, customers in one hub
• Superior Connectivity for better Omni-channel strategy
• Workflow Management which allows internal and external stakeholders to join processes and methods quickly
• Audit Trail for easily managing multiple versions of your data
• Data Quality that ensures your data matches your company guidelines
• Rich Content Integration which enables you to connect your digital assets and rich content with a predefined layout
• Multi-channel delivery that automates publishing processes across devices and channels
• Management of  Personalized Experience for your users
• Creation of product catalogs or price sheets with help from Database Publishing

 

 

 

It’s all in the digital experience for your customer

 

 

 

Tailoring and scaling the customer experience across channels and continents are must-have for your business!

 

 

 

Having a DXP allows you to create your own content and monitoring of all different sites, streams, devices, messages, and data. With standard CMS you can create and manage content, but segmenting and tagging will be hard to accomplish.

 

 

 

Your CMS system can allow you to create personalization, but what can you do regarding one-to-one customer personalization? Unfortunately for you, nothing special, and above that, it will become more complex and difficult to narrow it while your user base is growing.

 

 

 

From smartphones, wearables, VR devices, IoT devices, and more, your business, marketing, and content need to reach your customers where they are at – whatever device they are using.

 

 

 

We recommend Pimcore to all of our clients that wish to provide an excellent Digital Experience. It is easy to create and manage personalized content based on customer insights. 

 

 

 

If you have further questions about Pimcore or Digital Experience Platform, get in touch with us!