Digital Experience Ecosystem: The Future of School MARKETING?
A digital experience (DX) ecosystem is the extended set of enterprise software solutions needed to satisfy the full digital customer journey experience. But before we explore the full DX ecosystem in depth, it is important to understand that the core of any DX ecosystem is the digital experience platform (DXP).
The digital experience platform is an integrated, centralized enterprise software framework intended to provide a unified customer experience across most digital touchpoints. The DXP is essentially a core set of software technologies that enables the creation, delivery and optimization of personalized, content-rich digital experiences in order to engage customers and drive them to a desired action.
The benefits of a DXP are numerous, but at the most basic level it gives a company the ability to differentiate from their competition and drive more customer engagement and ultimately more revenue. The need for a connected and consistent experience is also critical to building both customer satisfaction and loyalty during the full customer journey.
What is in the DX Ecosystem?
The CMS (Content Management System) - A CMS is a software application that enables the creation and management of digital content by multiple users in a connected environment. This typically refers to a system which manages all the content on web pages, including images, photos, video, audio and more. Traditionally a school’s CMS is provided as the backend to their website. This creates separation between management of the website & management of wider experience systems.
An AI-driven content personalization engine - Personalization engines allow the user experience to be personalized for micro-segments of users based on behavioral, contextual and user-specific data. A digital experience platform is, by nature, data-driven. It's built on APIs. And it's designed to collect, analyze and act upon customer data to create personalized, seamless experiences across all your touchpoints.
Omnichannel Content Delivery - Omnichannel is an integrated cross-channel content strategy in which channels and related customer interactions are managed to enable a unified customer experience.
Beyond the three core components that make up the main DXP, there are an assortment of technology packages and platforms that supplement the DXP. While not all of these technologies will make up every company DX ecosystem, many would play a critical part in any DX and are core to most businesses.
These are the software components that potentially make up a DX Ecosystem:
A digital asset management (DAM) platform
Translation and localization software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
Marketing Automation Tools
Social Media Platforms and Tools
Analytics
Data Management Platforms
Video Management Solutions
The Benefits of a DXP and a DX Ecosystem?
The ability to retain and upsell customers by rewarding high value customers and getting customers to engage with personalized content marketing programs
Education of customers by providing DIY material, and product information content
Engagement with the audience and community engagement
Increased brand value
Improved productivity and time to market
Reduction of technology costs
How can schools utilise a DX Ecosystem?
DXPs offer the opportunity to answer two major challenges for Independent Schools; personalisation & capacity.
In reference to the former, a product like SprX™ allows MarComms teams to target relevant historical content to prospective families via any channel. Individual stories can be integrated into websites, marketing collateral, virtual tours, newsletters, voice technology or the wider IoT (Internet of Things). This occurs automatically and actively supports the latter issue, capacity. School teams are under-equipped to compete in the modern marketing climate to wow families without the support of technology. Reaching individuals via their desired medium, at the right time is as much a science as it is an art.
Tools like SprX™ are designed to embed with a school’s existing website to offer an integrated solution regardless of team size or budget. SprX™ provides a flexible technology platform that wraps around and solidifies the existing marketing stack.