Intersection of CMPs and DXPs and a look at Optimizely's CMP Solution
In today’s digital marketing landscape, managing content effectively across various channels is crucial for success. Content Marketing Platforms (CMPs) and Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) play vital roles in streamlining these processes. As the demand for cohesive and efficient content strategies grows, the integration of CMPs into DXPs over the last few years has become increasingly important. This blog post explores the intersection of CMPs and DXPs, their benefits, key functionalities, and provides a look at Optimizely CMP which I recently had an opportunity to use.
What's a CMP and is there a Connection to DXPs?
A CMP manages the entire lifecycle of content marketing, including ideation, creation, collaboration, approval, and distribution across multiple channels. CMPs streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, and ensure consistent messaging.
DXPs offer a broader suite of tools aimed at delivering personalized digital experiences across customer touchpoints. I think of a DXP as an ecosystem of capabilities include web content management (CMS), commerce, customer data management (CDP), personalization/experimentation, marketing automation, and digital asset management (DAM). DXPs typically integrate CMP functionalities alongside web CMS, DAM, analytics, and personalization tools. The connection between CMPs and DXPs lies in their shared goal of optimizing content delivery and enhancing customer experiences through centralized platforms.
Why are more DXP vendors adding CMPs to their Portfolio?
The trend of DXP vendors adding CMP functionality into their portfolios is on the rise due to the natural synergy between these tools, enhancing the overall value for businesses. Notably, Optimizely and Sitecore were trendsetters in this movement with their acquisitions of Welcome and Stylelabs in 2021, respectively. Other DXP leaders are starting to offer CMP capabilities across multiple solutions in their platform ecosystems. Here’s why DXP vendors are making this move:
- Enhanced content strategy and management
- Centralized content operations
- Improved collaboration and workflow efficiency
- Advanced analytics and performance tracking
- Increased market competitiveness
These benefits make CMPs a valuable addition to any DXP vendor’s offerings.
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CMP Essentials
To better understand the role of CMPs within DXPs, it’s helpful to explore some of the challenges CMPs solve, the advantages they offer to marketing teams, and the types of companies that can benefit most from their implementation.
What challenges does a CMP Solve?
CMPs address several key challenges that can hinder effective content marketing:
- Lack of Visibility – CMPs provide centralized dashboards that improve transparency and efficiency, allowing marketing teams to see the status of all content projects. This visibility ensures that everyone is aligned and aware of ongoing activities.
- Misaligned Strategies – CMPs help unify content strategies across the organization, ensuring consistent brand messaging. By having a single platform for planning and executing content strategies, companies can avoid the pitfalls of siloed operations and fragmented messaging.
- Duplication of Content – CMPs address content duplication by providing centralized repositories that promote the reuse of existing assets. This not only saves time but also ensures that high-quality content is consistently available for various marketing needs.
- Inconsistent Workflows – CMPs standardize workflows, ensuring systematic handling of all requests and tasks. This helps maintain consistency in content quality and delivery timelines. By automating workflows, administrative tasks are reduced freeing up resources for more strategic activities.
- Lack of Measurement and Analytics – CMPs provide performance analytics that help marketers track engagement, measure success, and adjust strategies based on data-driven insights. This continuous feedback loop enhances the effectiveness of content marketing efforts.
- Too Many Tools – CMPs consolidate various functions into a single platform, simplifying the tech landscape and making it easier for teams to manage their tasks efficiently.
- Inability to React Quickly – CMPs streamline processes, allowing for swift adaptation and timely publication of new content. This agility is important in maintaining relevance and responding to market trends of consumer behavior shifts.
CMPs provide numerous advantages for marketing teams, enhancing both strategic and operational aspects of content marketing.
- Improved Strategic Alignment – CMPs help unify content strategies to support broader business objectives, ensuring that all content efforts are consistent and targeted. This approach helps align various departments and initiatives towards common goals.
- Operational Efficiency – CMPs automate many workflows, reducing the time and effort required for content creation, approval, and distribution. This automation frees up marketing teams to focus on more strategic and creative tasks.
- Enhanced Collaboration – CMPs provide tools that facilitate better communication and collaboration amongst team members, improving workflow efficiency and leading to higher-quality content production.
- Scalability and Flexibility – CMPs support growing marketing operations by accommodating increased content production demands and adapting to evolving strategies. This ensures that marketing operations can scale efficiently without compromising quality or consistency.
- Cost Efficiency – CMPs consolidate various functions into a single platform, reducing the need for multiple tools and lowering software and training costs. This consolidation not only saves money but also streamlines processes, improving overall resource utilization.
- Companies with Large Marketing Teams and Extensive Content Operations – Organizations with significant content production and distribution needs benefit greatly from CMPs. These platforms help manage high volumes of content, ensure consistent messaging, and streamline collaboration among team members.
- Businesses with Diverse Content Strategies – Companies producing many content types need a centralized platform to manage their content strategy effectively. CMPS provide tools for planning, creating, distributing, and analyzing content across multiple formats and channels.
- Organizations with Dispersed Teams – Companies with teams spread across different regions need robust collaboration tools to overcome the challenges of siloed operations and disparate workflows. CMPs facilitate real-time collaboration, making it easier for teams to work together, regardless of location.
- Businesses Focused on Data-Driven Content Performance – Companies looking to optimize their content strategy through data-driven insights benefit from CMPs’ advanced analytics. These platforms offer detailed performance metrics that help refine strategies and improve ROI.
- Companies Managing Extensive Digital Asset Libraries – Organizations with many digital assets require a streamlined system for organizing and retrieving these assets. CMPs integrated with DAMs ensure assets are easily accessible and reusable.
What’s the difference between a CMP and a web CMS?
While CMPs and web CMSs share some functionalities, they serve different primary purposes. CMPs focus on the holistic management of content marketing, including ideation, collaboration, and performance analysis. They support the entire content lifecycle and drive a unified strategy across various channels. In contrast, web CMSs primarily handle content management and publication on websites, providing essential features like on-page editing, layout customization, and website administration.
Leaders in the CMP Space
Here are some of the top leaders offering CMP solutions, categorized by their approach.
DXP Leaders with Standalone CMP Offering
- Optimizely – Known for its robust CMP capabilities, especially after acquiring Welcome. Optimizely excels in content ideation, campaign planning, and integrated DAM functionalities, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to streamline their content operations.
- Sitecore – Offers Content Hub, which combines DAM and CMP functionalities. Content Hub helps organizations manage the entire content lifecycle efficiently, ensuring cohesive and streamlined content strategies across channels. Content Hub Operations is specifically the product offering CMP functionality. This is another great choice for companies.
DXP Leaders with CMP Capabilities across Products
- Acquia – While not providing a standalone CMP, Acquia offers solutions streamlining content creation, editing, and scheduling. Just this week, Acquia announced the launch of Digital Experience Optimization (DXO), which includes Monsido (for accessibility), Acquia SEO, and Acquia Convert, further enhancing CMP functionalities.
- Adobe – Provides products like AEM and Workfront. These platforms support content and marketing operations, offering robust content management capabilities that integrate with other Adobe products.
Independent CMP Vendors
- Contently – Offers a powerful platform for content marketing, with strong capabilities in content creation, collaboration and performance tracking.
- Sprinklr – Known for its social media capabilities, Sprinklr also provides comprehensive content marketing tools.
- Storyteq – Focuses on video content creation and management, providing tools for dynamic video personalization and distribution.
A Look at Optimizely CMP
Optimizely CMP is an integral part of their Orchestrate solution, which combines the capabilities of a CMP, DAM, and web CMS. This solution transforms how marketing teams manage the entire content lifecycle, from ideation and creation to distribution and analysis, delivering better experiences faster and more efficiently. Orchestrate is part of the broader Optimizely One platform, offering a unified solution for all your digital marketing needs. Their CMP is undoubtedly one of the top solutions in the industry.
Core Capabilities
Content Ideation
Optimizely CMP offers powerful tools for content ideation, including keyword analysis and competitive insights. These tools help marketers identify high-impact topics and understand market trends, allowing them to create content that resonates with their target audience. By leveraging real-time data on search volume, seasonality, and cost-per-click, marketers can pinpoint the best topics for new content, ensuring relevance and effectiveness.
Campaign Planning
Effective campaign planning is crucial for successful marketing initiatives. Optimizely CMP provides detailed campaign briefs, project management features, and editorial calendars that help marketing teams organize and execute their campaigns. These tools allow teams to plan their content strategy meticulously, set timelines, and manage tasks efficiently, ensuring that campaigns are launched on schedule and meet strategic objectives.
Content Production and Distribution
Optimizely CMP streamlines content production and distribution through intelligent workflows and integrated DAM capabilities. Automated workflows facilitate the content creation process, from drafting and reviewing to approval and publishing. The integrated DAM ensures that all digital assets are stored, organized, and easily accessible, enabling quick retrieval and reuse of content across various channels. This integration significantly reduces production time and enhances operational efficiency.
AI-Based Creation and Optimization
One of the standout features of Optimizely CMP is its AI-based content creation and optimization tools. These tools assist in generating high-quality content and optimizing existing content for better performance. AI-driven insights help marketers refine their content to improve readability, engagement, and SEO performance. Additionally, AI-generated content capabilities provide a starting point for content creation, saving time and enhancing productivity.
What Impressed me most while using the Product
Easy to Use DAM
Conclusion
CMPs and DXPs offer strategic advantages for managing and optimizing content marketing efforts. Optimizely’s Orchestrate solution (CMP + DAM + CMS) stands out for its comprehensive capabilities, enabling organizations to streamline their content operations, enhance collaboration, and deliver superior customer experiences. Sitecore’s Content Cloud (XM Cloud + Content Hub) is another standout solution, providing robust tools for managing the entire content lifecycle. By leveraging the strengths of CMPs and DXPs, companies can achieve more efficient and impactful content marketing strategies.
At DXP Catalyst Consulting, we understand the critical role that integrated solutions like CMPs and DXPs play in transforming content marketing and digital experience management. Are you wondering if a CMP is right for your organization? We can help you invest in the right solution and provide a recommended architecture and roadmap for you to reach your business aspirations.
Interested in learning more about CMP capabilities within the Acquia, Optimizely, or Sitecore product ecosystems? We offer specialized provide strategy & roadmapping services. Schedule a free consultation today and take the next step towards transforming your digital customer experiences.