What Does it Mean to be ‘Integrated’ in Digital Experience Maturity?

We’re now into the second half of XPON’s stages of digital experience (DX) Maturity?(need a recap? See here for an overview of DX Maturity, and the Limited and Reactive stages).

This post delves into the third stage - “Integrated” - and what it means for those organisations who sit within this stage of DX Maturity.

Awesome, we’ve hit Stage 3 of DX Maturity… what does being ‘Integrated’ actually mean?

First up, congratulations for being such a data-driven organisation. You’re also in good company, with 42% of Australian businesses sitting at this stage on our DX Maturity scale.?

42% of Australian businesses sit at the Integrated stage on our DX Maturity scale.?

As an Integrated business, apart from being data-driven, your teams, processes and systems are interconnected. Data is now not only shared across your teams, but used effectively, with ever-increasing collaboration and cross-functionality. Outward facing, your digital presence closely reflects and conveys the look, feel and value(s) of your brand. As such, integrated organisations are able to deliver a digital experience that adequately serves the expectations of the modern customer.

Being able to use, and rely upon, owned data leaves integrated organisations well-prepared for the imminent deprecation of the 3rd party cookie. Further, 1st party data can be, and is, activated across channels with a demonstrated link to ROI. However, even at this stage, data maintenance is only near-optimal, which makes campaign optimisation less personalised, and can cost businesses in time and money.?

As with the lower levels of DX Maturity, there is work to do for Integrated businesses to safeguard against future evolutions of the marketing landscape and inevitable policy changes at a time when data-privacy is top-of-mind for consumers.

We’re so close - How do we get to the top of the DX Maturity scale?

What's great is that as an Integrated business, you are already in the top half of the Digital Experience Maturity curve, giving you a competitive advantage over those who are still Limited or Reactive.

So now it’s time to really focus on moving into the final phase of digital maturity by capitalising on opportunities to deliver truly customer-centric and profitable digital experiences. Some initiatives you might like to consider include:

• Scale customer insights and actionability by improving measurement and enabling an end-to-end view of the customer journey, leveraging both on- and offline data.
• Improving the connection between customer data and digital experience applications to enhance UX and on-page personalisation
• Continue to utilise your integrated tech stack to identify user trends, and react accordingly with personalised follow up in real-time
• Connecting your customer data and adtech for improved personalisation and automated bidding.

Want to see the view from the top? In our next post we’ll look at the pinnacle of our DX Maturity scale - those organisations who are ‘Customer-centric’.

XPON 2022 Annual Digital Maturity Survey delivers insights into your organisation's capability across marketing and CX measurement, audience activation, and digital experience strategies. To discover the DX Maturity of your organisation take our survey here.

Once completed, you’ll receive a personalised copy of the 2022 Annual Digital Maturity Report which will benchmark your organisation compared to your peers.