Using Customer 360 Data to Drive Your Digital Experiences on Adobe

In a previous blog post, we examined the role of data within a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) architecture. In that article we discussed that in order to stay competitive organizations not only need to “speak” to the customer through engaging interfaces backed by robust content, they also need to “listen” to the data collected throughout the customer’s journey. This data forms the heart of the DXP architecture and shapes the customer’s journey by providing context, personalization, and analytics to drive the overall experience. 

Figure 1 shows the Anexinet Reference Architecture for DXP.

Figure 1 – Anexinet DXP Reference Architecture[/caption]

One of the leading Digital Experience Platforms in the market is from Adobe. Over the last few years, they have built upon their Experience Cloud capabilities for delivering content, commerce, and marketing capabilities to establish a holistic platform that can deliver more robust, targeted, and personalized digital experiences. 

In this article, we will look at how the Adobe Experience Platform aligns with our DXP reference architecture, focusing on three key aspects: 

• How the platform allows us to structure and store data about the Customer and their journey; 
• The tools that exist within the platform for exchanging data with core data sources; and 
• The available capabilities for using data within the DXP architecture. 

Adobe Digital Experience Platform

Figure 2 shows a simplified view of the Adobe platform components that map to our DXP Reference Architecture. 

At the heart of the Adobe DXP is the Experience Platform Data Lake. Underpinning this data lake, Adobe Experience Platform offers capabilities for the modeling, governance, and management of the experience data. The platform offers robust schema management and data cataloging that enable the data to be consumed from other layers of the architecture. 

Sitting on top of the data lake is the Real-Time Customer Profile which allows you to bridge customer identities and merge customer data to create a unified view of customer interactions across channels. 

Data Integration

But how do we get data into the Adobe Experience Platform? Adobe divides the approaches into two general categories: Streaming and Batch. Through these processes you can send profile information and experience events for use by your DXP solution. 

Streaming Integration options:

• Ingestion APIs – These APIs allow for various data collection points (including Adobe-based applications) to send data directly into Experience Platform 
• Kafka Connector – This connector allows you to stream events into Experience Platform from a Kafka deployment 
• Adobe Pipeline – Built on top of Kafka, Pipeline allows API access to publish and subscribe to experience events on Experience Platform 

Batch Integration:

• Experience Platform offers specific Batch Ingestion APIs to allow you to send batch files into a specific dataset within the platform  
• These batch file structures must conform to a dataset created within the Data Catalog 
• Recommended batch size is between 256MB and 100GB. 

Leveraging Experience Platform Data

Adobe Experience Cloud offers multiple capabilities for leveraging this experience data within a DXP solution. These key components include: 

Real-time Customer Data Platform

 Create real-time account and customer profiles for marketers to deliver unique and personalized digital experiences to customers: 

• Unify company and individual data into a standard taxonomy 
• Allow marketers to easily create segments based on rich, accurate omni-channel interaction data  
• Trigger immediate actions based on customer data that can be delivered across any channel 

Customer Journey Analytics 

Customer Journey Analytics allows data across all channels to be joined into a single view to provide a 360-degree view of customers and their touchpoints with an organization. This enables: 

• Understanding of customer segments and journeys by analyzing cross-channel behavior  
• Delivering personalized experiences throughout the customer journey based on context-driven data 
• Comparisons of transactions and interactions across web, mobile, phone, and in-person to understand customer behavior and create more tailored experiences 
• Business users to make data-drive decisions by creating self-service customer data views that update in real-time   

AI and Data Science Tools

Leverage Adobe Sensei and Intelligent Services on top of your customer data to make rapid marketing and content delivery decisions to create better marketing experiences for your customers: 

• Predict customer behavior and preferences based on the customer data profile and highly accurate customer segmentation 
• Deliver personalized messaging at the right time on the right channel tailored to a customer’s preferences 
• Increase conversion and retention using AI to identify users most likely to convert and those at high-risk for cancellation 
• Optimize campaigns and budget allocation based on attribution data 

Using these capabilities, you can transform Customer 360 data into actionable insights that drive more personalized experiences with Adobe Experience Manager, Commerce Cloud, and Marketing Cloud 

If you need help laying out a robust architecture to support your Adobe DXP initiative, please reach out to us. As an Adobe partner we can help you get the most from your investment in this robust platform. From UX design and development—through to the critical data and integration aspects that are the heart of your Experience Cloud architecture—we have helped countless organizations deliver great connected experiences and ensure a successful delivery.