Omnichannel marketing is the marketing strategy that connects all sales channels. The advantage of omnichannel marketing commerce is that customers can enjoy a smooth purchase experience and can continue this experience as they move from one channel to another – without any contradictions, inconsistencies, or gaps – thanks to the integration of the various sales channels.
This, then, is how omnichannel marketing connects all channels, both online and offline. This includes the following:
In the process, omnichannel marketing makes use of a wide range of marketing measures such as target-oriented advertisement, personalized e-mail marketing, recommendations, both cross-selling and-up-selling, while also accompanying and supporting target groups throughout each and every stage of their customer journey.
Multichannel vs Omnichannel: What’s the Difference?
In multichannel marketing, the individual channels are kept separate. In omnichannel marketing, to the contrary, companies market their products and services across various interconnected channels, thereby offering customers a consistent sales experience. This boosts customer satisfaction and, at the same time, increases the customer retention rate.
The purchase behavior of both end customers and companies has continuously evolved towards digital apps. Where there used to be only a few established channels operating independently from one another, you can nowadays choose from many more touchpoints. Reaching out to the customer across the whole customer journey – both in a digital and analog manner – with consistent data, this is what poses a major challenge. Mastering this challenge will translate into enormous benefits for your marketing team.
An omnichannel strategy provides the following benefits and more:
All in all, omnichannel marketing provides you with the possibility to directly address your customers’ needs and wishes, bolster your marketing presence, and increase your profit.
In general, omnichannel marketing is relevant for both B2B and B2C alike. A small difference, however, results from the often times more complex purchase process for B2B customers. Given that this involves a large number of decision markers, B2B comes with longer approval and purchase periods. Especially when it comes to high-cost products, multiple stakeholders with individual requirements are to be convinced of the product. Besides this, the strategies differ only by relevant touchpoints, depending on your industry and target group.
B2B Example: Touchpoints of buyers and sellers when purchasing a heating system
B2C Example: Touchpoints when purchasing a cupboard for an end customer with the help of the service portal
Product data is highly relevant for the omnichannel method since this is what forms the foundation for consistent content and a uniform product presentation. Contradiction-free product information across all sales channels is the fundamental requirement for a successful omnichannel approach.
When the product data isn’t identical throughout the entire customer journey, it can easily cause confusion for customers and, consequently, damage their trust in the company. This, in turn, can translate into a loss in sales. A consistent presentation of your products across all channels, to the contrary, assures that your customers will be able to view the product with one and the same set of information in all channels and, with that, enjoy a continuous sales experience.
So, when a company wants to implement omnichannel marketing, it’s important that the product data is always consistent and up to date. For this reason, Product Data Management should enjoy a higher priority to guarantee a successful customer experience.
For the successful implementation of an omnichannel strategy, it takes the interplay of different software solutions such as PIM, CMS, ERP, CRM, and DAM systems. However, product configurators, apps and corresponding shop systems also play a decisive role. Additionally, the integration of AI-based tools does also play a crucial factor. The IT infrastructure and the selection of fitting tools from the “MarTech Stack” are game changers.
Since consistent product communication across all channels is a strategic point in omnichannel marketing, the PIM system occupies a central role in this case. Here, your product data is centralized, enriched with content, and, finally, distributed into various marketing channels.
Both product data and customer data are imported into the PIM by connecting ERP and CRM systems. Images and videos, on the other hand, are provided by directly integrated DAM modules or via a separate DAM system. For content creation and translation, PIM offers AI-based content automation tools and translation management systems with translation memory function. Target systems include the connected online shop, product configurators, apps, social media channels, or external e-commerce platforms such as Amazon or eBay, where products are made available to the customer.
Only when all these systems communicate with one another in a smooth manner, a successful omnichannel strategy can unfold itself for delivering a first-class customer experience.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
Digital Product Data Management Explained in Simple Terms
With PIM software, you prepare your company for the digital transformation and lay the foundation for exhausting the full potential of Product Data Management. Are you ready to get started? In our free whitepaper, we tell you how this can be accomplished.
In the world of marketing, one thing is beyond all question: Customers do not only expect high-quality products but also a smooth purchasing experience across various channels.
And this is where Multichannel Marketing comes into play. Companies are to address their target groups on many different platforms, be it through websites, social networks, or direct sales. In this article, we dive into this fascinating world of marketing and explore the unbeatable alliance of Multichannel Marketing and Product Information Management (PIM).
Multichannel Marketing is the strategic approach of reaching out to customers across multiple channels. To this end, it’s imperative to find just the right mix between online and offline channels in order to adequately address the target group. By utilizing more channels, companies can enhance brand awareness and increase the chance of attracting potential customers. Multichannel Marketing enables companies to make contact with their target group in an even more targeted manner and provide them with personalized offers which, finally, result in higher customer satisfaction rates.
Possible channels are:
Indeed, there are differences in Multichannel Marketing between the B2B and B2C field. This is because not only the target group but also the demands, purchasing decisions, and channel preferences deviate between the two.
In the B2B field, the sales process is, often times, more complex and the sales cycle can be longer. Decisions made are tied to higher costs and risks, which is why personal interactions and more comprehensive sales channels such as sales partners and direct sales are preferred.
In contrast to this, the sales cycle in the B2C field is shorter and purchase decisions are more impulsive. Most of the time, B2C consumers make purchases in small quantities and prefer to carry out their research on the internet or through social media. This is the reason why B2C companies put stronger focus on digital marketing, online sales, and digital channels.
However, there are more and more overlaps between the two fields. B2B companies continue to tap more into digital sales channels, whereas B2C companies integrate personal sales as an additional service option. The right multichannel strategy depends on the specific requirements and preferences of your target group.
In order to get a better picture of what Multichannel Marketing looks like in the B2B field, let’s have a look at a fictitious manufacturer for industry equipment from tools and materials to machines. Our example company adopts a comprehensive sales strategy based on a variety of channels such as online platforms, specialist retailers, sales partners, and direct sales.
This rich scope offers higher accessibility and allows business customers the freedom to opt for their preferred ordering method. They may feel more comfortable buying from a retailer’s online shop or purchasing the products in person from the specialist retail stores of sales partners. Furthermore, there is always the option of direct sales (D2B), where manufacturers can purchase directly from the manufacturer. This holistic approach enables our manufacturer of industry equipment to respond to the customers’ requirements in the best possible manner and provide a smooth purchasing experience.
An instructive example for Multichannel Marketing in the B2C field would be a retailer who offers their broad product assortment both online via an e-commerce platform as well as physically in shops, pop-up stores, and at conventions. Additionally, such a retailer can tap into a mobile sales channel by offering goods on an app or a popular social media platform such as Instagram for sale.
For customers, this means an abundance of possibilities: They can decide based on their individual preferences whether to purchase it on the internet from the comfort of their own home or seek inspiration in the stationary store live on site. The connection between online and offline channels offers them a purchasing experience without any gaps at the highest flexibility.
Be it B2B or B2C, with the skillful integration of multiple sales channels, companies can not only increase their reach but also interact with customers in a large number of ways. This approach boosts the market presence and does also allow for many opportunities of presenting the own offer in unique ways. This will win the customers’ trust.
Individual Customer Approach:
Today’s consumers are more demanding than ever. After all, they have the privilege of free choice. The range of offers is enormous, everything is available anywhere anytime. In the light of this abundance, it’s no longer sufficient to simply convey a suitable message to the right target group. The key is, much rather, to approach the customer at just the right time – namely, when her needs, attention, and willingness to buy is at its highest. Addressing customers in an individualized manner is central for capitalizing this decisive moment and building sustainable B2B or B2C relationships.
Tailor-Made Campaigns:
Humans are habitual animals – a figure of speech all of us have already come across. Your customers, too, have their own habits when it comes to browsing certain channels. And, just as the saying goes, old habits die hard. Customers will not change their ways no matter how great the incentive. For companies, therefore, it’s imperative to optimize their marketing measures across all channels – continuously, with further and further improvements. In the process, it’s important to provide a flexible combination of related channels and provide customers of individual touchpoints with targeted micro-campaigns. The most important objective is to close the gap between you and the individual customer by adapting to the demands of the specific situation, hereby amplifying the relevance of your message.
Qualified Analysis of Channels and Touchpoints:
In a marketing environment with ever-increasing interconnectedness, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to analyze the real contribution a single channel, campaign, or touchpoint makes to the overall sales and profits. Knowledge of this, however, is decisive for reliable success control as well as the steering of marketing and advertisement measures. Only if you can trace back which aspect has contributed to a higher engagement rate of your target group, you can adequately judge whether or not your budget and resources have been allocated optimally.
Mastering these challenges demands an even more well-planned interconnection of the different marketing channels. Only this, after all, can establish an efficient flow of data and information. This strategic evolution of Multichannel Marketing is referred to as Omnichannel.
These three strategies differ as follows: In Multichannel, the various channels operate independently of one another, without any overlaps or interaction. Customers can’t jump directly from one channel to another. When it comes to Cross-channel Marketing, in contrast, there is a data exchange between channels – but the message may not necessarily be consistent across all of them. Here, customers can switch between all channels between which such data exchange is possible. Omnichannel Marketing takes this approach even one step further by smoothly interconnecting all these channels with one another. Every channel embodies the uniform brand message together with all usage information. Only this can guarantee that customers will enjoy a customer experience without any gaps.
In short: The main difference between Multichannel and Omnichannel Marketing consists in the fact that Omnichannel Marketing offers a smooth, integrative experience for all channels, while Multichannel Marketing merely means that many channels are utilized but without such a smooth integration. Cross-channel Marketing occupies the middle ground between the two, though the boundaries are fluid.
Given the large number of different channels, it’s time-consuming to provide the respective product information in the right form per channel, for example the text length of product descriptions or the number of images. Especially considering that you also need to continuously maintain each channel. This is far removed from what a single source of truth has to offer. In a PIM system, product information is managed in a media-neutral manner and independent of specific target channels. For exports into online shops or for physical flyers, this data can then be adjusted for relevant channels. In the process, you may, for example, choose a shorter product description than for the online shop while also limiting the number and adapting the choice of images accordingly. With the help of the quality rules configured in the PIM, you can make sure that the product data quality does always conform with the target channel. Accordingly, the implementation of new channels such as apps for mobile end devices is easier to handle since the master data is already well-maintained and available in the PIM, so all that’s left to do are some channel-specific adjustments.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
Digitize Your Product Data
In our whitepaper, we let you in on how you can quickly make the shift from manual processes to smart workflows with a PIM system – intuitive, concrete, and easy to implement.
Owing the circumstances of the corona pandemic, online shopping is currently booming as never before. Accordingly, the product return rates have also skyrocketed. With a return rate of 64.3 percent, Germany is European Champion in returns of delivery orders (source: www.retourenforschung.de). About two thirds of the orders placed in the fashion industry are being returned. Not only time but also the financial aspect is enormous. On average, the return of a product costs the retailer 15.18 euro. This amount is the sum of the process costs and the loss in value. This, in turn, is reflected in the product costs. By now, many e-commerce companies are affected by this negative trend.
Did you also notice a trend in the increase of time and resources allocated to your company’s product return management? Or you may have even faced the need to create a new position in order to handle the high product returns? Maybe you’re already searching for a solution for reducing the product return rate of your online shop. With a PIM system, you have an effective and sustainable measure ready to hand with which you can lower the return rate of your company. Equipped with it, you can save not only time but also costs. Before we address this point any further, however, we want to have a closer look at the most frequent causes for high return rates in the e-commerce industry.
The causes for product returns in online retail are diverse. According to a study by KPMG (Statista 2023: Causes for Returns), 71 percent of the customers who return goods do so because the product doesn’t match their use case, followed by insufficient product quality or personal dissatisfaction with the product as major reasons. However, causes such as “product doesn’t correspond to description” are decisive for high product return rates. Another survey of this study (Statista 2023: Reduce Returns) does also show that 57 percent of the customers whish for better product information and commonly share the self-assessment that this is a measure for preventing returns.
What makes for a good product description? The more precise and detailed an article is described the more realistic is the image the customers can create in their mind’s eye. You can achieve this the following way:
Little helper monkeys such as, for example, the so-called “nudging” are also currently high in trend. Nudging revolves around planting subtle notes which inform the customer that participating in the prevention of product returns is a contribution to the reduction of CO2 emission in its own right. To the end of preventing returns, there are also helpful AI tools (Artificial Intelligence). A prominent example for this would be “Fit Finder,” an AI-based tool that helps customers finding the matching size.
If you operate in the fashion sector, you can grant customers the possibility to compare themselves with the fashion model by providing their body size and physical dimensions. Wherever this isn’t possible, a detailed product description is all the more important to lower return rates.
Always keep in mind: after the purchase is before the purchase. Assist your customer throughout the entire shopping process in order to generate authentic customer reviews and product evaluations. Customers trust fellow customers. This way, you optimize your product descriptions and reduce returns.
In general, the following can be observed: if the product data quality is high then the product return rate stays low while the satisfaction rate of both customers and employees alike increases.
And this is where the PIM system comes into play. PIM stands for Product Information Management and supports you in maintaining your company’s product data. Whenever it’s about improving the quality of your data, PIM is a good measure for creating the processes required to do so. PIM systems help you when defining, applying, and monitoring data quality rules.
The dashboard of the system facilitates the presentation of product data for you and your fellow coworkers, e.g. in the form of diagrams. This way, you will be quick to gather all the numbers you need and you always know where to begin when it comes to improving your data quality. You can classify your data objects, and you can do so as you see fit. In which units are your goods measured? Or do you want to give your product or other data objects a specific internal or external name so that it sticks better in your coworkers’ or customers’ minds? Other possibilities include terminology and translations. Subsequently, you can publish your product information on several output channels, such as your various online shops. Everything you need is your product and a PIM system which is configurable to fit your company’s exact requirements.
The benefits of a PIM system at a glance:
The equation is simple: better information prevents product returns in the double digits while also enhancing the customer satisfaction rate. Therefore, the quality of your product data is decisive for your business success. Let a PIM system handle the heavy lifting. Equipped with our checklist for optimal data quality, you have a best-practices guideline ready to hand with which can transform your data model, quite literally, into a top model in virtually no time.
Author:
Elena Golowatschev
Project Manager
Your Online Shop is Capable of More!
Turn it into an authentic experience for your customers. This guideline shows how it’s done – compact, intuitive, and easy to implement.
By now, it has long become a truism in the world of marketing: “Content is King!” This is an uncircumventable fact, now as then – especially in e-commerce and online retail. After all, those who want to successfully sell their products online must convince, satisfy, and inspire customers anew every day. And the bread and butter for this is good, high-quality content.
However, where does such content come from? Nowadays, the name of the game for companies is to plan, create, and distribute top-notch content from text to media across the entire customer journey. Marketers will be quick to add: not all content is high-quality content. And this is the precise point where the Content Strategy comes into play, providing you with an operative framework for all your future content cycles. Only with a targeted and individualized Content Strategy can you guarantee that your content fulfills the right objectives and is useful to relevant target groups. This is why smart strategizing functions as an integral part of the Content Marketing of manufacturers, brands, and retailers. You want to know how to design a meaningful Content Strategy? If that’s the case, you should keep on reading. In this blog post, we let you in on the most important steps and give you valuable tips for creating an effective Content Strategy yourself that fits your company.
“Content Strategy” vs. “Content Marketing Strategy” – the same, just in green?
A Content Strategy is not to be conflated with Content Marketing. The former relates to the operative level. It’s about putting all sorts of measures into practice which revolve around your content, e.g. the analysis of the customer journey, editorial plan, and task distribution – and not to forget the actual content itself and its distribution into all relevant channels, such as the corporate website or social media account. The Content Marketing Strategy, in turn, is a much more comprehensive concept and forms the strategic frame for your Content Strategy. Content Marketing determines the overall strategic outlook of a company’s marketing: designing relevant content and providing it to well-defined target groups. Accordingly, Content Marketing puts your target group front and center, rather than the product. In this sense, then, Content Strategy is only a subset – albeit an integral subset – of the overarching Content Marketing.
Do you know your customers? Do you know what they want – or do you only believe that you know what they want? In order to create a suitable Content Strategy, you are to familiarize yourself with your customers. Only this way can you produce content that your potential customers actually want to consume. One objective method for quickly getting acquainted with your target group is the Buyer Persona. As part of this method from the world of marketing, you develop a concept of the needs, pain points, and wishes of your ideal customer. Subsequently, this helps you in empathizing with your target group and creating made-to-measure content.
Furthermore, it’s key to listen closely to what your customers have to say by systematically gathering feedback and analyzing it. You can collect feedback by your customer base by utilizing tools such as Google Analytics or something as simple as product return forms. Among other places, social media is a top platform to learn about your target group. Be it in the form of polls or your direct interaction with them in comments – this is where you will gain insights about your target groups straight from the source.
Define your most important keywords and topics. Now that you’ve learned more about your customer, SEO should be the next topic on your agenda. Make the beginning with research on keywords, themes, and search criteria which your customers type into search engines. Relevant keywords may fall on both sides of the spectrum: very frequent and popular keywords, on the one hand, or keywords targeting long-tail products or market niches, on the other. The advantage of frequently searched keywords is that you can utilize them to reach out to a large audience; the disadvantage is that you face an equally large competition, meaning that your company may not make it to the top 3 search results. On the opposite side, less people base their searches on niche keywords, though they still prove their worth since they slowly but surely accumulate brand visibility and carry their weight on the search results pages of search engines. Our tip: Striking just the right balance is key! Specify a broad spectrum of the most different keywords in order to make sure that you’re accounting for all relevant search criteria.
For your keyword research, it’s helpful to know which keyword is relevant to your target group at a given stage of the sales funnel. Depending on the stage they’re currently in, consumers have different questions for which they expect a good solution. For example:
The digitization and the great technological progress that comes with it has made it much easier to make good use of all sorts of content formats. How does the saying go? Content is everything and everything is content. As part of your strategy, define what kinds of content you want to provide in which format and on which target platform. Popular formats include for example:
There is a rich offer of content formats to choose from. Which is why, as part of your content planning, you should focus on determining which formats are best suited for your target group. However, also keep in mind what kind of formats your team is best capable of producing.
💡 ATAMYA Insider Tip:
Analyze your past content as part of a content audit. This way, you can quickly identify which formats generate the most conversions or inspired the most online interactions. If, for example, your audio content counts more clicks than the views of your YouTube videos, it may be a good strategy to shift your focus to podcasts instead.
To produce high-quality content, you require a well-founded basis for all data and information. Be it podcasts, blog entries, social media posts, or exciting product descriptions – each and every type of content builds on correct and up-to-date input. When creating content for your product, for example, it’s necessary to communicate the current technical specifications. Incorrect product content translates into a negative purchase experience. The consequences: higher return rates, bad reviews, and, in the worst-case scenario, your brand image does also take a hit. To take preventative measures against such outcomes, your Content Strategy should incorporate all kinds of content – even those which seem banal, if not even trivial: product names, product properties, etc.
This content is usually scattered all over the company – in excel tables or PDF documents, in this or that corporate department. To make sure that nothing is overlooked, you should first establish a central data foundation for your product content. With a PIM system, this poses no problem whatsoever. As the single source of truth, the PIM system will guarantee that your data basis is always up to date and consistent across the board – allowing your marketing team to always draw from contradiction-free data as input for their content.
For a successful strategy, the right content plan is half the battle. A content plan is much like the guiding thread running through all topics, formats, and personnel resources, keeping everything together. With it, you keep track of all content ideas and situate them in their adequate time frames. A blog entry on gingerbread by a food supply chain, for example, is much more suited for Christmas time than the summer season. Accordingly, experts recommend planning marketing releases in quarterly periods.
In particular, the editorial calendar is a useful tool for managing your personnel resources. Always keep in mind: content is teamwork! Accordingly, the knowhow of specific topics is distributed among your company’s various departments. Note down in your editorial calendar who provides the input for what kind of content, when they’re free to do so, and what other resources are required to finalize things – this may include, for example, graphic designers, social media managers, editors, etc.
Create an editorial calendar in which each and every aspect of the content is assigned to the respective person in response. This will give you the overview required to manage content cycle upon content cycle.
Content Marketing doesn’t stop with the release of your content. Neither the best blog entry nor the most exciting podcast episode will bring in the desired results if it doesn’t even reach its target audience. As soon as you’ve produced the content, the name of the game is to distribute it to the relevant channels and beat the big drum for it.
While doing so, keep in mind that the channels on which your content is shared are equally as important as the channels on which they’re actually released. Target the channels on which your target group is active. If your target group consists of consumers in age groups older than 35 years, Snapchat may not be the optimal choice to promote your content and brand.
💡 ATAMYA Insider Tip:
Utilize tools for marketing automation to make your content generation process run even more smoothly, while also distributing it to the respective target channels or social networks in an equally efficient manner. With a PIM system, you can set up your distribution process so that you can set things into motion at the click of a button or with condition-based triggers in a fully automated manner – be it to supply the corporate website, marketplaces, online shops, or social networks. This way, you hit two birds with one stone by working smarter and investing less resources, be it personnel or finances.
To establish the perfect strategy as part of your overall Content Marketing, you will need one thing before anything else. A perfect, consistent data foundation – be it your customer’s feedback and activity data or technical data which serves as the meat of your content. In a digital world, data is money and power – as the saying goes: data is king!
To this end, it’s also important for the success of your Content Strategy to collect all this product data, centralize it, and automate the corresponding product data processes. This is because the sheer quantity of data with which we find ourselves confronted on a daily basis can no longer be handled manually.
In just a few quick steps, your product data can be put to good use and you can set up an effective Content Strategy. You can find out how this works in our latest whitepaper: Content Strategy 2.0. Download it now for free and benefit from our expertise and the know-how of our product experts.
Author:
Yana Zabolotna
Copywriter
ATAMYA
Transform Your Product Texts into Convincing Purchase Arguments
Inspire your customers and improve your conversion rate with these 10 tips.
Successful sales require more than simply offering the perfect product. A study by ECC Köln in collaboration with Hermes, SAP, and Yapital has shown that 85 percent of all shop visitors conceive of the product description as the decisive criterion for committing to a purchase decision. The less intuitive the product, the more important extensive and easy-to-understand product content is required to be. To this end, the product datasheet makes for an integral aspect of your product presentation.
However, what exactly is a datasheet? At first glance, the answer seems simple. Yet the more one zooms into the nitty-gritty details, the more difficult it becomes to formulate a clear-cut definition. In this blog entry, we have an in-depth look at this topic. We get to the very bottom of the question of what makes for good datasheets and demonstrate to you – using ONLINEPRINTERS Group as an example – how you can create datasheets yourself in effectively no time.
Datasheets are an important instrument for Product Marketing and Sales. Essentially, it’s about the presentation of the most crucial product information, allowing potential customers to see at a glance whether or not the product is what they’ve been looking for.
Datasheets serve the following elementary functions:
Important: Product datasheets aren’t manuals. The name of the game is to provide consumers with an overview of functions and technical data which is as compact as possible, so keep the number of pages low.
You may also explain the use cases of you product. Here, the same idea applies: brevity is the soul of wit. Datasheets are primarily about providing an overview and facilitating the process of comparing products. After all, the purchasing process is about research and comparison, the price only comes after the fact.
💡 ATAMYA Insider Tip:
Before getting started, define what functions your datasheet is supposed to fulfill. This will show you what data qualifies as a necessary requirement for users. Furthermore, also think about the level of detail in which you want to present your product. To keep a clear overview, less usually equals more.
Product datasheets can come in different layouts – be it text-heavy, table-centered, or like a glossy magazine. Indispensable are graphics of the product and a comprehensive presentation of technical information. The latter is best visualized in the form of a table or pivot table. For the ease of comparison, it make sense to standardize your datasheets across the board. This means that similar products should be presented in a similar way. If you’re active on the international markets, it’s essential to not only provide datasheets in the language of your main region but also in the language of your customers. For companies which design individualized products for their customers, it’s optimal to generate datasheets in an automated rather than manual manner, in order to make sure that all data is always up-to-date, correct, and consistent.
Naturally, there’re also technical aspects to look out for:
Meeting all these criteria poses a challenge for any company. However, you can tackle this problem head on by automating the generation of your datasheets. To this end, a PIM system is the best solution. This is how you can keep all your information up to date, automate translation processes, and compile everything in a clear well-standardized format.
Creating an ideal and flawless datasheet which convinces your customers and fulfills all technical requirements is a task which can barely be handled with manual labor alone. Thank god that there are suitable tools which can take care of the job. Using ONLINEPRINTERS Group as an example, we want to show you how this can be done in no more than 4 steps. ONLINEPRINTERS Group is one of the leading players on the European online printing markets. The group produces print outlets for more than 1,000,000 customers in over 30 countries across Europe – from flyers to complete exhibition stands.
To automate the production of product datasheets, ONLINEPRINTERS Group utilizes the PIM system developed by eggheads. The following process has stood the test of time:
ONLINEPRINTERS uses generic SVG assets – for both, their products and product groups. Such graphics come with placeholders. This means that, while the graphic remains the same, its content is dynamic. After creating the assets, they’re imported into the PIM.
Having stored the generic graphics in the product system, the name of the game is to create product-specific graphics. On the one hand, this process depends on the specifics of the concrete article and, on the other hand, it depends on the respective language in which the articles are to be presented. All this is handled in a fully automated manner. In the process, a set of specific graphics is generated out of the generic SVG – one per product and language respectively.
In this process step, templates are used to automatically generate a datasheet for every product and article within the PIM system. The templates reference the previously-genreated SVG assets, integrates them, and creates product datasheets in multiple languages out of them. Once again, they are stored in the PIM so that every PIM user can access them, as necessary.
Finally, in the last step, the datasheets are ready for the export to external systems. For example, this may include shop systems where consumers can download the datasheets in required languages.
Product datasheets are plain, they don’t snatch your attention with fancy graphics. What they do, however, is communicate product information in a clear and distinct way.
They’re the most important means of communication for customers who currently are in the last phase of the Customer Journey, providing them with the decisive impetus for purchasing the product. Because of the compactness of datasheets, the creation process poses a great challenge for many companies – from keeping product data up to date to customizing datasheets for specific target customers.
All these challenges can be mastered in effectively no time with the help of a PIM software, since it allows you to automate the creation process. The example of ONLINEPRINTERS group shows just how simple it is to automate product datasheets. With a PIM system as the central datahub, you can assure consistent data, flawless product information in multiple languages, and a clear-cut layout.
We’re always happy to show you in a personal web demo how to optimize and automate your product data processes with out software – individual, free, and without any commitments on your end. Secure your demo tour now.
Author:
Matthias Gärtner
Project Manager
ATAMYA
Transform Your Product Texts into Convincing Purchase Arguments
Inspire your customers and improve your conversion rate with these 10 tips.
The name of the game is Content Marketing: it’s been all the rage for the past few years, yet how many people out there truly have a good grasp of the principle behind this type of Online Marketing? What even is Content Marketing? What kind of companies can profit from putting it to good use? What expertise is required and what tools can support you in realizing it?
If you hesitate to give an answer to these questions straight away, you should most definitely keep on reading. In this blogpost, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive overview of the topic of Content Marketing and demonstrate to you how to implement this principle efficiently in your company. Before we drill deeper into the topic, however, let’s first clear up the core concepts in play.
In general, content refers to various types and formats of arranged data, such as text, image, audio, or video. In Marketing, content is usually distributed for free and categorized into the following content formats…
💡 Tip: You can create variants of the same content and present it in different formats in a sustainable manner with Content Marketing. Think carefully about where your customers are the most active – be it social media, blogs, or online marketplaces.
Content Marketing defines the strategic planning, creation, and distribution of content, tailor-made for a target-group-oriented approach with the aim to convert the defined audience into new customers. To this end, the focus doesn’t lie on the marketed product but, much rather, on the users and their use cases.
Content Marketing is an efficient option for convincing new customers and strengthening your already established customer retention rate. When it comes to implementing Content Marketing successfully, your branch doesn’t matter – be it industrial corporation or SME manufacturer, everybody can inspire their customers with the right content. What’s more important is that the content is fine-tuned to fit your customers and is always relevant. To this extent, this form of Marketing stands in direct opposition to classic advertisement.
Classic advertisement is usually based on the push principle. For example, a well-placed ad banner calls attention to the offered product or service. The disadvantage of Push Marketing: classic advertisement continues to lose influence and ground. Users have long gotten used to the flood of ad banners to which they are exposed day in day out – more and more users ignore or block it entirely.
In contrast to this, Pull Marketing presents itself as an alternative. Here, the interaction is actively sought by the user. They do their research and look for relevant content and information on their own. For companies, everything now revolves around meeting the customer on their own ground with target-group-oriented content and offering just the right solution in the form of their products or services.
This is the great advantage of Content Marketing: it delivers precisely the information which the customers are searching for and provide added value on top of that. With smart storytelling and a well-thought-out Content Marketing strategy, you have a sustainable way of shifting the customer’s focus of attention away from the competition to your product as the right solution.
Before you go about investing your brainpower into coming up with a suitable strategy or fitting content, you should first ask yourself the following question: “Who is my customer?” Only if you have a – clear and distinct – answer to this question will you be able to convince and inspire your users with relevant content. The more well-defined your target groups are and the more knowledge you have of them, you’ll be able to approach them more naturally.
One method which can help you in getting a clear-cut concept of your target group is working on a buyer persona. A persona is an idealized customer who will represent your entire target group.
After figuring out who your customers really are and what content and topics are relevant to them, you can think about the “how” of presenting your content. The keyword is: storytelling. Content must be presented in an intuitive, exciting, and memorable manner for it to fully unfold its effect. In its bare bones, it’s about delivering a narrative to consumers. After all, it’s easier for our brain to process and recall information when presented in the form of a well-structured story. Storytelling is not about delivering novel-like content. Much rather, you should give your content a structure, a relevant topic, and a guiding idea. The goal is to create an image in the consumer’s mind about how your brand or your product can be useful and valuable. Be it the category of fashion, food, music, or cars, your company is there to be remembered. And stories contribute to this in a long-term manner.
The question with which you see yourself confronted right now is: Where do you approach your customer and what content is meaningful? Content Marketing aims at meeting your customer at every touchpoint throughout her Customer Journey on their own ground with tailor-made content. Such touchpoints can be explained using a model from the field of Marketing: AIDA.
1. Attention
In the Attention Phase, users will become aware of your offer or product. This phase is rather unspecific since the user won’t think about making a purchasing decision just yet. The optimal content for this phase is informative, comprehensive, and covers the broadest possible scope.
2. Interest
In the second phase, potential customers conduct research and collect facts. To this end, content is to be provided which is in-depth and detailed.
3. Desire
Once the customer thinks she has gathered sufficient information, she commits to the decision-making phase. Here, she’ll be looking for the right company and provider, which is why supplying subsequent information and a concrete problem solution is an absolute necessity. The dialog with the customer now occupies center stage.
4. Action
In this final phase, the conversion of leads into customers takes place. Offer all import details about your service post purchase, together with further references and offers.
1. Content Marketing is a process, not a one-time commitment
Things keep on developing and should be constantly re-adjusted to fit your target groups acquired tastes.
2. Content Marketing requires strategy
Successful Content Marketing entails a concrete marketing strategy. This helps you when it comes to creating the planned content and is the first thing which you should work on in order to realize any of your Content Marketing activities in a targeted and systematic manner. Any Content Marketing strategy pursues three foundational goals:
3. Content Marketing represents your company and your brand
Content Marketing serves the purpose of presenting both, your company and brand, in the best possible light. Furthermore, Content Marketing is an integral part of your overarching communication strategy about how your company reaches out to people. Make sure that your Content Marketing strategy smoothly synergizes with the other components of your entire communication strategy before starting content production.
4. Content Marketing is based around the Customer Journey
Content should always be centered around the customer’s needs. To this end, as we’ve already established, you’re required to know your target group like the back of your hand.
Since companies want to position themselves sustainably and sell products to their target groups, Content Marketing is – and will continue to be – an indispensable tool. Especially when it comes to Online Marketing and SEO, it’s the content that matters. After all, the content is what is processed and rated by search engines such as Google and co.
The criterion for good content is whether or not it can provide added value and concrete solutions to the consumer. With strategic storytelling, customers always get the relevant content they’re looking for at the right touchpoint. You solve the challenges you are confronted with and, at the same time, convince with your brand, product, and company.
To make sure that your combo of product strategy and Content Marketing will be crowned with success, it’s essential to know your customer and respond to individual needs at the suitable touchpoint. At first glance, this looks like a mammoth task. But don’t panic! With the right tools for automating both, your product data processes and content distribution, this will be nothing short of a cakewalk.
With a PIM system, you pool your product content in a central system, manage it independent of corporate teams and departments for all touchpoints, and export it into all touchpoints. Even if a PIM doesn’t take care of coming up with the Content Marketing strategy itself, it still contributes substantially to getting the relevant content to the right target group, while also guaranteeing for consistent data across the board.
Author:
Alina Ilina
Social Media Manager
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In stationary retail, good salespersons can usually make the difference between success and failure in sales. While a lot of energy is invested into the continuous training of individual store employees in stationary retail, the optimal product consulting for online shops is widely considered to be still a mere theory in the making. Here, customers are usually left to their own devices. Yet, there is such great potential in e-commerce just waiting to be put to good use. After all, customers always value a positive purchasing and product experience, regardless of physical or digital store. While it’s true that today’s shop systems offer features such as context-sensitive filters which allow users to find the right product among the overabundance of information, what usually falls flat is the product consulting as you know it from stationary stores. For example, store employees can provide you with good alternatives and accessories for what you’re looking for based on your previous visits and purchases. This doesn’t only translate into a positive purchasing experience for the customer but also more sales for the company. However, is it even feasibly possible to provide a purchasing experience in online commerce that is similar to stationary retail? The solution is to provide your customers with the right content as targeted recommendations. In short: Recommendation Marketing is the keyword. A simple solution to put this into practice is using a Recommendation Engine.
What is a Recommendation Engine?
A Recommendation Engine is a tool for filtering data using AI-based algorithms and data about the browsing habits of your online shop’s visitors. Accordingly, the engine recommends relevant articles to visitors.
At different spots in your shop, further articles can be displayed to customers. Here, the decisive factor is relevance. Only if the products displayed fit your shop visitor’s taste can you motivate a purchasing decision. And this is also where the benefits of a good Recommendation Engine come into play. True, almost every shop system uses recommendations these days – yet they usually still lack in efficiency given the missing data foundation for recommending what is actually relevant in a given use case context. In fact, bad recommendations can even lead to frustration and, consequently, the canceling of the purchasing decision. A classic example for this is recommendations for products which aren’t available in the right size; such recommendations cause more harm than good.
Recommendations come in headlines like “You may also like…” or “People who buy this product also bought…”. While such headlines aren’t really catching your shop visitor’s attention anymore nowadays, the actual content still plays a significant role. The content must be spot on if you want to increase the probability of purchase and, consequently, the profitability of your web shop. The question what makes for suitable content isn’t easy to answer and shouldn’t be overgeneralized. Every human being has individual preferences and is interested in different products.
To truly display what is relevant, information about the user’s movements and, ideally, also related actions are required. The more you know about your digital visitor, the easier will it be to personalize the respective content. In general, you can distinguish between two main strategies which you may also combine with one another for good recommendations.
1. The Recommendation Engine Processes Information about Users
Each visit, consumers leave trails which can be utilized for a precise product recommendation. For example, you can directly process information on what articles have been viewed in the past, what articles have been put into the shopping cart, and which articles have actually been bought into recommendations. How this data is put to use depends on the assortment of the respective shop. When it comes to consumables, it makes sense to recommend the same item again during the next visit; when it comes to products for daily use, in turn, already purchased articles should rather be excluded. The true heavyweight class, however, is using data about the past to predict future needs. Thanks to Predictive Analysis, you can use this data to calculate the so-called NBO (Next Best Offer).
In the process, a mathematical model analyzes a variety of past sessions to predict what will be bought next. So that recommendations may not only include matching products in this context, but also product categories or even editorial blogposts from the Content Marketing team, in order to create the optimal online shopping experience. Pursuant to data protection regulations, this kind of personalization requires explicit user consent. The standard method for getting the user’s consent is basic cookie banners which are already in use in every shop by default anyway.
2. Inferences Based on the Currently Viewed Article
For example, if somebody is browsing the product details page of a drilling machine, recommendations can be utilized to display other drills with similar properties or additional parts for upgrading the base product. Both translate into a higher customer satisfaction rate and more corporate sales. In particular, this is important when the article is accessed via Google or other search engines so that the user still lacks some context and information.
To guarantee optimal success, you should always combine both rule types in your shop. This way, you can display the right articles for products on the details page to users which exclude already purchased articles or show preferred NBO products from the corresponding product category. Furthermore, you can also consider further factors such as the current stock count or popularity and sales rate.
The more information about shop visitors you have ready-to-hand, the more precise your recommendations will turn out to be. Engines also process, as discussed before, movement data such as information about viewed, bookmarked, and purchased articles. Such data is either put to use directly or the Recommendation Engine uses Artificial Intelligence to calculate the most relevant product based on probability and statistics.
The optimal rule or optimal formula as the “cure-all” for any possible use case doesn’t exist. The rule set and, consequently, the recommendations generated out of these rules must match the given use case of the visitor and must also be adjusted to the current phase of the Customer Journey the visitor is in. A visitor may be in the phase of checking the scope of available products or might already be looking for a concrete article – both phases require different recommendations.
In all cases, a Recommendation Engine can’t only help you in boosting the sales of you company, but can also help you to focus and guide the masses of visitors into the direction which is the most efficient for your shop and company. Two further examples on how to use targeted recommendations to support both your Online Marketing and Sales team at the click of few buttons are the preference for flagship products or giving more exposure to slow-selling articles. To make this run as smoothly as possible, consistent data is an absolute must-have. Imagine yourself trying to manually collect all the movement data about your customers together with all product data, to then distribute it into intended marketing channels. That’s simply impossible. In order to get your data in top form in the most resource-efficient manner possible, it’s worth assessing whether a PIM can further your corporate growth. PIM functions as the central datahub for your entire product content. Since everything is neatly pooled together and centralized, it’s a simple task to work on data collaboratively across multiple teams and distribute it into required channels. As you can see, generating more sales and optimizing both your Online Marketing and Product Management is far from witchcraft as long as you capitalize on the possibilities which digitalization brings to the table in a smart manner.
Author:
Markus Bückle
Customer Success Director at DYMATRIX
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With digital transformation, new challenges continue to present themselves – which companies in general and, more specifically, marketing departments are to tackle head on. This includes the ever-increasing number of sales and communication channels, e.g. social media but also new technologies such as augmented reality. In this blog entry, you’ll learn how to master such challenges. We’ll present useful tips to you on how to optimize your Product Communication in virtually no time and elevate it to the next level. However, before we deep drive straight into the topic, it doesn’t hurt to quickly remind ourselves once more of the basics of what the concept of Product Communication entails.
What is Product Communication?
Product Communication is the structured processing, refinement, and distribution of product-relevant information. Among other things, this includes descriptions, prices, technical data, images, videos, and installation manuals.
Strong Product Communication is the be all and end all when it comes to competitiveness. Why? This is because targeted and smart communication delivers a consistent message together with the benefits your product has to offer straight to your target groups’ eyes and ears. Successful Product Communication distinguishes itself by providing the right content at the right time at the right place. Only in this manner can you convince your target groups to make a purchase decision, generate sales, and secure your competitive edge. Sounds simple and reasonable, doesn’t it? However, for many companies, it poses a great challenge to communicate the value their products bring to the table.
The bare basics worth of information, such as product name, technical description, and article number is insufficient for satisfying the demanding customer. In order to make your products attractive and present them in the best possible light, product images and, ideally, product videos are a must-have. So far so good. Though, you need to be more specific here: What measures can you take in order to inspire people with your Product Communication?
Adjust your entire Product Communication thoroughly to your target groups.
Before doing so, make sure to answer the following questions:
These are the questions you need to have a clear answer to before you go on to render unknown users into clear-cut customers. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of your target group, creating a Buyer Persona or two can work wonders. Why would you, for example, supply a Snapchat channel with content if your target group isn’t even active on there? Save time and money by focusing on the channels that are truly relevant.
The most essential aspect of your communication with customers is to present the benefits your product provides in a clear-cut manner and to make it as explicit as possible. Why should interested target groups buy your product in particular, why are your solutions better than the competition? Always focus on the advantages your product brings to the table as far as use case functionality and usability is concerned – and make it plastic so that your customer can see these benefits in their mind’s eye. They should be able to spot your unique selling points at first glance. Remind yourself of the basics: people are always searching for solutions to their use cases and problems.
This remains true especially for technical or complex products. Here, this is no easy task to establish. Try to smooth your target groups in by also providing emotional data and a relevant Product Experience to match.
A captivating user story is worth gold. In particular when it comes to seizing your future customer’s attention and distinguishing yourself from your fellow competitors.
This is even more evident today than it was a few years ago. Nowadays, products can be compared globally on the internet at the click of a few buttons – here, the name of the game is to provide something which the others can’t. Smart storytelling (which synergizes well with the video formats) can help you to position your brand in a targeted manner and win target groups. Create unique content which may even transcend your individual product, e.g. recipes, creative use case applications, and best practices. To give a real-case scenario, Juwelier Christ provides not only emotional descriptions and technical data, but also tips on how to maintain their jewelries and watches, where customers will find notes and tips on how to maintain their products or even how to dispose of older products in an environment-friendly way.
This is one example of how Christ presents the benefits of their products to customers while also generating more sales of their accessory kits.
Have you experienced this before? The tedious effort required to search and collect product data – some may be provided in the form of Excel tables, some you may discover in PDF documents, and for other data you need to do some research inquiries involving various departments and teams. The is pure poison for successful Product Communication.
Only if you have a firm grip on your data can you send a consistent brand message across multiple publication channels, without running into any performative self-contradictions. Product Communication is the structured processing and preparation of product-and-target-group-oriented information. If incorrect product information is provided at marketplaces, this can have fatal consequences for you company: customers lose their trust into your brand, which in turn translates into a loss of sales. Accordingly, it’s imperative to optimize your data for a consistent brand message. More often than not, this poses a considerable challenge to companies since most information is only available in a decentralized infrastructure, spread across various data sources. Despite of that, the solution is self-evident.
Software is what makes the world go round these days. This is a universal truth, even for Product Communication. In order to have a well-ordered data foundation with which you can operate efficiently, you’ll need a system. For your customer data, a CRM system should be your go-to choice; for your product data, a Product Information Management system, in short PIM system, is a must-have.
PIM allows you to pool all your product data together in a central data management tool. Consequently, you can enrich information and add media assets. Lastly, you can distribute validated data into relevant sales channels. This way, you can always view all your data at a glance – which, in turn, means better data quality and more successful Product Communication. Furthermore, PIM supports you in designing personalized data and enables you to address customers in a targeted and strategic manner. With such an all-in-one system, you can cut down your time-to-market and, since your published data will always be apt, minimize return rates because of better product descriptions.
Successful Product Communication is neither witchcraft nor rocket science. However, it does require some groundwork and attention to your product data. With the right tools to support you in doing so, this will pose no problems whatsoever. Tools are there to help you, so make sure to make good use of them. With the smart use of the right tools and software systems, you’ll make your team’s daily work life more efficient, you save valuable time and human resources, and you can, finally, focus on what truly matters – your customers.
Only with a central and intelligent data foundation will you be able to create and refine the content which can be distributed at the right time, at the right place, and in just the right quality. And this is the point where we come into play with our PIM software, ATAMYA Product Cloud. Are you interested in learning how you can elevate your Product Communication to the next level with our software? Then, what are you still waiting for? Convince yourself first-hand and set a date with us for a DEMO tour.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
Digitize Your Product Data
In our whitepaper, we let you in on how you can quickly make the shift from manual processes to smart workflows with a PIM system – intuitive, concrete, and easy to implement.
“Product descriptions are boring and unimportant. Let’s be honest, who even reads texts on your product pages? There are so many other, more important things on your website when it comes to the optimization of your customer conversation rate. Product descriptions don’t actually influence your sales numbers.” Right? Wrong!
Did you know that smart product descriptions with the right information and fitting content can increase your customer conversion rate by 57 percent? Or that one out of six orders are returned, caused either by false or bad product descriptions in 30 percent of these cases? (Source: https://de.ax-semantics.com/)
In short: Product descriptions are important, in particular in e-commerce. You want to know what makes for a good product description, how to create them, and how to easily avoid potential errors? In this case, you should definitely read further.
Before taking a deep-dive into the topic of product descriptions, we should make sure that we’re on the same page as far as the concept itself goes:
A product description is much more than a simple stringing-together of technical data and hard facts. It’s the marketing text which explains the product and describes the use cases for which the product is purchased. The purpose of a product description is to provide customers with relevant information about features and benefits of the product, enhancing their trust in your product, online shop, and brand.
The classic product description has a clear and distinct structure:
Now that we have a clear-cut overview of the structure, nothing can go wrong. Right? There’s still a long way to go. To be more precise, many companies have the tendency to repeat the following errors when designing product descriptions.
Owners of online shops and e-commerce stores as well as marketers are all prone to the same frequent errors when writing texts (even professional copywriters do it from time to time): Simply describing what the customer can see at first glance when looking at the product images. What’s wrong with that? It’s wrong since good product descriptions are to complement your product page. You’re selling products to real people. Product descriptions aren’t just some secondary source of information solely serving the purpose to feed search engines (granted, of course, that SEO should never get the short end of the stick either).
Always keep the following in mind when writing texts: your product description should be thoroughly target group oriented. Consistency is key. Only with content that addresses the target group in a strategic manner, can you make sure that customers receive the information they need and get that extra bit of motivation that’s still missing to encourage the purchasing decision.
Adopt the customer’s first-person perspective and see your product through their eyes to familiarize yourself with how they think, identifying the missing link between customer and product. To do so, you can create buyer personas or analyze your feedback data compiled in Google Analytics and elsewhere. Use the following questions as a guide:
“A first-class offer at the absolute best price” – how often have we heard sentences like these? Exactly, way too often. The deflationary use of buzzwords such as “best price” or “top offer” have long lost their appeal. Avoid empty phrases and filler words in your descriptions. Since they complicate the reading flow and don’t contribute to the customer’s understanding of the product. Instead, place your trust in unique content which inspires customers and provides convincing arguments.
Companies often times make the mistake to simply list attributes of products when writing product descriptions. How can you convince customers to buy your product if you don’t tell them how the product can make their life easier? This can leave a fatal impact on your sales numbers – if customers don’t feel like you’re meeting them on their own ground, they won’t buy your product. Regardless of how good it is. What works wonders is to imagine how it feels like if you were buy the product in a shop yourself and how you would go about selling it. Try to preserve some of that conversational feel in your written text, make the text come to life and write it as if it were spoken. This includes more than simply arranging mere numbers and facts about the given article. Rather than enumerating various information, it’s primarily about winning and strengthening the trust of your customers in your products.
Last but not least: Always check twice whether or not your product information is fully up-to-date and consistent. Imagine for a second that you want to buy a product, but the information and descriptions provided are incomplete, irrelevant, or maybe even wrong and self-contradictory. If this were the case, would you actually commit to buying this product? No, since wrong product information strongly implies unprofessionalism and dubiousness. Good thing that this pitfall is easily avoided – granted that you do invest a bit more work into your product data. Product data is the foundation of each and every product description. If your data is well-maintained, such a faux pas will never occur. Central data processing with a PIM system is the optimal solution for all use cases.
Put your hand on your heart and ask yourself: What’s the state of the product descriptions provided to potential customers in your shop? Do you simply reproduce the information which can already be gathered by glancing at the product image or does your unique content provide additional value to the overall presentation? Your customer’s standards become higher and higher, so that simple descriptions do no longer suffice. Shops which provide high-quality product texts inspire interest and passion which, in turn, translates into a higher costumer conversation rate for your online shop.
A well-formulated product description guides your customer through the conversion bottleneck. With some little creativity, your product pages will become much more convincing and lead to more conversions. Especially among occasional buyers. So, how exactly do you write such ideal product descriptions? Are there tools and templates which can help me in doing so? You will find all the answers you need in our free whitepaper.
Author:
Anja Missenberger
Head of Marketing at carmasec
Go full throttle with your product data!
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