How Effective are Translation Processes in PIM with and without a Translation Management System?

On a daily basis, companies internationalize and localize text content of all kinds – be it for products or services, be it information offers to B2B parties or B2C target groups. Sometimes in the form of internal datasheets travelling across corporate departments, at other times as published ads ranging from digital print catalogs to digital channels such as online shops and apps with multimedia content.

An integral part of the solution for optimally managing this colorful variety of content is a centralizing Product Information Management (PIM). Here, users pool together all data records and product texts, enrich them further, and, finally, distribute them to all relevant target channels. To this end, on the one hand, many PIM systems provide you with built-in functions for Translation Management. Yet, on the other hand, there are many more kinds of translation-relevant texts floating around in your company which are only indirectly related to product data. This is why there are Translation Management Systems (TMS) for all needs revolving around translations.

Now, considering this overlap between Content Management and Translation Management, the following questions naturally present themselves: Is it possible that a PIM with fully integrated translation functions all by itself can even replace a TMS tool? How about the alternative to simply outsource translation-relevant texts to freelance translators or translation agencies? Maybe a combination of both options is even more attractive – and, if so, what does this mean for data exchange and collaboration?

Lastly, the translation process is one of the most costly affairs when it comes to content creation. Even if you’re only offering your product in, say, the language of your main region together with an international language such as English. This is why we want to analyze the synergies between PIM and Translation Management from the viewpoint of the big picture in this blog post together with you.

 

How does Translation Management function and what is a Translation Memory?

In translation praxis, you can put your trust into a fast selection of helpful tools. Such tools are commonly summarized under the umbrella term Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT): The human being is doing the translation work, but digital assistance is provided in the form of spelling and grammar checkers, online dictionaries, and terminology or glossary lists for your industry of specialization. And in the case of Translation Memory Systems as all-in-one solutions, all benefits of these auxiliary resources are unified in a single, central CAT system. Just how a PIM system brings together all processes revolving around product data.

At the same time, the acronym TMS is often also synonymously interpreted as Translation Memory System. What does the word “memory” mean here? The system saves or, quite literally, memorizes all translated texts in all language pairs. It does so under the principle of “segment-based translations”: Continuous texts are divided into the smallest semantically meaningful unit, namely sentences. This segmentation is coupled with an alignment of the sentence in the source language (SL) and its respective target language (TL). On the word level, the system additionally memorizes all your company’s newly translated terminology. All this serves the following purpose: When translators work with new texts in the integrated text and translation editor, the system automatically compares to-be-translated sentences with all already translated sentences in the database. Accordingly, matching translation and terminology suggestions are directly displayed in real time.

• „100-Percent Match“: There is a 1:1 correspondence between the to-be-translated sentence and an already translated sentence.
• „Fuzzy Match“: There is a partial correspondence with an already translated sentence. Both TMS and PIM systems can calculate the exact percentage of overlap and can rank suggestions accordingly, starting with the most relevant suggestion.

With that, translators have a field day. They evaluate recommended suggestions and adopt them at the click of a button – depending on the use case, the translator can then finish the translation of the text or adjust it to the given context together with other finishing touches. And, once again, the system does also memorize these newly translated sentences for future translation projects. This way, your company maintains a valuable multi-lingual text corpus for all its texts and data.

 

Main Benefits of TMS-Tools for PIM

The benefits of a Translation Management System are more than obvious: The segmented-based translation alone with its real-time translation and terminology suggestions has much to offer…

• Fast and efficient translation process
• Avoid repetitions and redundancy
• Consistent tone and style for securing your corporate language across all regions
• Collaboration and division of labor for text editing and translation
• Creating automated machine-based translations in combination with post-editing work by human translators

The costs saved multiply if your factor in the creation of different text variants, for different target groups, on different target platforms – and increases exponentially for each additional target language.

Besides translation functions, almost all Translation Management Systems take care of the entire user-defined translation workflow. From the creation of the translation task to the billing on the basis of word count or time required for the translation. This is how Translation Management centralizes all functions and processes for localizing content – on the opposite end, however, it does only cover a fraction of the internationalization process, as we shall now see.

 

PIM as a Solution for Translation Processes – without TMS?

PIM, too, is a comprehensive system solution: As early as in the stage of data analysis, as part of the initial PIM implementation project, all product attributes of your assortment down to the very last article are checked extensively for translation relevance and internationalization potential. Language settings are an integral part of a company’s own data model, as actively managed and maintained by the PIM users. Depending on the setup of the data model of a company, this does not only include product and service data, but also analytics and supplier data. This way, PIM creates the ideal data foundation for all language-dependent use cases, one of which is internationalization.

A further enabling condition is the regular creation of translation tasks for data and content. In the industry, we refer to this field as “Translation Management”: Translation managers evaluate translation-relevant content, define translation projects, and accompany them throughout until the quality assurance is complete.

Concerning the evaluation of translation-relevant texts, too, you’re sitting right at the “single source of truth” thanks to PIM. Equipped with extensive search functions and user-defined search criteria, translation managers analyze all data records at the click of a few buttons, for example for the purposes such as: spotting currently untranslated attributes of actual products, translations which are outdated, or product texts which don’t match the user-defined data quality rules.

On the basis of such a well-selected set of data objects in the form of search results, a translation project can be created directly. This includes defining parameters such as relevant language pair(s), additional filters for selecting only translation-relevant data objects required for the current use case, due date, and the translators in charge. As part of the integrated workflow of your PIM, such translation projects can then be translated either directly in the text editors of the system – or outsourced accordingly, be it to a connected in-house Translation Management System or an external translation agency.

When completing the project, the PIM system knows exactly where translated data records belong to and directly stores them at the relevant data objects with their product attributes. Thus, a gapless process comes to its closure.

In short: Even by itself, PIM software is already an excellent Translation Management solution for data of all sorts. Some PIM systems even have a dedicated software module for translation functions to offer. However, without TMS connectivity, your in-house translators will have to fall back to the Computer-Assisted Translation tools (CAT) mentioned above – these alternatives are usually available for free. While it’s true that elaborate Translation Memories, in turn, come with licensing fees, they will easily pay dividends given that they simplify the entire translation process from start to finish in an all-encompassing manner.

 

Synergy between PIM and Translation Management

Last but not least, let’s have a closer look at the PIM-plus-TMS synergy. PIM solutions are explicitly designed to systematically pool together all your company’s data. Which is why connecting third-party systems poses no challenge whatsoever – be it a Translation or a Content Management System. All data exchanges are enabled thanks to the “XLIFF” translation exchange format – this way, even the active collaboration with external translation agencies is a secure alternative. Specialized PIM solutions can even process translation and terminology suggestions in real time as provided by the connected Translation Memory, displaying them directly in the text editors of the PIM’s graphical user interface. Starting from the opposite direction, you can also transfer translations created in PIM over to the TMS. Such features, in turn, are based on conventional “REST” interfaces as an out-of-the-box function which is standard for most Translation Management Systems.

And let’s not forget about the content creators and marketers who work with PIM either. They, too, can check translation and terminology suggestions for their source-language texts in the PIM text editors. This means that they can already start internationalizing content as they write it. If you have a PIM with print or DTP functions in place, you can even set up user-defined templates for publications tailor-made for relevant target platforms and make use of dynamics and automatisms to fill them with content at the click of a few buttons – namely, in each relevant target data language. Once a new content cycle draws near on your agenda, you can simply re-use these templates again and let your designers add the finishing touches to adjust things to the current use case. This is how some of our customers supply physical and digital channels internationally in more than 30 languages with the help of our PIM system, ATAMYA Product Cloud.

It’s This Simple to Create Product Datasheets

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.

 

What Purpose do Product Datasheets Serve?

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:

• Presentation of the most important information about the product
• Comprehensive overview of the product
• Quick access to technical data
• Clear distinction from similar products
• Easy comparability

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.

The Must-Haves of Good Product Datasheets

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:

• Good readability on all end devices: Customers don’t only use PCs or laptops for getting the information they need. Accordingly, your datasheets should also be readable on smartphones and tablets.
• Thought-out print format: Many users print out product datasheets – be it as the basis for comparison or for a better overview. Which is why they should fit into a print format and also be usable in paper form.
• Up-to-date data: The most important thing, however, is that your data is always up to date. This is only possible if you never change your running system or automate the creation process. The manual creation process is always prone to error, so that data may be inconsistent and you may end up unintentionally providing customers with incorrect product data.

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.

 

Easily Automated: Ideal Product Datasheets in 4 Steps

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:

1. Creating Generic SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics)

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.

2. Localizing Product-Specific SVGs

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.

3. Generating Multi-Lingual, Product-Specific Datasheets from Templates

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.

4. Distributing Publications to External Systems

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.

 

Conclusion: Automated Product Datasheets? No Problem!

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.

What Defines Really Good Product Pages?

A good online shop must offer its customers everything a physical shop has in store: great product advice and all relevant product information at a single glance. In webshops, however, visitors can neither touch nor examine the product. So, it’s all the more important that your digital product presentation provides consumers with an extra little something. This includes target-group-oriented texts, product descriptions, images, videos, and supplementary content.

However, what do consumers value in particular? And how can your page content be optimized accordingly? You can find the answers to these questions in today’s blog entry.

 

What motivates customers to commit to the purchase?

How can users be converted into customers? Statista has surveyed this question in 2021 and came to the following results:

1st Place. Shipping and product return (61 %)
2nd Place. Product data (56 %)
3rd Place. Security / trustworthiness (52 %)
4th Place. User Experience / usability (43 %)

Shipping and product returns are valued the most by users. You may already know why: One click, and we’ve got one pair of shoes too much in our shopping bin, and only after seeing them live and in color do we second-guess our own choice. In this use case, it’s a massive motivator for the purchasing decision if the payment can be delayed until trying things on yourself or if the product return is free of charge.

💡 Our tip: Make it easy for your customers and offer simple shipping and return options.

Good product data is ranked second with 56 percent. What kind of data you need varies from target group to target group and from product to product. There are emotional products which are best presented with images, videos, and semantic texts. Then there are products where technical specs presented in a clean table for quick comparison are decisive.

💡 Our tip: Work a bit on your relationship with your product data. With well-structured data, the optimization of your product pages and online shop will be a sure-fire success. If all important information about a product is immediately available at a glance, you’ve already made a large step towards better data. A PIM system facilitates your work on product data immensely.

Security and trustworthiness occupy the third place with 52 percent. For example, popular shop rating platforms are Idealo, Trusted Shops certificates, or the payment option PayPal. Good references and positive reviews contribute to the credibility of your store. 

💡 Our tip: Animate happy customers to write reviews about your online shop. Good references strengthen the trust into your product and brand, hereby contributing to the optimization of your product pages.
 

User experience and usability take the fourth place with 45 percent. This includes feats such as Mobile First, search functions with filters and sorting, as well as a wishlist gadget. Responsive Design is crucial if the target groups who access your product pages are vivid smartphone or tablet users. Keep in mind: Nowadays, we do our weekend shopping directly from the couch or on the way back from work in the subway – it’s handy, quick, and comfy. Mobile First is today’s be all and end all. This applies to any website. Especially when it comes to the rankings of search engines such as Google. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile devices, it ranks lower in the Google ranking.

For optimizing your product pages, filters are key. Context-sensitive filters help users to find their desired product much quicker. Categories guarantee that your product portfolio is browsable at the click of a button for better usability. Regardless of what product you’re selling – be it fashion, tools, or food. Additionally, you can positively surprise your visitors with supplementary content. For example, if your users categorize by veggies, you can also provide them with some context-sensitive tips for healthy nutrition. Combine this with a link for purchasing tomatoes – and don’t forget about the Call to Action, “Add to Shopping Bin” to top things off. Search and filter functions always pay dividends when you’re also offering spare parts, accessories, or synergizing products; and when you want to assure your users that products or spare parts are, indeed, compatible with one another.

The sorting function is usually used to find new products or attractive deals. Even wishlists and wedding lists are considered standard among some of today’s shop operators. Users often times save their wishes for the next visit. Afterwards, the list is shared with friends so that they don’t get yet another candlestand for X-Mas.

Now, that’s the theory – but how is the optimization of product pages carried out in real-case scenarios? Unfortunately, there’s no ready-made recipe for success – there’s neither a smart marketing gimmick nor a perfect template. The e-commerce industry is simply to vast and diverse. However, don’t surrender just yet. Our experience has shown that product pages can be optimized with little to no effort if you refer to the following questions as your guideline.

 

The Question of All Questions concerning Successful Product Pages

What defines my product?

• Unique selling points (USPs) like quality, price, or special functionalities are exciting criteria for target groups of your product pages.
• Good service gives your users a feeling of security and directly influences their purchasing decision.
• Positive feedback and experience reports by customers are, to many, decisive when committing to online purchases.
• Sustainability and ecological footprints are aspects which are gaining in significance nowadays. The eco-industry has grown immensely over the last few years.

 

What problems does my product solve?

Do consumers search for a product or do they search for solutions to their problems? We can illustrate this question rather intuitively with an example which keynote speaker and author Hendrik Lennarz has provided during his eggheads day 2021 session:

You may be able to come up with an adequate and precise technical name for your highly specific product. Yet, at the end of the day, what consumers enter as search terms are problems and solutions. Have you heard about the brannock device? It’s the tool used to measure the size of your foot when buying shoes at a physical footwear store. Everybody has seen it at least once in their life. However, if you were to search for it online, you’d rather refer to it via descriptors such as “device for measuring foot,” would you not? The good news is: You can define identifiers which are only used as SEO-relevant search terms without displaying them directly on your product page, hereby avoiding unnecessary clutter.

 

What benefits does my product offer to users?

Why should visitors of your shop pages buy your product? Why not your competitor’s? It’s important to clearly highlight the benefits your product brings to the table. Is your product faster than other models? Does it have a better performance? Preferably, you can highlight benefits and improvements in the form of a product comparison. The battery may have more storage capacity or the flashlight may shine brighter than older models. You know that you’ve got a good product to offer – it’s about proving it to the rest of the world!

 

In what kinds of use contexts is my product utilized?

Use case descriptions are indispensable – in particular if the use case context isn’t immediately intuitive at first glance. If your target group would need to refer to additional sources via Google to figure out what exactly your product is used for, then this is a clear indicator for unclarity and complexity that could’ve been avoided. As a consequence, your visitor may cancel her purchasing decision. In order to present complex products in a user-friendly manner, videos, detail images, and an additional download center are recommended.

Configurators are also a good option when it comes to making your product feel alive and plastic in the customer’s mind. Usually, configurators are implemented if your product offers a great many combination options. Complex configurations can be found, for example, in the furniture industry for setting up customized kitchens or living rooms. Even simple product configurators can do the trick. Apple, for instance, provides you with the option to configure your smartwatch online – you can choose freely between your favorite color, material, size, connectivity, and the right wristband to match. And then you can hit the nearby order button.

How do customers search for my product?

The search is a complex topic. You’ll have to factor in a lot of search mechanisms. And there are many ways which may lead target groups to your product. In the best-case scenario, you can provide context-sensitive information for each option. All possible search criteria can be linked to your product as information and used for the search. Not all information needs to be displayed visually – as we’ve already discussed in the context of the “brannock device” above. The search my still include data that’s not visible to page viewers or may even exclude information that’s directly displayed on the page. For some shop operators, it may even come in handy to have the article number of rival products assigned so as to display them in the hitlist.

 

What does my customer need to make an informed purchase decision?

Ideally, you have an express shipping option with an estimate of the delivery date and a free product return option. Even the stock count can have a psychological effect on our purchase decision: if there are only a few units left, we’re more willing to commit to the purchase. We become worried that other people may snatch the last remaining article from under our nose.

Customers are to be convinced by the product and a good product description. Furthermore, it’s important to establish trust and provide a sense of security, be it in form of customer reviews, eco-seals, Trusted Shops, secure payment methods like PayPal, or many other options. Your shop should be both functional (Usability) and clean (User Experience), so that consumers enjoy exploring your product offer and, eventually, find the product they do want.

In online retail, prices have become transparent more than ever. You can compare prices across platforms with Idealo or other services. Customers can even check the price development and set up a price alarm. Also, such web services even come with shop review features – try to collect good reviews for your shop and strengthen the trust of your customers. Depending on the website, the customer may not even need to leave the price comparison platform to buy the product directly.

If the target groups allow for it, you should also supply such platforms with your product and your own data for maximum market expansion.

 

Who even is my customer?

Product pages should address your target group with relevant content. Reflect on the needs and to-be-tackled challenges of your target group, which parts of the internet they frequent, and which content you want to provide to them during each individual step in their Customer Journey.

A target group from the B2B sector is usually active on social media channels such as LinkedIn and Snapchat. Also, you’ll need to conform to industry standards such as ETIM, ECLASS, and BMEcat, or directives in order to supply their delivery systems.

If you’re targeting the B2C markets for customers younger than 30, you may want to consider presenting your product on hip platforms such as TikTok or Instagram.

It’s imperative to determine where exactly your target group shops, what they buy, and how they come to form their purchasing decision. How do they search for products and what criteria do they look out for? Equipped with this information, you can present your product in the best possible light for your target groups.

 

The Must-Haves for Perfect Product Pages

Of course, the must-haves for optimal pages differ from use case to use case. The online retail sector is as multifaceted as its customers. For this reason, no universally applicable recommendations can be handed out prior to a detailed analysis. Yet still, throughout our years’ worth of experience, we’ve managed to distill the following six elementary must-haves which all good product pages have in common – regardless of your industry sector.

• Visual Data: Product images from different angles, technical drawings, videos etc.
• Product Descriptions: Expressive, detailed, unique, personalized or target-group-oriented content
• Cross-sell/Up-sell: Connecting products – accessories, spare parts, sets, recommendations, and similar products
• User Content: Experience reports, feedback, reviews, selfies with the product, use cases ideas, etc.
• Decision Support: Comparison options, search bars, filters, live chats, chat bots, goodie popups, product return options, etc.
• Mobile First: Content specifically optimized for mobile devices – accessible from anywhere at anytime

 

This is How You Can Realize Measures with Little Effort

There are a lot of starting points when it comes to optimizing your page content. What may sound like a lot of work at first will pay back tenfold. Since a good product rate translates into a good conversation rate and generates more sales. The basis of all this is your product data and data quality. Only consistent data allows you to realize all subsequent improvements. And our software is the optimal support when it comes to data quality without the need to invest a large quantity of human resources.

 

These are the Functions with which ATAMYA Product Cloud can Support You:

• Translations
  AI-based translations with DeepL or machine-assisted translations based on already translated segments provide the foundation for good translation quality. You can connect ATAMYA Product Cloud to your Across TMS tool to automate parts of your translation management either in-house or in collaboration with translation agencies.
• Keywords
  Automatic keyword generation for assets is already common practice thanks to developers such as Canto Cumulus. Here, too, our PIM system provides you with an intersection node for full connectivity.
• Data Pools
  Your central data model in ATAMYA Product Cloud can be enriched with data pools from icecat, GDSN, Giata, or other providers.
• Classifications
  Products and assortments can be managed in ATAMYA Product Cloud with user-defined product attributes, texts, values, and units for data consistency without redundancy. This makes similar products from different manufacturers comparable with one another across the board – and you can supply even price comparison portals frequented by your target groups via your single source of truth.
• Terminology
  Automated text generation, even for complex semantic texts (e.g. Retresco or Aexea), are supported by our PIM.
• Omni-Channel
  All relevant marketing and sales channels can be supplied with non-redundant data from ATAMYA Product Cloud. Even filling your social media channel poses no challenge.

This is How Your Products Effectively Fly of The Shelves

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.

Why Product Communication is So Important

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?

 

Tip 1: Keep Your Target Group in Mind

Adjust your entire Product Communication thoroughly to your target groups.
Before doing so, make sure to answer the following questions:

• Who is your target group?
• Where, on what platforms is your target group active?
• What needs does your target group have?
• How and with what topics can you catch the attention of your target group?

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.

 

Tip 2: Put Emphasis on Unique Selling Points

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.

 

Tip 3: Don’t Forget about Good Content Marketing and Story Telling

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.

 

Tip 4: Data is the Be All and End All. Maintain Your Product Data!

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.

 

Tip 5: Bank on the Right Technology!

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.

 

Information is Fundamental

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.

Master Daily Challenges with Strategic Product Management in a Flash

Paul’s Everyday Work in Product Management

8:00 in the morning. The alarm clock is ringing. Paul should get up now and boot his laptop in the living room. He is working remote from home. However, he decides to turn around again and stay in bed for a bit longer. He is too exhausted from yesterday. After all, yesterday was packed with hour-long team meetings, disagreements, and what felt like a hundred “construction sites” yet to be tackled. Paul is Product Manager and this is his everyday work.

As a Product Manager, he knows that the focus on the customer enjoys the highest priority when it comes to his line of work. Hence the saying, “the customer is king.” And customers are demanding kings. More often than not, they switch back and forth between several online shops at the same time and compare them in an in-depth manner to find the best product which fits their object of desire. Finally, when the customer decides to click on the shopping cart, Paul has reasons to celebrate.

 

And precisely this is Paul’s day-to-day goal. The most important task of Product Management is the analysis and targeted adjustment of products – using customer satisfaction as its measurable indicator. To this end, Paul engages in daily discussions about Product Development with dedicated departments such as Sales and Marketing, without ever losing sight of his personal goal.

Besides that, Paul has other task fields piling up on his desk. Such tasks do, however, only indirectly concern his role as a Product Manager. Everything is of utmost importance, everything enjoys the highest priority, and everything should have already been taken care of by yesterday. This is why an on-going project has been dismissed without achieving key milestones; and why a new project has been started instead without even defining clear framework conditions. Or let’s take another example: Owing to the circumstances of the corona crisis, the sale of products has been expanded to digital channels. For Product Management, this translates into much higher effort when it comes to managing and assuring data quality with various tools. Surely, some of us may be more than familiar with Paul’s situation, aren’t we?

At the end of the day, there’s only one thing left for Paul: exhaustion. He loses his eye for what’s essential: Product Development. As a result, Paul overlooks relevant information and on-going market movements which are crucial to the development of products. This, in turn, has an impact on the entire company. If Paul must grapple with all sorts of tasks, he can no longer develop products – at least not in a productive manner. Even less can he make time for focusing on product placement concerning the various target markets.

Is it not the product which is the most important sales indicator for a company? Naturally! Yet, if customers don’t recognize their use cases in a company’s products, they will not purchase them. The math is simple. It means a massive loss in sales.

However, how can Paul’s company keep its focus on sales-driven topics such as a customer-and-market-driven Product Development?

 

One Solution Approach is Strategic Product Management

The emphasis does, of course, lie on “strategic.” More often than not, companies lack a clear-cut definition of what Product Management is. They don’t have a good grasp on its position and function within a company. What is missing for the bigger picture is Product Strategy. This lack is a slippery slope towards confusions and conflicts between teams, departments, or even the management.

Strategic Product Management is about bringing unity into the manifoldness of unorganized task fields: developing products guided by a customer-oriented planning and presenting them in the right light to fit them into the company’s existing portfolio. In the process, Product Management serves as the essential link between various departments, such as Marketing, Sales, Development, IT, etc.

Sounds logical, does it not? Yet, things won’t keep running on their own and require a bit of controlling and coordination. In Strategic Product Management, the foundation is built to never lose focus on the essentials and their purpose in the big picture. First things first, clear tasks and goals are defined – and then adjusted and realized in correspondence with the other departments. This measure “softens” the boarders between the departments. Departments will have a clear idea and clear guidelines about their own function and responsibilities. And this, in turn, is the enabling condition for department-overarching collaboration, similar to a clockwork.

 

Paul’s Everyday Work with Strategic Product Management

Let’s return to Paul, the Product Manager. The implementation of the measures describe above were sufficient for changing his role significantly: From now on, he will take responsibility for a concrete and clearly defined task field. Before, Paul was responsible for various tasks concerning all sorts of products – now, he primarily concentrates on one specific product group.

This way, he can dedicate his fully energy to the development and adjustment of products throughout the entire Product Life Cycle Phase, while keeping an eye on the empirical indicators. With that, Paul finally has more time which he can invest into conducting research on fellow competitors, competing product markets, current trends, and even about the customers themselves. Once all empirical data is ordered systematically, this objective knowledge can serve as the basis for discussions and decision making. Advantages include that the coordination with other departments will be more goal oriented. Paul’s company will be able to respond to market developments much quicker and secure its own market position. Furthermore, the well-collected facts for customer-oriented adjustments can be applied to the products themselves in a timely manner during the Product Life Cycle Phase.

Even the management of product data has changed for the better ever since he started focusing on one assortment: Finally, no more masses of unordered tasks and product data piling up. Now, his primary attention is directed towards this one product group which he knows like the back of his hand. The accompanying product data is optimized on the basis of newly defined data quality criteria which, in turn, control releases and exports to targeted sales channels. Yet still, carrying all this out manually still poses a monumental challenge. As a Product Manager, it’s best practice to consider the implementation of PIM software.

Ultimately, it’s this interplay of all measures that provides customers with sustainable Product Experience. Customers catch on to the added value they receive from the product and will be quick to place your product in their shopping cart.

 

Conclusion: Towards a Successful Product Management with Strategy

The improvements which come with the implementation of strategic Product Management are enormous. Which is why it is no wonder that more and more companies jump on the bandwagon and adapt to the trends in their own unique way.

In particular, the department-overarching collaboration and communication is a central success factor of the measures involved, consequently contributing to achieving the clearly defined sales objectives. In Paul’s case, the introduction of a Strategic Product Management is a business saver. Especially when considering just how many goals he can achieve through more targeted work. Also, Paul’s personal situation has improved significantly, too. Strategic Product Management contributes not only to a more productive collaboration between Product Management, Marketing, Sales, and Development – but also to a quicker completion of given milestones, a healthy work environment, and a more enjoyable atmosphere overall. In the future, Paul will be more motivated to get on his feet, ready to develop the products of tomorrow.

This is how you keep your product data in shape for your company’s international expansion

Online retail knows no limits. So, why limit yourself to a market that may already be oversaturated? International expansion in online retail seems to be more convenient than ever in the times of globalization and digitalization. However, it’s not that easy after all. The provision of one’s own product on the international markets poses a challenge to any company – in particular when it comes to Product Communication.

We know that customers value detailed and personalized product descriptions highly. Yet, it’s more than just that: Search engines on the internet only find well-described products which, in turn, result in more sales. What does this mean for Translation Management? For starters, did you know that there are markets for 150 to 200 languages in Europe alone? On a global scale, there are markets for 6.500 languages. To companies, playing the global market means that product content is to be exported into the relevant regional languages. The magic word is: Content Localization. The reason for this is that 81 percent of all customers want product descriptions written in their mother tongue. Or to phrase it the other way around: When was the last time you’ve bought a product with a description which you couldn’t understand because it was written in a foreign language?

Besides languages, the socio-demographic context is also of utmost importance. With regards to this, you should clearly define which products of your assortment are to be provided in which countries. Just because a product generates a lot of sales in France doesn’t mean it will enjoy the same relevance in, for example, Russia. Your target group also differs from country to country and market to market so that you’re required to adjust the information provided in the relevant communication channels accordingly.

• Assortments: Specific combination of products or services.
• Persona: Buyer personas and target groups may deviate from your primary markets.
• Channels: When in Rome, do as the Romans do – this applies to each and every communication channel!
• Languages: You do not only need to understand your customers, you also need to address them accordingly.

Managing all this manually is flat-out impossible. Here is where the right tools and software systems can come in handy, supporting your company in its Translation Management.

PIM – the foundation for successful Translation Management concerning your products

The centralized management of all your product data is the most important requirement when it comes to pushing your Translation Management forward. With PIM, all your product data and texts can be searched, edited, and processed in and through one and the same system. If your product data is spread over several data sources (such as Excel tables, PDF documents, or even across different departments), you’ll face many risks. Nobody can guarantee that the data is complete, up to date, and correct. The consequence: High translation costs, product content which doesn’t adequately address the target group, false product information, outdated product descriptions – and, ultimately, a negative impact on the Customer Experience.

When equipped with a PIM system, such problems can be easily avoided. If all data is managed in a central but also dynamic system, technical writers, translators, editors, and product managers are provided with quick and easy access to everything they need for their individual use cases. On top of that, it also fosters collaboration. This Single Source of Truth guarantees for consistent data without redundancy, while exports and imports of both to-be-translated and translated product information can be generated at the click of a button.

Yet, even with a PIM system, there still remain many challenges when it comes to the optimization of your Translation Management. In order to master it, you should expand your PIM via integration of a Translation Memory System such as Across or SDL Trados.

 

Translation Management Systems: The optimal support for your Product Communication

By integrating your Translation Memory System into your PIM software, you can create translation tasks and automatically forward them to all relevant people in response. Translation tasks mediate between all parties involved: you and your team, those in charge of the overall translation project, the translators or external translation agencies, as well as the marketing, creative writers, and editors. This comes with a great many benefits:

• Save time and cut costs thanks to TMS
• Increase data security because everybody works within one and the same system without any loose ends
• Use consistent terminology to build a stable Corporate Identity
• Always adjust to individual use cases with context-based translations
• Automate quality assurance
• Organize clean-cut digital translation processes and workflows

With an integrated TMS, you only translate what needs to be translated. This allows you to reduce time and cost invested for in-house or external translators. How exactly do Translation Memory Systems come into play? Translated segments are saved into you Translation Memory database. Thus, reoccurring terminology or similar phrases and sentences in new content can be easily identified in a fully automated manner. This, in turn, translates – pun intended – into a recognizable wording, tonality, and Corporate Identity. Furthermore, predefined terminology and suggestions of existing translations allow for automated quality control and, accordingly, an immediate improvement of translation quality.

With localized content, your international expansion is on the course for further success

To be successful in the global world of online retail not only regionally but on an international scale, localized product content is an absolute must-have. Only in this way can you assure that you meet your customers at all touchpoints while also presenting your products in the best possible light. Using only manual means to keep your entire product content for all global markets in shape is no less than a Sisyphus’ labor. This is why there is suitable software with helpful features to support you in digitalizing the translation process and automating its repetitive aspects. Yet, even with the best software tools, there still remain a great many challenges for every and any company. This is why we’re always more than happy to support companies like yours in person when it comes to solving these challenges in an optimal manner. Let’s simply discuss the challenges in your company over a virtual cup of coffee and see how we can solve them together. Make an appointment now with the ATAMYA product experts.