Elements of a Successful PIM Strategy

Brands are constantly performing a juggling act with their product content. Not only do they have to ensure their content is thorough and complete — it also has to win over shoppers.  

A bad online shopping experience can permanently turn a consumer off from your products. How can you avoid this unfortunate fate? With a product information strategy.

What’s a PIM?

A product information management (PIM) solution provides a central location for brands to upload, organize, and manage product data.

Brands that currently utilize product information management platforms (PIM) as an information repository have an opportunity to become market leaders by leveraging:

• Automation tools;
• Agile methods; and 
• Cloud-based integrations.

What Does a Product Information Strategy Do?

The goal of a product information strategy is to keep the integrity and value of product information as its main focus. 

One of the most important aspects of a winning product information strategy isn’t just the existence of content, but the overall quality and usability of the available information. 

Here are 4 components of a successful product information strategy. 

1. Quality Content 

While having lots of content in a PIM software is important, more often it’s the quality of the content that makes a real difference. 

Ultimate usability hinges on having information that’s:

• Optimized for search engine optimization (SEO);
• Adheres to brand rules; and
• Is easily digestible by a wider audience.

Excellent product content isn’t just limited to text, but also enhanced content — the more the better. Creating an extensive database of digital assets can make content more useful and versatile across a variety of scenarios.

In this case, it’s best for brands to invest in consistent auditing of their information in order to purge, improve, and determine its readiness for publishing to online retailers.

2. Content Targeting

Online conversions depend on how engaging the product information is to consumers, so brands need to ensure that theirs is correctly targeted to those they’re trying to sell to. 

Have your product description pages been designed and populated with content that supports the buyer’s journey with the item? 

Your product information strategy can support your brand’s continued online success with:

• Feature bullets;
• Descriptions;
• Images; and
• Below-the-fold content.

3. Content Accessibility

Creating the most efficient and optimized content updating process requires having a central information repository that’s easily accessible and supports:

• Search;
• Enrichment; and 
• Authoring capabilities. 

This is essential to any team trying to boost conversions online. 

Moving away from a spreadsheets model and scaling up in a cloud-based service also gives a company more opportunities for integrations and accelerated connectivity among services.

4. Content Governance

Information accessibility is crucial, but a successful PIM software also keeps content secure. 

PIM systems that support content governance are able to establish restricted controls and different levels of permissions are successful because they’re so versatile and flexible. They can be tailored to fit the needs of many different industries and companies. 

Having a model that adapts to the changing market requirements and is agile in its updating processes can be the difference between market success and stagnation.

The Benefits of a Product Information Strategy 

As consumer expectations and retail requirements evolve and grow, so does the amount of product data that companies need to manage.

Success on the digital shelf requires cross-functional collaboration and permission-based access to trusted product data.

The right PIM tool will give you everything you need, including:

• Flexibility;
• Data governance;
• Smooth workflows; and 
• End-to-end usability that can be adopted by your entire company.

Implementing a product information strategy will make your life easier and help you better manage your product data, in turn improving your customers’ experience and driving revenue.

Download this toolkit and learn how to leverage the right strategy, tactics, and tools to build high-performing product pages that drive sales and build trust with shoppers.