Why Product Information Is the Bedrock of Your Digital Platform

Modern marketing departments are built around the digital experience. According to a recent study, online marketing is considered one of the three most important areas by CMOs. Not only that, but companies also plan to increase spending most on digital marketing in 2017 - beating out other important areas like customer relationship management and external partners. Marketing’s overall role in organizations is growing too, illuminating the importance of resonating with strategic global audiences.

As CMOs look to refine their digital processes and build scalability and adaptability into their plans, it's no surprise that there's a growing emphasis on product information management (PIM) systems as the bedrock of the marketing function. High-volume collateral, multiple iterations and complex information need to be easily accessible and understandable to allow the sharing of insightful product details to a diverse audience base. Simply sharing generic or incomplete product details to your potential customers leaves the door open for competition in a crowded space.

Making your tools work for you

What does this emphasis on digital marketing mean in practice for you as a marketing strategist? Trends show that companies are relying more heavily on marketing technology and software tools. It comes as no surprise that 51% of organizations use 21 or more digital marketing tools - a 42% increase over just three years. Yet many companies risk losing sight of implementing a product information management system amongst the hundreds of disconnected tools at their disposal. If you can't customize, personalize and localize your products as part of a marketing strategy, much of your audience will receive information not fully in tune with their interests and needs.

Consider the fundamental elements of product information. Companies need the ability to seamlessly update quantities across all points of sale and manage details like pricing as efficiently as possible. They also need to ensure products are organized into intuitive collections - oftentimes varying by locale, interests and more. Editing product data and managing collections can be a daunting task without a PIM system to ensure companies are able to best showcase their products.

The backbone of your marketing strategy

More than just a tool for product information, though, a PIM system can become the backbone of a digital marketing platform in which information can be flexibly shared to diverse groups of customers to drive conversions. You can share products in different languages and emphasize one product in a certain country that may be unpopular in another. A fully integrated approach to product information also enables you to circle back with customers time and time again with loyalty rewards, special sales and other perks to personalize the experience -- ensuring fewer individuals are inclined to stray towards the competition.

In the crowded tech space, the core marketing concept of product information - around since the days of physical product catalogs - often gets lost in the shuffle. The ability to leverage a modern and dynamic product information management system allows you to bring many moving parts under one roof to better manage and share product details with your customers.

It might be compulsory to build a modern marketing department around the digital experience, but choosing the wrong digital platform can impact the entire company for years to come. As the marketers’ relationships with their audience becomes more and more intimate, the software that runs the relationships will be the difference between success and failure.

Download our whitepaper, A Modern Approach to Marketing Product Information, for more insights on how an integrated, single-source for digital marketing showcases sets up your products for success.