PIM Is Business Critical Series: What Does Your Product Data Need to Do for Subscribers?
Quality product data is a colossal asset for brands.
- It makes products competitive everywhere they're sold.
- It engages consumers.
- It streamlines marketing.
- It supports collaboration across departments.
Consumers need product data in ways they’ll never even know. As they comb the web for the perfect product, the right solution, or the desired experience, they cross-compare everything they find. Without complete and compelling product data to convey what each product is really about, consumers have difficulty identifying the products that scratch their itch.
Brands have more channels today to reach consumers, too. This makes product data more than just a colossal asset. It’s now the keystone resource when crafting messages to consumers.
What’s Product Data Got to Do with Subscribers?
Whether brand messages float out on social media, websites, or in email campaigns, they must include product data that reaches through screens to the very hearts of consumers. Product data has to communicate in a real way to those looking earnestly for products and solutions.
Subscribers to a brand's email campaigns have shown open interest in the solutions that the brand offers. Those subscribers are the brand’s VIPs, and with today's technology, they can be treated as such.
No consumer wants to feel like "just another email address in the database." Consumers expect relevant and personalized content. Otherwise, an email campaign will just fall into the bucket of "ad noise" that consumers have come to ignore.
Marketers see an average of 20% increase in sales when using personalized email campaigns (according to Campaign Monitor), and to deliver that experience, a brand needs user data along with product data that matches.
5 Things Quality Product Data Does for Brand Subscribers
1. Reinforces browsing history
No one remembers the majority of their internet browsing history. We’re quick to forget because stimulation comes from so many pages so quickly.
Even though it doesn’t seem like it at the moment, we’re also quick to forget any ideas that occurred to us along the way.
Maybe you saw a product you'd definitely like, but not now. Maybe you read an article headline that stoked a mild curiosity to read more, but you moved on. Maybe you watched a video of a prototype that you'd love to have "someday," but isn't for sale yet.
Can you name the last tab you opened? Sure. Can you name the webpage you were on before that? Probably. And before that one? How far back can you actually go?
Most of our browsing history is forgotten because, frankly, we don't need to remember it. There's an opportunity, though, for brands to stoke the first glimmer of curiosity that a consumer feels when encountering a product for the first time and turn it into a lasting relationship. Brands today do this by nurturing consumers’ curiosity through the use of cookies and personalized product data. (More on that soon.)
The first lesson to take away here: product data reinforces positive browsing-based brand interactions that, otherwise, would be forgotten.
2. Comes at the right time
Quality product data needs to be timely for subscribers—and on a consumer-to-consumer basis. With the combination of user data and product data, brands can segment users by where they are in the customer journey.
Product data (and how you manage it) is the linchpin that makes that personalization possible.
For example, users who search for a brand's principal product have arrived at the point in the customer journey when relevant add-ons or upgrades could be helpful to them. They expect that information at the right time (not before, not after).
Brands usually segment users on email marketing platforms, but they can also segment their product data into devoted static or dynamic lists using software like PIM for business. A PIM (product information management) solution stores all product data in one place but allows brands to easily add unique attributes.
Imagine a new attribute for products that are only exported to email campaigns when used for a specific endpoint (like an “add-on” product campaign). No new spreadsheets, no risk of dirty data. It's all stored in the PIM for businesses to make product data entirely sortable and savable the way consumers need the data, not the way some sellers organized it.
3. Shows off the best imagery
Quality product data is visually rich product data. Audio-visual product data (including photos, videos, 3D renderings, etc.) can change dynamically in marketing campaigns to appeal to specific subscribers.
Brand manufacturers favor product imagery in subscription campaigns because, really, what can better catch a consumer’s eye?
Using the same product images organized for sales channels also builds more of the consistency that brands need in the omnichannel world. Showing off the best product imagery is essential for branding, and yet the cumbersome to-do of image library maintenance gets the better of brands.
Organizing and better-utilizing product imagery across sales and marketing channels is another task managed in PIM for business. The next-gen PIM was specifically designed to store product images alongside text-based specifications. Upgrading from clunky image databases is a game-changer for any subscription strategy.
4. Displays dynamic sales and offers
The products a brand shows to individual subscribers should be personalized using new dynamic messaging. That much is clear.
But it’s not all.
The sales and offers displayed to subscribers can be personalized, too. Brands can combine browsing and purchase history to offer sale products that match each consumer's coming needs. Whole sections of emails can be built with dynamic content that combines timeliness with personalization in the most compelling way.
Even without digging deep into browsing history or complex segmentations, basic high-level categories of subscribers can be segmented to great effect. For example, subscribers who’ve only purchased bike-related products from a sports brand can receive another bike-related offer while subscribers who have only purchased running gear can get running-related offers.
5. Re-engages!
Quality product data also needs to nurture longer relationships with consumers.
In a perfect world, consumers would be able to enjoy the products they need without ever shopping for new brands. The brands they know and trust would continue offering what they need and develop other products that either improve on former favorites or add to their overall experience.
With brands constantly evolving their catalogs, however, consumers often feel forced to shop around for replacements for products they already know they want. If product data isn’t used to continually re-engage these consumers, they’ll leave.
There are other times when consumers need to feel re-engaged. Think about when a product is added to a cart and then abandoned. Or when a consumer is on the edge of unsubscribing when all your brand needs to do is write and ask for feedback to fix the issue that the consumer has.
To re-engage subscribers and nurture ongoing personalization, product data is used to send custom recommendations and offers that feel exclusive and show that your brand understands subscribers’ needs.
Multiple Ways to Integrate Product Recommendations
The most successful brands combine consumers' browsing and purchase history with quality product data. The subscriber personalizations are then limitless.
Brand manufacturers leverage product data most of all to create relevant and compelling email content for email subscribers. Product recommendations, offers, and imagery speak to the consumer, as though directly, and brands' sales and engagement surge as a result.