PIM | DAM impact on retail business
How PIM and automated data management are changing the way manufacturers and retailers do business
These days, you cannot turn on the news or read a publication without seeing something scary and fascinating about Artificial Intelligence or AI. Nearly as often, you see ads by Amazon or IBM promoting cloud computing and “big data.” What you see or read far less often is a down-to-earth explanation of ordinary business data and how that data can make marketing a truly efficient process.
For retailers and their marketing and advertising directors, the most abundant collection of valuable data is the vast ocean of information about the products they sell. Every item has its own, unique collection of images, general descriptions, and product details, all stored in either a Digital Asset Management (DAM) or a Product Information Management (PIM) system. Often, there are also separate data sources for product pricing, inventory, sales history (for physical stores and e-commerce), customer reviews, and other feedback.
The problem, of course, is how to combine all that data and utilize all those data sources automatically in multichannel marketing campaigns. Eventually, AI will be able to use large data sets more effectively, but first, we need to manage the product data we already have. As more and more data moves from local servers to the cloud, the first step is optimizing our PIM and DAM systems.
Retailers and manufacturers must always start with accurate, trusted data if they are to effectively reach customers across all print and digital channels. A cloud-based PIM system then serves as a reliable, central product data depository. When its data are consistent and connected with DAM and other data sources – and ultimately to print and digital production systems – the use of manual processes is minimized. In other words, the flow of data between systems is streamlined and automated, allowing campaign projects with multiple versions and channels to reach their audience faster and at a reduced production cost.
Over the past ten years, PIM systems have migrated from limited, locally-hosted entities to cloud-based ones. This transition has made it easier in theory for retailers to accept and use manufacturers’ PIM data and connect PIM, DAM, and other systems into a more unified, flexible infrastructure. In practice, this has often been challenging, especially when it comes to integrating with print and online production systems like Adobe InDesign.* One of the only systems to effectively manage and automate this “last mile” between cloud-based PIMs and actual design and production is Comosoft’s LAGO.
Data accuracy is essential, whether the final output is for print, digital e-commerce, or (as is usually the case) both at once. So, one of the first things Comosoft does when implementing LAGO is to ensure that the PIM data from manufacturers and the retailer are aligned by SKU number. This alignment is critical, whether the systems remain local or are in the cloud, because LAGO has all available data for each product in the campaign. In addition, retailers often rely on LAGO’s own cloud-based PIM system, although LAGO can also work with existing PIM and DAM systems.
The LAGO PIM system allows for the vast complexity facing marketing and retail advertising directors, namely the need for product data variants. For example, a single product may have different regional names or be expressed in more than one language. It can even be defined by customer-specific content. With so many possible variations and regional marketing needs, the PIM must have unprecedented flexibility to produce multi-versioned campaigns quickly and efficiently.
Perhaps the greatest need in a PIM-to-production marketing workflow is for the data to flow wherever it needs to go without undue manual intervention. LAGO accomplishes this by making PIM data bi-directional. Production designers can pull all the elements for a single product (from the PIM, DAM, and other systems) with a single action – or in a template created by the campaign planners. The process is automatic, freeing the designer to do what they’re best at – design. But if they have to change something, such as a regional override or correcting an error, that data change is communicated back to the cloud-based PIM. An authorized marketing manager can then approve the change globally or allow it as a regional or situational exception.
Data interconnectivity does not stop there. Besides coordinating the data flow between PIM, DAM, and other data sources, LAGO also conveys relevant campaign data automatically to other systems, including sales and inventory management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), marketing campaign planning, and other complex systems – often also in the cloud. It also conveys the campaign design data, usually expressed as regional variants, from one medium (print) to its many online counterparts, such as mobile e-commerce. By supporting a wide, multi-faceted, and largely automatic data flow, LAGO has changed PIM from an isolated data “island” to an integrated part of an efficient marketing workflow.
With or without advances in real-world AI, cloud computing and massive data sets are now an everyday reality for retailers’ marketing and advertising departments.
* Adobe’s suite of graphic design products is known as “Creative Cloud.” However, apart from license verification, the software itself still consists of local desktop applications.
LAGO Product Information Management
Learn more about our LAGO PIM and how we can help you organise your product information efficiently.
How secure is your Digital Asset Management solution?
How secure is your Digital Asset Management solution?
Working with a cloud-based digital asset management (DAM) solution means your entire team can connect and share the same assets from anywhere. It makes fast, efficient collaboration more straightforward and more accessible than ever and can help you do things like:
- Tracking and managing assets
- Assigning and utilizing metadata
- Formatting and customizing assets
- Searching and locating assets in moments
- Automating workflows
- Updating assets across the entire enterprise
- Integrating with other solutions
But how secure is your DAM solution? Cybersecurity has never been more critical than it is now. So many organizations use cloud-based tools to do everything, from multichannel marketing to eCommerce platforms to resource planning, customer management, user experience, and more.
And cybercriminals are paying attention. So when evaluating solutions and choosing the right cloud-based DAM platform for your company, include cybersecurity in the conversation. Instead, discover what you need to know about protecting your assets from the rising threat of attack.
Protect your assets: Why DAM security matters
Your brand’s digital assets possess inherent value – after all, you use them to promote and share your message as a company. Unfortunately, cybercriminals and other bad actors find this kind of data extremely appealing because they know how valuable it can be. That’s why you have to make an intentional effort to protect your assets and choose robust cybersecurity tools to defend against the actions of hackers and other criminals.
What are some of the risks associated with your digital assets? They include things like:
- Phishing attacks that include attempts to download malware or make their way into your DAM.
- Ransomware that holds your data and assets hostage until you pay a costly fee to access them.
- Data breaches to view, share, transmit, or sell your digital assets and other sensitive data.
It’s estimated that by the end of 2023, more than 33 billion records will be illegally obtained by malicious actors, a dramatic increase of 175 percent from the number of records stolen in 2018. And it’s not just the large companies that are at risk. Of course, large multinational corporations constantly face threats from cybercriminals. But small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are also under attack.
In fact, the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) reported an astonishing 847,376 complaints in 2021, totaling almost $7 billion in financial losses. Their findings? Most of these complaints and attacks targeted SMBs. That’s why choosing a secure DAM solution is mission-critical to your long-term success, regardless of your company’s size.
The other issue? Working with a digital asset management solution is – by nature – deeply collaborative. That means assets are shared, edited, and used by a whole host of users within and outside your organization. So, security is even more critical for digital asset management because you must have a strategy to protect your assets even when sharing amongst many people.
Choosing a Secure DAM Solution: Factors to Consider
Your DAM platform holds a lot of responsibility. It’s where collaboration happens – and with good reason. After all, once a digital asset leaves your DAM solution, you lose control over that asset. That means:
- Vendors, partners, and team members may wind up using an outdated asset or an asset that doesn’t fit your current brand standards.
- Marketing materials may include photos with expired digital rights, and you could have no idea and no control over this happening.
- You don’t gain access to asset metadata, which can help you track usage patterns to better understand what assets serve you the best.
A cloud-based DAM solution helps you retain control of your valuable digital assets while fostering partnerships, workflows, and collaboration from anywhere. But what about security? How well does it keep you protected? Here are factors to consider when looking for a secure cloud DAM platform.
Share files securely with internal teams and outside partners
Anytime you share assets with anyone, including your team, agencies, and retail and distribution partners, it is a calculated risk, especially if you’re about to launch a new campaign, service, or product. You’re juggling many things simultaneously, including embargo dates, product testing, final edits, publishing deadlines, and more.
Your DAM solution can help you track and safeguard assets with external vendors, third-party partners, and your team whenever you need to share assets without compromising your security.
Track the usage of your assets
Your marketing teams need a way to analyze which assets are getting used and why. This gives you unprecedented data about which visuals offer the highest performance and how to attune your marketing strategies. In addition, your DAM system must track your digital assets once they are distributed.
Especially when dealing with things like embargo dates and related protected images, you can manage the reach of your assets, detect unauthorized usage (and potential activity from cybercriminals), and protect your brand’s intellectual property.
Monitor & audit user access
What happens if assets are compromised by user access or a data breach? First, you need to know the source of the leak right away to mitigate further damage. Leak detection and complete records of user access to assets are essential when content is leaked or misused.
When you choose a DAM solution that monitors and manages all access, you’ll better understand where your assets are going and who is seeing them.
Other security measures to consider
Security isn’t just something you paste on top of your DAM tool—or any software solution, for that matter. Other security features to look for include:
- Strong passwords to prevent brute force attacks
- Two-factor or multi-factor authentication to keep bad actors out
- Secure application programming interfaces (APIs) connecting your DAM to your enterprise
- Encryption of data, including your digital assets
How LAGO Keeps You Secure
LAGO by Comosoft was developed with your security in mind; the whole idea behind a digital access management and product information management (PIM) platform is to enable secure sharing of your assets. As such, there are several security measures put in place to keep your data – and your entire brand – protected.
Security features include:
- Requiring secure passwords from all users
- Allowing for two-factor authentication (2FA) methods, including text, email verification, and authenticator applications
- Sending alerts to managers following any failed access attempts and suspicious activity
- Accessing and integrating LAGO with your existing platforms via a secure API
LAGO: Ensuring Asset Security At Every Turn
With LAGO by Comosoft, we’ve successfully completed both on-site and cloud installations of our DAM-PIM solution. Based on how most brands are working now, most of our customers are opting for a cloud-based installation to enable collaboration from anywhere.
LAGO has specific security protocols built-in to keep your assets protected. These include features like:
- Centralized and encrypted file storage
- Physical separation of database and file storage
- Distributed file storage with master and slave logic for external locations
Secure Sharing
LAGO DAM enables users to define access, visibility, and usability to restrict access to their most protected assets. So, when you share access to assets with internal users and outside vendors, you don’t have to grant them access to your entire digital asset library.
LAGO allows secure sharing by offering a wide range of restricted access to assets, which is helpful for those assets that have not yet been approved, are no longer valid, or have been limited to specific departments. Factors like validity dates can restrict the usage of a particular asset, and the visibility and editability can all be adjusted by assigning single users or user groups to an asset.
Easy, cloud-based access for external users
Some cloud file-sharing services like Google can share files via a link using different permissions, but they only include some of the metadata and other features that come with using a DAM solution.
Having all your assets stored within LAGO DAM enables external users not part of your LAGO-hosted production process to request imagery. For example, a web-based application allows users externally request access to the LAGO DAM search engine to find assets. Once a user has found assets needed for external purposes, the assets can be placed into a shopping cart for download. Users may download an original file or only a preview depending on user rights.
Growing e-commerce with print? Yes, please.
Growing e-commerce with print?
Yes, please.
Yes, please.
Life without e-commerce is inconceivable today. Even in a retail store or shopping mall, it’s common to reach for our phones to compare prices or check on the availability of something in a different color or size. Brick-and-mortar store managers may resent it, but mobile e-commerce is here to stay.
But it’s also no surprise that retailers continue evolving their marketing strategies, supporting a consistent customer experience across every channel. Both brand identity and product promotion details must be consistent, regardless of the device or medium is used. That requirement is essential to marketing and advertising directors – and the production and creative managers who get the job done – whenever they coordinate retail campaigns in their print and mobile shopping iterations.
Faced with the need to optimize marketing spending, retailers are expanding and enhancing their traditional print advertising strategy. Weekly circulars and product catalogs are no longer just standalone elements. They now must be totally in sync with their mobile shopping app counterparts. All the elements of a featured product – images, brand elements, even color and size choices – must be consistent across every channel and customer experience, even down to the local store level.
Even more critical, the printed elements of a campaign must also serve as a “launching pad” for the mobile e-commerce experience. Catalogs, circulars, and flyers can no longer be merely informative and persuasive displays. They must also make it easy for customers to order products on the spot. Of course, the easiest way to do that is to print a QR Code next to the featured product, but doing so efficiently can be challenging.
It’s all in the data
QR Codes can be generated easily for each product SKU and then stored, like any other image, in a Digital Asset Management or DAM system. Each code can take the catalog or flyer reader directly to the retailer’s e-commerce ordering page for that specific product, dramatically shortening the sales cycle and providing immediate feedback on the print campaign’s effectiveness.
But while the print-to-e-commerce-purchase cycle is easy to understand, it can be difficult to implement on a large scale. With dozens or hundreds of SKUs in every print marketing campaign, plus the need for multiple regional versions of each printed piece, it takes a lot of work to keep all that DAM and Product Information Management (PIM) data straight. It’s also a challenge for designers to manually assemble all that data and imagery into a single ad—not to mention a catalog or flyer featuring multiple products.
Fortunately, the LAGO system was designed to do precisely that. Using an InDesign plugin, designers can easily and automatically assemble all the PIM and DAM elements related to any SKU in the retailer’s marketing campaign, focusing their time on designing the catalog or flyer—and not hunting for all the pieces. One of those “pieces” in the DAM system can easily be the QR Code for that SKU. Thus, the designer doesn’t have to test or worry about whether the QR Code is correct. They focus on design.
LAGO can do even more than that, of course. For example, if a retailer needs to create different versions of a piece with regional price or product variations, doing so is simple and effective. And because LAGO’s digital output supports versioned pages, including product hotspots and QR Codes, even complex, multi-region retailers can easily transition their print campaigns to digital, creating content for multiple channels with data that increasingly resides in the cloud.
On beyond print
Once a print layout is created in LAGO – for a single catalog or multiple regional versions—the journey is not over. All the related PIM and DAM data can also populate e-commerce websites and mobile shopping apps. During the layout process, designers can designate product hotspots, which are not used in the printed output, naturally, which allow the online output to contain live links to the e-commerce ordering portal, to use just one example.
Product hotspots have many other uses, including triggering multiple image galleries, special offer overlays, size and color variations, alternate text descriptions, and more. These elements have the advantage of being connected to a product’s PIM and DAM data, so the designer need not spend hours figuring out how the online version will behave.
The necessary PIM, DAM, and other data to required accomplish these tasks are increasingly located not in local servers but in the cloud. This is especially true for large, multi-region retailers but is also becoming the norm for marketing departments in every industry. Fortunately, LAGO and its components can easily be cloud-based, offering IT departments increased flexibility and scalability.
Once the main layout is created, LAGO can export the results to multiple formats, each appropriate to the required print or online channel. In addition, it can automatically generate XML and JPEG/PDF for selected pages based on the desired multichannel output workflow. With so many channels in constant need of consistent, well-formed content, LAGO has proven to be a reliable workhorse for retail marketing and advertising operations.
Finally, no discussion of multichannel marketing would be complete without mentioning the growing arena of dedicated retail shopping apps. Like all other online channels, shopping apps need to be constantly updated with the latest product information and marketing campaigns. Fortunately, LAGO can export all campaign data directly, including regional variations, to populate the retailer’s own website or mobile app, creating product location and pricing aids based on LAGO’s versioning capability. One such retailer, home improvement chain Lowe’s, used the LAGO system to create its multi-version printed flyers and, by exporting the resulting campaign data to third-party developer FLIPP, allowed them to create an extremely precise and effective mobile shopping app.
Conclusions
Print and online are not mutually exclusive, either-or choices for marketing and advertising directors and their teams. Used well, print is the perfect vehicle for enhancing and extending the interactive online shopping experience. By using the LAGO system, well-designed print output will attract and motivate shoppers and lead them to buy more frequently online – growing your e-commerce presence exponentially.
5 Digital Asset Management Best Practices
5 Digital Asset Management Best Practices
Currently, around 70 percent of organizations already have a digital transformation strategy or are in the process of creating one. Digital transformation is growing at unprecedented levels. Just how fast? In 2021, organizations spent $1.5 trillion on digital transformation globally. By the end of 2023, that figure is expected to climb to $6.8 trillion.
With all this focus on digital transformation, more and more digital assets are created every day, and organizations are relying more on these assets than ever before – which means brands need a platform to manage it all.
That’s where digital asset management (DAM) comes into play. A DAM platform stores and organizes all of this information, empowering workflows and making it easy for users to find and share content quickly.
What should users know about employing a DAM solution? Here are the five best practices for digital asset management.
1. Discover what you already have
Your visual and creative assets are powerful tools you can use to connect with your audience. In fact, over 60 percent of digital marketers share that visual assets are essential to effective marketing strategies – and there’s plenty of proof to back this up. For example, when people hear or read a message, they can recall and relay about 10 percent of this information three days later. However, when that same message is paired with some visual graphic, people can remember 65 percent of the information after the same amount of time.
But here’s the kicker: You can only use the assets that you know you have. So, there could be plenty of unused assets, or worse – your organization could wind up spending time and resources to recreate assets you already had but didn’t know were there.
One of the most important things you can do when moving to a DAM solution is to conduct an audit of your existing assets, looking for things like:
- What assets do you have?
- What kinds of assets will you need to manage?
- What are your assets used for?
This audit can help you not only make better use of your existing assets but also get a better idea of your digital asset management goals and find a DAM solution that fits your specific needs. For example? A DAM solution designed to manage videos and images over multiple channels and outlets might mean that you should choose a DAM with an integrated workflow tool that fosters faster approval, collaboration, and distribution.
When moving to a cloud-based DAM platform like LAGO, an audit will help you compile all your assets across your entire organization and bring them together in one place. Conducting such a thorough audit means everyone will have access to the same resources no matter where they are.
2. Build your workflows around your DAM solution
It’s been reported that 70 percent of companies fail at their attempts at digital transformation. Why is this? Often, they don’t bring their team on board or make their new technology solutions integral to their operations. So, over time, these underutilized tools fade into the background, and any efforts to improve their processes don’t succeed.
One of the most important things you can do is build your workflow around your DAM platform. Learn what your team members need from one work silo to the next, listen carefully to their concerns and what might help them do their job better, and choose – and use – your DAM’s workflow functionalities and automation tools to foster collaboration and communication in real-time throughout your processes, from creation to editing to approval to publishing. Well-utilized cloud-based workflows empower your team and all your partners to move through projects faster and more unified.
When you lean into the features that your DAM platform offers, like workflows and production automation, you benefit from well-designed workflow technology and ensure successful adoption across your entire organization.
3. Set access control and roles & permissions
DAM solutions are used to unify the work of multiple departments and many team members whom all play different roles within the same organization. Establishing things like roles and permissions not only makes it easier for everyone to use the same platform, but this process also gives all your assets an extra layer of security.
When you set roles and permissions, you can limit access to certain assets to specific campaigns or even a single team or department. This layer of permissions means unauthorized users can’t gain access to assets they don’t need, those still in development, and those awaiting approval. As a result, your assets stay secure, and everyone uses the most current version of every asset in your toolbox. Especially with cloud-based DAM platforms like LAGO, where cybersecurity is crucial, your team and third-party partners can securely access the assets they need from anywhere.
Similarly, it’s a good idea to set up access control functionalities. Often, organizations are handling photos that are copyrighted or have been created with one use in mind. When you establish access controls and restrict access to these assets, you limit the chance that an asset winds up in an unapproved use case that could exceed the bounds of copyright agreements.
BONUS: Speaking of copyright, you should use your DAM platform to set alerts on copyrighted assets to stay in the loop regarding upcoming expiration dates so you can renew licenses when necessary.
4. Unify your naming conventions
Creating – and sticking with – naming conventions is an indispensable way to organize everything in your digital asset management system. It makes it simpler to locate the needed content and avoids issues with duplicating existing content simply because it couldn’t be found due to the name structure.
Work with each department and team to standardize your naming conventions to ensure that all your assets are uploaded and stored with a shared naming structure. This exercise is also an excellent opportunity to establish a protocol for categorizing your digital assets and what metadata is included to simplify the search process. When everyone works together to make your assets easy to organize and find, everything becomes more accessible, and your processes become that much more efficient.
Some ideas for naming conventions:
- Including a date in the file name for each photo means it’s faster to find all the pictures taken on the same day.
- Insert metadata like the name of a campaign to identify all the assets used for that particular campaign quickly.
- Create keywords and tags for each campaign or use case to build a searchable, organized database of all your assets.
5. Make the most of your assets with analytics tools
A robust, cloud-based DAM platform doesn’t just store your assets and all the accompanying metadata. It helps you optimize this data as well. A critical best practice for digital asset management is to utilize analytical data to your advantage. After all, a DAM not only helps you organize and locate digital assets, but it also provides information like:
- When an asset was used.
- Who used it.
- What was it used for.
Your entire team can use these features to unlock all insights about team engagement with your assets. Your DAM analytics tools can give you information about what assets are used most and discover which content gaps need to be filled, what’s working, and what needs improvement.
One example would be to discover which assets are used more or less frequently than others so you can modify underutilized and underperforming assets, so they serve your team—and your goals—better.
Elevate your DAM potential
LAGO by Comosoft was created to help brands collaborate better. As a cloud-based, combined DAM, PIM, and marketing production solution, LAGO helps with everything from workflows to access control, versioning optimization, proofing, organization, and more.
Why waste time looking for the right solution or waiting for one team to sign off on something? LAGO provides automated task management and keeps everyone working from the same data set. In addition, it has best practices like access controls built in to empower the work that marketing and production professionals do every day.
Streamline and automate marketing production workflows. Take multichannel marketing to the next level. Keep your assets organized and protected, and make them work for you.
4 Tools to keep collaboration on point
4 Tools to keep collaboration on point
Fit Small Business recently reported that in most companies, collaboration accounts for 85 percent of work time, and 9 in 10 workers believe that digital tools that foster collaboration processes are becoming increasingly important.
Eighty-five percent of the work week is a lot of time spent finding processes to work on projects with your own team members or other teams in an equitable and reliable manner. Team collaboration is more important than ever, and digital tools enable companies to collaborate remotely.
The support of collaboration tools is essential in the world of marketing production, as they form the framework of the marketing value chain. Only when participating teams can collaborate on marketing materials without friction can the value chain be successfully streamlined. This is the only way to make marketing production efficient. Below are some important tools to consider for smooth collaboration.
1. Clear communication channels
According to McKinsey, using social technology tools to strengthen workplace communication and collaboration has the power to increase productivity by as much as 20 to 25 percent. In addition, these tools can clarity for workflows and ensure everyone is working from the same page in the same book.
Here are a few tools you can implement to nurture strong communication channels and encourage collaboration:
- LAGO Whiteboard: This module is perfect for marketing managers, product managers, and agencies to plan printed advertisements efficiently, no matter a person’s experience level with layouts. Collectively, your team can assign products with all the relevant SKU data and images to specific pages via a web-based whiteboarding environment. Once your team is ready to go, the pre-layout results automatically populate InDesign templates for the creative team. Whiteboard bridges the gap between category management and marketing production, integrating the two departments to work together.
- LAGO Workflow: LAGO Workflow goes beyond print and digital production to help you control your entire production and create, schedule, and manage projects from beginning to end. These tools give your organization better, clearer control of every project step, from multichannel campaigns to merchandising, promotional planning, whiteboarding, and more. LAGO’s workflow modules help reduce the cost of creating and managing these multichannel campaigns by opening the lines of communication, allowing information to be changed and conveyed to designers, and limiting the possibility of errors, data entry mistakes, or other miscommunication issues. This also helps your team assign pages, monitor status, track results, and more in a web-based environment.
- LAGO Proof: LAGO Proof is a web-based system to bring your team together to ensure that your final product is ready for publication either online or in print. It provides a smooth, efficient, timely approval process even when numerous decision-makers have to sign off on each element. This includes automatic delivery of files for approval (and corresponding email notifications), assignment and tracking of mark-ups, and more. In addition, every user’s corrections are visible, even as the proof is passed from person to person or department to department. Those corrections are seamlessly integrated within the original document, eliminating breakdowns in communication and keeping everyone in contact effortlessly.
2. Efficient task management platforms
There are all kinds of proven benefits to implementing task management tools. For starters, bigger tasks can be handled better when we break them down into smaller, bite-sized portions. But additionally, task management platforms offer a host of other benefits, including:
- Improved personal productivity and better focus
- A deeper understanding of the broader needs of the entire organization
- Stronger communication between employees and departments
- Greater visibility of an entire project and an improved ability to meet deadlines as a team
Staying on task and communicating can be hard when there are multiple projects to juggle or lots of people working together on the same tasks. Task management platforms help foster collaboration, stick to demanding deadlines, and tighten workflows.
LAGO Workflow is entirely customizable and can be tailored to suit your organization’s specific needs for multichannel marketing production. Use LAGO to assign particular tasks defined by each person’s role, including the time allotted for each part of the workflow, to automatically calculate due dates, reduce delays, limit errors, and remove friction from the overall workflow.
3. Reliable asset management support
A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is an intelligent solution to manage all your company’s assets, including photos, documents, videos, music, presentations, brandings, and other media needed for marketing and promotional use.
Digital asset management is about keeping your workflow moving and preserving your production plan. It helps you catalog, share, and store all of your digital assets in one place – and opens the lines of communication about where all of these assets are being used.
A DAM system can help you build a more efficient and collaborative workflow for designers, photographers, videographers, and art directors. Additionally, there is more time to focus effort on what they do best, like creating compelling content rather than searching for images or sending or requesting certain assets.
For marketing professionals, a DAM system frees you from countless hours searching through images or creating new ideas for print and digital campaigns. Using a single, central repository, you can quickly locate the content you need without sending requests to the creative team and waiting for a response.
Because most DAMs are cloud-based, they make collaboration simple. You can share files from anywhere, at any time, and find what you need quickly. In addition, all of your company content comes from the same place, empowering brand consistency among all collaborators.
Digital asset management helps you share assets with your team and outside collaborators, retailers, and agencies. As a result, you can ensure your brand’s materials are distributed appropriately, that you are using the most updated images and assets, and that you are representing your brand the way you need to. It’s the ultimate collaboration tool.
- Consolidate your asset management in a single repository
- Share assets with team members via a central platform
- Automate the process of cataloging assets to increase collaboration efficiency
- Save critical information from loss or isolation on a particular employee’s device
4. A smart data management solution
Do you have a way to manage and track all of your data? A Product Information Management (PIM) system provides a single solution to manage your product data, including SKUs, product identifiers, titles, descriptions, images, pricing, quantities, and more. The overall goal is to provide organizations with a central media-neutral storage tool to manage and distribute product information, even when you’re overseeing a variety of output channels.
Here’s why this matters: A reliable PIM system like Comosoft’s LAGO PIM solution can help you avoid mislabeling products and shorten your time to market. It can also automate the collaboration between sales and advertising teams and foster improved collaboration through a seamless workflow.
What are some benefits of managing data with a PIM system?
- You can improve the employee and customer experience by pulling all information from a “single source of truth,” which means your sales agents, designers, and marketing team can access the most up-to-date information. Collaboration is simple because no one has to hunt for the latest data. Sales teams can quickly send product recommendations and details to customers. Designers can access the latest data. Everyone can do what they do best, only more efficiently.
- You can limit human error throughout the product lifecycle and even integrate with warehouse management systems to share the exact product specifications and inventory data across your entire operation via a shared data repository. You can also automate data entry to limit the risk of error.
- You can better classify and categorize your product offerings, which helps your team identify chances to upsell or offer additional products.
Comosoft: Your partner in collaboration
LAGO was designed with collaboration in mind. It’s at the core of what we do. LAGO is a PIM, DAM, and marketing production solution that fosters a collaborative, checkpoint-based workflow, complete with versioning optimization and proofing. It keeps your marketing production process flowing so that work is efficient and cooperative, even when juggling large data sets.
With automated task management and configurable user rights, your whole team will work from the same unified data set. Everyone knows what their responsibilities are. Work happens faster. Approvals are more straightforward, and collaboration is simple.
We’ve seen the power of Comosoft LAGO firsthand. Over 4,000 marketing and production professionals have discovered how easy it is to simplify marketing production workflows, optimize multichannel marketing activities, and cut production time and costs through LAGO’s collaboration toolkit. Now it’s time to see it for yourself.
5 things to know about DAM in retail
5 things every retailer should know about Digital Asset Management
In any case, one advantage of digitization is that processes have become leaner and more accessible thanks to new tools and innovations. Of course, this does not only apply to marketing processes in the company, but here the apparently small processes among many, already generated a large amount of work. These processes include the management of assets needed in the creation of printed or digital marketing materials. In modern marketing, the time-consuming manual work has been reduced to a minimum, but at the same time the number of digital assets that had to be available for an entire branding grew disproportionately.
Ever since, marketing and advertising departments have struggled to keep track of all those assets, giving birth to a new software genre, Digital Asset Management or DAM. With over multiple enterprise DAM systems to choose from, plus many other customised versions available, it’s time to list the five most important things a retail marketing and advertising professional needs to know about DAM.
1.It’s all about the metadata
Assets in a DAM system are not limited to photographic images and illustrations. There are also text descriptions and customer reviews for each product, not to mention videos, audio, and other media used in a campaign. With all that data, the problem is finding the right asset or the version you need in time to create a deadline-critical ad or promotion. Studies have found that searching for the right image can consume 20 to 30 percent of a worker’s time!
The way to recoup that lost time is to use a DAM with a consistent and easy-to-use metadata framework and a robust search engine to help users find what they need. Every object must have consistent identifiers, keywords, version numbers, and other easily accessible information to speed up the design and production process and avoid costly errors.
The metadata used by a DAM also must be consistent with that of other data sources. Retailers must have ways to deal with product-related assets from manufacturers and outside agencies so that the identifiers and keywords are all in the places designers need to find them.
2. No DAM is an island
Over the past decade, DAM systems and other aspects of enterprise computing have moved out of local data networks and into the cloud. This trend has highlighted the importance of connectivity between multiple data sources. For retailers data from a DAM must be connected practically to a Product Information Management or PIM system, as well as other, sometimes proprietary, pricing, inventory, and logistics databases. Without that connection, creating a promotional piece about a single product will take far too long – much less a catalog or mobile app promotion for multiple products.
The first step in connecting all these data sources is a consistent metadata strategy, as noted above. But the connected DAM, PIM, and other databases must also have a meaningful, efficient workflow for using those assets and data in a promotional campaign. Whether the result is a printed catalog, a website, or populating a mobile app, the data must be used effectively by marketing and advertising planners, designers, and producers.
One such framework for wrangling all these data sources is Comosoft’s LAGO system. By making all the product data available, at any stage of the advertising planning and production process – no matter where the data reside – LAGO can streamline the entire multichannel marketing process. This has been demonstrated at Lowe’s and many other large retail operations.
3. Leveraging DAM workflow
In large retail organizations, there are many levels of authority to create, find, update, and replace assets in a DAM system. Think of each asset as having a true lifecycle, from its creation through multiple revisions and eventually obsolescence. At any point, marketing and advertising professionals may need to find a particular asset and any of its related data points to promote one product, suggest related products, and deepen the retailer’s connection with individual shopping behavior.
To do this effectively requires a comprehensive and effective approach to users and permissions. Anyone may identify an error in the data, but correcting it requires approval and accountability. A good DAM system must make it easy for the right people to act and do so without undue delay or complications. When the data changes, such as introducing a new product photo, the DAM system must also have the means to update all the related media without incurring extra review and approval cycles.
Again, Comosoft’s LAGO is especially powerful when it comes to keeping DAM and related workflows moving smoothly. Permissions for users and groups are managed uniformly across all data and workflow processes. In addition, when something in the DAM system is updated or modified, it is automatically updated in the InDesign production file thanks to LAGO’s two-way workflow. For example, suppose a designer finds an erroneous data element. In that case, they can easily communicate that to someone with the authority to correct the issue globally – or allow a local override.
4. Maintaining brand identity
One of the strengths of DAM is its ability to enforce brand consistency. Brand-critical elements such as logos can be “locked” in their most current, approved form. Retailers must not only use their own brand elements consistently and make sure to correctly use manufacturers’ logos and product images in every campaign and channel. A well-organized DAM system will always provide the most current version of such assets and restrict access to older versions.
LAGO takes that further, by maintaining InDesign templates with all the approved brand elements (images, illustrations, and text) in their originally designed configuration. As a result, designers are free to do their thing elsewhere on the page, creating compelling displays of the retailer’s featured products, but they cannot override the well-planned brand aspects of the piece. Such centralized control is critical for retailers with multiple locations, and creative channels spanning both internal and external teams.
5. Automation that works
With the explosion of digital assets and the channels they use, every retailer must find ways to automat design and production wherever possible while leaving designers free to create fresh and compelling work. An integrated DAM-PIM-production workflow offers many such opportunities, such as assigning assets to other objects based on rules or an asset’s data attributes. By automating such steps in a production process, advertising and marketing departments can save on manual labor and free up valuable time for more creative work.
Again, LAGO has made great strides in this area. For example, once a campaign has been devised using a data-connected whiteboard process, the selected product’s data are automatically placed in an InDesign template, giving the designer more time to finesse and improve the piece. Multiple regional versions of a single piece are also easy to create, automatically re-using the base elements and letting the designer focus on customisation.
Giving DAM its due
Digital Asset Management systems are far more than just advanced cloud storage drives. DAM and its allied data sources can connect multiple departments to help retail marketing production become faster, more accurate, and far more efficient. In this age of multichannel-everything, no competitive retailer can afford to be without this advantage. All it takes is a workflow that truly understands the power of integrated data.
Outlook 2023: Efficient use of current trends in marketing production
Outlook 2023: Efficient use of current trends in marketing production
Yes, it’s that time again. Marketers and experts are predicting the next big trends in marketing and how we can use the latest technology to improve communication with existing and potential customers. Reading the articles and posts, one central theme of these predictions becomes clear: data. The future of marketing, they say, is all about artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and Big Data. Many posts also talk about voice search, mobile geolocation and it’s all about the data we need to power augmented reality or even virtual reality.
Meanwhile, marketing and advertising managers have to deal with practical issues such as how to make sure their multichannel campaigns are successful, hit their brand message on the mark and stay within budget. Of course, data of all kinds is vital for planning, but to successfully manage the day-to-day business, we need to manage the data we have now appropriately.
Data, data everywhere
Over the past few decades, we have seen exponential growth in the amount of business data available to marketers and advertisers. By exhausting all tracking methods, some of which are possible with consents under the GDPR, data such as the cost, the price, the date of purchase, the size, the colour and the item number of a t-shirt purchased, as well as the person who bought it and how they felt after the purchase, can be obtained. Theoretically, we can also derive meaningful trend data from millions of other T-shirt purchases to adjust and improve our brand advertising.
In practice, however, it is complicated to manage this flood of product and purchase data in a meaningful way. It is particularly difficult to respond to customer requests for quick answers. The ubiquitous coverage of mobile internet has led us to demand instant gratification in all aspects of our lives – especially when shopping. A promotion for a product that does not include a “buy now” button or similar icon will perform worse than one that facilitates the purchase. Therefore, it is critical to integrate all product data throughout the entire cycle from promotion to purchase.
Not only does the data need to facilitate immediate purchase decisions, but it also needs to be consistent across the many channels available today. Not to mention the multiple versions of each brochure, landing page, whether on the website or app, customised on a regional, demographic or even individual level, as we described last month.
Taking the right steps
Because every retail operation is different, integrating multiple, often outdated data sources is a challenge. The same goes for creating a marketing production workflow that serves all channels equally and eliminates redundant steps. The first step is to identify the isolated information ‘silos’ that have been created out of necessity – and, of course, often without anticipating the changes in data and publishing technology.
A typical example is the retailer’s product information management (PIM) system. A PIM system, while powerful in many ways, is subject to the data quality of the information supplied by product manufacturers. For example, products may or may not have consistent SKU numbers and other key fields, and the way one manufacturer labels a product’s attributes may be completely different from another manufacturer’s – or may even be missing fields altogether. Cleaning up PIM and related data is a tedious task. Therefore, always look for a system integrator who can automate this process as much as possible.
The same problem exists with Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems and other data sources. But even when the data is “cleaned”, it must be compatible with the retailer’s PIM system and ultimately with the workflow that keeps all multichannel campaigns running smoothly. System integration at this level requires a good knowledge of the systems’ APIs and a strong commitment to agile software development.
Finally, having all this data in an orderly, networked framework is only the beginning. It is only useful if all these data sources are smoothly connected to the marketing decision makers, designers and technicians who create the campaign results. As described in a previous article, Comosoft’s LAGO system allows marketing and product line managers to plan multichannel campaigns based on current data and send it to designers. Designers can then bring their visual talent to the project without having to search for information and without risking errors through manual tasks. The resulting publications can be easily divided into regional or demographic segmented versions, and the designs can be used for ongoing web or app campaigns.
Integrating LAGO with existing systems preserves a company’s previous investments and creates a true multichannel production workflow that includes feedback to marketing and advertising planners.
Preparing for the future
In May this year, digital marketing blogger Azeem Adam pointed out several trends to watch out for in the coming months. These include the increasing reliance on performance metrics and the growing need to leverage AI chatbots and Big Data in general. Most importantly, he pointed to the need to have the right data available at the right time to meet consumers’ increased need for instant answers. Of course, all of this depends on a retailer having that data in the first place – in a form that is immediately available when needed. LAGO streamlines this process for the designer. Even if a product image or other data is updated, the designer automatically receives the new version in the layout. But the “instant gratification” doesn’t stop there. Links to the product’s order page can be automatically included in the web or app versions, and order-specific QR codes can be automatically inserted into the printed catalogue or brochure.
In this age of high consumer expectations, the abundance of data in marketing can seem like a burden. But with the right tools and expertise to bring it all together, data is our ticket to the future.
Are you ready to make 2023 the best DAM year yet?
Are you ready to make 2023 the best DAM year yet?
There are so many considerations that factor into selecting new software. After all, you’re making a considerable investment in your organization. Therefore, you want to weigh who will use it, their technology needs, and even what the ramp-up process will look like as you implement and learn your new solution.
If you’re on the hunt for the best DAM (that’s digital asset management to you) software solution, you may have already done quite a bit of research and asked a lot of questions. Indeed, the average sales cycle for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions is between 3 and 6 months.
But you’re not just anybody. You’re a DAM professional, and you know many options on the market today. The secret to finding the right solution lies in knowing what you need, what your team requires, what your operations are, and how your new technology aligns with your current digital ecosystem. Here’s what you need to know.
Step One: Organise yourself systematically
When starting your search, it’s time to get organised. To find the right fit, you need to understand your team’s needs fully now and in the future. Not just for one team or a few team members – but for your whole DAM team. This understanding allows multiple stakeholders to have a say in what features you’ll need and what system will work best for your organisation. Don’t forget people like your system administrator, who will be integral in integrating your new DAM into your workflow.
Identify Use Cases
What outcomes are your team after, and how can these solutions help you achieve them? Consider about common DAM system use cases and note what’s most important to your operations. You’ll want to identify the team needs for your organization, as well as the features to address these needs. Use cases may include:
- Filtering content into a single system
- Eliminating redundancies and features you don’t need
- Sharing and publishing brand content
- Integrating your martech stack
- Repurposing high-performing content
- Tracking content efficacy
- Unifying your content workflow
- Bringing products to market faster
- Launching into new E-Commerce channels
Take note of your Must-Have features & functionalities
From these use cases, you can start to pinpoint the capabilities you just DAM well cannot live without. These may be very basic, like organizing your content, or more specifically, like integrating your company’s individual workflow. Popular DAM features include:
- In-depth search functionalities
- An open API framework to foster integration
- Configurations for permission and access control
- In-app conversion of images
- Zero code needed for automation
- Mapping of metadata
- Analytics at the whole asset level
- Support for multiple file formats
By comparing your use cases and the features you know you’ll need first, researching the DAM systems will be much clearer, and you’ll be able to select the best system for your team.
Step Two: Evaluate the software solutions in more detail
Now it’s time to start evaluating solutions to discover which is right for you. With so many DAM system options available, it can be overwhelming until you remember that you only need the features applicable to your operations.
Researching solutions & comparing features
Once you know what your team needs, researching different systems with their varying DAM capabilities will be much straightforward. First, however, now is the time to get going – and see the features you’re looking for in action. After all, just because a vendor offers a particular feature, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will function the way you want or need it to.
Keep in mind every system can provide some value, but you’re looking to see that the system you choose is indeed the right fit for you and your team so you can do your best work. So, how do you go about this?
One way would be to include the use cases you send to vendors in your request for proposal so that you can evaluate each vendor, rating how well their features suit your unique use cases.
Another tip: Sort the capabilities you’re looking for by preference level so you can better discern which features you can’t live without and which ones you might be willing to let go of if you find the right DAM for your most preferred functionalities. Also, be sure to read reviews as you go through your research. Not only will this give you better insight into how each DAM system performs, but it may also give you some inspiration for how different organizations make the most of the system within their operations. You may find some great ideas!
Keep an eye on the whole investment
Choosing a new DAM system is not a decision you can make in one day or even a few weeks. But that’s by design. After all, you’re making a significant investment in your organization. So, you’ll want to take your time, research, and look deep into all the features and functionalities to find the solution.
Step Three: Make the Best DAM Choice You Can
Now comes the hard-but-exciting part: Making a choice.
As you evaluate your options, be sure to request demos so you can see how your new DAM will perform. For example? LAGO by Comosoft is one solution you’ll want to see in action to fully understand just what all it can do for you.
LAGO isn’t just a DAM. Instead, it’s a multichannel marketing platform that integrates DAM and product information management (PIM) functionalities, plus an entire host of features that can transform your marketing production capabilities to take your operations to a brand new level.
Additionally, LAGO offers:
- Secure user access to digital assets from any web browser
- Integrated image selection for better marketing communication
- Collaborative workflow tools to stay connected
- Automatic substitution of updated/replaced assets in any active media campaign
- Tracking of digital and branded assets for effective brand marketing
Tips on Decision-Making
Making the right decision can feel challenging – especially when you want to come up with the best possible solution to serve your organization to the fullest. Some thoughts to help in the decision-making process?
- Identify all the possible options and anticipate possible outcomes for each one
- Consider the needs and wants of your entire team and how they will be impacted
- Understand the long-term impact on projects, on each department, and your company
The new level of one-to-one communication
The new level of one-to-one communication
Personalised marketing, today also known as “one-to-one” marketing, is as old as the typical corner shops of our childhood. There, the needs and life stories of the customers were known down to the smallest detail – there, even the assortment was geared to the individual customer. The relationship between the corner shop owner and his customers had to function on so many interpersonal levels, only one of which was the business relationship. For the local brick-and-mortar store, such a relationship-based approach was perfect. It still is. But the reality of modern retail is different.
According to the original one-to-one approach, being able to serve these many personal and multi-layered customer relationships individually as a large retail group or e-commerce is of course not viable. Here, it is more about finding processes and tools that map this personal customer relationship on a virtual level.
The only way for modern marketing and advertising managers to develop such connections effectively is through the wise use of data. Customer connections start with data about the customers themselves – their names, where they live, and basic demographic information such as age and gender. It can also include what they’ve purchased, brands they prefer, and public endorsements on social media. All this data must of course be obtained within the EU within the framework of the provisions of the GDPR and with the consent of the customers. Once this is done, this data is often stored in different databases and this is where a new challenge begins after the data collection.
Data, data everywhere
Company databases are nearly always created separately in response to an immediate need. For example, customer and prospect data are typically stored in a customer relationship management (CRM) system that may or may not include a history of what they bought and when. As one would expect, information about products is stored in a product information management (PIM) system. Pictures, marketing descriptions, and other assets associated with each product are stored in, you guessed it, a digital asset management (DAM) system. The list goes on. Prices, inventory levels, and other data are often stored on separate databases, sometimes by geographic region or other distinction that made perfect sense at the time. The dilemma for marketing and advertising directors is how to mesh all these data sources together to produce an accurate profile of the customer or the customer group in general and the products they are likely to buy.
Once you have that profile, the next step is to create a series of well-designed outputs featuring the products that a customer is known to prefer. These can be printed catalogs, mailers, or flyers, using digital, variable data printing technology to customize each copy that comes off the press. They can also be customized newsletters, emails, or HTML landing pages accessed via personalized URLs or QR Codes. The result is an intentionally customized ad or a promotion that will appeal to the individual customer or, more often, a broader grouping of customers based on their complete data profile.
It’s easier than you think
The promise of one-to-one marketing has been around for many years, dating back to the early days of digital, variable data printing. However, many marketing and IT departments have found it a difficult promise to fulfill. Data sources are often not interconnected, and many are on legacy platforms built for other purposes. The different requirements for print and digital output are also quite different, making it challenging to create a true, multichannel output environment.
Fortunately, the hurdles of one-to-one are easier to manage than you think – provided you have the right platform to do so. There must be a foundation that is both data-driven and designer-friendly to coordinate all of these complex data sources and outputs,. Product pages and their templates must have a direct connection to detailed product data, as selected by the marketing team for a particular campaign, and a connection to individual customer data. But they also must have the tools that let designers do what they do best – tell a visual story featuring a product and how it meets a need. Comosoft’s LAGO system does precisely that.
The beauty of LAGO is that it allows marketing and product line directors to select products based on factors like price, margin, and availability and use a whiteboarding module for visualization. The system knows the information for each product (from the PIM data) and its images, descriptions, and reviews (from the DAM data). Their campaign choices are automatically conveyed to the designers in the form of an InDesign template – with all the relevant PIM and DAM data included. This capability frees the designer from time-consuming searches for data and assets, freeing them to focus on design. But it also does something even more, opening the door to effective one-to-few and even one-to-one marketing.
Versioning is the key
LAGO’s most notable features is its ability to create multiple, regional or segmented versions easily. Using the base version of a catalog or other promotional piece as a starting point, LAGO outputs multiple versions based on the marketing needs of a region or a unique store. But versioning can be narrowed even further – all the way to the individual level – with Comosoft’s Direct Individualised Marketing (DIM) module.
LAGO DIM streamlines the entire marketing data personalization process. It allows the designer to easily specify an area of the printed page (or the email or landing page) where an individualized product offer should appear. The DIM module then uses customer identification and product preference data to automatically place the appropriate product and pricing for that customer or customer group. Customer-specific addressing and other text personalization are handled automatically as well. The system then populates the entire variable data print run or email campaign. Personalized HTML landing pages featuring the right products for a particular customer or group are also generated automatically, with personalized URLs or QR Codes for accurate response tracking.
Marketing and advertising directors, even those with legacy platforms and martech tools, can finally realize the potential their company’s data using print, email, HTML, or all three. They can finally turn all that data into more effective, one-to-one connections with their customers. With LAGO DIM, it’s much easier than they ever imagined.
7 Retail marketing trends for 2023
7 Retail marketing trends for 2023
If you want to make smart, worthwhile improvements to your retail marketing strategy in 2023, it will be essential for you to make friends with digital technology. Consumers are adopting new ways to use digital communication, remote services, and mobile technology at unprecedented levels. Also, according to a McKinsey study, the retail industry is leading the way in helping them do it. So, let’s look at seven of the most important retail marketing trends for 2023.
1. Voice Search
The popularity of voice-activated digital assistants and smart speakers continues to rise. According to Google, about 20% of searches are done without a keyboard. Since 61% of consumers aged 25 to 64 already intend to use their voice device more in the future, Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Home, Amazon Echo, and others will influence content creation and online marketing for retail.
- Voice search is starting to be used as an effective search engine optimization (SEO) tool.
- More marketers are choosing keywords based on the questions people could ask their devices.
- More retailers are optimizing content for voice search with a conversational question-and-answer format. This strategy accommodates more customized searches and faster, highly accurate answers and benefits the likelihood of being picked up as a featured snippet on Google.
- Voice-search technology is expected to become more widely available on company websites and eCommerce retailers.
The use of voice search has even inspired a new option: visual search. Consumers can now upload an image into a search engine like Google Lens or Pinterest Lens and get information about an item in the picture.
2. Conversational Marketing
Conversational marketing allows retailers to engage directly with visitors on their websites. It employs AI automation, chatbots with machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), and instant messaging so visitors can have a two-way, real-time, informal conversation with a brand they’re shopping for. With consumers, conversational marketing tactics can replace a phone call, a brick-and-mortar visit, and even an email or an online form. It’s a less formal communication channel that speaks to the need for personalization, instant gratification, and one-on-one interactions, making it more meaningful for the consumer.
3. Social Commerce
Shopping on social media is becoming mainstream. Social commerce is predicted to grow three times as fast as traditional eCommerce, more than doubling to $1.2 trillion in 2025. Retailers leverage influencer marketing, create content that fits into social media feeds, and integrate social media channels into their eCommerce platforms. Shoppable posts are largely popular because potential shoppers visit social platforms daily. A retailer can feature a product for people to view, learn more about, and buy without ever having to navigate away from the post. According to Forbes research, about two-thirds of today’s consumers use social media as part of their shopping strategy. Insider Intelligence reports that in 2021, half of all U.S. adults made a purchase on social media. The convenience is phenomenal for shoppers, and both retailers and social media companies are noticing.
4. Omnichannel Marketing
Instead of attaining new customers through one or complimentary channels, retail marketers are focusing on keeping a consistent brand experience across all the channels where a prospect may interact with their brand. They’re aligning in-store and online marketing efforts, creating unified campaigns and messages, and putting the consumer in the driver’s seat. This helps people fit shopping into their lives and gives them flexible options to purchase via Facebook Messenger, pay on a schedule, and then pick up the item in-store.
5. New Ways to Leverage Proven Results Winners
- Live Video Marketing – It’s no secret that consumers love video. Videos are 53 times more likely to generate top placement on a search engine result page (SERP ranking) than other SEO tactics. Today, 84% of consumers are persuaded to purchase a product after watching a video about it.
When a live element is added to a video, it ups the ante. Live video grabs people’s attention and makes them feel part of the experience. As a result, people spend three times longer watching live videos than pre-recorded videos. Instead of watching passively, they think they can influence the content and have a part in creating the experience as well.
- Answers-Based Content Marketing Strategy – Content strategies that leverage thought leadership, traditional knowledge, and promotional messaging still have a job to do. But content that answers the questions prospects are asking will engage them directly, instantly give them solutions, and be more memorable. All this, and marketers can likely add the benefit of zero-click searches, meaning prospects don’t have to click on any other link after their search to get what they are looking for (see below).
- Featured Snippets in Google Search – Being on top of a SERP may no longer be a retail marketer’s primary goal. Voice search and mobile growth have changed the way people use search engines. They now want information as fast as possible with the least amount of work to get it. Featured snippets and similar information included right on the SERP provide it quickly. It means they don’t need to click through to a landing page or website to get the information they’re needing. It’s called “position zero,” and requiring different SEO tactics and content optimization to get there. Right now, over 60% of Google search results are now featured snippets.
6. Real-Time Messaging Platforms
Retail marketers are using real-time messaging platforms to not only reach their customers quickly and directly, but the platforms themselves are helping them collect valuable customer data. Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger are becoming capable of storing everything needed to understand more about ideal customers.
7. The End of Third-Party Cookies
By the end of 2023, Google will have phased out support for third-party cookies on the Chrome browser. Other search engines will likely be doing the same thing. It means retailers will have one less way to get customer information that helps them target ads better and check performance. The time is now to consider alternatives:
- Prioritize data from first-party cookies, which are still on the table.
- Optimize existing resources to get the same results.
- Develop a custom customer data platform that can help personalize content.
- Define effective privacy policies and use ethical data sourcing.
To stay on top of retail marketing trends, retailers must stay on top of digital technologies. Improve your retail marketing strategy by embracing the many digital technology opportunities available to you.