November 2017 - Product Experience Management

How to Develop Great Product Content

Unlike in the past when it was so hard to get products and services with features you want, today you can buy anything you want from any part of the world, thanks to the internet invention. This is where most customers will first do their research by reading through product content before finally deciding whether they are actually going to buy it. Owing to this fact therefore, many business owners have come to appreciate the significance of writing great product content not only in increasing sales, but also expanding their customers network and keep them. It is because of this reason that most of them have found it worthy to invest on content marketing in order to emerge the best from their competitors.

Having mentioned the above, it is very important that you take some time to think it through and how you are going to make the content standout from the rest. Always remember that there are millions of contents with almost the same information and ideas as you portray and that it will only take a lot of creativity and time to develop one quality content that will make buyers to come asking for more.

Why is Product Content Important in eCommerce?

Many businesses that have just created a new eCommerce website spend a lot of time constructing the web-platform and tend to overlook spending equally the same time developing contents to be posted on them. In the real sense what most of them fail to realize is the fact that it takes a lot of time to build product contents that will have significant value to the targeted audience as opposed to programming the web.

According to Wyzowl 2015 research, 63% of marketers who use content as a marketing strategy believe that the use of the content is important in increasing online conversation. By posting content about products and that you sell, the audience will react by giving a response on what they think about your content and how it relates to the product that you are selling. There is much information that you can get out of this conversation. For instance, online conversation can help you to determine whether your customers are happy and improve the product further from the comments and critics raised.

In addition, posting content about products or services that you sell helps to maximize traffic of people visiting your blog and also improve product ranking in search engines. The results can even be far much better than you’ve ever imagined more so if you optimize your contents. In the end of this all what you are going to have is increased product and brand awareness that will definitely translate to increased sells and profits.

However, the most important point that you should always have in mind while developing great product content is that it will never make sense even with best SEO ranking, unless the information is worthy and customers are able to link it to the product. If you would wish to learn how you can go about developing great product content that will definitely stand out from the rest and promote more sells, look no further for you are going to find this read very resourceful.

Tips for Developing Great Product Content

#1. Product Content Centralization

Generally speaking, content marketing is all about communication with customers. In many organizations where marketing is centralized, the marketing department oversees the planning process of content development, and takes the overall responsibility to execute all marketing activities on behalf of the organization. However, they can’t entirely rely on their own in this process which means they have to work closely with other sections such as the top management, the line production/operations, the finance and other departments to obtain vital product information.

After getting the product information e.g. the brand name, product features, objectives, mission/vision statement of the organization and other info, the marketing department will then centralize and optimize all the contents to develop a uniform tone for the product. This will assure customers of a highly accurate product facts that are not contradicting each other as opposed to having marketing contents being developed in separate entities within the organization.

The main advantage of centralizing contents in any given organization is that it helps to prevent duplication of contents that may have conflicting information. This should be avoided at all cost so as to prevent giving customers contents that are rather confusing than feeding them with valuable information. Moreover, centralizing the content comes along with a marketing strategy that looks at the bigger picture of the product and the competitiveness that exist in the market. At the end of this exercise, you will end up with a content that will not deviate from the objectives/goals that is purposed to achieve.

In addition, centralizing contents ensures that the information is of high-quality standard that meets criteria for posting on the website. It also ensures consistency of the product message and easy monitoring that will come with meaningful reporting. This way, the company will cut down the cost and in the long term minimize losses resulting from inconsistency product messaging that are misleading customers.

#2. Design the Product Content to Make It More Appealing

If you want to get people to read your great product content, you have to create it in such a way that;

It will be attractive and appealing from the first glance
The audience can scan through fast and get the message
The audience will not struggle to look what they are for from the content

The following is key to designing the product content.

The title: First and foremost is the product content’s title. It is important to have in mind that the title you chose for the content can either build the product or crush it depending on how you play around with words. Therefore, before you even think about the product message that you want to put across and how it will be arranged, take a moment to think of an attractive title. Choose the most appropriate title for the content: the one that will be able to establish the right rapport with the audience. In actual sense, the content’s title should be in the best position to attract the targeted audience and also convince them to buy the brand.

Use legible fonts of right size: How you format the contents and present it matters a lot. This goes along with determining whether you will be able to attract the audience attention and also engaged them to read the entire great product content without distractions. There are quite a number of software and tools that you can use to develop and format the content.

A very good example is the Catsy which is a product management software that you can use to print high-quality catalogs, price books, PDFs, run interactive and many more. The good thing about using this software is that your product content will take a professional angle and will be more appealing to read to your targeted audience.

#3. Write Product Content with Buyer Personas in Mind

While writing product content that really sell, it is important to write it with the buyers’ persona in mind. Remember the content is actually meant for readers so that they can click the buy button. Having mentioned this therefore, take your time to research how your customer behave. This should be in-depth; in fact, if you do it right your contents will always sell and they’ll come asking for more.

Speaking of the content with the buyers’ perspective in mind means knowing exactly what they want to hear and their taste and preference. This also means knowing their economic status which comes with the power to influence purchase. For instance, if you are looking to write contents that will target the rich people, the language should reflect top class and expensive lifestyle that they always want to hear. The same should also be reflected in other social setup.

It is also important to understand their cultural values and way of living so that when you will be developing the content they will read it with the imagination that content was written by one of their own. This will make the targeted audience develop a sense of belonging with the content while taking note of things they regard sensitive and avoid wording them on the content at all cost.

Lastly but not least, you need to know what they search and read on the internet so that you will know the right language and tone that you will use to approach them. Taking all these facts into consideration while developing product content will shift the article focus towards the customers that comes along with being persuasive to influence them buy the product.

#4. List All Features Along with Benefits to Include in the Product Content

The most common mistake that writers usually do while writing product content is focusing so much on the product features along with their functions instead of actually shifting their attention on the customer. One of the most important thing that you should always have in mind while writing content is that at the end of the exercise, readers should be persuaded to buy the product and services. Therefore, what you need to ask yourself is what the product does that will benefit customers.

To approach this exercise with the customers’ need in mind, you should do more research about the product history. Ask yourself whether it’s a new product or an upgrade developed to cater for the complaints or problems with the earlier versions. If it’s a new product that is being launched into the market you need to ask yourself whether there are similar products and what’s unique in it or what problems it’s going to solve.

Once you have all these facts at hand, it will be time to write the product description by having all features together with a small excerpt of how it’s going to benefit the buyer.

There is nothing in this world created and developed by man is 100% perfect; therefore, don’t be afraid to mention about what the product can’t do. However, this should be done in a positive way so that you don’t end up discouraging buyers from buying the product.

One more last but most important point to take home, is that your description should be honest and not geared towards the benefits. At no any given moment should you ever mislead your audience by mentioning features that are not supported by the product, because this will only turn drastic and bring all your sells down. Instead, if it’s a product weakness take it as a challenge and find better ways of addressing it.

#5. Optimize Your Product Content for SEO

While writing product content/s, it is important that you choose your words carefully to include words and phrases that are commonly used by your customers while searching on the web. These are commonly referred to as keywords.

Therefore, take your time to research about these phrases and the number of times they have been used in different search engines such as Firefox, Bing, Safari, Chrome and many others on a given duration of time let’s say a 3 to 6 months or a year. Pick phrases and words that appear to have been used more frequently and optimize it for SEO. These can be divided as into two; i.e. main keywords and sub-keywords.

Examples of tools that you can use for your keyword campaign include; keyword planner by Google, Moz Keyword explorer, KWfinder, SEM rush, Keyword tool and many others. If you would love to learn more about keyword research and how you can go about it using these tools click here .

Now that you have identified the most commonly used words and phrases, the next step will be optimizing the keyword in your product content so that it sounds naturally without losing meaning. Avery good way of how you can go about this is using the main keyword on the main title, the introductory and closing paragraphs and in the subheading. Also remember to repeat the same on the image and pictures.

However, don’t overstuff the article with too many keywords until the content loses the purpose that it was intended for. Lastly but not least, don’t copy paste someone else’s idea of keyword phrases and use them to develop your content, because Google and other search engines will definitely realize and pull down your ranking.

#6. Include Customer Feedback as Proof in the Product Content

We are living in a very funny world where everyone looks at every stranger as a suspect that may bring harm or steal our hard earned. Well the sad truth about this fact is that also the internet has not been left out and every other surfer will need proof that actually what you just mentioned about the content is the truth and nothing more but the truth.

To appreciate what I mean in this, consider below captioned image about apps captioned from Google play store customer’s comments section.

If you include such information about a service or product that you are writing about, it will add more weight and credibility to what you are describing on the content. This will in fact trigger positive conversation that will persuade the buyer in the long run. However, if you want to use this to enhance your content credibility, it is advisable that you consider using popular brands that you can attach to comments to and focus on the positive side.

#7. Kill The Boredom in the Product Content by Including a Short Story

To make the content stand out from the rest, consider sharing a short product story from experience or something you heard from someone. If you are good with words and have the talent, you are not limited here to develop something interesting that would be fun to read.

However, if this the level that you have decided to take your content, you should have in mind that the content you are writing is not about you but customers’. In addition, the storyline should not go outside the scope of the product features and benefits since anything lesser than that will definitely prompt the buyer to hit the red X button and leave the page never to return again.

A very key point to take while writing a short story is that it should be one that customers can relate to. This means the customer should be the staring character and the story should end with him finally buying the product and lived happily thereafter.

#8. Writing a Seductive Product Content That Will Persuasive Sell

Now that you know what it takes to developed a great product content that will sell, the next thing will be transforming the content into a persuasive language. To perform this task, you will need to fully understand the product features and identify how these features will benefit the buyer.

Furthermore, identify ways through which these feature will solve the buyer needs and use the right tone and language to persuade the buyer. What you are going to have in the end is quality information that is tailored to solve customers’ problems and not just any other product description.

One more thing though, avoid using the exact word used in the product. Perhaps the customer could have done that already while at the shop and what she is looking for is far much better information that will go along with helping her to make a better decision.

How to Develop Great Product Content

There are many benefits that you are going to get if you get it right while developing product content. Well thought content will always be persuasive which comes with increased sales and more profit for your business. Therefore, you should always have the customer perspective in mind while developing the content in a manner that will solve their problems as opposed to listing the main feature and functions.

Make the content more appealing at first glance and write it in a very simple and persuasive tone that will convince customers to buy the product. In addition, write in a seductive persuasive language that will prompt the customer to hit the buy button. To up your game a little, it will be important to write a short story within the context of the product that the reader can relate to.

If you are developing contents in a big organizational setup, centralize the content to include all vital information about the brand and ensure consistency to avoid conflicting information that will only end up confusing the buyer. Lastly and most important of all, write honest product content that will serve to guide the buyer but not misleading them.

Now that you know how the develop great product content, click here to see what Catsy can do for you.

What is PIM?

What is PIM and what is Catsy PIM? Here is how Catsy helps brands utilize product information management and digital asset management to drive sales.

Product Information Management (PIM) is the software-based aggregation of data collation, organization, and distribution, relating to a business’ products/services and those of its suppliers.

PIM plays the pivotal role of ensuring the modification and updating of product information across a variety of sales and distribution channels. This process assures that the entire business structure of any organization thrives on consistent and up-to-date information.

PIM experienced rapid growth in the late 1990s to the early 2000s because of the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) and online retail portals.

Benefits of a PIM System

An efficient PIM System forms a common ground of engagement and understanding that keeps businesses, customers and suppliers in touch.

Note that as products and services change form or are withdrawn from the market, the statuses of raw materials, machinery as well as suppliers change in unison. PIM communicates these dynamics in an efficient and proactive manner, to mitigate any adverse effects on sales and projected income.

A PIM System delivers a faster delivery time for products/services to the market, while at the same time enhancing operational structures and boosting sales across various customer engagement channels.

What is PIM Software?

A key feature with businesses with inventories of products is Store Keeping Unit (SKU). As retail/small businesses expand, keeping a handle on product data proves a formidable challenge. So SKUs, product descriptions, pricing among others turn up unwieldy and overwhelming.

Enter PIM Software. This software helps businesses manage/organize all product information across multiple channels, in a cohesive and optimized manner. With PIM software, businesses can minimize market disruptions and associated overhead costs. At the same time, organizations can take advantage of quick product introduction into the market as well as a boost in overall sales.

General Features of PIM Software

Any robust PIM Software application carries out a combination of the following functions, including:

Centralizing all product information in a place or designated access places.
Distributing product data across multiple channels or funnels
Creating workflow schedules for supplier data
Creating supplier onboarding interfaces to enhance data quality and minimize downturns
Enhancing quicker search capabilities and effective query times.
Creating a planning guide to ease other associated processes like product launches, marketing campaigns, and promotions.
Enabling seamless communication among the various channels of customer engagement.
Rendering data information in any number of languages including English, French, German etc.
Offering room for scaling and expansion, as the business grows.
Enabling real-time communication/collaboration among assigned staff and team member involved in data information management.
Providing a safe and secure environment for the sharing of product data information between suppliers and teammates.
Providing in-built SEO optimized tools and resources

In the final analysis, a PIM system software complements an effective data information structure, so businesses can give and obtain inputs and outputs, in a seamless manner.

What is Catsy PIM Software?

Catsy started operations in 2003. In that year, a group of people, spanning builders, fixers and makers to tackle the challenges faced by businesses with managing product data information.

Catsy is a product information management (PIM) and catalog software platform that houses product images, specifications, and data

Catsy assists businesses and companies simplify product information and data management by easing the process of storing images, descriptions and other details in one place.

The Catsy PIM software offers businesses and organizations a three-pronged approach to the effective management of product information data. This tripod system comprises Digital Asset Management ( DAM), Product Information Management( PIM) as well as Syndicate. They are as follows:

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

Under this module, Catsy offers businesses and customers the ability to organize digital media assets and centralize product images. In more detail, users can save and connect product images with corresponding descriptions and specifications. Users can access these resources at the touch of a button. This platform is sometimes referred to as Image management software.

Catsy PIM management software also enables users to export and import files and records from any source. Documents such as Excel files can be uploaded and shuffled within designated categories of product data information.
With Catsy, clients can publish product data and information on notable e-commerce sites like Amazon, Alibaba, Jet among others. With a push of a button.

III. Are you scared of having to input each and every amendment for different products, prices, and specification? You do not need to worry as Catsy PIM software comes with the ability to carry out mass product information updates, with an easy bulk update tool. The process is automated and seamless.

Product Information Management (PIM)

Under Catsy PIM Software, clients operate in a virtual environment structured to collect, manage, run, export and syndicate information and data on products and services. The choice exists to enrich these sources of product information from one central hub or to synchronize access to data from multiple sources.

From the starting point of deciding what data to input and update, to the final stages involving customer engagement, marketing, and sales enhancement, clients can trust Catsy PIM Software to deliver on its promises?

Syndication

Clients can look forward to performing any of the following tasks, with Catsy’s PIM software:

Publish catalogs, new prices, specifications, brochures and other relevant information with Catsy’s InDesign publishing Automation.
Update product catalogs and modules regarding prices, images, specifications with a click of a button.
Catsy’s software automatically filters through your product catalog to create navigable indexes and table of contents, for effective search and query processes.
Text and Images are linked seamlessly to appropriate products with Catsy’s auto-placed Text and Images feature.

Features of Catsy PIM Software

Catsy PIM Software aims to help small, medium and large scale businesses cope with the management and running of changes in product pricing, specifications, and cataloging.

The key features of Catsy’s PIM Software include the following:

PIM for Brands

Already Catsy provides PIM software solutions to brands such as La-Z-Boy, Whirlpool, Sysco, and Wastequip. The objective for brands is to infuse the brand loyalty and objectives in creating suitable PIM software for these companies.

Catsy’s strategies for brands covers specific customer engagement across the following areas:

Continuous Updates to Drive Conversions

Leading brands rest easy with Catsy’s fully automated updates effected on products during changes and conversions. In this module, data is connected at regular intervals to images to streamline organizational structures, for effective operations.

Centralizing Product Images

Businesses enjoy excellent service including faceted searches/queries, automated thumbnails which aids the simple transformation of images to desired formats as well as easy-to-view sample images.

Centralizing Product Data

Catsy PIM software takes into consideration the sensitive nature of product information and data. To this end, clients enjoy features such as security and role management. Under this module, specific team members get controlled access to data, while changes to product data are tracked and stored.
Catsy PIM software also offers advanced table features and support. Here, complicated product listings break into manageable parts for a less cumbersome access.

Businesses can link product data and information across a wide network of channels with the availability of Catsy’s kits and accessories.

Doing Business on Marketing Platforms

Businesses can take advantage of the reach and spread of online commerce sites like Amazon, Jet, and Walmart to boost sales. Catsy’s PIM software comes in handy with the availability of automated spreadsheets for product data. With a click of a button, users of Catsy’ s software can go live on these online sites by selecting products and choosing categories.

Data Governance Product Information

Under Catsy’s Data Governance, businesses can perform any of the following operations:

Filter out Unwanted Data

Companies and businesses desire to engage customers with accurate product data and information. To this end, Catsy’s PIM software catches problems with data with validation and workflow tools at the inputting stages. Here, data is screened and authenticated before posting on centralized Catsy Data Governance PIM platform.

Enhanced Product Data Completion

Businesses can enhance their product data completion rates through Catsy’s integrated validation process. Clients can choose from choices including required, optional and other suggested field paths.

Improve Consistency of Active Field Products

Businesses can enhance their brand with improved product data postings and organization. Catsy’s PIM software offers options for colors, sizes, orientations among other parameters. Clients can also reduce variable naming with organized mapping and field control options.

Fine-tune Channel Formatting

With Catsy’s PIM software, companies can capture important data along with formatting requirements that conform to the demands of targeted marketplaces

Workflow

Catsy’s PIM software also serves as veritable workflow station. To this end, users enjoy the following benefits:

Reduced Turnover Time

Users conserve man-hours and resources associated with effecting changes to product data information. Catsy speeds up the review and approval processes with integrated workflow tools. A structured notification schedule reduces such downtimes by as much as 60 percent.

Enhance Communication Channels

Team members in an organization can effectively share project data and other relevant information with simple task management tools. An added bonus is communication taking place within the Catsy software platform.

Eliminate Friction Points

Catsy’s PIM software assists clients with reducing or eliminating existing and potential areas of conflict and friction. This feature strengthens efficient communication with an organized structure for easy collaboration.

Custom PIM Software

Catsy offers flexibility to businesses seeking personalized solutions to their PIM needs. Catsy’s PIM software gives customized organizational and project management schedules to suit peculiar business realities.

Asset Transformation

Catsy believes that your data is your greatest asset. In that light, Catsy’s PIM software helps businesses make the most of data and product information to boost sales and spur growth. The following features help companies achieve these objectives:

Easy Creation of Images

Images are powerful tools for customer engagement. Catsy’s PIM software generates specific image files in specific dimensions/measurements to suit various online market platforms.

Enhance SEO Searches

Catsy’s intuitive PIM software enables businesses to engage effectively with asset metadata tagging and grading. This feature leads to enriched content and improved SEO rankings for your products.

Scaling and Replicability

Catsy’s Bulk digital asset transformation gives businesses the leverage to scale and grow with the addition of new products and processes.

SEO

Catsy’s PIM software understands the importance of generating product data that features at the top of ranks and online searches.

In this regard, organizations can utilize, assign and optimize product keywords to improve searches and queries.

Clients can also enrich their product data by including metadata for product images. Improved image descriptions not only enhance customer engagement but also makes such products better crawled by Google and other search engines.

Internal Sales Employees Platform

Catsy PIM software allows employees and affected staff of businesses and organizations to function optimally using the many work tools of the software.

Employees have access to centralized products catalogs and documents. With designated access capabilities, staff can quickly make on-the-spot marketing and sales decisions.
Staff can use optimized and powerful search tools to filter keywords and other product specifications.

III. Managers can streamline product searches with Catsy’s facets and filter options.

Catsy’s PIM Software solution is responsive and mobile-friendly, so staff and employees can review, update and effect product price changes on the road.

Customer Service Portal

Catsy knows that customer engagement is the key to the survival of the operations of any business.

Catsy PIM software solutions enable customer service representatives to attend to customer inquiries and other matters.

Enhanced Response times

Catsy’s platform allows users to respond in quick turnaround time. Operators have access to relevant information with keyword and optimized search options, a click away.

Market Places

Catsy’s PIM software solutions give businesses the adaptability needed to feature on a number of online marketplaces including Amazon and Walmart.

Users can engage and populate e-commerce platforms with product prices, images, and specifications. Clients can also enjoy the benefits of automatically map and transform product data for various channel constraints within the Catsy solution suite.

Automated Product Feed

By default, Catsy PIM software pushes out product descriptions, specifications, and images to targeted marketplaces, every two weeks. Users may also elect to fix their own schedules.

Obtain Content Completion Reports

Users of Catsy PIM software can obtain reports regarding data and image upload completion as well as the completion times for content pushed to marketplaces.

InDesign Catalog Plugin

PIM software works seamlessly with Adobe plugins to ease the automation of processes such as cataloging, creating specification sheets, pricing modules among other parameters.

Specification Sheet Creator

Users of Catsy’s PIM software can create customized specification sheets and work documents using powerful tools through Adobe Indesign.

Your employees do not have to worry about losing track of changes to products and prices, some of which take place by the minute. Stay abreast by simply refreshing plugin buttons to update specifications from Catsy product information management.

Catalogs

Business can generate on-demand PDF catalogs and price books in browser and print versions. This feature comes in handy for customer service personnel and sales representatives who need access to bulk information.

Catsy also offers the option of turning enriching your catalog with interactive elements such as product hotspots, links to e-commerce, keyword search as well as system analytics.

Price Books

Catsy’s intelligent software solution comes with inbuilt, professionally-looking price workbooks, which works for a variety of business systems. These price books populate readily with product data and images, as there is no need to adjust margins and spacing. However, users have the option of creating personalized price-book sheets to suit prevailing circumstances.

Catsy’s Unique Selling Point

Catsy drives engagement with her clients and feedback on software performance through activities on her blog. From this space, the company offers updates and recent happenings in the world of Product information management, insider tips and tricks among other discussions.

In one such case, this software solution providers offer the following helpful information in optimizing the use of PIM software:

Go for Responsive Catalogs

Users should choose responsive design resizes for product lists. This amendment will make it easy for customers to view product information in transit, using their smartphones and other portable devices.

Select Third-party Integration

Your PIM software solution should allow work with existing enterprise resource planning applications. Catsy’s intuitive API structure gives you the leverage to access or export/import data from programs your business works with.

Aim for Fewer Returns

The overall objective of any PIM software solution is ensuring that customers’ product description is accurate and matches demand. If this is not the case, buyers may get frustrated and make returns.

Catsy ensures that product data is standardized and consistent, eliminating the occurrence of product data mismatch.

Compact Digital Asset Management

PIM solutions should not only keep your product data suite organized. Such solutions should put all images, prices, specifications, marketing/sales assets, branding guidelines as well as other relevant information in an accessible, central location.

Employees should be able to retrieve product pictures or specifications without any hassles.

Multichannel Support Structures

Product data information come in custom, hardcopy catalogs.Present day realities also demand that such information come available on e-commerce websites as well as online marketplaces. Having such a spread increases the time taken for product introduction in the marketplace.

Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities

Catsy’s solution enables users to match products with alternative options, related fields or accessories as well as other useful recommendations for the customer to try out.

An efficient PIM software solution help staff deal with customer demands on a one-on-one basis. Catsy’s software suite gives businesses an excellent tool in managing and selling stocks and inventory. Features of the Catsy PIM solution increase sales revenue, streamline extraction/query times for product data as well as harmonize operations across multiple customer-engagement channels.

Conclusion

Catsy’s PIM Solution offers flexibility and performance for businesses seeking to optimize product data cataloging to boost sales.

Reviews from satisfied customers highlight the benefits of using Catsy PIM software solution. They include creating a central repository for varied content and information, quick access and query times as well as the structured organization of products, images, links, and specifications.

Now that you know how PIM drives brand and distributor growth, click here to see what Catsy can do for you.

Product Page Optimization – A How To

Product Page Optimization for Marketplaces and Websites: maximize product pageviews and conversion rates with the tips in this blog.

Features of Product Page Optimization

A popular belief is that first impressions count the most. An optimized product page serves as a business’ first port of call in engaging with customers.

Choosing an appropriate way to showcase your products is essential, as it can either drive users to continue to checkout or click away from your store. As such, product pages should have the following features to keep and convert visitors into customers:

Insightful Product Descriptions

Product pages should have excellent product descriptions. They are usually carefully written and vividly displayed.

Useful product descriptions comprise effective buzzwords and phrases like “for your utmost pleasure”, “built to last” among others. These catchy terms set out to get the visitor excited about the product or service.

More often than not, the descriptions target a particular segment of the market but are simple enough for anyone to understand.

Effective Product Shots

Product images should highlight the enticing features of the product. The shots should be of a high resolution so that customers can readily identify the important details of the item for purchase.

Live Stock Levels and Information

Many successful ecommerce sites incorporate a live feed of the availability of every product on the site. This action serves some purposes.

First, it portrays the business as professional and thorough in their services. This assures the customer that the products can be trusted. On another level, a live update on depleting stock levels has a psychological effect. If the customer is satisfied with the product features, such real-time information may spur the visitor to make an immediate purchase decision, before the product sells out.

Utilize Social Media

Many successful online marketing platforms also incorporate social media into their product pages. Unique hashtags are assigned to products with links and distributed across the social networks including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among others.

Leveraging on social media allows some businesses generate product images which help their marketing goals.

Size Charts and Displays

An effective product display page provides pertinent information for customers, such as clothing sizes. It will be frustrating to order a shirt you thought was medium sized, only to discover it was several sizes smaller than advertised.

Unobtrusive Backgrounds

Award-winning product pages use photography styles that cut out any interference from the background.

Such sites keep the attention of the customer of the product itself. The product page looks seamless and easy-to-navigate for the interested visitor.

Informative Shipping Information

The next big worry for the customer, after any purchase, is the receipt of goods. Good product sites feature clear and simple shipping information and terms, so the customer understands what he or she is getting from the deal.

Incorporate Customer Reviews

There is nothing as moving as the testimonial of a satisfied customer of a particular product or service. As such, effective product pages have a section dedicated to customer reviews of their products. These reports include personal information regarding product performance, strengths, weakness and any other recommendations.

Customer-generated reviews help to increase conversion rates, as people are more likely to buy a product with a list of pros, cons and other personal recommendations.

Product Page Optimization Best Practices

For E-commerce and online store owners, your product page plays a vital role in engaging customers and boosting sales.

Product pages must contain essential elements that bring your company’s brand, values and the product/service itself to life. A business’ product page should also make shopping, a pleasurable experience for customers.

To optimize your e-commerce product pages, attract higher conversion rates, create an exciting shopping experience as well as turn visitors to customers, the following tips come in handy:

Map out Essential Elements for the Product Page

The key strategy here is utilizing the structures, layout, and elements of successful online marketing sites and portals.

Successful e-commerce portals like Walmart and Amazon employ deliberate measures in combining these elements for maximum effect. These businesses pay attention to detail in ensuring that product pages get the most of the constituent elements.

Specifically, the importance of each element shows in the loading order on the product pages. These features are as follows:

Logos & Navigation

These items should stand-out for customers to reach with no minimal effort. The navigational tools should link seamlessly to other pages of the website.

Product Thumbnails

This element serves the purpose of assuring the customer that she/he is on the right page. Thumbnails also give snap previews of products and services as the page loads.

Product Title & Breadcrumbs

Product titles reinforce a customer’s choice and allow navigation back to related searches or page for other product categories.

Main Product Image

This is the desired target purchase of the customer. It is set to load even before the customer finishes browsing through the section.

Draw Attention to the Front and Center Views of the Product

Understand that visitors and customers only have so much time on their hands. They need to make quick decisions, especially with other competing ecommerce sites in the running. Your main product should highlight the front and center views when clicked upon.

These views help clients decipher details of the product they are looking for in a short time. Another important consideration attached to place the element at a prominent location.

Showcase Shipping Information

Studies show that shipping costs form an important consideration in making a product purchase. In fact, the higher the shipping costs involved, the higher the probability of a non-sale.

Successful ecommerce sites not only put shipping fees close to the selected product(s), they also offer competitive rates or deliver such products for free.

Provide Extra Details

Successful online platforms never underestimate the power of information. And they provide such at every opportunity. This stance takes care of customers who desire more specific and general knowledge of desired products and services.

Extra information should help the customer answer question and clear any doubts, primarily since they cannot physically test such products or talk to a Sales Representative.

The information provided should include the base material of the product, the style, design features, instructions for care and maintenance, manufacturer’s details as well as product metadata for further research or inquiries.

The benefits of providing extra details are many. First, they give a unique perspective to a business’ product offering and sets such products apart from the competition. How are you focusing on Product Page Optimization?

Secondly, such data helps boosts the site’s SEO ranking on web engines and crawlers. Also, the company enjoys the reputation of being an expert in the field. Perhaps, the most crucial point is the fact the customer is empowered enough to make the best decision concerning the products purchased.

Using Imagery

Imagery serves as a potent tool in descriptive and figurative language to represent ideas, concepts, and innovations to appeal to a reader’s physical sense.

In the online marketing world, imagery assumes great significance. Businesses select images that enhance the conveyance of a message or concept relating to the company’s brand.

The many objectives of product imagery include fostering customer engagement by creating an attachment to the brand as well enhancing sales/revenues.

Optimizing Images for Product Pages

Image optimization, according to search giant Google, is both an art and science. It is the former because there are no sacrosanct paths on how best to deploy or compress any one product image. This is because images are subject to the nature of the product as well as the effects of other elements comprising product pages.

Hence optimizing images not only saves downloadable bytes but it also improves the performance of the ecommerce site. Therefore, customers can view product pages in a short time as well as have a pleasant surfing and shopping experience.

Image Optimization Tips

Images serve as powerful tools for infusing quality into product pages. As the famous saying goes “a picture tells a thousand words!”

Optimizing Images for products pages should cut across critical areas of consideration.

Businesses can look at finding creative ways to depict their brands. The goal is getting customers to associate your product with image impressions that last, even after leaving the product site.

Another strategy is creating relational concepts to the product or service. This approach is seen in the Michael Jordan Gatorade drink advert, where his perspiration is colored orange.The thrust of this campaign focused on consumers linking physical activity with the need to drink a bottle of Gatorade.

Finally, product imagery should support the business’ brand and message. A restaurant for lovers should opt for dark shades of color for a romantic ambiance, rather than brightly colored ensembles.

Businesses and companies can utilize the following image optimization techniques/tips:

Consider Image Attributes

The quality and properties of your image files can affect customer response as well as the search ranking of the product page. Before you handle, save and upload product images, you must be mindful of the following:

Make use of target words. These words help puy product pages within the top ranks of search engines so that customers can reach your site without much ado.
Use descriptive words that convey as much data/information as possible
Hyphenation between target words enhances image optimization.
Avoid using abbreviations unless customers search for them specifically.

Use ALT text

Standard routes for image optimization involve the use of Alt text. An alt text, in simple terms, describes the photograph itself. Alt texts include target keyword, descriptors, and full words.

To obtain the most benefits from alt text, experts advice businesses to go for 10 to 15 words per text, avoid keyword stuffing/repetition as well maintain communication in English.

Title Text

A title text could also double as a call-to-action to visitors and existing customers. When composed of the right words, Title texts have the potential to increase conversions and click-through rates.

Use Relevant Images

This tip seems like a given, but it needs emphasizing. You should only go for images that relate to the product(s) offered for sale and help customers have a thrilling shopping experience.

Do not let emotions get in the way of selecting the most appropriate image for your product page. The image should show the customer the most compelling features of the product, so he/she can take the action of buying the item in question.

Place Anchor Texts for Maximum Effect

If your product site uses images on a stand-alone basis, it is advisable to use target keywords as your anchor text.

When customers hover over these anchor words, they are prompted to head over to the product photos themselves. When this action repeatedly happens over time, the likelihood of your product pages posting high ranking scores increases.

Keep Image File Size in Check

Businesses must understand that customers have only so much time on their hands, in the search for products to buy. If product image takes a long time to load, visitors may very well leave for the product pages of a competitor.

In fact, estimates put the time spent by the average customer for page views at 3 to 5 seconds. So if images are too big and take too long to load, your business may experience reduced revenues due to lost sales.

Faster sites are easier to visit and enjoy for the user, and they’re also easier for search engines to index and rank accordingly.

As a rule of thumb, image optimization experts advocate keeping images/pictures at or below 70 kb. A host of software applications exists that can help businesses compress and resize images to optimize them for search.

Popular image editing software includes Adobe Photoshop, Apple’s Preview, TinyPNG, Compress JPEG as well as Shopify.

Create Mobile-friendly Versions

The 21st-century customer engages in a lot of activities on the go. This characteristic also covers his/her shopping habits. The ubiquity of the smartphone and other portable devices also fuels this lifestyle.

Businesses should create mobile-friendly versions of product images. Customers should enjoy seamless engagement on online websites as well as mobile sites.Relegating quick cellular responsiveness to the background has the potential of increasing customer departures and bounce rates.

For mobile-responsive versions of product images, businesses should remember to take image shots at appropriate distances, upload brightly-lit photographs and use a white background to focus more attention on the product.

Employ a White Background for Product Images

Standard industry practices advocate using white backgrounds for product images. This is the norm with big ecommerce platforms and sites. Product Page Optimization is Key

The advantages to using white as the product image background. White makes the editing process simpler and such online platforms achieve consistency in appearance and style. This, in turn, causes customers to zoom into product details without distractions from the background.

Using a white background also reduces overhead costs associated with making edits and amendments to product images and listings.

Take Multiple Photographs

Product images should convince the visitor or existing customer to purchase an item or product. Therefore, many large ecommerce sites deploy a varied and broad range of photographs, depicting the product.

Businesses use a mix of product photos to highlight important angle. The styles will also include emphasizing key points or features of the item. For instance products like shoes can have views showing the soles, stitch patterns as well as well the various color schemes available.

A standard methodology involves the use of in-context images.In-context photographs stir the imagination of the customers and allow him/her see the product in actual use. An example is a close-up shot of a runner with a fitness wrist watch, showing how much calories he/she has burned.

Use Accurate Product Image Metadata

Image metadata is further information that qualifies displayed data. Businesses should ensure that their product photos come with the right compression margins and incorporate the proper aspect ratios.

These parameters are essential in keeping the site navigable and allowing customers enjoy a pleasurable shopping experience.

The following tips come in handy for optimizing product image metadata:

Use the right ALT tags that accurately describe the image
Use suitable title tags
Employ relevant file names utilizing hyphens (e.g., my-picture.jpg)
Ensure product images have the same height and width. From experience, square images give better display ratios across all devices. Rectangular images may give awkward results, especially if you have products with long lengths or widths.
Ensure the images are big enough to enable zoom. Depending on the setup of your ecommerce site, you will use different sized versions of the same image for thumbnails, collection images, product images and the zoom functionality. The ideal situation is for large-sized images that permit this zoom function to work without any unnecessary distortions. Images between 1,000px and 1,600px are common and used often.

Protect Images

Businesses can take the path of protecting their product images from illegal or unauthorized use. Experts recommend registering for a creative commons licenses, which in the least, grants the business powers of attribution.

However, many successful eCommerce websites make it easy for users to borrow images. To this end, provide an embeddable HTML snippet for the product image, including attribution and a link to the product page.

Working with Image Formats

The images that work best for product websites are Vector and Raster images. Each type of image has its pros and cons.

Vector images are zoom and resolution-independent. As a result, vector images are ideal for viewing on multiple devices.They also work well with simple geometric shapes like logs, texts, and icons.

On the other hand, Raster images work best in environments with complex scenes, irregular shapes and intricate details.Note that because Raster images are resolution dependent, you will have to multiple versions of the image at various resolutions.

Image Optimization Checklist

It is worth mentioning again that Image optimization is both an art and science.In other words, human intuition, as well as developed techniques and algorithms, help in selecting the most appropriate image from and size.

The following techniques and tips will help with the image optimization process for E-commerce and online marketing platforms:

Prioritize Vector Formats

These formats are independent of scale and resolution. Hence they are suitable for use in many devices and high-resolution environments.

Compress Image Assets

Drawing applications often contain unnecessary metadata. businesses should reduce such excesses with the application of GZIP compression for SVG assets. Product Page Optimization!

Get Rid of Unnecessary Image Metadata

This excess information, like location information and camera settings, impacts negatively of the loading time for product pages. Use suitable tools to delete these data.

Be Mindful of Scaling for Images

Consider that images on product pages feature on multiple resolutions and devices. It is important to resize images on the server and ensure that display sizes are as close as possible to the natural size of the image. Take care when handling extra large product photos.

Conclusion

A central question to addressing image optimization is whether a product page requires images to convey the message of the brand and achieve targeted effects. If the answer is yes, then the responsibility of finding the right images and associated optimization tools rests on the shoulders of the design team of the company.

The most appropriate optimization strategies should take into consideration the nature of the product, the target market as well as the skillful use of related software applications and tools.

Now that you know how optimize your product pages, click here to see what Catsy can do for you.

Using Images to Sell Online

Sell online to the maximum and grow your market share by filling your product pages with rich digital assets: a wide variety of images.

Why Do My Products Need More Than One Image To Sell Online?

Many people rarely buy anything until they see it. How can you sell online if no one can see your product? In fact, they even want to touch, hold, and spin. To give clients the opportunity to do all these, you need top-notch photography and graphics. The description you provide about a product cannot be enough. It is the image that makes the client to imagine that lovely sofa in the living room.

To raise the product sales and sell online more, you need to include several images. At eBay, sellers are required to add up to 12 photos of the product they are selling. Other marketplaces will not display your product without images. Even when they list the item, it will only be shown when a client searches using the product code. Therefore, why many images?

More Images Help to Highlight Important Details of your Product

When you provide high-quality content about a product or brand, everything goes to the reader’s imagination. They can only imagine the product. But photos bring out the details of the product more vividly. Your clients do not simply want a glimpse of the item. Rather, they want all details in images. This is why you need images to sell online.

Adding many photos helps to capture the finer details of the product so that clients can decide to buy. If you are selling a refrigerator, a number of images will capture the inner parts, bring out the color, and size. Do not let the opportunity of convincing the client to buy slip away. Give every detail of the product using photos.

Raising Clients’ Confidence to Buy the Product

Just like with physical stores, online clients want to develop confidence in the item they are ordering. Imagine getting into a showroom to buy a car. You do not want to simply get a single glimpse. You will check the wheels, go under the bonnet, and finally get inside. At the end of it all, you will have the confidence that the car is okay and the perfect match for personal desire. Now, this is the experience you must replicate with images about your product on sale. How can images capture such experience?

The images you capture should target making the product as real as possible. This means capturing all components that the user needs to decide to buy. Make sure that the color, dimensions, and all the features are carefully brought out. Let the user get the real taste of the item.

Images Help to Increase User Engagement

There is a growing trend of using images to search for products online. The link between organic and image searches means that revamping the images will increase the site’s online visibility. Websites with great content and high-quality images get over 90% more views compared to those that are text-based only. In addition to attracting visitors to the site, the images will also raise the engagement.

Every client will take longer on the site looking at images from different angles. Remember that images should tell the story of a product. Your visitors will check the image and revisit the description to determine how well the item matches their spaces and lifestyle.

To Demonstrate the Product’s Superiority to That of Competitors

When you place a product online, it is important to know that a lot of competitors are also after the same client. It is an open race. Clients want to compare items from different companies to establish which is better. Multiple photos help to bring out every detail of the item so that the target client can scrutinize and conclude that your item is good.

Delivering Scale

One unique component that images help to bring out is the sense of size. Well, no person wants to buy a deep freezer only to find that it cannot get through the main door! Though the product dimensions are always provided in the description, many users make the decision based on photos. Whether it is a cleaning machine, bed, mattress, ice maker, or other items, the images will help the potential client understand its scale.

What to Capture in Your Product Photos

Now that you know the importance of using multiple images, let us turn

the components of a great image. When creating images of your product to help drive sales, here is what to capture.

Surrounding: As you take a product’s image, the surrounding is very important. The environment should help to strengthen the item’s value. For example, a luxury bed’s image should be taken in a posh bedroom.
Details: A good image should capture the details of the item vividly. This means color, scale, texture, seams, and other important features.
Show the item being used: Your client will be prompted to buy an item if it is shown being used. If you are selling earrings, some of the photos should demonstrate it when worn by a user.
The right size: Depending on the target marketplace, the image should be of the right size. Here, it is important to follow the specific marketplace’s requirements for images to use what they recommend.

Now that you know how to sell online with robust images and content, click here to see what Catsy can do for you.

Images: the Best Way to Improve Conversion Rates

Conversation rate can be maximized by enriching your product pages with images. Learn how to use images to maximize sales revenue and grow market share.

Are you happy with the traffic you’re getting to your ecommerce store, but unhappy with the conversion rate? If yes, you must strive for a thorough, effective and better tactic that can make your visitors to take action than the one you currently have.

You see, coming to grips with the basic and modern conversion rate optimization techniques is all it takes to stay ahead of the competition. In fact, you don’t even need to spend a lot of money to improve conversion rates as most businesses do.

While several variables affect conversion, one of the most important elements to getting someone to convert is using images. The number of people shopping online is constantly increasing. And to get a good percentage of these prospective customers visiting your site and purchasing your products, they need to be enticed, attracted and find value from your site. Incorporating images into your site or giving life to existing images may be what you need to change the numbers.

Unfortunately, the mistake that a lot of business owners make when using images to improve conversion rate is focusing so much on purchasing random captivating images on stock photo sites or capturing their own without necessarily thinking about their brand. They realize that their visual marketing methodology isn’t giving the results they anticipated.

So, how can you use images to improve your site’s conversions?

Use Quality Product Images

Product presentation can boost or harm your sales. An image of your product that is poorly photographed is likely to yield poor results compared to a well-photographed product.

Just like customers visit traditional brick-and-mortar stores to inspect, touch and feel their purchases – and probably talk to the seller – online shopping is no different. Now more than ever, customers are more interested in products they can see and those that provide some sought of engagement. Using appealing and quality product images is one of the proven ways to keep your visitors engaged and possibly to take action.

Other improvements you can make to your product images to boost conversion rate include using big and multiple images, and without stressing enough, showing your products in different forms and many different angles as possible.

A big image is more noticeable, less bounce-worthy, and could communicate a message in a clearer way, sometimes better than your product description. On the other hand, multiple images give your customers the option to go through multiple photos in case they need to.

Use Relevant Images

A compelling and relevant image that is purposeful to your website’s goals can do more than just decorate the site. It can tremendously improve your conversion rate.

Because shoppers pay a lot of attention to your site’s images, it’s simply not enough to pick random photos from your stock photo site. As a shrewd visual marketer who want to get the best out of your images, you need only to pick those that resonate well with your customers. Your target buyers must feel more connected to the image for them to click the purchase button. Without which, you’ll be stuck trying different methods to make more sales.

More importantly, it’s imperative that you understand how to select the right images without making mistakes. If you’re treating your images as content, they need to make a clear connection and send the intended message to your target customers. However, if you’re using images together with text it helps the customer. They can more easily determine exactly what the value is.

Use Images that Appeal to the Emotions of Customers

Users are more likely to make assumptions from quality, relevant, and detailed images than to read correlating copy. If your images can appeal to the emotions of your customers, your conversion rate will swiftly improve.

To leverage on this emotional rule, select 360-degree photos and use them prudently in various areas of your website. By doing this, you target buyers will be able to comprehend relatable information about your product. Presenting your product photos in different angles helps your customers better relate to it. You’ll likely be reducing bounces rate especially if your visitors can find and see various options of what they’re searching.

If your website comprises of expensive products, complementing your product description with genuine customer testimonials can be a big game changer for your conversation rate. Users attracted to such products usually take a keen interest in the product’s authenticity. The only way to convince your target customers that your products are authentic and to build trust in your brand is by featuring testimonials.

Use Digital Mascots

The use of digital mascots is on the rise. While the goal of using mascots in the past was to build trust and brand recognition. They are nowadays integral for boosting conversions as well. If you don’t directly use mascots to get customers to convert. Effective digital mascots will help increase the conversion rates.

More often than not, customers don’t buy into a product but buy into a brand. Many big brands realized this customer trend and put their focus into creating a simple corporate identity, which has helped them retain and reach consumers.

The important thing to have in mind if you want to increase conversion rate using mascots is to create an image that customers can relate to. Use it to not only establish a brand within the mind of your buyers but also instill a sense of trust. If you do this the right way, online shoppers will perceive you as an established business, and without doubt, you’ll have the edge over your competitors.

There you have it folks, four solid ways you can use images to improve conversion rate. Remember, the internet is full of strategies and programs about how to maximize website conversions. All of them might not work for your business. Strategize and select a program that will help you achieve your business goals. If you’re not sure what conversion optimization strategy to use, these simple tips should get you started.

Now that you know how your conversion rate can be improved by using more images, click here to see what Catsy can do for you.