Accurate Product Information Is the Foundation of Successful Marketing | Marketing Maestros | Blogs | ANA

Accurate Product Information Is the Foundation of Successful Marketing

November 8, 2021

By Ceejay S Teku

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There's a clear difference between mediocre marketing and successful marketing. While a variety of factors can influence the outcome of a campaign, it's in a business's best interest to take as few risks as possible. To do that means thinking ahead by furnishing a foundation of accurate product information.

The dire impact of inaccurate product information


Here's a calamity with which your business may struggle: having a high conversion rate paired with a high return. Usually, inaccurate product information is the culprit.

Whether your data is incorrect, missing, or duplicated, your product content will promote an image very different from what the customer may receive. As a result, customers will unhappily send the product back, and worse still, leave a bad review.

Product information accuracy means data is not only accurate to the product, but to its target audience.

Here are some suggestions for how product information should reflect its intended audience as much as the product itself.

Align product information with the ideal customer


The very first question product information must answer is who is the product serving? And what is the personality of the ideal customer? An ideal customer persona is a representation of the most desired potential buyer. Creating this persona will include pain points, goals, demographics, and the channels they frequent. Before embarking on a marketing campaign, devising this avatar focuses its messaging.

To construct the ideal customer persona, answer the following questions:

  • Who is this product for?
  • In what way does it benefit them?

Without knowing the customer well, how can you market the product?

Good product information starts with understanding your customer. Only then can you use this information to develop high-quality, relevant product information, both textual and visual. With images it's easier to publish in-use or application photography of the product that better resonates with the right consumer.

Sometimes there can be multiple personas and/or demographics. In this case, find commonalities to direct the marketing of the product to more than one audience.

Product marketing starts with in-depth product data


Without a robust set of product data, it's not possible to comprehensively promote any product. Dimensional data is where it all starts. Critical data include accurate specifications, logistic data, product images, and titles. As for marketing content, accurate data is the stepping stone to laying out the features and benefits as they pertain to the ideal customer avatar.

Accurate product information promotes marketing goals


Product information creates the foundation for meeting marketing goals. Whether you are looking to optimize your keywords or connect with your ideal customer, ensuring your product data is crisp, clear, and correct is the first step.

Here's how investing in accuracy drives successful marketing attempts:

  • Accurate product information speaks to the ideal customer. Accurate specifications confirm what the customer needs to see to make an informed purchase decision.
  • Accurate images allow avatars to get an accurate understanding of the product in very little time.
  • Accurate titles result in optimal AdWords spending, leading to higher conversion rates.
  • Accurate content and descriptions provide a space for marketers to speak directly to avatars, to tell a story about the product or brand.
  • Accuracy of features and benefits (in bulleted format) allows avatars to quickly discover if, why, and how a product is valuable to them.

The solution to product information inaccuracies


Paying more attention to product information quality might not be enough of a solution. Inevitably, as a business grows, more SKUs will overload your processes with data. In this case, it helps to consider a software solution, like a product information management (PIM) system. PIM solves product inaccuracies for you by centralizing product data, validating specs, and grading for completeness, among other automated optimization tools.


The views and opinions expressed in Marketing Maestros are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.


Ceejay Teku is the founder of Catsy, a product information management and digital asset management software. He started in the trenches of e-commerce as a software developer and was soon challenged with the complexities of product content that powers e-commerce. This led to the development of Catsy as a product information management system: purpose-built for brands that sell through distributors, retailers, direct-to-customer channels.


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