Product content managers: who are they, what do they do?

The weight of social networks, the virality of information, the development of marketplaces... Content has become king and has made the Content Manager a central role in the company. His dual role in branding and the product places him at the heart of the content strategy.

His colleague, the Product Content Manager, focuses on product content. This is the type of profile that the Quable team works with on a daily basis: experts in merchandising content, with a key role in the big e-commerce machine. Although they are less well known than their branding counterparts, they are at the crossroads between the editorial and digital functions, accompanying the entire product life cycle. A role in 3 acts.

1. Creating marketing content: the hub content manager

When a new product is ready to be sold by the brand, it is necessary to create all the content related to it and to feed the different communication and distribution channels. The Content Manager is responsible for creating and/or coordinating this content, which includes the following tasks

• Product sheet management including definition, collection, formatting and optimisation of content,
• Creation of adequate descriptions according to the constraints of each distribution channel This means knowing the differences between the sales platforms and adapting the texts to optimise the content and form,
• Video creation: planning, scripting and monitoring of shoots, or editing yourself from filmed product shots,
• Updating photographs/samples Collecting packshots and scripting them on the site to give the customer the opportunity to see the product in detail and provide a compelling experience,
• Creation of blog articles about the products: for referencing, communication and/or sharing on social networks,
• Posts for social networks: depending on the specificities of each network, it is a question of preparing verified content by adapting it in order to highlight the product and maximise the impact of the publications,
• The online publication of catalogues within the deadlines (sometimes internationally).

The central role of the Content Product Manager is to ensure the overall coherence of the content in order to create an attractive story and ecosystem around the product. This is especially true for content available on sales channels, where the customer is most demanding.

2. The conductor

Organising content and distributing it across the various marketing channels requires mastering and embodying the brand platform while adapting the marketing discourse and the Tone of Voice to the various media and products.

The Product Content Manager is responsible for the e-commerce site's animation strategyThe Product Content Manager is responsible for providing visibility for new products and key features. He/she carries out this work while respecting the logic of the user experience defined by the brand.

Result: product information is highlighted in line with the brand and e-commerce strategy to boost sales and meet customer expectations.

3. The tool juggler

In all aspects of their work, Product Content Managers have to collect raw material, transform it and distribute it. This requires the handling of a large number of tools at different stages of the product life cycle, which must be understood and handled on a daily basis to optimise product data. This includes in particular :

• Content collection and management tools: ERP, flat files, connected commerce platforms, CMS,
• Tools for creating catalogues or resizing photographs, media upload platforms (social networks, Youtube, etc.)

With his knowledge, he knows how to make the most of each of his tools with the sole objective of optimising the management of his content.

Versatile in his roles as director, conductor and juggler, the Product Content Manager's task has been simplified by the emergence of tools such as PIM. The latter is positioned as a true facilitator of content management work thanks to :

• The collection of information directly centralized in the PIM,
• Enrichment of media and texts in a single database,
• Automated dissemination according to pre-defined enrichment criteria,
• The management of content and team enrichment KPIs via a common dashboard at PIM.

Conclusion

Collaborative, automated and centralized: the work of the Content Product Manager has never been easier. The Product Content Manager and his PIM have many years of collaboration ahead of them.