Six Reasons Your Business Needs a PIM

Where is your product information stored? 

Do you have a neat, centralized place where you can trust everything is accurate? 

Or do you struggle to find product information regularly because there is not a singular place employees manage product information?

If you’re tired of the headaches and frustration caused by a lack of an organized product information management solution, know this doesn’t have to be your reality any longer.  

Here’s just a few of our favorite reasons why marketers at manufacturing companies need Product Information Management (PIM) software. 

Six Reasons Why Your Business Needs a PIM

1. Increased Collaboration

Not having a trusted source of information causes internal friction for many reasons. 

According to Zendesk, only 22 percent of management reported they believe their teams share information well.

Data silos can lead to poor decision-making based on inaccurate data, difficulty locating information across the business,  decreases productivity levels, causes poor customer experience, and so on.

PIM solutions actively work to break down these silos so teams can work better together to share information that is crucial to keeping the business working smoothly. 

Once everyone in the organization has easy access to product information, marketing teams can better support other departments within the organization easier by creating assets like sales resources faster. 

With a PIM solution, all departments can be aligned on the accurate product data, leaving fewer frustrations, interruptions in workflows, and better communication across all departments. 

2. Increased Productivity

On average, employees spend more than three hours looking for information that should be accessible. 

Marketers are already being asked to do more with less and don’t have time to be tracking down information for every single product experience they need to create essential marketing materials. 

PIMs enable marketers to get more done in several ways. One, it reduces the need to waste hours tracking down specific product information because everything is already loaded into the PIM system. 

Secondly, if the PIM software is part of a bigger technology ecosystem like a Product Experience Manager (PXM) platform, when product data inevitably changes, you don't have to remember where that product data is used in your marketing materials nor do you have to manually update it (like you would if you were using WordPress or Adobe). 

3. Improves Accuracy

When data is saved in multiple places, how do you know what place is accurate? 

With product information, you can’t just guess what’s correct. 

Take a piece of construction equipment for example. If you have conflicting sources of specifications and weight for the machinery, that could negatively impact the outcome of your customers’ projects.  As a result, customer churn increases, and trust is negatively impacted.

Data accuracy is greatly improved through the use of PIM tools. For starters, the organization only has one place the information is saved, so team members don’t need to create conflicting spreadsheets. 

PIM solutions can also help designate who has editing access to product data so that not just anyone within the organization can manipulate the information. 

There’s also improved accuracy for marketing materials if connected to a Product Experience Management (PXM) solution that also has digital experience creation functionality. If product data ever changes within the PIM, the changes should be reflected instantaneously within the marketing materials so you’re never putting out inaccurate information to your customers. 

4. Increase Time to Market 

On the topic of marketing materials, how long does it take your organization to create resources like a product catalog right now without the use of a PIM or PXM? A few months probably. 

Consumer behavior moves fast and so must your time-to-market for marketing materials if you wish to remain competitive. You can’t afford to wait months or even a year to launch a new product guide, for example

Immediate gratification is what customers are used to, so you must deliver on that expectation. 

PIMs help increase speed-to-market because it removes the hassle of hunting down product information. The product data is already loaded into the PIM, meaning you can simply pull in the product information you need in your product catalog, and launch the resource in just a few hours.  

Plus, if you go with a PXM that has PIM functionality and a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, you can pull in preloaded images, documents, and more into your marketing materials too. 

5. Increases Ability to Scale

When you take your organization global (or grow it beyond one location), you need solutions that scale with your business. 

The spreadsheets your team is likely using to store information if everyone is saving product data on their local drive or spreadsheets, that does not lead to the ability to scale.

The best PIMs grow with your business and allow it to scale without the frustrations of using your old methods. For example, Lumavate’s  PIM allows for unlimited users, custom data fields, and product types as your product line expands. 

6. Increased ROI

With PIM solutions, you can associate related parts and accessories to each product that can easily be pulled in from the PIM to digital experiences. 

Let's say you have a catalog of your products. You can easily pull in the products already related to the featured product to give customers the full picture of the products they can buy.

Plus, it leaves fewer returns when product info is accurate if customers are getting products with the exact features and specifications they were expecting. 

Start Using a PIM Today

Our unofficial seventh reason why your organization needs a PIM is that it just makes your life easier as a marketer - and who doesn’t want that? 

Schedule a demo with one of our product experts and we’ll show you just how easy getting started with Lumavate’s PIM can be.