How Can a CMS and PIM Work Together

Content is still king, but data is a kingmaker. What good are any of your marketing materials if the product information is outdated or inaccurate?

Digital content and product information need to be constantly updated or modified. New products are launched, package sizes change, or prices increase. In the world of product marketing change is a constant.  It’s imperative that marketers build a martech stack that can handle these changes.

A content management system (CMS) and product information management (PIM) solution both manage content, but in different ways and for specific purposes. A PIM is not a CMS. A PIM manages product data, such as product name, related lifestyle images, ratings, related products, and manuals. A CMS is a repository for a brand’s digital assets, text, videos, forms, audio files, documents, and images.

When unified in a platform, such as Lumavate, a PIM and CMS power robust, accurate, and useful digital experiences. Consider a simple product onboarding experience. Customers expect to see product-specific instructions (pulled from your PIM). Customers expect to see customer support contact information (pulled from your CMS). You may also want to recommend related products and provide more background on your company’s sustainability practices to engender customer loyalty. Those bits of information will be pulled from your PIM and CMS, respectively. 

When your PIM and CMS are built to work together, the independent content they each house can be pulled together in the same digital experience and on the same page because that’s what customers expect.

Why Do I Need a  CMS?

If you have a website, you need a CMS. A CMS is most often used by marketers to store, manage, and publish content for different types of digital experiences, including websites, landing pages, microsites, and web apps.

Marketing teams store various types of content in a CMS for every possible use case throughout the customer journey.

Text

• Brief summaries about the company
• Policies, such as returns, refunds, and rebates
• Executive profiles, are commonly used on ‘About Us’ pages

Images

• Versions of the company or brand logos
• Icons, such as those that represent core values or used in navigation (home, information, etc.)
• Culture-based imagery, such as an employee picnic, or team event, commonly used in recruitment efforts

Videos

• Personal message from the CEO
• Annual report

Audio

• Episodes of the company’s podcast
• Media interview with a company executive

Documents

• Annual report (PDF)
• Sales deck (PowerPoint)

Forms

• Marketing email opt-in
• Messaging opt-in
• NPS customer survey

By storing these types of content pieces, and many others, marketers are able to ensure consistent messaging is used in every digital experience created. When digital experiences are built by pulling content from a CMS, marketers have one place to update content. A well-organized CMSwill dynamically update all digital experiences when edits are made.

Why Do I Need a PIM?

If you have multiple brands or large product lines, you should have a PIM. A PIM stores every bit of product information in a centralized system. It catalogs products and can associate related products, such as compatible accessories or comparable alternatives. This data powers robust digital experiences that are accurate and reliable.

A PIM enables product information managers and product teams to store a variety of product data that is used in digital experiences:

• Product Name -The official name of the product as it should appear in all consumer-facing materials.
• Product Images - Up-to-date images of the product as it should appear in all consumer-facing content. Product images can include graphics, such as those highlighting product capabilities or dimensions.
• Lifestyle Images - Images showcasing the product being enjoyed by consumers. These are typically aspirational images.
• Pricing - There may be one or many prices associated with a single product. Different organizations also use different terms to define their prices. Whether an organization refers to a product price as the list price, manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), recommended retail price, or suggested retail price of a product, a PIM can capture and label them all as needed. This ensures consumers and partners always display the correct product price.
• User Manuals or Instructions - These are staples of most product companies. They provide documented instructions for operating a piece of equipment or executing a particular action with a product. With a PIM, organizations can catalog written and visual assets by product. (With Lumavate’s suite of functionality documents can be stored in the CMS and related to products in the PIM data.)
• Intended Uses - If brands classify their products according to how consumers can or should use them, then consumers can sort and find products that meet their needs.

Having this information in a central location makes it easier to maintain complex product data and ensures that other teams within your organization have access to accurate information.

Should a PIM and CMS Work Together Within Your Organization?

Yes! Absolutely!  A PIM and CMS can - and should - work together. Both systems play essential roles when it comes to digital product management, e-commerce, and an improved customer experience. A PIM stores all product-specific information for your digital experiences, while your CMS stores all other relevant brand and company content.

What Are Some Challenges With Using a PIM and CMS?

• Implementing New Systems: Organizations don't like change. Inadequate support from organizational leadership is a core reason new software implementations are slow at larger companies.
• Fully Integrating to a CMS and PIM Can be Massive Projects: Depending on the size of your organization, there can be thousands of pieces of content needed to populate your PIM and CMS. Without proper leadership or guidance, product content and information is bound to slip through the cracks.
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• Finding Systems That Will Integrate With Your Existing Tech Stack You probably use multiple systems every day that are crucial to keep your business running. Not only are there long lists for different PIM and CMS solutions out there to choose from, but you want to make sure they are compatible with your current software. 

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to these problems. That solution is Lumavate.

How Can Lumavate Help?

Lumavate is built for companies with a physical product. The Lumavate digital experience platform (DXP) has a full suite of functionality to empower marketers to create, manage, and publish a variety of digital experiences. 

Lumavate’s CMS offers customers the flexibility to pull from your content management system, ours, or a combination. This means you can use content from more than one CMS on the same page to ensure you’re creating the digital experience you want for your customers, partners, or employees. 

Lumavate’s Customer Experience team can help customers get started. Our team can assist customers in implementing their product data and in building digital experiences, such as a product guide. Our support team and help documentation will make sure you are well-informed when it comes to using Lumavate.

It’s true, fully integrating your content to any new system is a massive responsibility. You will want to make sure all forms of content and product information are ready to be imported into your PIM and CMS. That’s where Lumavate’s Customer Experience team provides services and guidance to customers.

When it comes down to it, your CMS and PIM can, and should, work together to improve your digital experiences. Having a DXP that can do both of those things as well just makes it that much sweeter. With Lumavate you can get best-in-class functionality for a fraction of what you are paying for other CMS and PIMs. 

Interested in learning more about Lumavate’s PIM? Talk to an expert tor take a tour of Lumavate’s PIM functionality.