Restream.io on 2023-12-14 at 15.13.53: Hello and welcome to the
Speaker:e-Commerce Podcast with me, your host, Matt Edmondson.
Speaker:Now, this is a show all about helping you deliver e-commerce.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yes, it is.
Speaker:And to help us do just that today we are chatting with Ilene
Speaker:Richardson from Imaginary Content.
Speaker:And we're going to get into all kinds of things about content and eCommerce
Speaker:and what it means and all that sort of good stuff so don't go anywhere because
Speaker:you're definitely going to learn some great stuff from Ilene today, who?
Speaker:It's fair to say that we met at Subsummit, another amazing guest
Speaker:from the Subsummit conference.
Speaker:We would no doubt we'll be talking about that.
Speaker:So yes, get ready, get your pens ready, get your notepads out, because you're
Speaker:going to want to take some notes today.
Speaker:And before we get into it, let me just say, if this is the first time with
Speaker:us, welcome to the eCommerce Podcast.
Speaker:Always great to welcome new listeners to the show.
Speaker:Always great to have you with us.
Speaker:And if you are watching The live stream of this recording.
Speaker:A warm welcome to you.
Speaker:We do live stream the recording out to our cohort members.
Speaker:So if you want to know more about eCommerce Cohorts, where you can get
Speaker:to watch the recording of the podcast, get to come and ask questions all
Speaker:yourself, then check out eCommerceCohort.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:It's our monthly mastermind, our monthly membership group.
Speaker:Love to see you in there.
Speaker:We're in there every day.
Speaker:We're in there all the time.
Speaker:So come join us, eCommerceCohort.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:Now, let's talk about Ilene.
Speaker:I'm going to read from my notes to make sure I get this right.
Speaker:But Ilene is the Dynamo's CEO and founder of Imaginary Content, where she is
Speaker:shaking up the agency world by cutting the fluff, love this by cutting the
Speaker:fluff and delivering top notch content.
Speaker:Without the hefty price tag.
Speaker:With a trophy case that includes a Clio award and credits spanning TV to digital.
Speaker:Ilene is the Swiss army knife of content creation, which I think is
Speaker:the best job title in the world.
Speaker:But don't let the accolades fool you.
Speaker:She is a caring boss lady who fosters a creative playground for her team to
Speaker:produce their best work every single time.
Speaker:Ilene, welcome to the show.
Speaker:Great to have you.
Speaker:Great to see you again.
Speaker:How are we doing today?
Speaker:Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker:I'm so excited to be here and that might go down as like
Speaker:the best intro for me ever.
Speaker:So I'm going to take some notes.
Speaker:I like the Swiss Army knife of content creation.
Speaker:Yeah, I like that too, that's great.
Speaker:It's definitely got a sort of zing to it, that's for sure.
Speaker:But whereabouts in the world are you, Ilene?
Speaker:So we're just outside of New York City, in Connecticut.
Speaker:But we do have team members spread all across the country, even across the globe.
Speaker:But our headquarters and content studio is based in lovely Norwalk, Connecticut.
Speaker:Ah, a beautiful part of the world Connecticut.
Speaker:I was there a few years ago, some friends of mine live in Connecticut.
Speaker:And just stunning.
Speaker:Loved it.
Speaker:Loved.
Speaker:I can see why they live there and why you would want to live there.
Speaker:It's just beautiful.
Speaker:Here you are beaming across the Atlantic.
Speaker:And we we were talking about this before we hit the record button that
Speaker:we met at Sub Summit, didn't we, in 2023 you were speaking at the event.
Speaker:Do you speak at many events?
Speaker:I did a bit last year.
Speaker:It's great to go out, and talk about what we're doing and listen
Speaker:to other people in this space.
Speaker:So it's really, it's been really fun.
Speaker:I enjoy that.
Speaker:I probably do some more next year.
Speaker:Yeah, get out and see the world a little bit.
Speaker:And yeah.
Speaker:And enjoy it.
Speaker:It's nice, actually, post COVID that we're back doing these sort
Speaker:of big live events, isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's great, it really is.
Speaker:It was a little bit of like re entry, right?
Speaker:When it first started again, you're like, oh my gosh, we're around all these
Speaker:people, and if somebody sneezes, everybody would turn around and be like, oh, no.
Speaker:But it's great to have some more normalcy because the in person
Speaker:connections are so valuable.
Speaker:It was great to meet you I just happened to at your table
Speaker:and see what you're up to.
Speaker:It was great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it's funny, isn't it?
Speaker:it's going back in these sort of chance connections that you make and We've
Speaker:had a few of the what's the best phrase to describe people from subsummit?
Speaker:Subsummiters.
Speaker:I don't know the subsummit cohort the subsummit clan maybe Yeah, the Sub Summit
Speaker:Clan, the SSC, maybe we should call it the SSC, I'm going to call Chris and
Speaker:tell him we're going to call it the SSC.
Speaker:But yeah, we've had quite a few people from SubSummit now on the show.
Speaker:So it's great to have you on and recently we had Neil Hoynes on the
Speaker:show who was one of the keynote speakers from SubSummit as well.
Speaker:So yeah, we're getting our money's worth.
Speaker:If you weren't at SubSummit 2023, basically all the really good
Speaker:speakers have been on this podcast.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Just tune in.
Speaker:You don't need to go next year.
Speaker:Oh funny.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did you hear that someone's banging on my window?
Speaker:Sorry about that.
Speaker:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker:They're clinging something outside.
Speaker:Just let them in.
Speaker:Hello?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So tell me a bit about what you guys are doing in Connecticut at Imaginary Content.
Speaker:What's that?
Speaker:What's the MO?
Speaker:Not much.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:We're so thrilled.
Speaker:We're so excited to be going into the new year with, our clients
Speaker:and the work we've been doing.
Speaker:We developed eCommerce content creation, strategy, execution,
Speaker:and it's been a space we've been playing in for over five years now.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Last year.
Speaker:We were, we moved into our new headquarters.
Speaker:We built out a content studio.
Speaker:So not only were we doing the, copywriting and graphic design elements
Speaker:of the content, but we're all actually shooting and photographing in house.
Speaker:So it's been great.
Speaker:It's exciting.
Speaker:It's exciting.
Speaker:I really feel like we're on the forefront of where, Kind of advertising
Speaker:creativity needs to be right now because that's exactly where the consumer
Speaker:is making their purchase decision.
Speaker:So what's more critical than that, right?
Speaker:Like communicating to the consumer exactly at their point of decision
Speaker:making in their path to purchase.
Speaker:So we get really fired up and excited.
Speaker:In the old days, it used to be all about everybody wanted to have those,
Speaker:big flashy commercials on broadcast TV.
Speaker:And now we're all like, no, this is where it's at.
Speaker:This is where we're really getting.
Speaker:Consumers to pay attention.
Speaker:Yeah it's, yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker:I was talking to my son about this the other day, because he mentioned to me
Speaker:that he'd understood for the first time, the expense of TV advertising, and this,
Speaker:the sheer crazy costs involved with it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he's I don't understand how companies can do this.
Speaker:And I'm like it's definitely not something that I'm that interested in myself as
Speaker:a, as an eCom entrepreneur, because.
Speaker:I'm just not, I'm just not big enough to convey that amount of money,
Speaker:but I'm intrigued a little bit, Ilene, if I can about the studio.
Speaker:So I'm sat in a studio that we built down at our warehouse where
Speaker:we do all of the fulfillment from for ourselves, for our clients.
Speaker:So I'm in a studio, in a podcast studio, because we have a podcast agency as well.
Speaker:I am big into the whole podcasting thing.
Speaker:I love doing the whole podcasting thing.
Speaker:But you guys have taken it one step further, haven't you?
Speaker:What's going on with your studio?
Speaker:We discovered as we were creating the content that not, in order
Speaker:to have your content register on the digital shelf it needs to be
Speaker:live when your product goes live.
Speaker:So if you're dealing with.
Speaker:A new product, a lot of those other materials, whether you're doing social
Speaker:marketing or you're doing, any traditional marketing methods, those materials don't
Speaker:get done until right up until potentially the product launch and the live date.
Speaker:But in order to be listed on Amazon, Walmart, you name it, on the first day
Speaker:of sale, you need to have your base level of content to qualify for the listing.
Speaker:So we were in a situation where there was a lot of work we were
Speaker:doing and we didn't have any assets.
Speaker:There weren't any, brand assets yet to work with.
Speaker:And we started shooting our own and we started going to external studios to
Speaker:rent to space or outsource in some way.
Speaker:And really realize that, especially with my background in, in television
Speaker:and video production, it just made sense to do it all in house, so we're not.
Speaker:We're a creative, cohesive unit here that we can come up with the
Speaker:idea and we can go execute it.
Speaker:So a lot of what we've been doing in the six months we've built out this
Speaker:studio is a lot of recipe videos, hands and pans videos, lifestyle
Speaker:videos, and we shoot them at scale.
Speaker:We, it's to your point about how TV commercials are so expensive in the
Speaker:old days you would have had like a gigantic crew and three days of pre
Speaker:pro and this and that to just shoot a recipe video, but we've really started
Speaker:pushing the boundaries of how you do great content at scale that works in
Speaker:the digital space specifically, right?
Speaker:So that it's not a super busy frame so that people who are watching
Speaker:it on mobile, which is where 70 percent of the consumers are.
Speaker:Can get what they're looking for out of your content.
Speaker:So we have our studio space here.
Speaker:We have a full kitchen and we have a prop library.
Speaker:We built that all out and we're expanding beyond just food and actually
Speaker:starting Monday, we're shooting lifestyle products in here as well.
Speaker:And just being really nimble and agile in the full creative process to make sure
Speaker:our clients are getting great content.
Speaker:That's going to help drive conversion for their products.
Speaker:Yeah, it's fascinating.
Speaker:I'm intrigued by it because I know for me, when it came to creating video
Speaker:content it, life became a lot easier when I had a place where I could just go
Speaker:and switch something on and just do it.
Speaker:It was just, it was a beautiful thing, but it's probably fair to say, cause I
Speaker:appreciate that not everybody listening to this podcast will, will have the
Speaker:ability to go and create a studio.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you, there are, you can rent studios out.
Speaker:I know when we do recipe videos, actually, I don't have a kitchen in our studio,
Speaker:but we there's a friend of mine who has a beautiful kitchen and we pay her a rental
Speaker:fee every day that we're down in there.
Speaker:So there are, and maybe to speak to this, there are some creative ways to
Speaker:get around not having a studio, right?
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:At the bottom line, if you're talking about sort of Smaller
Speaker:brands, new brands, some content is better than no content, right?
Speaker:The content needs to be good, but you have to make sure you are
Speaker:creating content for your site.
Speaker:So you don't necessarily need a studio to do it.
Speaker:You just need to have a plan for what's going to work best to showcase
Speaker:the benefits of your product for us, because we're doing it at scale and
Speaker:we're doing You know, thousands and thousands of PDP pages every single year.
Speaker:It just made sense for us to bring it in house as a core capability, a lot
Speaker:of brands or a lot of brands that have smaller SKU counts, smaller SKU lists and
Speaker:are just, working a little more nimbly.
Speaker:You don't need to invest in the whole studio.
Speaker:Our studio was quite large, but we know agencies that have a studio that
Speaker:are the size of just the small office.
Speaker:In studio, you put a camera and light, it doesn't have to be a 10,000
Speaker:square foot space with tons of gear.
Speaker:It just has to be equipped for what you need.
Speaker:But there are plenty of resources to do that out of house, whether it's renting
Speaker:spaces or subcontracting out that content, the important thing is that
Speaker:you're thinking about your content as part of your go to market strategy, as
Speaker:part of your, omni channel sales plan.
Speaker:So the, you mentioned that, some content is better than no content.
Speaker:But the content should be good.
Speaker:So how, if we're going to start thinking about this say from a
Speaker:startup's point of view, what sort of things should I be thinking
Speaker:about that is going to make it good?
Speaker:How do I know if it's good or bad?
Speaker:Because I think we're the biggest deceiver of ourselves sometimes when it comes to
Speaker:this kind of thing, that's a great phrase.
Speaker:Yeah, we do.
Speaker:And I'm just curious, what do you mean by good and what sort of
Speaker:things should we be thinking about?
Speaker:Yeah, so I think that there's a scale.
Speaker:We call it the content maturity model.
Speaker:And if you're a smaller brand or a new brand, the important things are you're
Speaker:giving the consumer the information they need to have confidence in the purchase.
Speaker:So if it's a new product, your content needs to communicate.
Speaker:What your product is, what it does or how it tastes, or the flavor
Speaker:profile or the usage occasion.
Speaker:You need to be in a quick, short, ideally, visual style.
Speaker:You need to be able to communicate that to the consumer and consumers are looking to
Speaker:understand the product benefits clearly.
Speaker:What your point of differentiation is.
Speaker:So let's just say it's a different flavor or let's just say it's a different scent.
Speaker:Those are the things that need to be simply and clearly communicated
Speaker:in whatever content you produce.
Speaker:And that could be a graphic tile, in your PDP page.
Speaker:It could be a small video 15 seconds, 20 seconds.
Speaker:That clearly illustrates these points.
Speaker:And in terms of execution, yeah, we've gone a long way from even a few
Speaker:years ago where you would see like a cell phone picture of a like wrinkly
Speaker:package on a shelf somewhere that was.
Speaker:That was basically standing up a product.
Speaker:It does have to, it does have to have kind of the value that your company has.
Speaker:So if your company is that I'm thinking of earthy crunchy brands, right?
Speaker:Granola bars or things that you would eat on a hike, those brands, you
Speaker:might want to shoot something outdoors because that's in the vibe of what
Speaker:your consumer's usage occasion will be.
Speaker:And that maybe could be a little more user generated or.
Speaker:From an organic point of view, but if you're presenting something that's
Speaker:really slick and maybe at a higher price point, you need to reflect that a bit
Speaker:in your content, which doesn't mean you have to pay more for your content.
Speaker:It just means that you need to have a cohesive strategy.
Speaker:Your content has to reflect the visual language that you're establishing
Speaker:or have established for your brand.
Speaker:However that best suits you while communicating the key
Speaker:attributes of your product.
Speaker:That's really, it's a really good point, actually, communicating the visual aspects
Speaker:of your brand, because, and I like that if you're doing an outdoor, if you're
Speaker:doing a granola bar, I can see why you can see the image in your head, can't you?
Speaker:Let's shoot that.
Speaker:Yeah, there's gonna be some grass or some guys up a mountain or something.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Versus if I'm doing a premium skincare product, I'm probably
Speaker:not going to shoot that in the same place for obvious reasons.
Speaker:It's going to be in a high end bathroom or something like that, isn't it?
Speaker:And I'm going to, I'm going to do that sort of imagery.
Speaker:What do you think about and the reason I'm asking this is because at the time
Speaker:Ilene we're actually, my company is about to launch another brand which
Speaker:is a premium skincare brand, right?
Speaker:So we're thinking again about assets and imagery.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:What do you think about for example, me going on to say Midjourney or
Speaker:an other AI image generator and say, Hey, give me an image of this
Speaker:product in a high end bathroom.
Speaker:Should I be entertaining things like that?
Speaker:Or should I just be avoiding at all costs?
Speaker:That's a, that's like the million dollar question.
Speaker:Billion dollar question, right?
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:That's absolutely.
Speaker:If someone wants to pay me a million dollars for the answer, that'd be awesome.
Speaker:From my perspective, what's different than about just looking at a stock footage,
Speaker:going to Shutterstock or Pond5 or whoever you use, find a high end, background,
Speaker:bathroom, and have someone Photoshop your product in, at least then the usage rights
Speaker:of the image you're using are clear.
Speaker:What worries me about that, and I know Google and everyone's working on, ensuring
Speaker:that usage rights are taken care of.
Speaker:So sure, you can do that.
Speaker:There's no reason not to.
Speaker:You just might find that If you're looking for video, that's
Speaker:a harder plug and play solution.
Speaker:Just looking to create some still images.
Speaker:And you also want to make sure your product looks great and,
Speaker:probably have some retouching on your product to some products have
Speaker:lots of extra writing on them.
Speaker:You want to have it super clean.
Speaker:So it's a clean read for the consumer.
Speaker:Just the key things about your product, the size.
Speaker:The servings or the usages, if there's any variants for skincare, if it's for
Speaker:oily skin or dry skin, those things you want to make sure are accentuated
Speaker:on the product, not just where you're putting it in situ, but how the product
Speaker:itself is cleaned up and really forceful.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:It's interesting.
Speaker:I think the interesting thing with AI for me is I tend to use it for ideas rather
Speaker:than final content, if that makes sense.
Speaker:It's it's helpful to generate ideas for me to go, oh, okay, That's
Speaker:the kind of thing that I want.
Speaker:So I can give that to the design team or, the graphic designer or
Speaker:whoever's involved and say, in my head, this is the kind of thing that
Speaker:I'm thinking, can you run with that?
Speaker:And yeah, it's great, but also here's a little tip.
Speaker:You can use it for keywords.
Speaker:For your SEO optimization, it's one of the things we use for
Speaker:keywords and it's actually great.
Speaker:What keywords are relevant for this retailer, this product, this, it comes up
Speaker:with some things that are at least as good as other sources that you might pay for.
Speaker:And it really helps round out making sure your keywords are
Speaker:as robust as they should be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No powerful.
Speaker:So should I be let's talk about the skincare brand.
Speaker:Cause it's a great example for maybe of a start and then we'll get
Speaker:into some more established stuff.
Speaker:Should I get the need just having done some research on competitors
Speaker:and actually haven't been in the beauty space for a while.
Speaker:I understand the need to have images which portray prestige and high
Speaker:end in the product photography.
Speaker:So I know we're going to have to do that.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I'm not going to get away with just putting the product on a
Speaker:table and taking a picture and it'll be fine with my iPhone.
Speaker:I appreciate that's not going to work.
Speaker:Should I also then be thinking about video?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Obviously you've got your studio.
Speaker:You've mentioned it a couple of times.
Speaker:Should I be thinking about video and what sort of things should I be thinking about
Speaker:video if I should be, that's a really long winded way of saying, what should
Speaker:I be thinking about video, video or not.
Speaker:That's a really good question, right?
Speaker:What we know is that video impacts the algorithms, the search
Speaker:algorithms, for all the major retailers on the digital marketplace.
Speaker:So having video on your PDP page will help you capture some organic search.
Speaker:So you're gonna need some video somewhere to skincare product.
Speaker:Yours is one of the first they see.
Speaker:That being said, we do see tons of research and take it for what it's
Speaker:worth, but consumers engage better with video than with stills because
Speaker:it's easier for them to learn more about the product quicker, right?
Speaker:So if you were to do a video, user generated video is really
Speaker:popular in certain demographics of someone trying your product,
Speaker:showing how to use your product.
Speaker:That's really key, especially in skin care.
Speaker:Anecdotally, I know that's a huge.
Speaker:A huge thing is making sure people are using the product in
Speaker:the proper way and those product usage videos are very popular.
Speaker:And you can also look at it as amortizing your assets because if you're creating
Speaker:a video for social, potentially, you can use it or adapt it for the PDP page
Speaker:as well and really maximize your spend across different platforms in that way.
Speaker:But at a net level, you gotta do some video because you're
Speaker:never gonna show up in search.
Speaker:Google searches are now actually pulling videos from Amazon PDP pages.
Speaker:So it's super important to find your consumer to have some video on that page.
Speaker:That being said, when the consumer's on that page, We see data every day that
Speaker:they prefer to engage with a video.
Speaker:And what that video can do is, demonstrate the product, highlight
Speaker:features of the product show, demonstrate how actually you would use it or
Speaker:work it into your skincare routine.
Speaker:And these don't have to be super complicated.
Speaker:You don't have to go look for, a supermodel and, set
Speaker:this on a beach somewhere.
Speaker:Like it, it can just be very organic to your brand.
Speaker:15 seconds, 20 seconds hey, here's, a moisturizer we're using today or
Speaker:whatever the demonstration might be, but it is really important to
Speaker:have that as part of your plan.
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:So I've got some video ideas there.
Speaker:Just for the, for those listening that might not know, Ilene just explain
Speaker:what you mean when you say PDP.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:PDP is your product description page.
Speaker:So if you're on Amazon buying.
Speaker:Face wash, the page that has a product you might be looking at often has
Speaker:bullets and copy describing that product.
Speaker:And then on the left of the main image, you'll see these smaller images that
Speaker:you can click on for more information.
Speaker:That's also where you could see a video.
Speaker:So your product description page, that PDP page, whether it's on your own website,
Speaker:whether it's on a Shopify website, or whether it's on a retailer like Amazon or
Speaker:Walmart or whomever, That is where your product really needs to shine and make
Speaker:sure it's communicating, in all points.
Speaker:Some people might look at the bullets and not look at the video, every
Speaker:touch point you have to use on those pages needs to be very clear product
Speaker:benefits and features communication.
Speaker:Yeah, no I totally agree.
Speaker:And I, it's.
Speaker:I'm curious, do you have an opinion on, so if I'm thinking back to earlier on today,
Speaker:I was on the Amazon website I was looking at a product, a diesel heater, bizarrely I
Speaker:won't explain why, it's just a very boring story, but I was looking at a diesel
Speaker:heater on, a diesel heater on Amazon, and there was like seven photos and a
Speaker:video, and I'm listening to you talk.
Speaker:The first thing I did was I just literally go straight to
Speaker:the video and watch it, right?
Speaker:It's like a minute long video showing me how to install the said diesel heater
Speaker:and how easy it is for me to do that.
Speaker:So I'm like, okay, cool.
Speaker:And I've got all that with inside of a few seconds of just watching the video.
Speaker:But thinking back to it, the video itself is embedded into Amazon's ecosystem.
Speaker:It didn't take me to a YouTube video.
Speaker:It didn't have a pop up with a YouTube video in.
Speaker:Is that important?
Speaker:Amazon must be doing it for a reason or does it, if you're just starting out,
Speaker:an embed from YouTube is just as good.
Speaker:I'm curious as you thought on this.
Speaker:That's a really good insight that you uncovered.
Speaker:Amazon does not allow you to link out to any other site.
Speaker:So you don't have a choice.
Speaker:If you're listing on Amazon, you have to upload that video, as part
Speaker:of their vendor central product page.
Speaker:In general, the fewer clicks.
Speaker:And, redirects a consumer has in their journey to purchase the better, right?
Speaker:Because you're going to lose them somewhere along the way.
Speaker:So wherever possible, embed it.
Speaker:If you need to click it out to a YouTube it's better than not, but
Speaker:embedding it is your first choice.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:So I've, okay, so I've got my brand.
Speaker:I've got some really nice photographs of my skincare product.
Speaker:I've got some videos showing how to apply it.
Speaker:Just talking about maybe some of the features of it, why it's, some of the
Speaker:things that you need to think about when using it, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker:And I've done all that within sort of 15, 20 seconds.
Speaker:I say I, there's no way I'm doing that video, Ilene, because
Speaker:I'm not my target market.
Speaker:So I get that.
Speaker:I don't think ladies will want to see, the white bearded man
Speaker:just applying this to his face.
Speaker:Maybe they would.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Maybe I'm misjudging.
Speaker:I should test it, perhaps.
Speaker:So what else do I need to be thinking about?
Speaker:I think there's a real shift and we see it with major brands as
Speaker:well as emerging brands, right?
Speaker:It's like really understanding I think that your digital marketplace
Speaker:strategy, and by that how you're representing your product on your
Speaker:website or on the Amazons of the world.
Speaker:It has to be as thoughtful and cohesive as the rest of your marketing strategy.
Speaker:It's still a bit of an also brand and it surprises me every day because,
Speaker:we're all buying stuff online.
Speaker:Like, how can it be a second thought?
Speaker:So it needs to be part of your overall marketing plan.
Speaker:The consumer messaging needs to be.
Speaker:Hide into your consumer messaging in anything else you're doing.
Speaker:The look and feel, as we said, the style down to the font you use in
Speaker:your Chiron, if you're, putting benefits on screen, it all needs to
Speaker:tell the full brand story cohesively and work with rest of your brand.
Speaker:And that's super important.
Speaker:That is a big mess, I find.
Speaker:People are still looking at this content as like oh, yeah, maybe I
Speaker:will throw this upon our website or throw it up on our Shopify store.
Speaker:No, it's not good enough anymore, you can't do that.
Speaker:If you start from that position of, here's my marketing plan, here's what,
Speaker:our key product benefits are, what our visual language, look and feel of our
Speaker:brand is, the packaging all relates into that, obviously, anything else
Speaker:you might be doing, if you're buying digital banners, if you're doing social,
Speaker:it all has to work together, and so if you take that approach when you come
Speaker:into how you design your page, You're already, many steps ahead of most.
Speaker:And I think you just always need to, focus on what you control, which is maximize
Speaker:the SEO opportunities, whether it's in the title, the bullets, the keywords
Speaker:you're using in the actual product descriptions, as well as backend keywords.
Speaker:You want to make sure you're capturing organic search.
Speaker:It's You're leaving money on the table if you're not and it's easy enough to do.
Speaker:So you want the cohesive overall strategy.
Speaker:You want to maximize your keyword.
Speaker:Optimization from your titles through to your copy.
Speaker:And then you want to design the creative to make sure that you're
Speaker:picking up on the communication points can see consumers need to know to
Speaker:have confidence in their purchase.
Speaker:So whatever you do on your product page in your tiles or in your video has to
Speaker:have that top line thought of okay, we know when we went out to test if this
Speaker:product was viable, that consumers were really excited about XYZ and really asking
Speaker:about then you want to make sure that you're commuting those, communicating
Speaker:those things very clearly on the page, in the visuals and in the copy.
Speaker:So the whole point of your page is to make sure that the consumer
Speaker:knows what they're going to buy.
Speaker:And then it's happy with it.
Speaker:We've worked with an auto brand that had a gigantic problem because they're the
Speaker:mechanics that were ordering parts from them would always order two or three
Speaker:because they were not sure if it was going to be the right thing that they needed.
Speaker:So what happened?
Speaker:What happens when they get two or three?
Speaker:They find the one that works.
Speaker:And what happens to the other two?
Speaker:They have to bring it back to the store.
Speaker:Somebody has to collect it, catalog it, get it back out to sale.
Speaker:And the cost of all that was enormous, right?
Speaker:So obviously you're building consumer loyalty by having consumers get
Speaker:what they think they're getting and you're avoiding the cost of returns.
Speaker:which is significant, especially for a small business.
Speaker:You don't want someone sending something back to you saying I thought
Speaker:it was a travel size and it's, it's the mega or whatever the case might.
Speaker:The point being, consumers need to know and understand what they're getting
Speaker:and have confidence in that purchase.
Speaker:So when it comes to them, the reviews they give you, which are
Speaker:extremely important, are positive.
Speaker:This is what they thought they were getting and they're happy with it, right?
Speaker:Nobody likes to be like, oh, this isn't what I ordered.
Speaker:How many reviews like that have you seen?
Speaker:I thought the texture was going to be thicker.
Speaker:I thought You know, I've used it on dry skin, but my skin, it says now
Speaker:it says oily skin, like you need to think through what your consumer
Speaker:research strategy you've used to develop this product tells you about
Speaker:your consumer and make sure that's reflected in the communication points.
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:I'm just, as you're talking, I'm remembering with our supplement business,
Speaker:we, I remember we put on the site, the measurements of the supplements, right?
Speaker:Cause some of them, some supplements you take can be actually be quite big.
Speaker:And it was a common question.
Speaker:So we're like let's put on the website, the measurements of the supplement.
Speaker:So this supplement is whatever, 17 millimeters tall.
Speaker:The problem that we ran into and what I think you've just addressed
Speaker:there, Ilene, is actually.
Speaker:We had the right information.
Speaker:It was just presented in the wrong way.
Speaker:So you might not understand what 17 millimeters is, but you might
Speaker:understand the height of a, I don't know, a 10 P piece if you're
Speaker:in the UK or a 25 cent piece.
Speaker:If you're in the States, you might be able to do that, but, and I
Speaker:think this is one of the things that Apple did very well, wasn't it?
Speaker:With the iPod.
Speaker:It's what they're famed for.
Speaker:10, 000 songs in your pocket kind of thing, rather than
Speaker:a three gigabyte hard drive.
Speaker:So in terms of how they communicate it, actually that became
Speaker:as, as important, wasn't it?
Speaker:So you've got to communicate all the features, the benefits, you've got to
Speaker:answer the questions that consumers have in their mind on your pages but
Speaker:you've got to do it in a way that actually makes sense to them, right?
Speaker:So we saw crazy success.
Speaker:We were doing a product page for a product that came in a lot of different sizes.
Speaker:It's like the brick size or the pouch size or this or that.
Speaker:When we put the product in scale on a kitchen counter next to And or something
Speaker:that you could understand the scale.
Speaker:We saw a lift in conversion, greater than 20 percent just by making sure the
Speaker:consumer understood what this product looks like compared to that product.
Speaker:They really understood what they were getting.
Speaker:They could anticipate it.
Speaker:Just like you're saying with the vitamin, like with the
Speaker:vitamin size, that's a great.
Speaker:It's a great call out because it speaks to exactly what we're talking about here,
Speaker:which is like making sure the consumer knows exactly what they're getting.
Speaker:If somebody can't swallow a big pill, they're going to send that back to
Speaker:you or not buy it from you again and, be annoyed that they didn't get it
Speaker:right the first time because they were probably waiting to take that supplement.
Speaker:You lose all kinds of traction and confidence in addition to the cost of
Speaker:having to take that back and refunding.
Speaker:So the more specific you can be, and in a clever way, of
Speaker:course, like that, exactly that.
Speaker:Yeah, the Apple example is great.
Speaker:They do so many things so well, the rest of us are, always in awe, we
Speaker:play around a lot with serving size, if you say something is like 1.
Speaker:6 ounces, what does that mean to anybody?
Speaker:It's better if you tell them how many average servings that could be, and then
Speaker:you show them what an average serving looks like, because a serving for you
Speaker:might feel different than a serving for me, so getting really into that granular
Speaker:level, but in a way that is on brand.
Speaker:With the visuals and you know how you're actually communicating them.
Speaker:Yeah it's really powerful point, isn't it?
Speaker:And so you are actually using this content in effect, whether it's
Speaker:video, whether it's written text, to overcome every single objection.
Speaker:Maybe that's in a consumer's mind, but at the same time, educate them
Speaker:to what it is they're gonna get.
Speaker:So when they get it, there's no.
Speaker:hidden surprises in a bad way, right?
Speaker:It's this is not unexpected.
Speaker:You might want to do something.
Speaker:There's that phrase, isn't there?
Speaker:You sell the steak, but deliver the sizzle.
Speaker:You might want to deliver a good surprise, but they're not caught out in a bad way.
Speaker:And I think that's the essence of what you're trying to say, right?
Speaker:Yeah, I agree with all of that, but I think also to add onto that, you want to
Speaker:inspire you want to, build brand loyalty.
Speaker:You want whatever's unique about your brand, the tonality,
Speaker:the language, the, spirit.
Speaker:and you want to inspire usage occasions.
Speaker:Just for example, if you were selling your skincare product, you
Speaker:want us to be something a little bit aspirational, that one consumer
Speaker:telling to another consumer about.
Speaker:Or gives them ideas on how to Uses up the container faster.
Speaker:You need this morning, noon at night, or whatever it might be.
Speaker:In the case of food, since we do a lot of food, we like to show different usage
Speaker:occasions, different , different recipe usages that you might not have thought
Speaker:of, because we know that consumers are always looking for recipe inspiration, so
Speaker:it's oh, I didn't know I could use this.
Speaker:To make something like that sounds really good.
Speaker:And then you have a consumer needing it more often because they're using it more.
Speaker:So there's always a little bit of the aspirational aspect.
Speaker:We want to be really practical and pragmatic and ensure everything you
Speaker:just said that the consumer knows and what they're buying is happy
Speaker:and satisfied when they get it.
Speaker:But you also want to have a little surprise and delight slash inspirational
Speaker:aspect to what you're doing to help.
Speaker:Help continue the sales and inspire the consumers.
Speaker:Who do you see doing that?
Speaker:I'm really curious.
Speaker:There's people who are doing it well in different ways, right?
Speaker:Like we, we do so much content, we get lost in what we do, but we're
Speaker:always trying to see who else is out there doing things, I think.
Speaker:It depends.
Speaker:You have to give me a category because it's like one of those
Speaker:questions that are so broad.
Speaker:I'm like scanning my mind for everything I've looked at recently.
Speaker:Like in coffee, I think Dunkin Donuts has done some nice things on their PDP pages.
Speaker:They have a lot of seasonality.
Speaker:Which is something that's really great.
Speaker:Consumers respond to that, the, it brings to mind, to diverge from your question
Speaker:for one second, the other thing to keep in mind when your content is, you can't
Speaker:just set it and leave it there for three years, it needs to be refreshed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You have to keep it fresh and like Dunkin Donuts is great at the seasonality.
Speaker:Most brands can't afford to seasonally update everything about all their content,
Speaker:but perhaps you can update some keywords to capture that search or you can have one
Speaker:image that is a usage occasion related to a holiday, but you want, You're going to
Speaker:lose traction in the algorithms as well as appear too generic to your customers
Speaker:if you're not doing some regular refresh.
Speaker:And then people always ask me like how often should we refresh?
Speaker:It's how often can you afford to refresh?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:At least once a year but if you're really trying to make a stand with a new
Speaker:product, you should be updating those keywords, every quarter at the least.
Speaker:Yeah, super powerful.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:So I, and I'm actually, as you're talking, I'm thinking, oh, there's probably
Speaker:one or two things I need to refresh on our site, because it's probably
Speaker:been there for a couple of years.
Speaker:Just as you're talking, I'm going yes, I'm guilty, Your Honour.
Speaker:Guilty as charged.
Speaker:There's a few things we need to resolve there.
Speaker:Listen, I'm aware of time and it is rapidly rapidly escaping from us.
Speaker:And I feel like we're just getting going here but super useful some
Speaker:really good ideas for me actually on the skincare brand already.
Speaker:If people want to reach out to you, if they want to connect with you,
Speaker:what's the best way to do that?
Speaker:Yeah, feel free to check out our website, which is imaginarycontent.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:You could always reach out and email me directly, Ilene@imaginarycontent.com
Speaker:and this was so fun.
Speaker:Actually, I feel like maybe a part two sometime in our future
Speaker:because we did just get started.
Speaker:We really did.
Speaker:We should do it in the new year.
Speaker:We should, at the time of recording it's Christmas.
Speaker:I'm not sure when this comes out, but yeah we'll get set up on that.
Speaker:We'll do it like a part two.
Speaker:We would do, this is the warmup.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:This has been a lot of fun.
Speaker:I really appreciate the conversation.
Speaker:Oh, no, it's been great.
Speaker:And thanks for your insight.
Speaker:And we'll definitely get you on.
Speaker:And I'm going to pick your brain some more about what we're trying to do.
Speaker:So it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker:A beautiful thing.
Speaker:Ilene, thank you so much for joining us here on the eCommerce Podcast.
Speaker:What an absolute legend.
Speaker:Do make sure you reach out to Ilene.
Speaker:And see what they're doing.
Speaker:The website's awesome.
Speaker:Actually, I was on it earlier thinking that's really clever.
Speaker:That's really clever.
Speaker:There's a few ideas you can definitely steal just off of the website.
Speaker:No, dude, I think when people steal stuff, it's the highest form of compliment.
Speaker:What is it?
Speaker:Imitation's the highest form of compliment or something like that.
Speaker:Like a flattery.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But do check it out.
Speaker:So also do make sure you check out today's show, sponsor the eCommerce cohort.
Speaker:com come and have a look.
Speaker:If you've not been there already, come and see what it's all about.
Speaker:We'd love to see you in that group.
Speaker:Also be sure to follow the eCommerce podcast, wherever you get your podcast
Speaker:from, because of course we have yet more great conversations lined up.
Speaker:I don't want you to miss any of them.
Speaker:And in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first.
Speaker:You are awesome.
Speaker:Yes, you are created awesome.
Speaker:It's just a burden you have to bear.
Speaker:Ilene's got to bear it.
Speaker:I've got to bear it.
Speaker:You've got to bear it as well.
Speaker:Now the eCommerce podcast is produced by Aurion Media.
Speaker:You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app.
Speaker:And the wonderful team that makes this show possible includes the majestic
Speaker:Sadaf Beynon and Tanya Hutsuliak.
Speaker:And also our theme song was written by Josh Edmundson.
Speaker:And as I said, if you would like to read the notes or the transcripts,
Speaker:you can get them for free on the website at EcommercePodcast.
Speaker:net, which incidentally is where you can sign up to the newsletter.
Speaker:if you haven't done so already.
Speaker:Because if you're on the newsletter, all of this stuff comes straight to
Speaker:your inbox every week automatically.
Speaker:It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker:So check it out at ecommercepodcast.
Speaker:net.
Speaker:So that is it for me.
Speaker:That is it from Ilene.
Speaker:Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker:Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world.
Speaker:I'll see you next time.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:Thank you.