Doug Stratton, Chief Customer Evangelist at BazaarVoice, shared a great analogy relating the production of content to the creation of product in product supply chains. In it, Doug described the need brands have for building content at scale, across channels, while keeping costs low. He likened the creation of content to the building of products–and the supply chain that’s needed to keep building those products day after day. We liked Doug’s thoughts on building a Content Supply Chain so much that we wanted to share three key tools that can help you build a great content supply chain… more on those below! Doug highlighted three key points that make building such a supply chain a necessity:

• Customers are looking for content — they spend almost 7 hours (yes, you read that right!) per day consuming digital content — so you need to produce content and more content…
• Content is costly and takes time to produce. With today’s tight budgets, finding tools and approaches that will let you build great content at scale is a must.
• A content supply chain that lets you produce more content while keeping costs low, is crucial

Here then, are three tools and approaches that can help you build an effective and scalable content supply chain.

#1 Adopt a modular approach to content creation
First off, adopting a modular approach to content creation is a must. That means you should be able to refresh or update any creative deliverable your team or agency creates with the click of a button. No complex design tools, no re-creating image or video assets from scratch, no dealing with complex layered files that require a PhD to edit. You should be able to swap in new product images, update headlines, change backgrounds and update CTAs across multiple assets and channels with just a couple of clicks. To do this means that your content needs to be structured in modular elements. Shorter video clips that can be leveraged across multiple videos. Product Images that can be swapped in and out across creative assets by name or ID, rather than requiring a complete redo.

If that sounds like a good idea, your next question is probably, how do you get there? Unlike legacy tools and approaches, modern creative management tools such as our Image Builder and Video Creator treat all the elements of your designs as fields that can be changed easily. For example, a product image is referenced by a product ID, rather than by the image itself. A background image is referenced as a background image field, meaning that if the field is updated in one design or one scene, it will be automatically updated everywhere. Seasonal updates–no problem. Packaging refreshes–done in minutes.

#2 Use a modern creative management toolset that enables anyone in your organization to create content
The right tools should enable anyone in your organization to create content, while at the same time ensuring that the creatives that get built stay on brand. That’s why we’ve developed an innovative approach to content creation that combines a modern, web-based toolset with an easy to use interface that everyone in your organization can use. We’ve coupled that with Managed Services that bring a full team of experts to your design needs, using the same tools that you have direct access to. So you can edit, update, download anytime you want–using the same tools that our team does to create your content via our creative managed services.

#3 Partner with a creative team that specializes in E-Commerce
Creating visual content for E-Commerce sites like Amazon and Walmart requires expertise in E-Commerce. A great Content Supply Chain won’t make you reinvent all the templates you need from scratch, nor will it require you to learn about all the file formats, file sizes, dimensions and so on that e-commerce and social media sites require. Instead, it’ll let you focus on repeatably scaling content. It’ll ensure that the content you create adheres to your brand style guidelines, while also adhering to retailer and social media requirements.

The notion of a Content Supply Chain is a compelling one. Let us help you realize it with a full set of tools, approaches and best practices that will enable you to meet the inexhaustable need for content without incurring additional cost every time you make a change, add a format, or add a new channel.