Is your e-commerce content working as hard as it should be? In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, strong content creation and management could be the key to unlocking both customer engagement and business growth.
I am here at Opticon 2024 in San Antonio Texas and getting the opportunity to see a lot of inspiring ideas from some of the world’s leading brands and hearing all about Optimizely’s platform and how it enables 1:1 personalization, streamlined content operations, and incorporates the latest generative AI features.
Today we’re diving into the role of strong content creation and optimization in e-commerce with Ashlyn Fulton, Senior Digital Content Manager at D’Addario & Company, which operates in over 130 countries and has over 5,000 SKUs available online.
We’ll discuss the unique challenges of content for both D2C and B2B e-commerce, the impact of generative AI, and how platforms like Optimizely are shaping the future of e-commerce content management.
Resources
D’Addario & Company website: https://daddario.com
Optimizely website: https://www.optimizely.com
Wix Studio is the ultimate web platform for creative, fast-paced teams at agencies and enterprises—with smart design tools, flexible dev capabilities, full-stack business solutions, multi-site management, advanced AI and fully managed infrastructure. https://www.wix.com/studio
Don’t miss Medallia Experience 2025, March 24-26 in Las Vegas: Registration is now available: https://cvent.me/AmO1k0 Use code MEDEXP25 for $200 off registration
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Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom
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Transcript
Greg Kihlstrom:
Is your e-commerce content working as hard as it should be? In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, strong content creation and management could be the key to unlocking both customer engagement and business growth. I’m here at Opticon 2024 in San Antonio, Texas, and getting the opportunity to see a lot of inspiring ideas from some of the world’s leading brands, and hearing all about Optimizely’s platform and how it enables one-to-one personalization, streamlined content operations, and incorporates the latest generative AI features. Today, we’re diving into the role of strong content creation and optimization in e-commerce with Ashlyn Fulton, Senior Digital Content Manager at D’Addario & Company, which operates in over 130 countries and has over 5,000 SKUs available online. We’re going to talk about the unique challenges of content for both D2C and B2B e-commerce, impact of generative AI, and how platforms like Optimizely are shaping the future of e-commerce content management. Ashlyn, welcome to the show.
Ashlyn Fulton: Thank you.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, why don’t we start with you telling us a little bit about your background and your current role?
Ashlyn Fulton: Sure. So as you said, I’m the senior digital content manager over at D’Addario. We manufacture guitar strings and other instrument accessories. So we’re actually a D2C and a B2B business. My background is in marketing communications. I’ve been in digital marketing for about 10 years. I started with more of like, I was doing everything from email to social to website, and now I’m primarily focused on website content management and optimizations.
Greg Kihlstrom: Great, great. So yeah, you’re definitely the right person to talk with about this topic here. So yeah, let’s dive in and start with the content creation for D2C and B2B e-commerce. So as you said, you manage content for both audiences, both the D2C and B2B. What are some of the unique challenges that you face when creating this content for these different audiences? And maybe let’s start with the D2C audience.
Ashlyn Fulton: Yeah, so with DDC, obviously we have the primary consideration of conversion to sales, but our loyalty program, Player Circle, is also a big focus of our business, as well as messaging our brand story, which is actually four different brand stories because we have the guitar business and we have two drum businesses, or with the drum business, orchestral and woodwinds. So it’s a lot to message in a cohesive way while hitting our sales goals and then also making all the business units happy because Everyone thinks that their content is the most important. But at the end of the day, it’s what the data shows and what our customers want.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah. And what about B2B?
Ashlyn Fulton: With B2B, our focus is making our dealers happy, giving them the tools that they need to sell our products to their customers, and making it really easy for them to come place their orders with us on a regular basis.
Greg Kihlstrom: So are there areas where both, where there’s overlap from a planning and a strategy perspective, you know, are able to find some efficiencies there?
Ashlyn Fulton: Yeah, so every product and 95% of the discounts that we run for our D2C audience are extended to our dealers first. So we’ve been able to create templates and workflows to create that content at the exact same time. Obviously with different messaging, we’re going to have different messaging for our dealers versus our versus our consumers, but it all gets created at the same time.
Greg Kihlstrom: Well, that definitely helps. Yeah. So let’s talk, you know, so we’re here at Opticon. So certainly hearing a lot about their latest announcements, but you’ve been using Optimizely for a while here. So, you know, platforms like Optimizely and others are designed to streamline content operations. How has using a platform like this helped D’Addario improve its content creation and management processes?
Ashlyn Fulton: Yeah, so I work in the CMS every single day. So the CMS makes it really easy for us to create robust content, pages, and components that can easily be duplicated and reused without having to start from scratch every single time. So for example, if we’re running a giveaway for our drummer audience, I only have to create that set of blocks one time. And then once that giveaway expires, the content expires, it comes down. And then when we run another giveaway, I just update the copy and images, and boom, all the components are already in the right place across the site, so it makes it really easy.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, so reuse is a big component there. What specific features or capabilities of Optimizely have been impactful for e-commerce, specifically in optimizing content for e-commerce?
Ashlyn Fulton: So in the CMS, we use visitor groups for personalization a lot across the site, just making sure that the right audiences are seeing the right content. We also use search and navigation to kind of drive decisions about what kind of content we need to optimize or add if we don’t have it. And then we just implemented ODP, so that’s going to be like a game changer in terms of optimizing the rest of the content across the site.
Greg Kihlstrom: Could you talk a little bit more about ODP?
Ashlyn Fulton: We just implemented it, so we’re still kind of connecting all the dots, getting all the data in there, but we’re really excited to dive in and hopefully pair it with experimentation as well. So just getting a lot of metrics that we hadn’t previously had.
Greg Kihlstrom: So there’s a lot of talk about AI, generative AI in particular, both here at this conference as well as just everywhere, as we all know. And it’s, you know, it’s making a lot of waves in e-commerce specifically as well. Where do you see generative AI having the most impact in the content creation and management?
Ashlyn Fulton: So I see us utilizing generative AI from anywhere from like content suggestions and ideation to the actual execution of those campaigns. I would also really like to use it for a large scale copy project such as product description rewrites, something that could take months or even years given the amount of SKUs that we have.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah, I mean 5,000, I would imagine 5,000 plus at this point, but SKUs, that’s a lot. And that’s a great use case for AI, right? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Looking ahead a little bit further, where do you think that generative AI may play an even bigger role in the future of e-commerce?
Ashlyn Fulton: I think it’s going to make personalization a lot easier for e-commerce sites by being able to analyze customer data. Kind of easy way to make sense of something that maybe you’d spend a lot of time trying to grasp. Suggesting different segments, coming up with experimentation hypotheses, Analyzing those experiments and then ultimately creating, you know, a highly personalized experience for our customers Yeah, so I mean really it’s I mean that’s pretty much throughout the entire journey, right?
Greg Kihlstrom: It’s so it’s not just because I think there’s a lot of Focus, I mean generative AI there’s a lot of focus on generating content, which certainly it’s capable of doing but yeah It’s so much more powerful than that though.
Ashlyn Fulton: It’s getting there at least
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, and I think that’s a lot of what we heard yesterday at the conference in particular was just how it can play a role throughout and really benefit all. And there’s still a role for humans too, right?
Ashlyn Fulton: Exactly. I think it’s a little scary to have AI take over everything completely, at least right now. There’s always got to be at least a little bit of a human touch.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, definitely. So, building on this, let’s talk a little bit about another topic, and this is building content with continuous improvement in mind. So, continuous improvement is critical in everything, but we’re talking about e-commerce here, so it’s certainly critical in e-commerce. How do you build content with optimization in mind from the start?
Ashlyn Fulton: So we have a really amazing strategy team and a really good brief process, along with several tools that we use to make sure that we’re taking optimization into consideration at the content planning stage.
Greg Kihlstrom: So if you don’t mind, what does that look like? If you could elaborate a little bit on what it looks like in the planning process.
Ashlyn Fulton: So we come up with a brief, we have a really good template, and what we’re doing is a priority of communication, so making sure that all the optimizations are really easy for our customers to access at the top of the page, using clarity to see how far people are scrolling down on past campaigns, using that data to then influence future briefs.
Greg Kihlstrom: Great, great. So what processes or tools do you use to ensure that content is regularly reviewed and optimized so you can get that better performance?
Ashlyn Fulton: So we use Siteimprove to monitor and alleviate site performance, SEO, and accessibility issues. It’s been an absolute game changer just making sure that our site is accessible to everyone. And then we use search and navigation, as I mentioned earlier in the CMS. Ahrefs, I think is how you say it, for keyword research, and that helps drive decisions on the content that we need to update or add. We also just implemented Microsoft Clarity, so that’s giving us a lot of good insights as well.
Greg Kihlstrom: So as e-commerce continues to evolve, what are you seeing as far as trends or innovations that will have the biggest impact on what we’ve talked about today, content management, optimization, and maybe a follow-on to that. What advice would you give to other e-commerce brands that are looking to improve their content strategies?
Ashlyn Fulton: So I think you know what I’m gonna say here, and it’s been a huge topic of conversation here at Opticon, and that’s AI, right? It’s now, it’s the future, and my advice would be to get on board and start figuring out how your company can use it, and just don’t be scared of it, because it’s a tool for marketers, not something that’s gonna take our job, at least yet.
Greg Kihlstrom: So before we wrap up here, I’d love to hear from you. We have this second day of Opticon here in San Antonio, Texas. What’s been a highlight for you so far?
Ashlyn Fulton: A highlight for me has been learning more about how they’re going to be using AI in the future. I went to a little, it was just one of the 15-minute sessions, but it was their AI roadmap, and it was so inspiring and encouraging to hear what kind of things we’re going to be able to do with all their platforms. And also learning more about experimentation. It’s something that we are looking at buying as part of our Optimizely suite. So kind of seeing what things we can do with that and how AI also integrates into that product.
Greg Kihlstrom: Great, great. Yeah, yeah. Lots of stuff. Too much stuff for two days, right? I know, right? It’s a lot packed in. Yeah. Well, so one last question for you. This is something I like to ask all my guests. What do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Ashlyn Fulton: So coming to events like Opticon, obviously. But really just being open to new ideas and new ways of doing things, using data as much as we can to learn more about our customers, teach them about our brand, get them to buy our products, and then ultimately become a D’Addario player for life.
