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by Lauren Gibbons Paul, Contributing Editor Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 6:27:35 PM   | Abstract: | WebCollage pushes manufacturers' product information to channel partners' Web sites, obviating the need for redundant data management efforts. |
Manufacturers know their products better than anyone. They invest heavily in their brand, and no one tells their story better than they do. Manufacturers also spend millions of dollars to create compelling Web content to showcase their products. But for all that effort, consumers and business customers are just as likely -- more likely, even -- to visit a channel partner's Web site to research products before they buy. Meanwhile, channel partners (including retailers, VARs, and distributors) want to provide deep, rich product content on their own Web sites, but it is prohibitively expensive to create and maintain top-notch content for dozens of vendors' products. Most channel partners are limited in their ability to integrate manufacturers' best, most compelling content (such as interactive demos, buying guides, educational material, and videos). Enter WebCollage Syndicator. This syndicated product marketing tool is the marquis product of WebCollage Inc. (New York, NY). Founded in 2000 as a vendor of Web partnership software, WebCollage now offers an automated way for manufacturers to push their finely tuned content to channel partners. The manufacturer pays WebCollage $200,000 or more annually for a hosted solution that automatically publishes and updates relevant content to the Web sites of their retailers, resellers, and distributors. WebCollage takes and assembles all of the information from a manufacturer's website, customizes it to each channel partner's unique branding and navigational requirements, and integrates it into the channel partner's website. "Manufacturers create and organize content for their own sites -- we take it, repackage it, and deliver [it] to the channel partners' sites," says Eli Singer, WebCollage's CEO and co-founder. For the channel partner, WebCollage's services are a no-brainer. After all, they do not have to pay anything under the current model and they are only too happy to outfit their own sites with the rich, interactive content that is most likely to drive the visitor to buy. "The channel partners absolutely love this service. It allows them to leverage the millions of dollars invested by the manufacturer and leverage that for their own Web sites without having to pay for it," Singer says. "And the implementation is very simple for them." Manufacturers win, he says, by being able to make broader use of their full-featured content. And when that information is available to consumers or business professionals in one place, they are less likely to leave the channel partner's site to comparison shop -- and perhaps buy -- elsewhere. The manufacturers' IT departments don't need to get involved when syndicating their Web content, even if it will go to an unlimited number of channel partners. On the other side, channel partners can integrate content from various manufacturers by adding one line of HTML to their Web site. WebCollage customizes the content to meet the channel partner's navigational and brand requirements, so the end customers can't tell the content is not directly from the channel partner. As an automated service, WebCollage pushes all content updates, new content, and marketing promotions to all channel partners simultaneously, without any additional IT effort on behalf of the channel partner or the manufacturer. WebCollage has conducted research that indicates end customers click the "add item to cart" button 6% to 9% more often when the page includes original content from the manufacturer, a pretty impressive boost. It is attempting to verify this research via a third-party analyst firm, Singer says. |