How Burton publishes product content 4 weeks faster with Talkoot
4 weeks faster
production process
Fewer errors
<5% error rate
Consistent voice
across entire
product line
Today, Burton is one of the fastest-growing DTC brands according to charm.io data. But before 2017, Burton was using a combination of spreadsheets, documents and cloud drives to create, review and organize product copy. As online sales increased, Burton struggled with meeting the demand for product content, and their existing solutions couldn’t solve their new needs. Burton needed a solution that could provide visibility across their complex product line, scale as they grew, and make their team more efficient.
“Both a project management and copyediting tool, [Talkoot] keeps track of 15,000 styles in different product categories, across different seasons, with different writers and reviewers, and requirements for burton.com and Amazon.”
—Stew Brinegar, Data Management Lead, Burton
The Challenge: Making Product Information
Management (PIM) more efficient and scalable
Missing product
information slowed
things down
Thanks to missing information and late changes to the product, the ecommerce team spent a lot of time coordinating with the product team to ensure the accuracy of product data.
Lack of workflow
introduced errors
Because there was no standard workflow, the product copy process was ad-hoc and siloed. Version control issues were rampant, and errors were hard to find and fix.
No single source of
truth for product
content meant wasted resources
Duplicate workstreams across the organization made content production slow and tedious. Different teams were creating nearly identical content in different places, with no ability to collaborate or share information. Having different versions of similar content compounded the already existing problems of inaccurate data and errors.
“It’s nice to have a tool that you know has a record of somebody giving the copy a thumbs up. The error rate is below 5% now because there are a number of eyes on the copy, and having a laid-out process helps a lot. In terms of copy, we are miles ahead of where we were even three years ago.”
—Stew Brinegar, Data Management Lead, Burton
The Solution: Onboarding the only PIM
for high volume, DTC product storytelling
Robust workflow
increased efficiency
Talkoot’s fully configurable workflows were one of the “aha” moments for the Burton team. Products move through copy production phases (Research, Writing, Editing, Client, Proofreading) and are assigned to team members for each phase. Various notifications and dashboards help users track hundreds of styles at once. Product stakeholders more easily collaborate to ensure that product information is always accurate, impactful, and up to date.
Implementing a single source of truth
reduced errors and
eliminated duplicative
work
Talkoot is cloud-based, eliminating the problem of version control and document fragmentation caused when using Excel to manage product information. Now the product stories behind Burton’s complete inventory are captured in a single system, ensuring no one rewrites copy simply because they can’t find it.
Features like global find and replace make it simple for the Burton team to find and fix content errors across the entire inventory. What used to take weeks of combing through hundreds of spreadsheets or product pages now takes minutes. All these efficiencies helped Burton shave 4 weeks off a content production cycle that used to last 12 weeks and now takes just 8.
Flexible, API-first
integrations enabled
greater syndication
efficiencies with
Salsify
Once Talkoot was onboarded and Burton was producing more accurate, impactful product content, they selected Salsify to manage and syndicate that content across all their channels. For Burton, the combination of Talkoot and Salsify is a perfect match. Talkoot’s open API allowed them to easily integrate Talkoot with Salsify, automating the seamless flow of information between systems.
Conclusion
With Talkoot, Burton significantly reduced the complexity involved in keeping track of thousands of styles across multiple product categories, different seasons, scores of writers and reviewers, and different platforms like their website, Amazon and third-party marketplaces. Burton continues to see improvements in efficiency even as their inventory has increased manifold.
Learn how Talkoot can help your business. Schedule time with us.
Talkoot pays for itself many times over
OUR CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE:
4x greater efficiency
40%+ savings on content production
3x reduction in errors
10%+ conversion rate increases
99% on-time copy deliveries
A happy team & more loyal customers