Online retailers have been building up their stock of content for a while now. They recognize its value in bringing people to their sites (SEO), engaging people while on site and, of course, helping to increase conversions from site visitors.

Below are two retailers’ key points about using content. Mark Evans, Director of Content Publishing and Technology Applications at United Stationers shares six ideas on how to manage content and master cross-media publishing. Jenny Connelly, VP of eCommerce Content and Advertising at Live Nation/Ticketmaster, gives seven thoughts about monetizing content and driving ad revenue. Here we go:

Mark Evans – Managing Content & Mastering Cross-Media Publishing

Mark Evans

1. Define your goals and leverage the content value chain.
2. Identify and define the content types you need to manage and approach each one as separate but interconnected.
3. The storage and presentation of content are not the same thing.
4. Clearly define the difference between global data and category specific data.
5. We live in a multichannel world and content should be media neutral wherever possible.
6. Persuasion is not a commodity.

Jenny Connelly

1. Be creative! – Don’t say no right away.
2. Expect internal stakeholder opposition – let the metrics decide.
3. Who will sell? Internal sales team or ad network?
4. Test, Test, and Test for RPM.
5. Advertisers want ‘never been done’ – templatize it!
6. Let your ad server do the heavy lifting.
7. Look for opportunities to monetize your dead-end pages: “no results found,” “sold out,” etc.

For even more helpful tips from top retailers, download the “Take-Away Report” from eTail West here. You’ll get 125 tips about everything from email marketing to SEO to social media and more from some of the industry’s best retail innovators. Read the report and as always, let us know what you think!