What is a content asset? It is something of value that persists and creates revenue for your brand. In today’s economy, it is, arguably, more important than any other marketing or brand asset you have.
as·set – noun /ˈaset/ Property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitments, or legacies
In the old economy, bricks and mortar businesses were what we primarily related to. If you had land, office space, rental properties, machinery or anything material that belonged to the business, these were considered assets of great value. We could connect the dots because we can see and touch it.
In today’s economy, the tools for facilitating buyer transactions and experiences are now available to the masses. A laptop and an internet connection allows anyone to build something that was not previously as accessible or easy to create. Your brand assets are now online. These assets are extremely valuable and have great worth. Also, they do not have the headaches of physical assets in wear, tear and value loss.
Online Brand Assets
Today’s real estate lives online. Imagine that your children growing up and being able to Google you. They find things you wrote and can consume it as does anyone in the world can. The real estate is owning keywords which people type in every day on search engines and finding you on page one. Owning that space affords you exposure that is difficult to supplant. It is based on your authority – the depth of content on your systems – and relevance – the references by other sites to your systems.
Your business continues to attract visitors because of your content. Here are some ways which we use content assets strategically which creates a durable asset that lives ongoing for your business:
- Getting found. When people want something, the first thing they do is search. This has replaced the yellow pages, directories, direct mail and many other traditional marketing approaches. It is hard work to be able to get found. There are millions of sites which have content. Your content must be relevant and show on page one for specific search keywords. This carves out a space for you when people seek to solve their problems. You can monitor these visits and performance in real-time using analytics tools. Over time, your content produces thousands of visitors every month. It performs when you are sleeping and is your 24/7 store.
- Positioning in the sales process. You cannot interrupt people today. They block you out with caller ID, spam filters and do not mail registrations. However, what if you had helpful and authoritative articles? As you work with people in the sales process, create custom answers which speak to their pain and help them solve problems. This is valuable. We are all seeking answers. As you do this instead of wasting their time with disruption, you are creating further content that can get found as well. Your assets grow, your credibility in the sale increases and ultimately, trust develops. It is a new and effective way of selling.
- Nurturing buyers. Most of your visitors are not ready to buy now if the pain is not high. You can have processes which provide content which is relevant and automated using marketing automation. Publishing content and monitoring real-time analytics to automate how buying is done over time can be predictable and repeatable with a system. Custom articles and emails are stored, triggered and delivered based on buyer preferences and behaviors. These systems work 24/7 as well.
- Supporting your customers. Content which is organized and accessible to answer problems creates a brand asset to continue building loyalty. If all you do is email to solve problems, then you miss the opportunity to leverage your repetitive thoughts and answers on a platform which is searchable and able to help anytime.
- Aligning your team. As your business grows, keeping everyone on your team on the same page can be done using your content assets. Powerful search and continually publishing content to communicate the vision, culture and expectations of your brand speak not only to the outside market but also internally to your team. This builds culture and alignment.
In the past, people thought that having physical assets were important for proving value. Today, they are more of a liability. Your online content assets work for you all the time to make money if you have them set up and used consistently within your company processes for getting customers and servicing customers.
Imagine that you are able to focus your content to build your brand:
- You are found anytime now and in the future
- Your systems work 24/7 even when you are not able to directly engage a prospect or customer
- Money is made anytime because everything is set up and automated
- You can help people buy instead of sell hard
This is one of the most valuable assets you can build for your company and noone can take it away from you. Investing in content and the content management systems for publishing and distribution along with systems for automation and measuring effectiveness creates a business with an asset – something that continually makes you money.
What do you think of having such an asset in your business?
