Content is about more than just marketing. An effective approach to creating content frames your efforts as long-term assets, capable of being repurposed and updated.
But creating content that builds value for your business isn’t easy. You’ll need to think like an investor when forming strategies and optimizing media if you hope to achieve great results.
A variety of content types, strategies, and tips can help you get there. First, though, we’ll describe what content assets are and how thinking like an investor is the best method of obtaining success when working with them.
What are contentassets?
Content is the stuff you’re bombarded with on the internet all the time.
From ads to “how-to” articles, the range and scope of marketing tools know no bounds. A wide variety of mediums present options for any business with a digital footprint, including videos and blog posts. Then, social media platforms comprise content genres all their own.
Content assets are the shareable bits of media that a company produces. They take many different forms, including:
- Case studies
- Informative videos
- Infographics
- White papers
- Blog posts
But why do businesses need content assets?
Well, the answer to that is simple. Content assets can bring in traffic, establish brand trust and reputation, and ultimately drive revenue growth. Content is the front on which we do most of our interacting with customers these days, so the need for quality content is pressing.
Think of content assets much like you would actual physical assets like real estate. The internet is the street connecting disparate users to your platform. You want to drive traffic straight to your property so that your users can make use of all you have to offer.
To achieve this, you’ll need to create content assets that have tourism and investment potential. In the digital world, this starts with search engine optimization (SEO).
Optimizing for search engines requires you to build inclusive and accessible features while streamlining the performance of the web property. From here, you can plan out content types that maximize the potential of your reach and presence in the public consciousness.
To increase your odds of success, however, you’ll need to think like an investor when formulating your content strategy. After all, investing in any kind of property — even digital property — is a big decision.
Thinking like an investor when strategizing content
Thinking like an investor often comes down to how you frame the decision-making process. An investor will go about researching an investment meticulously to determine if the return on investment (ROI) will be worth the overhead. Similarly, a web content creator must evaluate business models, risks, and potential before putting any money into content marketing.
The process starts by analyzing the best route for content production for your given business process.
1. Evaluate your business model
Taking a long look into your business model, products, and services will help you draw insights as to the kinds of content you should produce.
By evaluating your business model, you learn to think like an investor, exploring the details that matter. These include
- How the business generates revenue
- Price vs. volume across product lines
- Customer conversions
- Overhead costs
- Incremental revenue
From here, you’ll be prepared to develop useful content strategies that work towards a definitive and numerical goal. This will also help you determine what content types to use to achieve the ROI you’re looking for.
2. Assess risk
The next step in investor thinking is all about assessing risk. Content marketing can be expensive and its impact can be difficult to gauge. If you spend lots of money on video guides and infographics meant to draw in years of traffic and they fail, you’re back to the drawing board.
To avoid any problems, content creators must evaluate risk. There’s always a chance that your content will go wide, failing to reach the audience you targeted even if your data was good.
Content marketers must be aware of the risks and the danger, as content commonly bombs due to factors like:
- Inconsistency with a larger brand
- Ineffective messaging
- Irrelevant material
Be aware of these risk factors as you strategize content.
3. Maximize potential
Finally, thinking like an investor is all about maximizing the potential of the business at hand. In your case, this means optimizing content for the greatest possible success.
SEO will obviously be the biggest source of attention when it comes to streamlining your content assets. You’ll need high-quality content, no matter what medium you choose. You’ll also need the technical expertise to optimize the back end of these assets so that images load quickly, sites make sense to navigate, and tasks function as they should.
Investor hedges their bets by ensuring the success of their investments however possible. Maximize the potential of your ventures by promoting quality at every turn.
To help you do just this, we’ve assembled a list of tips for developing content assets that function just like lucrative tourist attractions.
Tips for creating successful contentassets
You too can draw in traffic to your web content, be it white papers, blog posts, or videos. However, it will take a comprehensive and often technical approach to SEO and marketing.
Like with anything in the field of marketing, so much of the success of content depends on how well it resonates with a larger audience. As much as you can break the situation down analytically, there will always be a component of intuition and creativity in the creation of web content. There’s no one way to succeed, just as there’s no one way to fail.
That said, think like an investor as you apply these strategies towards better content:
- Frame all content in the value it can offer customers. In highly saturated markets like the digital marketplace, you need to stand out by showcasing the value you can bring to customers’ lives. Doing so will create a sense of urgency, drive interest, and expand your opportunities to engage with your customers.
- Optimize for inclusivity, accessibility, and visibility. You want to expand your audience as much as possible. This means implementing inclusivity both for the sake of accessibility and visibility. Following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), for instance, will open your content up to more individuals and improve your page rankings on Google.
- Invest in video content. Video is a powerful medium, steamrolling others to become the chosen content type of the digital world. A quality video will improve your SEO, but you’ll need to invest in comprehensive tools like an online video editor if you want great results.
- Explore multi-channel marketing tools and strategies. There is no one way to win with content marketing. A how-to guide can keep traffic coming for years. Meanwhile, a podcast might reach a new niche. Explore your options to maximize content potential.
- Never stop innovating. You never know what innovative new content piece will win the web. Invite feedback and discussion with customers and colleagues and keep experimenting.
Investors succeed when they carefully analyze an asset for risk vs. reward potential. For web content, costs can get high. The rewards, however, are worth striving for as they mean broader accessibility as well as greater business success.
For any organization, content assets represent digital real estate that your customers can visit time and time again. To receive benefits from these properties, though, you have to optimize and experiment.
Investing in business success through content marketing
An investment in content assets is a business investment. Strive for the kind of curb appeal you’d want in a real estate property. This means web content that is pleasant enough to earn the attention and respect of your audience. From here, you can establish greater customer loyalty and engagement as you boost your ROI.
Thinking like an investor won’t guarantee viral content. It will, however, help you optimize multi-media marketing efforts for greater business success. Start now for a more lucrative future.
