Marketers may invest in tools, but there are other revenue-producing assets that we often overlook, specifically: content, brand and data.
Episode Show Notes
Introduction to Marketing More Effectively with Long-Term Assets
(0:00 – 2:11) Introduction to the Iterative Marketing Podcast: Welcome to the Iterative Marketing Podcast, where, each week, hosts Steve Robinson and Elizabeth Earin provide marketers and entrepreneurs with actionable ideas, techniques, and examples to improve marketing results.
The topic of this episode is long-term assets and their importance. Marketers often concentrate more on short-term gains and immediate revenue. The overlooking of long-term gains or assets might lead to missing significant additional value for the organization. The understanding and prioritization of long-term assets is an opportunity for marketers to enhance their strategies and impact.
The resources discussed on the show can be found at brilliantmetrics.com, which includes a blog and a LinkedIn group for community interaction.
Why Use Long-term Assets?
(2:11 – 5:11) Three Key Types of Long-term Assets: There are three significant types of long-term assets: content, brand, and data. Understanding the impact of these assets on marketing efficiency is crucial. These three types of assets do not work independently; they present synergies and enhance each other when working together.
Importance of Building Long-term Assets: Many marketers prioritize immediate returns on marketing investments, such as sales resulting from media and content investments. However, capital investments, or long-term assets, can improve efficiency over time, much like investing in machinery and equipment for a factory increases its efficiency. In the marketing context, the key long-term assets include brand, evergreen content, and data used for audience segmentation, targeting, and reach.
Content as a Long-term Asset
(5:11 – 9:52) Defining Evergreen Content: Evergreen content stands the test of time and has a shelf life extending beyond a short period. It often includes ‘how-to’ content or reference materials that consistently show up in search results over time. For instance, a playing card company might offer an evergreen illustrated guide to poker hands. Evergreen content isn’t limited to reference materials and can include tools, utilities, and even entertainment pieces.
Revenue Generation from Content: To qualify as a long-term asset, evergreen content must generate revenue, directly or indirectly. Direct revenue generation comes from persuasive content with calls to action leading to immediate sales. Content that aids in building and segmenting an audience and understanding their preferences is one way content can indirectly impact the bottom line.
Measuring Content as an Asset: Two essential metrics are the volume and quality of the content. While the volume of content can indicate the breadth of information available, the quality is measurable by engagement time, traffic generation, or direct conversion into revenue. The ultimate goal is to track content assets that continue to generate revenue over time.
Brand as a Long-term Asset
(9:52 – 17:47) Defining Brand Assets: A brand isn’t just about logos or names, it’s about the emotional connection between a company and its prospects. Brands help form an emotional connection and establish trust with consumers. Strong brands serve as competitive advantages and contribute to long-term profitability.
Two Ways to Measure Brand:
- Brand awareness: how many people are aware of the existence of your brand.
- Brand alignment: How well your brand is aligned internally and externally, i.e., the harmony between what your company believes the brand represents and what customers/prospects perceive it to be.
Brand Metrics: Google AdWords can be used as a proxy for brand awareness if the brand name is unique. The brand vector process can measure brand alignment between customers, prospects, senior management, and employees.
Charity Outreach
(17:47 – 18:30) Charity Break: Heart Love Place
Data as a Long-term Asset
(18:30 – 24:31) Defining Data as an Asset: In this context, data refers to audience data. It’s the information that helps companies either connect with their audience or segment their audience to deliver tailored messages.
Two Types of Data: Audience data will typically come in one of two forms, first-party or third-party.
- First-party data: Stored in databases like CRMs or marketing automation databases, which allows for robust segmentation. This type of data includes everything from psychographics to buyer’s journey considerations, helping to create personalized content.
- Third-party data: Stored on the marketing or advertising platforms. This could include Facebook custom audiences, Twitter-tailored audiences, or cookie pools in display advertising.
Data Privacy: Companies need permission or opt-in access to use an individual’s data. An opt-in email or SMS database is a valuable asset as it allows companies to have a direct line of communication with potential customers. Using first-party data, companies can personalize, and segment paid media, expanding their reach.
Measuring Data: For database data, companies can measure the size of their opt-in lists, their ability to segment, the size of those segments, and what percentage of their database is segmented. First-party audience data requires measuring the number of individual Facebook IDs, Twitter IDs, or cookies in different audience pools. The key is to grow and nurture these pools with quality data over time.
Interdependence of Long-Term Marketing Assets
(24:31 – 26:16) How Do These Three Assets Complement One Another? Long-term marketing assets, such as content, brand, and data, are interconnected like a three-legged stool. If one of these is pulled away, the whole system could collapse. All three elements are critical for building and sustaining these assets.
- Role of Content: Content helps reinforce your data by providing the information you need to segment your audience. It also helps in generating content that attracts people, thereby growing your cookie pools and social media custom audiences.
- Role of Brand: A powerful brand makes your content trustworthy and appealing even before it’s been read. People are more likely to engage with content from a brand they recognize and trust, increasing the chance of the content being consumed.
- Role of Data: Data is essential as it informs what kind of content should be created to cater to different segments. It helps in personalizing the content for specific audience segments. Moreover, it provides the means to distribute that content through opt-in lists and cookie pools, enabling the delivery of your content directly to the relevant audience. Without data, the power of content is significantly reduced.
Core Takeaways
(26:16 – 27:28) The Necessity of Investment: The importance of investing in three fundamental marketing assets: content, brand, and data plays a crucial role in supporting your marketing strategy and overall business growth. Ignoring any one of these assets could compromise the effectiveness of the others and your overall marketing strategy.
Interconnectedness: Content, brand, and data are interconnected and mutually supportive. They are like a three-legged stool – remove one leg, and the whole structure becomes unstable. Their interplay ensures effective communication, strong brand recognition, relevant audience targeting, and personalized content delivery.
Reporting and Measurement: Tracking and reporting on these assets’ performance are essential for understanding their value and making informed decisions about future investments. By reporting on these assets, you can demonstrate to senior leadership the long-term value they bring beyond immediate sales and revenue. This will help align understanding and expectations between marketing and leadership teams.
Join Us Next Time
(27:28 – 28:39) Conclusion: In this episode, we discussed the importance of content, brand, and data as key long-term marketing assets. Each asset enhances the others, enabling efficient audience targeting, boosting engagement, and informing content creation. The necessity of consistently measuring, reporting, and investing in these elements for sustained growth is paramount.
In the next episode, we will discuss how to construct a marketing report template that can effectively be communicated with internal stakeholders and enhance your personal reputation within the organization.
Have a great week and we’ll see you next time. This concludes this week’s episode. For notes and links to resources discussed on the show, sign up to the Brilliant Metrics newsletter.
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The Iterative Marketing Podcast, a production of Brilliant Metrics, ran from February 2016 to September 2017. Music by SeaStock Audio.
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