Is Your Business Building Content Marketing Assets?

7 Content Marketing Assets Every Business Needs

building for futureAre you creating enduring corporate assets with your content marketing? This requires thinking beyond a specific piece of content or sale to building owned media entities. In order words, would your business be able to survive if it were blacklisted on Google?

A prospect recently asked me to help him market a new business he was launching. While he and his partner were each experienced in his respective specialty neither one had ever sold direct to consumer. They had depended on third party merchants to sell their products. As a result, they had no customer list or other connection to their core fans.

As a result, these entrepreneurs need to start their marketing from scratch. Whereas, if they had assets from prior business ventures targeting this market, they’d be able to communicate and build their brand more cost effectively and quickly.

Traditional direct marketers understood the value of having a house file of prospects and customers to whom they could send their targeted communications.

7 Content assets every business should consider

To avoid these challenges, you must build corporate assets in the form of on-going media entities and/or house files.

  1. Website – Your business’s home base on the web. At a minimum, offer detailed information about your business, products and brands. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Include your physical address, phone number and email address so that prospects can contact you. Retail establishments including restaurants should have a mobile-friendly website that’s focused on the primary activity your audience seeks from you when they’re on-the-go. 
  2. Blog – Your organization’s social media hub. It provides useful information in a variety of formats. Further, blogs allow readers to share your content as well as engage with you. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Use your blog as a place to provide useful information about your products by offering patterns and/or recipes, answering customer questions and spotlighting customers or their work.
  3. Email list – A file of your prospects, customers and fans that you have permission to contact via email. These are people who opt-in via your website, blog, in-store request or other means to get information from you. Respect their privacy and don’t share their information. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Get respondents active as soon as possible. Use a confirmation email to ensure that they meant to signup. Also, create an email or series of emailings for new registrants. The tangible asset is the list of email addresses.
  4. Video – A television like platform. It allows you to build a following that feels like they know you personally. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Start a YouTube channel since it’s easy-to-use and is the second largest search engine.
  5. Podcast – An on-going audio show that can be distributed via your website, blog or iTunes. Mike Stelzner of is a big believer in the power of the human voice. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Test the waters by being a guest on other people’s podcasts. (Here’s my recent on-air interview with Jon Loomer.)
  6. Mobile app – An efficient way for interested people to access your business’s information from their mobile devices. Mobile apps have recently over taken the mobile web in prominence due to their more efficient use of data and higher level of functionality. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Provide special targeted content that helps your audience while their away from their home or office. Think in terms of fulfilling a special need. (Note: This may not apply to every business.)
  7. Events – Both online (such as webinars) and offline (such as conferences and Meetups) forums where people gather. As a business, events are a great way to get create leads or qualify leads. You can create your own events or leverage other people’s events. Actionable Content Marketing Tip: Provide valuable content that makes your presentation or event worth your audience’s time and in exchange for contact information. The tangible asset is the list of attendees and their contact information.

When planning your organization’s content marketing, incorporate plans to build related business assets that increase your ability to contact your audience cost effectively.

What other content marketing assets would you add to this list and why?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

BTW–I’ll be sharing 21 content marketing tips and tricks at Content Marketing World. Sign up below and get $100 off.



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One Response to Is Your Business Building Content Marketing Assets?

  1. Ian Cleary says:

    Hi Heidi, you could argue that most of those content assets are also important to individuals. Companies will ask what audience are you bringing with you when you move jobs! Ian