Content; Our assets of the future ?!

In the current era, the internet can no longer be ignored in our exploration process, a fact that many marketing experts have already written books about. An important consequence of this was not only that this has also led to a shift in the place of conversion, such as the rise of online stores, but certainly also the explosive growth of trading platforms such as Amazon, Coolblue and Bol. It has also led to an explosion in content, content in different forms to be displayed correctly on the different media and devices. But also content produced in alternative ways, just think of user-generated content via social channels, but certainly also by the semi-professional influencer scene. They all compete for the widest possible range, because the revenue models are based on that. And this is exactly where the big opportunity lies!

Obviously, the range and the associated conversion is potentially an important phenomenon. But what is often forgotten is that this reach is usually achieved by offering the right contextual information to people. This information is the actual value leading to the range. However, this value also has a downside, when it focuses on fashionable or transient / fleeting information, the shelf life is limited and the risk of churning that range is great. Another facet is the way in which this information, or actually assets, is often handled in terms of storage and indexation. Publishing and posting on a social channel may provide a boost in views and temporary reach growth, but it is certainly not a formula that helps you as a content owner in the longer term, After all, indexation on these platforms is due to the social media platform and not to you as the content owner. This is usually properly legally arranged with these platform providers (and actually part of their earnings model).

The moral of the story is therefore that we usually insufficiently consciously forget to treat our expensive produced and distributed content as valuable assets that can play an important role for our online findability now and in the future. So we actually put ourselves offside in the future and that is a missed opportunity!

The solution is not very complicated both mentally and practically / technically. It starts with the awareness that content in any form should be viewed as a corporate asset. Not that you should put them directly on the balance sheet, but at least recognize that they represent a commercial value. But in order to actually be able to use it as business assets, ensuring that this content is actually equipped for this is a prerequisite. From that perspective, all content produced must have titles, descriptions and the correct tags for findability. This is still fairly unusual, especially in the traditional manufacturing industries, and there too it offers a strong opportunity for supply differentiation. Especially the adequate and well thought-out adjustment of this “backend” content is an important success factor. After all, the current search engines have been developed in such a way that they correctly scan on the basis of these titles, descriptions and tags, assign a value to them and then assess on the basis of links how this content is valued in terms of value within the internet users. This sum results in an authority score. A score that then determines where you can be found in the search engines. A score that then also accumulates when you have multiple valuable content assets on a similar topic. However, it is important that the place where the indexation takes place is on a domain that you own. If that is not the case, as with content on the social networks, then the indexation is actually done in favor of this social network… ..

The proper and manageable storage of the assets and also ensuring that these assets are quickly indexable and distributable is therefore very important. This is exactly what a PIM / DAM (product information manager / Data asset manager) solution is designed for. In addition to these core functions, another important time and therefore money-saving advantage is the fact that a PIM / DAM is based on the HighRes versions of the assets. The solutions are able to automatically create different renditions from these highRes versions that are tailored to the most requested and common formats (think of channels such as a computer, telephone or billboard). However, these renditions are an encryption form of the HighRes versions and therefore not heavy files that require separate storage space. Another additional advantage is the fact that a PIM / DAM is able to do very detailed asset management. This is especially important when, for example, photography is entrusted with image and portrait rights, the recording of property rights and the term / duration as well as the associated costs become transparent and aggregable, for example per month or quarter, without resulting in a lot of research or unpleasant claims.

Finally, a PIM / DAM gives the possibility to distribute and maintain your assets on domains that are not owned or managed by you. Especially in a commercial situation when, for example, you have a product that is sold in several other web shops. The continuous forwarding of modified images or descriptions is a time-consuming job. Especially if you have to do this for multiple domains. With a PIM / DAM you can simply provide a URL that makes the correct information available to the user of that URL at all times. Even if you want to make adjustments, you only do that in your PIM / DAM, after which the URL provides the reference to the updated content, without you having to do any extra work or communication.

So when you have access to a huge amount of content that you want to be able to easily manage, distribute, manipulate or simply export (print) but also want to contribute as company assets (by making them findable and indexable for good search positions and so authority building), it is therefore a wise choice to upgrade your content in a PIM / DAM environment to real business assets today rather than tomorrow.