Is your marketing content good enough for your customers to pay for it?
Don’t laugh. Companies are monetizing and selling their marketing content. Marketing isn’t just for lead generation and brand building anymore. It can become a revenue asset for your business.
It hit home for me on a recent flight home from Scotland. A seven hour flight meant I had time to kill, and rather than being productive I chose to watch movies. Prior to my flight I downloaded a few films from iTunes, and one of the films I picked out was The Art of Flight. The Art of Flight is a big budget snowboard film produced by Red Bull Media House, Red Bull’s media company. (If you haven’t seen it watch the trailer. It’s spectacular.)
Red Bull is not just a beverage company anymore. They’ve evolved their sponsorship and advertising into a media company – and it’s substantial. They’re producing content for print, digital, TV, music and movies. They’re creating content that showcases their athletes and their brand.
Red Bull Media House was featured in Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. Red Bull’s approach to content marketing is unique, “Content isn’t considered a loss leader, and it expects Media House to turn a profit and be a business unto itself.” Dietrich Mateschitz, CEO of Red Bull, goes on to explain, “Our goal is to establish a global media network, which covers all individual segments, such as print, TV, mobile, music, and new media. It will be the responsibility of the Red Bull Media House to produce and distribute all the content Red Bull is able to provide.”
Is your content valuable enough?
Red Bull is not an anomaly. They’re not the only company who can monetize their content. It’s a choice. Is your content good enough to monetize? Are you willing to commit the resources and effort to make your marketing a profit area?
B2B companies, especially professional services companies, have a unique opportunity to monetize their marketing content, because they have ‘expertise-driven brands.’ You don’t have to give away all your stuff for free. It boils down to value. A blog is a great way to share some ideas for free, but think bigger. How can you package and distribute your expertise in tangible ways for your customers?
Think big, brand big
Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – they’re all distribution platforms. They help you get your content out to the masses. Instead of building and executing a social media strategy, think bigger. Think ten times bigger. Convert your content from marketing into an asset.
If you make a choice to monetize your content, like Red Bull is doing, you’re making a choice to think and brand on a grand scale. It shifts you’re thinking from coming up with things to say on Facebook or your blog, and gets you to invest in content that your customers are willing to pay for.
Monetizing your marketing is a concept worth considering. Imagine what these programs could do for your brand and your bottom line.
