Marketing Strategy

The Secrets of Viral Marketing: Optimizing Your Content for Engagement

Also called buzz marketing, viral marketing gets its name because it spreads through a population much like a virus – from person to person. Viral marketing involves spreading your message quickly through your target market. Social media is considered a particularly fertile area for viral marketing because of the potential for engagement with your content to amplify your message. Viral marketing is basically WOM (Word of Mouth) on steroids that also increases the trustworthiness of your message when shared by friends.

However, viral marketing is a myth when it comes to building a sound digital marketing strategy. Yet, I hear this all the time from clients and prospects;

I want you to create a viral marketing campaign that’ll really send my brand over-the-top

The myth of viral marketing

OK, first, I can’t guarantee a post, white paper, image, infographic or another piece of content will go viral and no one else can either. Nobody can guarantee an action will generate viral marketing and, if they say they can, make them back it up with some money. In other words, require a substantial discount if their efforts don’t generate viral marketing results.

Of course, I can use elements “likely” to make a post go viral (and we’ll discuss these later in this post), but I wouldn’t want to bet real money on the whims of social media folks because any number of factors conspire to reduce the virality of your marketing strategy, including many that aren’t under your control.

A good example of a campaign that went viral is Roto Rooter’s Pimped Out John contest, depicted in the image below. The image is so outlandish, folks just HAD to talk about it. Users shared the heck out of the image, commented snarky things that generated more comments, and even the media picked up on the outlandish elements of this contest, garnering an estimated $1 million in free publicity according to the Marketing Director, who was surprised with the unexpectedly high results of the campaign.

Virality

Rather than perpetuating the viral marketing myth, let’s talk about virality — that’s the advice of successful journalist, Benny Johnson of Buzzfeed.

In his presentation, Benny said you can never predict which content will go viral (hence why I suggest the strategy of creating viral marketing is a myth). You can’t form a marketing plan around something so idiosyncratic.

Virality, to a large extent, is beyond your control because it depends a lot on serendipity, as I mentioned earlier. You might publish 100 pieces of really great content only to have some mediocre piece go viral, blowing all your notions that you control virality. Among the uncontrollable factors that contribute to virality, are:

It’s a slow news day. I often see some virality around the holidays, when fewer brands publish content.
Your post appeals to someone very influential. For instance, one of my posts caught the attention of Mari Smith, a Facebook influencer, for some unknown reason and she retweeted the content. Views of that piece of content when through the roof. The same thing happened recently when Google Analytics chose a post about their platform to retweet (see the Retweet below and pardon the bad crop job), despite ignoring numerous similar posts published before and after.

Your post gets featured on an important site or covered in the media. Whenever my post gets featured on the front page at Business 2 Community, website visits spikes.

Certainly, creating great content increases the chances that your content goes viral, but it’s no guarantee.

The ROI of viral marketing

But, the bigger question is: When content goes viral, does it HELP your brand?

And, too often, the answer is: NO!

This brings me to the topic of today’s post: Myths about social media.

Next to the definition of myth in the dictionary, you’re likely to find the viral marketing myth. The viral marketing myth, believed by most digital marketers is so pervasive, I’ve even seen marketing materials touting the firm’s viral marketing prowess. Well, let me say emphatically, viral marketing is a myth!

Now, that doesn’t mean that some content doesn’t go viral — it does. For instance, I published a post on a client’s blog, shared it on his Facebook wall, and got a 1000% increase in website views when the post when viral. Dissecting the success of this post, I found it contained both a provocative title and a captivating image. The post struck a chord that MADE readers want to know more.

Of course, views aren’t conversions so we didn’t see a big shift in that critical metric.

Prioritizing Your Inbound Marketing Strategies for 2021

Marketing is a continually evolving landscape. You know this. We know this. But 2020 presented a different challenge than previous years, leaving marketers to dig deep into what they need to do to attract and nurture leads and customers.

2021 will be no different – which shouldn’t make you panic! Part of marketing is doing your due diligence, and we’ve combined resources to come up with some powerful strategies to consider prioritizing in 2021.

SMS Marketing

The popularity of SMS was already accelerating pre-COVID, but the pandemic made the importance of quick, timely, relevant messages more necessary than ever. People needed fast updates on everything, from closures to switches to remote learning. And SMS marketing provided that, plus an average 98% read rate.

SMS marketing is also useful for both leads and customers in non-COVID-related campaigns, as you can implement various campaigns that are engaging to both audiences. For example, for current customers, you can send them text reminders of appointments or meetings. For leads, you may consider sending them branding awareness campaigns or coupons that may encourage them to buy from you.

The best part? With a platform like SMSZap, getting started with SMS marketing is a breeze. You can set up your account in a few minutes, link up with your contacts in HubSpot, and send personalized and engaging messages.

Content Marketing

COVID restrictions sent most people home at one point – to shop or work, or both. This made the demand for digital consumption skyrocket. What does that mean for your efforts in 2021? Your content needs to be high-caliber and plentiful, as well as:

Interactive
Emphatic
Engaging
Relevant to current events (2020 saw everything from social change, major elections, and COVID)
Made for the diverse crowds

That translates to creating and sharing educational, quality content about your products, services, and your company to your prospects and customers. You can use various resources like blogs, ebooks, infographics, social media, and videos to deliver your messages. No matter what type of content it is, it should address your target audiences’ specific pain points at every stage of their buyer’s journey, including the awareness, consideration, decision, and delight stages.

Video

Video can technically be considered a part of your content marketing – but its importance in our “new normal” isn’t something to shrug your shoulders. People longed for some human connection that they couldn’t get in person. Think about how you can use video in your previously “typical” marketing efforts. Are you switching to more online conferences, events, or webinars? These remote types of content are not going anywhere soon.

Similarly, video is just proven to be a useful tactic. In fact, 79% of consumers reported that a brand’s video convinced them to buy a piece of software or an app. A whopping 92% of those viewers also said they shared videos with others. That alone should help you realize the value of investing in video creation and distribution.

Chatbots and Customer Support Automation

When COVID initially hit, people scrambled to cancel flights, hotels, concerts, trips, appointments; you name it. The importance of a quick and solid customer support experience was integral. But customers weren’t the only ones dealing with the consequences of such an uncertain year. Support agents were hit with an influx of tickets to their helpdesk. Fortunately, chatbots and other customer support automation helped and will continue to in 2021.

Chatbots automate specific tasks and conversations by speaking with a customer or prospect through an easy-to-use interface. They lighten your teams’ workloads by tackling more straightforward conversational functions that are necessary but can eat up time. Advanced customer service automation can offload a large portion of support tickets with a high degree of accuracy. These resources also delight users because more and more people want information as quickly as possible and don’t mind speaking over a chat application.

Social Media

2020 certainly had a prevailing theme, and it was that a lot of people were at home for a good portion of it. Because of this, more people were also on their phones searching for news and updates from their favorite brands. One of the most common places to find this is generally a company’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Brands recognized this too. In fact, social media budgets accounted for 24% of all marketing budgets during the second quarter of 2020. And the momentum kept. There’s tremendous opportunity to ride these coattails and continue engaging and re-engaging with new and existing customers through fun, engaging social media campaigns or advertising.

SEO

When the pandemic subsides, businesses with brick and mortar locations will likely want to send as many people as possible back into their stores. Local search engine optimization (SEO) can help. Try:

Optimizing your “Google My Business Page”
Including local keywords throughout your website content
Strengthening your social media presence and including location-specific content

Position Zero, or Google’s featured snippet, should also take precedence in 2021. As humans become more reliant on technology, they expect the best answer as fast as possible. Position Zero has the most relevant information that answers that user’s question without clicking on any link. Some advice on getting a featured snippet includes:

Figure out what your company can get a snippet for
Writing out the exact question you’re trying to answer in your website or blog content
Use lists or tables
Research related questions and answers – any question can lead to another!
Create high-quality content that isn’t stuffed with keywords .

Another vital thing to consider when tackling SEO is to remember that people are searching for things differently now. People are asking more questions or phrases rather than just words. They’re also using devices like Alexa or Google Home. Search engines recognize this more nuanced context, meaning, and intent to deliver results, so keep it in mind for 2021.

By: Kelly Groover

Clwyd Probert

https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/ This presentation was made my Karen Rafferty from HubSpot as part of a seminar at the London HubSpot User Group in London. This video will show you the best tips for implementing a great inbound marketing strategy. You can download the free eBook here: https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/tips-… The full transcript of the video can be found here: https://blog.whitehat-seo.co.uk/inbou… Slides can be downloaded here: https://info.whitehat-seo.co.uk/londo… A summary article covering the main points is available here: https://blog.whitehat-seo.co.uk/tips-… We propose is to start to deploy a strategy to both your sales and marketing activities in your business.

It’s important just to reiterate here that with inbound marketing what we’re essentially doing is trying to focus on attracting good fit leads or opportunities for your business. And we do that through producing meaningful content that can enable you to have meaningful interactions with potential customers. It’s about just having good social etiquette. I’m, it’s not about interrupting people, it’s about actually being helpful, being responsive. Being very human in the way that you employ your marketing and your sales strategy. Which of the strategy from the video works best for you in 2018. Let me know by leaving a quick comment below. Details of the next London HUG event #LondonHUG can be found here: https://www.whitehat-seo.co.uk/hubspo…

3 Ways To Dominate Your Market

My area of expertise is in leadership development using the philosophy of Lean Six Sigma, in other words “process improvement strategies”.

Now join me on the journey I call A Tale of Two Companies: One business allowed its workers to be engaged by making improvements that allowed the customer to be first in mind. The second created an environment of “it’s not my job” eliminating employees from using client-first thinking. Now you might ask, “How can the customer not be first?”

Many believe Lean Six Sigma is solely for engineering and manufacturing companies. That’s the first misconception. This managerial approach is built on the premise of eliminating wasteful elements and focusing solely on the customer. Having taken that quick glimpse of Lean, as an entrepreneur, you can now see that this philosophy applies to all businesses. Every business operates in what Lean practitioners call SIPOC, (Suppliers, Input, Processes, Output and Customers). Understanding that small segment of lean thinking will open the door for you to look at the three ways to dominate your market.

How can I hinder?

Meet Office XYZ, a Dental Facility that has a small staff of 5-7 individuals each having their unique jobs when dealing with patients. I called this facility to make an appointment for my mother and was told they needed to verify her insurance and would call back once they received the approvals. Two weeks went by before I realized I had not heard from anyone regarding the insurance verification.

I called the office and asked to speak with the individual that was to call back, whom we’ll call Kelly. I was informed that Kelly was out of the office and had been ill for the past two weeks. My next question was: “is she the only person that verifies insurance?” The response was affirmative and I then asked to speak with a manager. I was told Kelly was the manager. Let’s stop here because now we enter that well-known rabbit hole of “it’s not my job.”

How can I help?

Meet Office ABC, A Pizza Company with a similar-sized staff. One night I called for a pizza. Upon placing the order I was told my meal would be about 30 minutes. Half an hour on a Friday evening? This company operated far differently than the first. When I placed my order something incredible happened, I received a text with the following message: “We’re making your order. It’s all coming together now. The kitchen staff is busy with your order making sure everything is just right.”

A few minutes later I received this missive: “It’s on the way. The driver has left the store and will be at your location shortly”, followed with, “Delivered! Time to eat. It’s been our pleasure serving you”.And it was within the time promised by the associate.

The “go and see” mentality

These two very different experiences gave me moment to pause. Did Company XYZ know about the importance of “lean thinking” and did Company ABC know they were using the lean six sigma philosophy in their operations? Did the leader of Company XYZ actually walk the process to see if there were any wasteful elements that allowed their service to lack the three main components of customer first thinking: quality, speed and delivery? And what about Company ABC, did that leader utilize the concept of Gemba, meaning “go and see” to improve their value stream and get to the point where they asked what their customers appreciate?

When exploring Lean Six Sigma’s methodology the first step is to find the root cause for the identified waste. Then you move into seeking what the customer defines as quality, you determine the speed of getting your customer the item or rendering the service and you seek an appropriate method of delivery.

Focusing on the three lean strategies

One can’t assume to know what the clientele defines as quality unless they have actually been asked. In Company XYZ it is evident that no one took the initiative to seek input through surveys, focus groups or used any feedback techniques. There is a concept in the Lean lexicon called (VOC) Voice of the Customer. It simply means find out what your customers want and are willing to pay for. This is where you will find that notion of quality.

In the tale of Company ABC, you can attest to the fact that quality for their customers, myself included, is hot pizza, and being notified as to what’s going on with their order. How did they come to know and implement this into their operations? After receiving such great service I had to call and speak with one of their leaders. I was informed this is how they compete as a reckoning force within the market.

The need for speed

Being the fastest in your field has a huge impact on your market. As you can tell from the visit with Company XYZ speed played no major role in what they deemed as important to customers. Two weeks to verify insurance is beyond an acceptable practice. And, by the way, I failed to mention that I did speak with another person, upon request, who did call back within 24 hours to inform me that they did not accept the insurance. Yet I waited 2 weeks for something that could have saved me both frustration and aggravation. Speed and convenience are major players in our buying experience.

Company ABC, epitomizes the importance of speed. On each text message I received that time stamp of delivery was also listed. Today there are ample services to ensure your customers get items and services in a speedy manner. This company has a system in place that allows employees to know time schedules for various sizes, as well as any increase in time based on selected toppings. Have you looked at your level of quickness, while keeping the high standard of quality appreciated by your customers?

Why is the method of delivery so important to your customers? Is it easy to obtain your product or service? Delivery in its simplest form equates to how a customer receives your product or service. Simple right? Company XYZ’s delivery was neither exceptional nor satisfactory. The level of professionalism of their staff created an angst for the customer and therefore any method of delivery they deemed appropriate was subpar. There was no option as to whether they could email, text me or call me. Based on their performance I don’t think any of those options would have changed the outcome.

Company ABC created a delivery method that allowed me to select how I wanted to receive the product. They of course deliver in their vehicles, but I had an option to have it delivered to my door and left in an appropriate place, to have them ring the doorbell and I receive it face-to-face or contactless, it’s in the trunk and I come out and retrieve it. This allows the customer to select an option.

We have just visited two companies: One eliminated waste and the other added to it. Which business are you?

By: Sheryl Mays Entrepreneur Leadership Network Writer

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★★★ Jay wants to mentor YOU with his exclusive Mastermind Mentoring Program! Start your journey with Jay here: https://bit.ly/2FbtM2X ★★★ For the first time ever in public, marketing icon Jay Abraham shares his business strategy that he has previously only shared with his high paying clients. He’s going go teach you the concept of Preemptive Marketing so you can instantly stand out in the eyes of your customers and dominate your market. Enjoy the session

How To Craft a Successful Social Media Content Strategy

The evolution of social media has given brands the opportunity to connect with their audience like never before.

For us, this means the ability to further our brand presence and voice, drive sales, and direct traffic all through utilizing our social media channels as an extension of our site.

Building a successful social media content strategy is more than just posting on every platform—it’s all about determining which platforms align best with your business.

There are so many different channels out there and more constantly popping up. (Seriously, it’s exhausting!)

Test what platform works best for you

My advice is to test out each platform and make it your goal to find a select group of social media channels that will really make an impact for your brand and drive ROI.

Take TikTok, for example. It’s one of the newest channels with huge potential for reach.

But when we tested it out as a new channel for AppSumo, it didn’t give us the ROI we hoped for. Because our audience demographic didn’t align as well on TikTok as it does on other channels like our Facebook Group, we decided our time was better spent focusing our efforts elsewhere.

And it was the right decision.

Here’s a graph of our Facebook Group engagement based on Posts, Comments, and Reactions from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 8, 2020. During that same time, we saw a 19.72% increase in our number of total members.

Example of progress from social media content strategy

It’s so important to set realistic content goals for your brand, figure out what the top priority is, and understand how your social media content strategy can help you reach those goals.

We set specific quarterly goals.

Whether you want to convert customers to buyers, drive brand awareness, or increase community engagement, the strategy you implement should be focused on those goals you set for yourself.

I found that when I focused on working towards a specific goal, I saw a noticeable improvement in our overall social media.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach and each social media platform you use may have a different goal.

Finding a social media content strategy that works best for your brand takes time, iteration, and patience. Consistency really is key when growing your social media presence!

Dive deeper into goals and metrics:

Know Your Audience and Conduct Research

Have a good understanding of who your target audience is when outlining your social media strategy. I find it helpful to do some research on your followers when determining what type of content will resonate best with them.

For example, in looking at AppSumo’s Facebook and Instagram data, I found that the majority of our audience is male and in the 25-44 age range. This is incredibly helpful when planning content out and trying to reach new target audiences.

By understanding our audience demographics, it helps us to determine which platforms we want to focus on.

Based on this data, we prioritize Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube in our social media efforts.

Think quality over quantity when you’re determining which platforms you want to utilize for your brand.

Demographics can help form a social media content strategy.

You also can use Agorapulse reports also to find out:

Where your fans are located
If your audience concentrated in a city or region
How old your fans are (the age brackets they fall into)

Example of demographics from Agorapulse’s reports

Dive deeper into research:

Know Your Competitors

In regards to the competition, I always suggest taking a look at what at least three competitors are doing on social media—this provides a great baseline for what works, what doesn’t, and which areas you can provide more value in than the competition.

To get started, find businesses that are in a similar industry, offer similar services, or what similar to what you aspire to be, and start your research from there.

What to look out for

Try to answer a few key questions:

What platforms are they using?
What type of content are they posting—videos, links, educational, photos, etc.?
How often are they posting?
What is their social media goal?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Once you have a good understanding of how your competitors are using social media, you can use this information to build out your own strategy.

Identify the gaps in their social media presence and use this to your advantage.

When you have this information under your belt, it’s easy to find ways in which you can improve and stand out among the competition.

We noticed that our competitors weren’t using video to promote their products and services. We decided to test this as a content strategy and saw a noticeable improvement in this metric.

Take a look at these results after we started creating daily videos:

Know your monthly gained subscribers to help form a winning social media content strategy.

When to Post

Consistency is key in regards to your social media presence.

When planning out content, I always do some platform-specific research to determine the best days and time to help maximize our reach with each time we publish.

At AppSumo, we make note of popular days and times, and schedule our most important content around them.

I also use a content calendar to help execute our social strategy.

It’s an easy way to help me plan, create, and manage all of our content in one place.

Tools We Use

We wouldn’t call ourselves AppSumo (where I work) if we didn’t namedrop some of the awesome tools we use for social media.

Along with the free linked tools, here are some personal favorites for my day-to-day work:

Agorapulse. This one’s an awesome way to manage your social media and schedule it in a clean way. I don’t have to dig through comments because the Social Inbox lets me filter through important messages. Plus, Agorapulse’s one-click reports are super-helpful for me to track metrics.
Canva. Canva is a powerhouse. This one’s great for inspiration and a lifesaver when creating graphics that don’t require a ton of graphic design skills. I like to incorporate these graphics into our Instagram when I can.
Crello. An AppSumo Partner, Crello is a great alternative to Canva and helpful for ideas. I use it to create graphics for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s got awesome animations and requires no design skill.
Figma. I use this to create templates for things like our Instagram stories (blog shares, deal shares, etc.). It’s also great for quick and on-the-fly design edits for graphics.
Brand24. An internal marketing team fave, for sure. This one’s great for filtering all AppSumo content on the web. It shows you all mentions of specific keywords on your social media channels, even when you weren’t tagged.

Engage with Your Audience and Grow Your Following

Now that you’ve built out your content strategy, the goal is to continue to grow your following. (You’re not out of the woods yet!)

How often to post

The most important thing to remember when trying to grow your social media is to maintain a minimum number of posts per week based on days when your users are most active!

At AppSumo, we post about six days per week with a minimum of 2-3 posts a day.

How to create content for engagement

My advice is to create content that allows your audience to engage directly. I found that when I utilized interactive content, such as polls, we had significantly higher engagement.

Take a look at some of our recent polls, which directly ask our audience what types of content they would like to see more of. This is a super-easy way to promote engagement and actually get feedback directly from your audience.

Here’s us getting the conversation started:

The audience engagement doesn’t end with the content itself! Engage with them in the comment section, posts you are tagged in, and through direct messages.

One fun way to engage your audience is by creating a hashtag specific to your brand. That way, users can share the love when they post about your brand or products.

At AppSumo, we have a few: #AppSumo, #TacoToolsday, and #6FigureSumoling. This is a great way to get your followers talking about your brand and to see what is being said about your products, even when they don’t specifically @ you!

Dive deeper into engagement:

Check Analytics and Audit

Time to talk numbers.

No strategy would be complete without understanding which analytics are important for your brand.

Understanding what your audience likes will lead to more engagement, followers, and a cohesive feed! It seems simple, but creating content your audience actually wants to see can do so much for your social media strategy.

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For example, on Instagram, I dive into our insights and take note of what content has the highest ‘Reach,’ ‘Shares,’ ‘Saves,’ and ‘Comments. These metrics are really great indicators of which content has performed well based on what our audience likes. That also gives it a boost with the algorithm and helps it reach a bigger audience:

To make the most of these analytics, I dive into our insights weekly. This helps me optimize our content and understand what works for the future!

In Conclusion

Building a successful social media content strategy takes time, but all the effort is worth it when you establish an audience that actually wants to connect and engage with you. That sort of reward will build upon itself tenfold!

Remember that consistency is key when trying to grow your social media presence. You should also keep in mind that finding the right strategy for your brand involves a bit of trial and error. (Trust us—we’ve had our share of hiccups at AppSumo. It’s all part of the learning process.) Set specific but realistic goals for your social media content strategy, listen to your audience, and the growth will follow.

Now get on that social media success track! Till next time!

By: Bronte Mojdehi

Get started on saving time and energy on your own social media management! Check out our free trial of Agorapulse to help you schedule, track, and measure all your social media efforts.

Caitlin Bacher

How To Quickly Create Social Media Content Most entrepreneurs spend WAY too much time creating content for social media. As a result, they avoid it entirely…leading to days or weeks without a single post. This is costing you traffic, leads, and customers…but it doesn’t have to be this way! In this video, you’ll learn my secret to quickly creating high-converting content on social media If you to learn EVEN MORE about how you can save time on social media, make sure to download your FREE copy of The Social Media Roadmap. FREE – THE FACEBOOK GROUP HOST ROADMAP: http://caitlinbacher.com/host-roadmap-3 JOIN THE #SOCIALBOSS FACEBOOK GROUP: http://caitlinbacher.com/fb-group TWEET THIS VIDEO: SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS: http://youtube.com/caitlinbacher SAY HEY ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Instagram: http://instagram.com/caitlinbacher Facebook: http://facebook.com/caitlinbacher Twitter: http://twitter.com/caitlinbacher Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/caitlinbacher Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/caitlinb…

Defining And Building Intangible Assets

Branding Strategy Insider helps marketing oriented leaders and professionals like you define and grow brand value. BSI readers know, we regularly answer questions from marketing oriented leaders and professionals everywhere. Today we hear from Ron, a VP of Marketing in Indianapolis, Indiana who asks these questions about intangible assets.

“I’m trying to get a better understanding of intangible assets and have several questions. The first question being, how are they defined?”

Thanks for your questions Ron. Intangible assets are assets that are used in the operation of a business but that have no physical substance. They include such things as brands, customer lists, customer loyalty, patents, copyrights, business processes, specialized knowledge, customer contracts, franchises, and licenses, among others. Such assets stand in contrast to tangible assets, such as land, buildings, vehicles, equipment, and inventory.

“Why are intangible assets receiving so much attention today?”

In contrast to forty or fifty years ago, when tangible assets constituted the vast majority of the assets of a firm, today intangible assets are likely to constitute much of the value of firms. Work by the consulting firms, such as Ocean Tomo and Brand Finance, and accounting firms, such as PwC suggests that more than 80% of the value of many major corporations consists of intangible assets.

“What is the significance of intangible assets being such a large percentage of the value of corporations for managers and investors?”

First, it is important to know that most intangible assets do not appear on the balance sheets of companies. This means that for most companies, much of their value is unreported. Current accounting practices simply fail to capture the value of most intangible assets. Such assets are most likely to appear on the balance sheet as a result of either an acquisition, when there is a need to justify the price paid for the acquisition, which usually does reflect the value of intangible assets, or in the case of an impairment, where the value of an intangible asset, such as a brand, is reduced in value for some reason.

A particularly troubling consequence of such accounting practices is that even when the value of an intangible asset appears on the balance sheet, the value can only decrease; it cannot increase. This makes it very difficult for an investor to evaluate how well management is stewarding the intangible assets it controls. It also creates opportunities for managers to have a free ride because there is no transparency related to how well they are managing most of the assets of the firm. On the other hand, it creates problems for conscientious and responsible managers who wish to demonstrate how they are adding value to a firm through the effective deployment of intangible assets such as brands, copyrighted works, and the like.

“Are there best practices related to managing intangible assets?”

It is useful to recognize that intangible assets have always played a larger role in the value of businesses than was fully appreciated until recently. There is a substantial body of knowledge and practice experience related to the good management of brands, people, and relationships this is very much applicable.

It is just easy to ignore such knowledge and practice when its outcomes do not find their way into financial metrics. This is beginning to change with new ISO standards, such as those for brand valuation and brand evaluation. The critical starting point is recognizing that such assets require identification, management, and reporting over time.

“What concrete suggestions do you have for managers who wish to do a better job of managing the intangible assets in their business?”

Begin by recognizing that intangible assets are owned by the firm and must be managed by a team with the encouragement and active participation of the firm’s most senior management and board. It is not possible to manage something that is invisible. Just as it is difficult to manage physical inventory when it is out of mind and out of sight, so too is this the case for intangible assets.

There needs to be an annual inventory of the firm’s intangible assets that includes a description of who is responsible for their management, how their value, and changes in that value over time are measured and reported, and active strategies for leveraging these assets. There must be a process for making intangible assets visible when making management decisions.

“Would such visibility change decision making?”

In some cases yes; in some cases no; but it would change the questions that are asked. For example, before using a price promotion to move sales of a strong brand, the question to ask is what the focus on price discounting will do to the value of the brand over the long term? For a brand in decline or headed for obsolescence, discounting may make sense, but for a strong brand that commands a premium price, a short-term bump in sales may not be worth the long–term loss of premium pricing power.

Similarly, before laying off 10% of a workforce, managers might ask what knowledge, what relationships with customers and suppliers, and what efficiencies associated with learning from experience will be lost. One reason so many mergers and acquisitions fail to live up to their expectations is failure to consider losses of intangible assets associated with seemingly redundant people and operations.

“Are intangible assets likely to become more important or have we seen their peak?”

The answers to that question depend on the business. There will always need to be some tangible assets in most businesses, if only to help activate the value of intangible assets. The COVID pandemic has taught us that many tangible assets, like office space, may be less important than we thought, but there are still physical assets that play a mission critical role in most businesses.

On the other hand, more and more of what customers buy and consume revolves around experiential attributes, relationships, social interactions, and creative content. I still go to a restaurant for the food, a tangible asset, but much of the value that I am willing to pay for resides in the creativity of the chef and the wait staff members who know me and greet me by name when I arrive.

Do you have questions related to brand and growth strategy? Just Ask The Blake Project

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: David Stewart, President’s Professor of Marketing and Business Law, Loyola Marymount University, Author, Financial Dimensions Of Marketing Decisions.

The Blake Project Can Help You Define Your Brand’s Unique Value In The Brand Positioning Workshop

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education.

By: David Stewart

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Tag: Marketing Strategy