Creating your content platform is a vital step in today’s digital age. The ideal situation is to have your marketing, creative, and sales teams aligned using your content, but that doesn’t always happen. The other problem is that a surprisingly large amount of marketing material sits unused on a storage shelf or server for a long time. Sounds like a waste of resources, right?
The question is, how to effectively create or purchase your content platform to maximize efficiency and streamline processes? There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get started.
Time
This is about maximizing efficiency so time is of the utmost importance. Consider the time it takes to research, develop, train, and deploy your new content and this is a key factor in the decision. Evaluate how much time each of these steps would cost your company. If creation takes longer when purchasing content would be sufficient, save that time. There’s no point in launching an entire campaign, taking long periods, and setting distant deadlines when a few clicks could create better content and engagement.
Cost
Cost is not just about monetary signs on a spreadsheet. To create truly profitable and compelling content, you need to look at all of your available resources. This means both your budget and your people. Content creation in this case will require dedicated research, development, training and implementation teams. If you have the budget to coordinate informative content based on real-world research, it is almost always more valuable than purchased content. However, sometimes purchasing content has a steeper entry point than creating it in-house, so be sure to involve every aspect of your operation to grow your brand.
Expertise
Often your content needs to be very specific to your brand. That contains and requires a deep understanding of its topic. The general rule is that if you have to educate someone else too much about your topic, you are breaking the above rules of time and cost. In these cases, it is better to create the content yourself. After all, they are the experts in your company. Simpler and more accessible verticals require less research, where purchasing is always an option.
ROI
The root of everything is the return on investment. What’s the point of creating or purchasing content if you don’t get a positive return on investment? This topic is more of a summary of his perspective. Carefully consider every aspect from cost, time and expertise. What do you need the content for? How will you use it? How long will it remain relevant? After considering cost, content, and time, you need to determine what type of result you expect from purchasing or creating your content. There is no easy answer to this question. You can break it down a thousand ways and get different answers.
Some other options to consider that may influence your decision are as follows:
How accessible is the content to your audience? None of this matters if your content is not easily accessible. Do your users constantly use your information? Would it work better sorted by themes or locations? While creating a content platform is important, it’s also vital to consider how your team will use it in everyday functions and interactions. The most important thing you can do as a decision maker is to provide your teams and users with agile information that they can use to drive their ideas. Content performance isn’t limited to your internal team either. Branding Efforts is the dynamic force that propels your business toward new endeavors.
How well can you maintain your information? Keeping your brand highlighted helps solidify your company’s position as a powerhouse in your competitive environment. When every piece of content you create further reinforces your message, you’re doing a good job. Creating content in-house will allow you complete control over what type of content you are creating and what message you are sharing. When you purchase from outside resources, you lose the ability to articulate your message.
You Should Buy When:
ROI is higher
You lack the internal resources to build, maintain and support up-to-date learning for your team or organization
The content is developed by trusted industry experts.
You have little time
Ready content meets your training requirements.
You Should Build When:
The content you need is confidential or highly specialized
Your organization has many resources and a well-thought-out training strategy
The problem you are facing does not offer an available solution
You have the resources to maintain and support the learning necessary for your team