Types of Digital Assets
You have probably heard the term digital assets or digital real estate, but what exactly does that mean? Digital assets or digital real estate can be a website, blog, social media pages, email lists, an ebook, digital course, sales funnels, ads, etc. These are assets that you can create and build online that can create recurring revenue. These assets can fall into different categories. They can be digital products that can be sold, sources of traffic, methods of converting traffic into leads or sales or even just a means of building your audience and establishing a good relationship with them.
The most valuable asset you can create
Ultimately, the most valuable asset you can create is the audience you build and the relationship you have with them. This audience could be represented by an email list, subscribers to a YouTube channel or any social media following. The value comes from being known as someone with specific knowledge in a certain area who cares about your audience. When you’re know for being an expert or authority on something and people know that you care about them, they are more likely to listen and take your recommendations seriously. This allows you to have influence. The first step in building this audience is to get clear about the problem you want to solve and who you want to solve it for.
The problem you want to solve for
People buy products to solve problems. They might want to improve their health and know that some products will help, but aren’t sure what to buy. If you have knowledge or expertise in that area, you can help educate them and share recommendations that can help them make a better decision and find a good solution to their problem. Any product or service that you offer will have some combination of features and benefits. By understanding the problem that your audience is struggling with, knowing the best options for them and taking the time to understand their specific situation, you are able to help them make a better decision.
The audience you want to help
It’s important to know the audience that you want to help so that you can help them more effectively. By taking the time to get to know your audience, you are able to create content that will allow you to connect with them and provide better solutions to them. A single mom in her 30’s and a man in his 60’s will have different needs, issues and concerns. If you were to talk to them directly, you might make different recommendations based on their unique situations. When you can create a marketing campaign around a specific problem that a specific group of people face, you are better able to connect with and help that specific group of people with that specific problem.
Strategy for building your audience
The overall strategy for building your audience is to share your message consistently with your target audience. You will want to establish authority and rapport in your area of focus and with your specific audience. You can do both at the same time by sharing your struggles with the problem you want to address and how you are solving that problem for yourself. If your niche is weight loss, you might share how you struggled to lose weight for a long time, the pain and frustration you endured because of it and the methods you used to make progress. You can do this for any problem you want to solve. When you share the elements of your story that are relevant, it builds a connection with your audience. By telling them about what you have tried, what works and what doesn’t work, you are able to help educate about potential solutions and make better recommendations.
Tactics for building your audience
Once you establish your strategy to build a specific audience and create a good relationship with them, you can go about this using different tactics. You can start building an email list. There are different ways to build an email list. You can build this list by creating ads that speak to your audience and the issue you are trying to help them solve. If you do this right, they will want to share their email with you so they can learn more. This is a paid traffic strategy that can be very effective if you have the budget for it.
Paid vs Organic traffic
You can also build your list using organic traffic. When you create valuable content, such as a blog, video, newsletter, ebook, etc. your audience may find your content online and choose to subscribe to you channel, email list, etc. The benefit of this is that they are finding you and seeing your content. This makes you more of an authority from their perspective. The downside is that it can take a lot of content to begin to attract a large audience. Paid traffic can grow your audience more quickly, but the people who find you this way are considered ‘cold’ leads since they haven’t had time to get to know you.
Get to know your audience
The tactics you use might be specific to your audience and your area of focus. Taking the time to learn about your audience will help you to decide to best way to reach them and connect with them. Chances are that your audience will be like you so you can start by thinking about your own struggles and how you have overcome them. You will want to consider which social media sites your audience prefers, the cultural references they will relate to, the types of products and brands they like and what their interests are. When you have a good marketing approach, you will filter out all the people who are not a good fit and only allow in the people who you are able to relate to and serve.
Be yourself, serve the people you want to help
The best part of this approach is that you get to be yourself. You get to create an asset that is based on who you are, the problems you want to solve and the people you want to help. You may hear people talk about how much competition there is online, but there is no competition to be you. You are the person who is most qualified and capable of being you. When you focus on just being yourself and helping people that you care about to solve a problem that is important to you, you don’t have to worry about competition. You just need to focus on building an audience. When you share your struggle with the problem they face, what you have learned and how you are working to solve that problem, you can build an audience that you have rapport with and who you are uniquely qualified to help.
What to do next
The most important thing is to decide that you want to help people that you care about to solve a problem. You don’t have to be an expert, yet. You will become an expert as you begin to learn and share about this problem. By learning and sharing with others about this problem, you will naturally grow your audience. By following your natural inclinations, focusing on them, doing the work and taking the time to become an expert, you have the greatest opportunity to find fulfillment and success.
Realize that you have an opportunity to help the people you want to help with a problem that is important to you. The more people you help the more successful, you will become. You can learn more about creating online assets from many different sources. The best source that I have found is the Entre Institute. Their introductory course, the Entre Blueprint, will help you understand the fundamentals of online business so that you can make a better decision about your next steps going forward. You can apply at the link below.
