The digital economy is very different. The means in reaching and converting consumers into customers is very different in the digital economy. In the digital economy, the delivery of content to customers and prospective customers is accomplished at the convenience of the consumer. Information personalized to be relevant to the consumer and easily accessed by the consumer through mechanisms chosen by the consumer is critical to digital survival. And devising means to deliver information to the consumer without seeming intrusive is a critical facet of digital survival. The ability to understand what information will be relevant to the consumer without violating privacy rules. All participants in the digital economy will need to balance the need for analyzing personal identity information against privacy rules and governmental legislation. It is exactly the just in time analytics required to determine what will be pertinent to a consumer based on their content history, their current proximity and a host of other variables is the fuel that will catalyze the monetization of information. It is the regulators watching the obvious transgression of shared personal information, punitive damages and limits to the use of personal information will ensue. This and published occurrences of lapses in protecting entrusted identity information will translate into reputational crises, both of which will force consumers to think twice about sharing their identity information with those wishing to participate in digital commerce. Those hampered by the regulators or incapable of protecting the identity information entrusted to them will suffer the fate of having their ability to know the consumer hampered because of a difficulty to obtain the information required to analyze and personalize content of value to consumers. The purpose of this writing is to define a framework for obtaining, managing, protecting and monetizing the information fueling the digital economy.

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ABSTRACT
The digital economy is very different. The means in reaching and converting consumers into
customers is very different in the digital economy. In the digital economy, the delivery of content to
customers and prospective customers is accomplished at the convenience of the consumer.
Information personalized to be relevant to the consumer and easily accessed by the consumer
through mechanisms chosen by the consumer is critical to digital survival. And devising means to
deliver information to the consumer without seeming intrusive is a critical facet of digital survival.
The ability to understand what information will be relevant to the consumer without violating
privacy rules. All participants in the digital economy will need to balance the need for analyzing
personal identity information against privacy rules and governmental legislation. It is exactly the just
in time analytics required to determine what will be pertinent to a consumer based on their content
history, their current proximity and a host of other variables is the fuel that will catalyze the
monetization of information. It is the regulators watching the obvious transgression of shared
personal information, punitive damages and limits to the use of personal information will ensue. This
and published occurrences of lapses in protecting entrusted identity information will translate into
reputational crises, both of which will force consumers to think twice about sharing their identity
information with those wishing to participate in digital commerce. Those hampered by the
regulators or incapable of protecting the identity information entrusted to them will suffer the fate
of having their ability to know the consumer hampered because of a difficulty to obtain the
information required to analyze and personalize content of value to consumers.
The purpose of this writing is to define a framework for obtaining, managing, protecting and
monetizing the information fueling the digital economy.

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Introduction
You may have heard companies describe content as key. You may also have heard the merits of
inbound marketing (consumers pulling information rather than information being pushed to
consumers). You may not have realized the sophistication that has immersed over the past decade
devised to connect consumers with the proper content.
The Content Marketing Institute is a key organization to track to understand the current day issues
grappled with for connecting consumers with content. (The Consumer Marketing Institute publishes a
monthly magazine available for no charge at http://read.nxtbook.com/blog). Clearly, if content is going
to be delivered in a personalized format pertinent a consumer’s particular situation at a particular
location, (there is an improved chance of monetizing content about perfume if the consumer is within
current proximity of a cosmetics department and their last three searches were about comparisons of
specific perfumes), a high degree of trustworthy, automated analytics will need to determine which
content will be most value to a consumer at a particular juncture. Information (context) that facilitates
the identification of high quality information that meshes with the attribution of a consumer’s needs at
a moment in time will be the secret sauce that facilitates monetization of content in the digital
economy. Content must be deliverable though a variety of forms in a way unobtrusive to the consumer.
The consumer may be interfacing with your content through some sort of marketing display on a web
panel, through a coupon delivered by text to a cell phone, or through content requested from a web
browser or mobile device that gets the consumer all that much closer to a commerce event.
Influencing through Content
Content is any material provided to consumers at the convenience of the consumer which both provides
information and potentially influences the behavior of consumers. Content can be product reviews,
information about the importance of specific features or anything else which could potentially help a
consumer reach a decision. In the digital economy, the process of marketing to consumers has radically
shifted from mass market push that attempts to influence consumers with a highly generic message to a
more personalized message pushed or pulled to the consumer. The vehicle that facilitates this influence
engine is analytics, which through contextual attribution, delivers highly personalized information to the
consumer. This consumption can only be effective if it is personalized at the moment a consumer is
interested in the specific content (pushing unaligned content captures the interest of a consumer very
infrequently), and this is performed using self‐directed analytics.
This content is delivered through platforms that must be understood to be effective, as is the conversion
of content into commerce. Different from the pre‐digital era is the sheer volume of referrals which is, in
many cases, the only source for the monetization of information (i.e., Trivago, which refers travel
shoppers to other sites and receives a portion of the commission for the referral).
Any vehicle which delivers content in new ways that changes the optics for interfacing a consumer is a
disruption. The opportunities for disrupting the consumer interface methods are varied, be in through
augmented reality, smart near field devices (Amazon Echo, Apple Home, Microsoft Cortana, Google

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Home, etc.) or other means which makes it easier for the consumer to receive information. And any
vehicle which makes it easier for the consumer to convert content requesting opportunities into
commerce opportunities equally serves as a disruption (i.e., Apple Pay).
Storytelling through content
The art of storytelling has gained prominence as a means of connecting to an intended audience by
addressing the key points of storytelling in content directed to consumers.
Some key points to address are:
1. Have a well devised storyboard, which represents what message you are trying to convey, why
are you passionate about the message and how is the message intended to connect to the
target audience. This is much more than the facts that support your case.
2. Have a keen understanding about how is the message intended to be visualized by the target
audience. The message must be conveyed in a way that it can be visualized by the audience in a
story‐like context, and your target message to change behavior or perception must be
imbedded into the visual story.
3. Have a clear vision of what emotions are you intending to surface with your story. Your story
must have various archetypes to get your point across in a way that can be compelling and easily
digested by the intended audience.
4. Can you piggy‐back on stories that your customers and audiences are already accustomed to? If
the target message is something that the target audience is already comfortable with, your
collaborative storytelling could have a greater reach.
5. Will your message be perceived as something personalized to the intended consumer that
conveys a sense of identity, trust, openness, transparency, relevance and participation that will
all engage the intended audience.
6. Can the brand bias in your story not be so obvious that they lose the trust of your intended
audience? The audience will stay connected if they trust the message and not see it as
something more self‐serving.
7. Does your story contain digital information that is pertinent to the reader of your content? The
more the content seems more personalized to the reader, the more engaged will the reader be.
If there is an integration of creativity, including art (creativity) and science (data), do it, it will
further the stickiness of the content with the intended reader.
The following template is devised to serve as a vehicle to ensure that the content you are publishing is
aligned with your message and vision.
The Digital Business Model Canvas (DBMC Story Board) is the vehicle to ensure that all your points are
touched, that the content telling the story has the appropriate context to be aligned to your value
propositions and that you have determined how the content you are publishing can be monetized.
Platforms are the environments used to deploy, analyze and monetize content. It is critical that a clear
vision of how platforms will be utilized to deploy, analyze and monetize content and continually devise

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ways to make incremental enhancements to the platform ecosphere as a means to improve the
delivery, management and monetization of your content.
Designing information content for stickiness
There are many studies which show that photos, graphics and videos attract more attention. No
wonder the fastest component of content is videos which further the cause through content. So here
are some statistics (Source: Neilsen, 2010):
Images (and videos) that are decorative or generic and do not support the case for content are typically
completely ignored. The viewer must be able to understand the linkage for the topic within seconds or
their attention will wander to something unintended.

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 Publishers need to balance the
visual quality and complexity of
published information with the
time it takes to start rendering
on a consumer’s web panel or
mobile device. Platforms like
YouTube and WordPress help
by streaming information in
ways that they don’t keep the
consumer waiting until the full
payload of content is available
for display.
 Photos and videos of products
which help distinguish the topic
is treated as important content
and keeps the attention of
viewers. Stock images /
content do not fall into this
category.
 An overabundance of content
or an overabundance of
messages integrated into a
single image or video (visual
bloat) annoys users because it
is hard to find the content they
intended to view.
 Photos of people, particularly those who help derive an opinion about the content, is especially
sticky. That is why testimonials with photos, or videos from bloggers are especially useful
content.
 People following content with illustrations are 3x more likely to understand the content. Tweets
with images receive 150% more retweets than those without images. In an analysis of 1 million
articles, BuzzSomo found that articles with an image once every 75 – 100 words received double
the social media shares as articles with fewer images, and Facebook posts with images see 2.3x
more engagement than those without images.
 Information most likely to be sticky with consumers are infographics full of testimonials and
graphical facts about the subject and videos. Infographics are 3x more likely to be shared.
The information you derive to be included in your content must be pertinent to the viewer. If it can be
personalized to the needs of the viewer, it will be more likely to convert content to commerce.

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Understanding consumer engagement on the consumer’s terms
To understand how best to wield your content, it is first necessary to understand how consumers utilize
content. For example, the highest penetration is mobile phones, which is also coincidentally the highest
growth area for consumer requests for content. Therefore, a mobile strategy should absolutely be part
of your content strategy.
Analytics continually aligning content is the secret sauce
Content should be personal. If it personally aligns to the need of the consumer they will internalize the
delivered content and will be more prone to react to it. Aligning content to individuals requires
information and lots of information. And it requires the ability to use that information at the time the
consumer accesses the information.
Content will be delivered to the consumer in one of two ways:
 Content pushed to the consumer through emails, text messages or placements on web pages
and mobile screens is far more effective if the positioning of the content is aligned to the
interest and needs of the consumer. The information about the consumer will be utilized
through analytics to ensure this alignment of the content with the needs and wishes of the
consumer.
 Content pulled by the consumer was either searched for using a search engine (Google, Yahoo,
etc.), an intelligent hub (Apple Siri, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Microsoft Alexa) or through
some other means with some intended purpose in mind. It is up to the provider of the content

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to understand the purpose through analytics so that the next parcel of content can be delivered
with the needs and desires of the consumer driving the content to be delivered.
 Whether content is pulled or pushed, analytics using personal information about the consumer
is being used to drive these analytics. This personal information must be protected so that it is
not used in ways not intended or contrary to the published privacy agreements and regulations.
Recently, punitive damages have been levied for using analytics that consume personal identity
information, the most recent is Google ($2.7 Billion in June with an anticipated equally large fine
for using information collected through Android in analytics contrary to the agreements and
regulations covering the use of PII information).
It is equally important to having engaging content as it is to deliver the content in a way that engages
the consumer, but keeping an eye on the controls of privacy information used to personalize the
content.

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Monetizing content, content ROI, platforms and analytics
The main reason content is published is to transform content to commerce, whether it is commerce in
the form of buying something, participating in a nonprofit or some other value proposition supported by
the published content. There should always be a relentless focus on determining whether the content is
achieving the intended results, which is determined by analyzing the information trails available from
the platforms participating in your digital presence.
Content is intended to either support or influence some consumer behavior. If the content connects
with the consumer, there is a chance that consumers will support in extending the message through
many activities (tell friends and families about the content / brand, make additional purchases, write
reviews, follow other published content, etc.).

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This is all achievable if the analytics necessary to know the consumer, understand what they need or
want and either push the right content or help them access the right content.
Early warnings?
Early warnings will be triggered by some automated algorithm that looks for patterns that can be used
to drive content to a consumer and look for issues that require resolution that the consumer deems
important. All of these will be driven by a process similar to TEWS (high level flow below).

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On monetizing content
If your content is successful, the result will be conversion of content delivered or accessed by consumers
into commercial activities. The valuation of the commercial activities weighed against the cost in
developing the content and the platforms utilized to house, deliver and convert content into commerce
is the all used in the computation of the ROI of content. Content that does not have a positive ROI is not
worth launching. However, there is not content by itself that will result in converting into commerce
but rather a series of content delivered or accessed all of which result in one or more commercial
events. Tracking the lineage of content delivered to the consumer and the resultant commercial
activities, all available from the platforms utilized to deliver content to the consumer. This will of course
be understated due to consumers who serve as influencers and convince other consumers to request
content, all of which potentially convert to commercial events.
What is important is that you devise a means of capturing the necessary events to identify what content
you delivered and associate the delivered content to commercial events so that you can identify which
content has been monetized and which content is not resonating with consumers. Content that is not
resonating should be enhanced or replaced so that all content published resonates with consumers.

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About the Author
Mark Albala has been one of the early practitioners in wielding
information as a competitive weapon and has served as an advisor
to vendors and analysts serving the information insight industries.
Mark has served much of his career in devising insightful ways to
deliver information that is most usable to deriving and executing
action plans. Mark has concentrated a significant portion of his
career in ensuring that the information made available is usable by
eliminating the reasons for not using information when it counts.
Mark currently serves as President of InfoSight Partners, L.L.C., which is a firm whose mission is to
help organizations facilitate their focus into wielding the value of their information assets.
Mark has served in a variety of information strategy, architecture and governance roles and has
been an influential futurist in defining ways in which information could be wielded, and has been
an active advocate of the disciplines of information economics and the acceptance and
management of information as an organizational asset.
Mark currently serves as an advisor to companies and analysts and can be reached at
mark@infosightpartners.com.