Paid and earned media are two major pillars of every successful digital marketing strategy. Owned media is the foundation.

That’s why today, we’re taking a closer look at owned media – what it is, how it will benefit your business, and what the best practices to maximize owned media success are.

Understanding Owned Media: What It Is & Why It’s Important

The PESO model has, in a way, popularized the concept of owned media – or, at the very least, underlined its role in the digital marketing mix. It advises businesses to utilize a marketing mix that includes paid, earned, shared, and owned media, hence the acronym PESO. Paid media covers the pay-to-play domain, while earned media helps you build authority. What about owned media?

Simply put, owned media leverages channels you create and have complete control over and encompasses the media assets your brand owns. It’s all of the content you, as a business, generate and release to your audience on your online properties.

Its importance lies in the fact that owned media gives you complete control over your brand’s message and visuals. It comes from you and reflects your brand. Even more so, it serves as a foundation for everything else you do marketing-wise – a building block of all your other marketing efforts. Try not to bite off more than you can chew, though.

If you have limited time and resources you can devote to managing owned media channels, it’s best to focus on those most relevant to your target audiences. Some examples of owned media channels that deserve mention here include:

• Websites
• Blogs
• Email newsletters
• Video channels
• Forums

Owned media is, in a way, the opposite of earned media, but the two can work hand-in-hand, with one driving the other and making your strategy even more impactful. The first step to gaining earned media is producing effective owned media.
When you learn how to use owned media and start with what you can control – your website and content – online publications and social media users will take notice. And your chance of earned media coverage will go up, too.

Benefits Of Owned Media: Why Your Brand Should Double Down On Owned Media

Owned media, as mentioned earlier, is generally considered the building block of all your digital marketing efforts. Check out some of the benefits of owned media, and you’ll see why:

• Control – Every bit of content is created and shared on your own terms. In that sense, owned media gives you ultimate control over how, when, and where you want to tell your brand’s story.
• Cost-Efficiency – While it can’t be labeled as “free,” owned media is more cost-efficient than paid media channels. It will cost you time and effort, but you don’t need to shell out marketing dollars.
• Generating Earned Media – When owned media is done well, it can generate earned media opportunities. That’s what makes it the core of your marketing mix.
• Longevity – Owned media acts as a long-term asset to your other marketing efforts. Quality content that continues to resonate with your audiences has a surprisingly long “shelf life.”

Before you decide to dive into owned media head-first, there’s a potential pitfall you might want to consider here:

It can be rather challenging to scale your content marketing efforts within owned media and keep up with the demands of the fast-paced digital world – while still producing valuable content.

Best Practices For Owned Media Success

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to owned media; we strongly encourage every business to experiment with it when crafting their strategy. That’s not to say that we can’t talk about some of the best practices for owned media success, though.

Here are some owned media best practices and tips to get you started:

• Create Content That Provides Value – Your content should always provide something of value to your audiences. Make it educational and instructional, or make it uplifting and inspiring. Either way, make it worth their while.
• Know Your Audience – Developing effective content on your owned media channels starts with knowing who your target audiences are, what they care about, and what appeals to them.
• Build A Content Calendar – Owned media channels are anything but static; they require constant updating to be effective. Creating a content calendar will allow you to plan all content-related activities and stay on schedule.
• Experiment With Different Content Formats – If you want to stand out, drop the cookie-cutter approach. The sooner you start experimenting with various content formats, the sooner you’ll find what works for your brand.
• Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose – One misconception regarding owned media is that you have to put out insane amounts of content. The secret’s in repurposing. There’s almost always a way to repurpose your content rather than making everything from scratch.

Owned Media Today: Trends To Keep An Eye On In 2021

The fast-paced digital world and ever-changing social media algorithms present new challenges for brands and marketers alike. You need to review your existing strategies and add new types of content to your owned media repertoire. Keeping an eye out for the latest trends is vital for success.

So, we’ve included some of the top owned media trends to help point you in the right direction:

• Multi-Platform Promotion – Creating great content is a solid first step, but promoting it across multiple platforms is what matters. The more channels you cover as part of your marketing plan, the more demographics you’ll be able to reach.
• Live Streaming – Video content is nothing new and is already viewed as an effective medium for communicating your brand’s message. However, as a direct result of last year’s events, live video streaming emerged as the new norm for content creators and consumers alike.
• AI-Powered Content – AI technology is already making an impact on content marketing; don’t be afraid of testing out
• AI-powered content tools.
• 360-Degree Videos – VR is already trending and being used to create more immersive content. Another trend you shouldn’t overlook is the 360-degree video. It has the potential to drive engagement in new and promising ways.

In Conclusion

The owned media road is a long one – and there’s no fast lane or shortcut to success. Building your owned media empire will take time and effort, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.

Paid and earned media might be impactful, but you have to lay a foundation of your marketing mix before turning your attention elsewhere. And owned media allows you to do just that – and with complete control and ownership over your content and brand’s message, no less.

If you don’t have a strategy for acquiring earned media yet, we’re always happy to chat. We’ll help you find creative ways to “earn” free publicity and promote your brand!