Today’s technology tools make it easy for a company to create owned media. Owned media is any communication that you have complete control over such as email campaigns, websites and blogs. Some consider social media posts, as well as YouTube channels, to also qualify as owned media.
The most significant advantage of owned media is that you manage the message, frequency, and audience of your communications entirely. This differs from earned media, which relies on other people taking your message and communicating it in their own way (editorial), or paid media (advertising), which allows you control over content but relies on the channels set up by the provider.
An Important Part of Overall Strategy
According to one study by Invesp, roughly three-fourths of consumers said that business posts on social media affected their purchasing behavior. This shows that owned media is an integral part of the overall marketing strategy.
Owned media allows a company to craft and tell its own story in a way that is consistent and supports its brand voice, business strategy and marketing objectives. It allows a company to create an engaging, ongoing campaign or storyline that can capture and hold the attention of key target audiences.
Advantages of Owned Media
Although paid and earned media have their place within an overall strategy, owned media provides particular advantages to organizations such as:
* Control: Companies have complete control over the message as well as the publishing or posting schedule.
* Audience: If you know who your audience is and where they are getting their information, you can reach them more effectively with owned media.
* Permanence: Since you own things like your website and blog postings, you can keep the content available on a more permanent basis, giving potential visitors the ability to search and access this information long term.
* Flexibility: Both the content and schedule of communication can be adjusted easily to accommodate new product or service releases, conferences, current events or crises.
* Affordability: Besides the investment in creating the content, there is no charge to post or publish owned media content.
* Relationships: Since the company holds the control, owned media provides a venue for creating long-term relationships with customers, potential clients and other stakeholders.
Tips for Success
Here are a few tips for creating owned media:
* Develop a long-term, unique owned media plan based on research.
* Incorporate video and graphics heavily; these are more readily consumed.
* Add guest blogs from industry experts, customers or other stakeholders.
* Backlink to your sites from all other owned media sources as well as from paid and earned when possible.
* Make content easy-to-read and understandable for your target audience.
If you need help crafting an owned media strategy to support your public relations Las Vegas efforts, contact GYC Vegas. This public relations firm Las Vegas has worked in a variety of industries and clients to manage owned as well as paid and earned media programs.