What Is Owned Media? Definition, Benefits and Examples
If you’ve ever visited a business’s website or received an email newsletter, you’re already familiar with owned media. But there’s more to it than you might think. Let’s take a closer look at this essential part of paid, earned, shared, and owned media, how it’s different from other types of media and how you can maximize its effectiveness for your brand.
What Is Owned Media in Digital Marketing and PR?
Owned media refers to the digital assets and content that a brand owns and controls, such as its websites, blogs, social media pages and email newsletters. Unlike paid or earned media, the content, messaging and distribution of owned media is controlled by the brand and doesn’t require a third party for distribution.
Owned Media vs. Earned Media
The main difference between owned media and earned media is who is in control. Unlike owned media, which is controlled by the brand, earned media involves third-party endorsement and recognition. Earned media includes press coverage, social media mentions, reviews, testimonials and other forms of recognition that are earned, not paid for.
Owned Media vs. Paid Media
The biggest difference between owned media and paid media is the monetary investment. Owned media requires some up-front investment, but the brand retains full control: a brand might pay to build a website and blog, then hire a team to write and post articles. With paid media, the money goes to a third party, which then distributes advertisements across its own platforms. Paid media includes social media ads, search engine ads, display ads, sponsored content, influencer partnerships, third-party email marketing ads and more.
Examples of Owned Media Channels
- Websites: Your website, investor relations websites, and online newsrooms are some of the most important types of owned media. They provide much-needed information about your brand’s story, investor news and enable you to track audience behavior.
- Blogs: A blog is an important part of an owned media strategy, allowing you to share news, industry insights, infographics and thought leadership. It also helps improve search engine visibility and drives organic traffic to your website.
- Newsletters: Email newsletters are another example of owned media. You can use them to send updates, promotions, curated content and other relevant information. Newsletters are a direct communication channel that can help nurture relationships.
- Mobile apps: Mobile applications are an increasingly popular owned media channel. Apps allow you to deliver personalized content, enhance user experience, provide customer support and build loyalty programs. They provide a convenient way to engage with your audience.
- Webinars and online events: Hosting webinars and online events is another way to create owned media. Webinars and online events on topics related to your brand and industry provide opportunities for direct engagement, knowledge sharing and lead generation.
What Are the Benefits of Owned Media?
Owned media marketing is one of the most popular strategies in the paid, earned, shared and owned framework. Some of the main benefits are that it is:
- Controllable: You have complete control over the brand messaging, content and presentation of owned media. You can easily tailor your messaging to align with your marketing and PR objectives, brand values and target audience.
- Direct: With owned media, you can engage with your audience in real time, responding directly to inquiries and addressing concerns. That can foster loyalty and advocacy over time.
- Authoritative: By sharing valuable content, showcasing your expertise and staying up-to-date on the latest news, you can establish your brand as an authoritative voice, building trust and credibility with your audience.
- Cost-effective: While there are costs to set up and maintain owned media, it’s very cost-effective over the long term. Owned media provides a foundation for ongoing marketing efforts without the recurring costs of paid media.
- Measurable: There are plenty of tools that let you track and analyze your owned media channels. You can collect data that provides insights into audience behavior, improves your decision-making and proves the value of your owned media strategy.
Maximize Your Owned Media Strategy
The definition of owned media will only get you so far. What you really need to know is how to implement it into your marketing and comms strategy in a way that will help your brand succeed.
Develop a Strong Brand Voice
Using a consistent, strong brand voice across all your owned media channels makes you appear authentic and authoritative. Consider the following strategies:
- Define your brand personality: Determine the personality traits and characteristics that best represent your brand, such as friendly, professional or innovative.
- Craft a brand messaging framework: Develop key messaging pillars and brand guidelines to ensure your tone, language and communication style stay consistent.
- Create compelling content: Content is king: Whether it's blog posts, social media updates, website copy or any other content marketing asset, tell authentic and compelling stories that resonate with your target audience.
Engage With Your Audience
What is owned media if not your chance to engage with your audience? That’s one of its biggest benefits! Here are some strategies to engage effectively:
- Ask questions during webinars: Encourage your audience to share their thoughts and opinions. It will spark engagement and discussion, and also provide valuable insights.
- Make your website interactive. Leverage live chat or chatbots to respond directly to customers and improve your service. You can also create a survey or quiz that points people to the right product offering.
- Host Q&A sessions: Host live Q&A sessions where you can interact directly with your audience in real-time, either through a web conferencing or chat tool. You'll get more immediate and personal engagement.
Integrate With Other Channels
Integrating your paid, earned, and owned media channels can be more powerful than using any of them individually. Here's how:
- Cross-promotion: Promote your owned content on other channels to increase visibility and reach. For example, syndicate your owned content through earned media channels like guest blogging, contributed articles and media partnerships.
- Paid ads: Use paid advertising to promote your owned media content to more targeted audiences. Boost posts, run sponsored content campaigns, or created targeted ads that drive traffic to your website, blog or other owned media.
- Retargeting: Use retargeting to reconnect with those who have engaged with your owned media in the past. Serve targeted ads or content recommendations based on past interactions with your website, blog or social media profiles.
- Influencer collaborations: Leverage influencers' paid and earned media channels to amplify your owned content. Created sponsored content, social media posts or endorsements to drive traffic to your owned media channels.
Leverage the Power of SEO
By optimizing your owned media channels for search engines, known as search engine optimization (SEO), you can increase how many people see it in their search results, boosting brand awareness and website traffic. Consider the following SEO strategies:
- Keyword research: Conduct research to understand the words and phrases your desired audience is looking for. Use those words on your website and build a blog strategy to target them.
- On-page optimization: Optimize your website, blog posts and other owned media content with relevant keywords, meta tags and structured data to improve search engine rankings.
- High-quality content: Product high-quality, informative and engaging content that provides value to your audience and encourages organic sharing and backlinks.
Track and Measure Performance
You’ll never know if your owned media strategy is working if you don’t measure it. Tracking and analyzing your owned media's performance helps you refine your strategy for better results. Here are a few owned media metrics you can track to better understand the performance of your content marketing initiatives:
- Website traffic: Monitor website traffic metrics like total visits, unique visitors and page views to understand audience behavior and engagement.
- Engagement: Track engagement metrics like time on page, bounce rate and content downloads to measure audience interaction with your content.
- Conversion metrics: Use metrics like conversion rate and click-through rate to analyze the effectiveness of your owned media.
- SEO performance: Monitor SEO metrics like keyword rankings, organic traffic and backlinks to evaluate the impact of your SEO efforts on search engine visibility.
Discover Owned Media Solutions for PR Professionals
The exact answer to “What is owned media?” looks different for every brand, but one thing is certain: It’s an essential part of any PR and marketing strategy. Done right, an owned media strategy can get the information you want in front of journalists, influencers, industry experts and investors, helping improve your brand’s visibility, reputation and bottom line.
PR Newswire offers owned media solutions for PR and marketing professionals like you. We can help you build and promote investor relations websites, branded landing pages and online newsrooms that give you complete control over your narrative. Contact us today to see how we can help you maximize the impact of your owned media.
FAQs About Owned Media
What are the first steps to creating an effective owned media strategy?
Start by clearly defining what you aim to achieve. Conduct research to understand your target audience's demographics, interests, preferences and behaviors. Determine which owned media channels are best to reach your desired audience to achieve your objectives. Identify content that will provide value to your audience, while also improving your search engine rankings. Create the content, publish it and you’ve now created owned media.
How can small businesses benefit from owned media?
Smaller organizations can take advantage of owned media’s cost-effectiveness. At a minimum, small businesses should have owned media channels like a website, blog and social media profiles. Use these channels to consistently publish valuable content and engage directly with your audience, build relationships and foster loyalty.
How often should I update my owned media channels?
The cadence for updating your owned content depends on the channel. On your website and blog, aim to publish new content at least once a week, and always immediately publish product updates and company news.
Ready to take your story or campaign to new heights? Let PR Newswire help you achieve unmatched visibility and reach.