Mastering Owned Media: Eight Tips for Success

Owned media can be both the most challenging and the most rewarding element of your communications stack.

Most will immediately think of blogging, but there are so many variations of owned media that can be utilised to promote your brand. Creating your own webinars, podcasts and videos are among the many alternatives that provide ways of connecting to your customers and moving them through the sales funnel.

That being said, in the ever-evolving digital landscape, creating successful content may seem to be high-effort for low-reward. If approached in a strategic and streamlined manner, however, it can prove to be an invaluable and evergreen resource that will help to build your reputation as an industry expert.

Here are eight ways to ensure that owned media helps your business.

1. Take a Stance

Be unapologetic in sharing and showcasing your values and opinions. Your owned media is a space to create and cultivate your brand and this cannot be done by remaining neutral and carefully non-committal.

To build a dedicated audience, take a stance on the topics that resonate with you. There will be some people who disagree with you, but authenticity and a clear stance will be far more engaging and impactful.

2. The Necessity of Thought Leaders

The biggest and most common mistake made in the sphere of owned media is churning out content for the sake of it. If your material does not offer knowledge and expertise then that is how your audience will view your organisation: unspecialised, generic, bland. If anything, you’re better off without it.

Make it a priority to involve thought leaders, be that from inside or outside your own organisation, as their expertise could provide the cornerstone of your owned media.

3. Focus on Search Intent

In the vast oceans of digital content, integrating search engine optimisation (SEO) into your owned media is vital to staying afloat. Without it, you’re essentially talking to an empty room.

By effectively using keywords or phrases, anchoring text, and linkbacks, the visibility of your content can only increase.

4. Pay Attention to Topical Issues

In order to maintain engagement, it is essential to keep abreast of the trending topics within your industry. Producing irrelevant or outdated content is a surefire way of losing interest among your audience, which in turn reflects negatively on your company.

Monitoring tools and hashtag searches are simple and efficient ways of identifying your audience’s interest.

5. Pillar content

Content pillaring involves taking existing content and transforming it into different formats or mediums to reach new audiences and extend its lifespan. It allows you to maximize the value of your original content by adapting it into various forms.

Turning a blog post into a video, infographic or podcast episode is a time-efficient way to diversify your owned media portfolio, while breaking down a comprehensive guide into a series of social media posts will cater to the preferences of a different audience as well as enhancing visibility, engagement and outreach.

6. Build Community

Your owned media space cannot be a one-way conversation. There must be space for a dialogue, otherwise your audience can easily disengage.

At the end of your webinar, open up for questions. Underneath your blog or video, respond to the comments. During your podcast, delve into case studies submitted by your listeners. When you dedicate time to interact with your audience, you develop a more trusting and meaningful connection, which will foster long-term loyalty.

7. Social Media Support

An effective social media strategy can not only complement your owned media, but take it to new levels of engagement and outreach. Your content essentially serves as a hub with the your social media pages across the various platforms utilised as distributors and promoters of the material.

Integrate your social media efforts with your owned media to build your community, engage your audience, and amplify your content.

8. Patience is THE Virtue

Recognise that success with owned media takes time. Progress will likely be slow at first – immediate results are rare – but don’t get disheartened. It takes time to establish a strong online presence and a dedicated audience. If you patiently and diligently persevere, you will in time see success.

By following these tips and committing to the long-term journey, you can produce original content that resonates with your audience and establishes you as a trusted thought leader in your industry.

Creating owned media may be challenging, but with the right approach, it can be a powerful tool for communication success.