Owned Media: Content That Converts
By Buddy Hallvant
Table of Contents
Businesses leverage owned media to improve conversion rates and attract new audiences.
Owned media is untethered from social media. It’s the articles, videos, photos, and other materials that work from your website. This content educates customers, demonstrates expertise, and shares unique insights.
Through owned media, businesses directly inform their audience about products, services, and industry knowledge.
The result: More informed customers that convert with greater ease.
Owned Media Facilitates Buying
Skip to: Why Owned Media Matters
Owned media refers to the actual content that a business creates and controls completely. It’s not just about the channels where this content is distributed, but the substantive material itself.
This encompasses a wide range of content forms, from written articles and videos to photographs and infographics. Unlike paid advertising or earned media coverage, owned media gives businesses full autonomy over their message and its presentation.
"If you can create, edit, publish, or remove content without anyone else's permission, that's owned media."
Characteristics of owned media
Creation by the business or its representatives
Full editorial control
Retention of all rights to the material
Long-term accessibility and value
Owned media serves as the foundation of a company’s digital presence, reflecting its voice, values, and expertise. Whether it’s a detailed blog post explaining a complex topic or a visually striking infographic simplifying industry data, owned media is crafted to serve your target audience with genuine value as they express interest.
Key Examples
Owned media takes various forms, each serving unique purposes in a company’s content strategy:
Written content, such as articles and blog posts, remains a cornerstone, allowing businesses to explore industry topics in depth and fill content gaps customers ask for. These pieces demonstrate expertise while providing valuable insights, adapting to both subject matter and audience needs.
Visual and audio elements expand a company’s reach. Infographics and custom images distill complex information into digestible formats, while videos offer dynamic demonstrations of products or services. Podcasts provide yet another avenue, engaging audiences through long-form discussions or serialized content.
For businesses seeking to establish thought leadership, long-form assets play a crucial role. Whitepapers and ebooks offer deep dives into industry trends or challenges, often serving as powerful tools for lead generation and nurturing.
Ultimately, the most effective owned media strategies leverage a mix of these formats. By diversifying content types, businesses can cater to varying audience preferences and consumption habits, ensuring their message resonates across different platforms and contexts.
The Power of Ownership
Owning your media goes beyond just having control—it’s about leveraging that control to create lasting business value. Let’s explore some less obvious benefits:
Synergy with other marketing efforts
Owned media doesn’t exist in isolation. It can:
- Provide content for social media campaigns
- Offer landing pages for paid advertising
- Supply material for PR and media outreach
This integration magnifies the impact of all your marketing initiatives.
Data-driven insights
Your owned media platforms offer a wealth of data:
- Content performance metrics
- User behavior patterns
- Audience demographics
This information can guide not just your content strategy, but broader business decisions.
Brand equity building
Every piece of quality owned media contributes to your brand’s perceived value. Over time, this consistent output can:
- Elevate your industry standing
- Attract partnerships and opportunities
- Increase customer loyalty and lifetime value
By focusing on these aspects, we provide fresh insights into the power of ownership without repeating information from earlier sections. Does this approach better align with your vision for the article?
Why Owned Media Matters
Owned media is essential for businesses in the digital age. It offers control, longevity, and direct audience connection that other forms of media can’t match.
1. Nurturing leads to conversion
Owned media doesn’t just drive traffic—it nurtures relationships. Through a series of touchpoints, your content guides potential customers along their journey. It answers questions they haven’t yet thought to ask, building trust by demonstrating your expertise and understanding of their needs.
This nurturing process means that when customers are ready to make a decision, your business is top-of-mind. They’re not just more likely to convert—they’re more likely to become loyal, long-term customers who understand and appreciate the value you offer. The result is a smoother path to conversion, with customers who are better informed and more confident in their choice.
2. Smoothing the sales process
Owned media educates your audience, making sales conversations more productive. When customers engage with your content, they arrive at the sales stage better informed. This knowledge:
- Reduces the time spent explaining basic concepts
- Allows for more nuanced discussions about how your product or service fits their needs
- Helps customers self-qualify, leading to higher-quality leads
- Addresses common objections before they become roadblocks
By the time a potential customer reaches out, they’re often further along in the decision-making process. This educated customer base not only makes sales smoother but often results in faster closings and higher customer satisfaction post-purchase.
3. Stability in a changing digital world
As social platforms rise and fall, owned media remains constant. It acts as an anchor for your digital presence, ensuring your content and message remain accessible regardless of changes in third-party platforms or algorithms.
4. Long-term financial sense
Owned media is an investment that pays dividends over time. Unlike paid advertising that stops working the moment you stop paying, owned content continues to attract and engage audiences long after its creation.
This evergreen quality means a single piece of high-quality content can generate value for years, improving your return on investment with each passing day.
As your content library grows, so does its collective impact. New pieces complement and reinforce older ones, creating a comprehensive resource that becomes increasingly valuable to your audience.
The financial benefits extend beyond marketing. By educating customers and smoothing the sales process, owned media can lower customer acquisition costs and increase customer lifetime value.
It’s not just about saving on advertising spend—it’s about creating a more efficient, effective business model overall.
5. Data Goldmine
Every interaction on your owned channels provides valuable insights. It’s like having a continuous conversation with your audience, learning their preferences and behaviors with each click, download, or subscription.
The data you can gather includes:
- User behavior: How visitors navigate your site, which pages they spend the most time on, and where they exit.
- Content performance: Which topics resonate most with your audience, driving engagement and conversions.
- Customer journey: How users move from first contact to conversion, and what content influences their decisions.
- Audience segmentation: Detailed profiles of different user groups, allowing for more targeted content and marketing strategies.
This first-party data is invaluable in an era where privacy concerns are limiting access to third-party data. It allows you to make informed decisions about content creation, product development, and marketing strategies.
Owned Media in Context
Owned media exists in tandem with other types of content. It’s part of a broader marketing ecosystem that includes paid, earned, and shared media. Each plays a unique role in a comprehensive strategy.
Paid media, such as advertising, offers immediate visibility but comes with ongoing costs. It’s effective for quick boosts in awareness or traffic, but its impact often diminishes once the campaign ends.
Earned media, like press coverage or organic mentions, provides valuable third-party credibility. However, it’s less predictable and harder to control than owned or paid media.
Shared media refers to content distributed on social platforms. It offers a middle ground, allowing for some control while leveraging the reach of established networks.
Owned media serves as the foundation for these other efforts. It provides the content that paid campaigns direct traffic to, often serves as the source material for earned media coverage, and supplies the substance for social sharing.
By understanding how these types of media interact, businesses can create synergistic strategies that amplify their overall marketing impact.
Showcasing Business Through Media
Your website is the perfect place to truly showcase what makes your business unique. This rich, varied content creates a complete picture of your business that’s hard to achieve on social platforms alone.
Video Production
Video content offers a dynamic way to engage audiences. Video can:
- Simplify complex concepts
- Showcase your brand’s personality
- Provide shareable content for social platforms
Long-Tail Industry Articles
Well-crafted articles establish your expertise and provide value to your audience. They can:
- Address customer pain points
- Offer in-depth industry insights
- Improve your site’s search engine visibility
Photography
High-quality images support business activities in a visually compelling way. Use photography to:
- Showcase products in real-world contexts
- Highlight your team and company culture
- Support text-centric media with helpful visuals
Putting it all together
The most effective owned media strategies don’t rely on a single type of content. Instead, they combine various formats to create a rich, multi-faceted brand experience.
For example, a product launch might include:
- An in-depth article explaining the product’s features and benefits
- A video demonstration showing the product in action
- High-quality photos for use across various platforms
- Social media posts to drive engagement and sharing
This integrated approach ensures that your message reaches your audience in the format they prefer, maximizing its impact.
Strategic Content Development
A thoughtful content strategy is critical for business. If you’re new to content developemt or looking to shore up your gaps, you need a content framework that is designed to work for your business.
- Understanding your audience and their needs
- Aligning content with your business goals
- Creating a consistent publishing schedule
- Measuring and analyzing content performance
- Continuously refining your approach based on data and feedback
Remember: Your website converts. Other channels amplify and support.
By focusing on your owned media, particularly your website, you’re investing in a digital asset that grows over time. It provides a stable online presence and gives you the best chance to turn visitors into customers. Your rich content – articles, videos, and photos – work together to present a complete, compelling picture of your business.
Owned media serves as your anchor, providing stability, control, and long-term value. While other channels play important supporting roles, your owned media is where you have the power to truly showcase your brand, engage your audience, and drive meaningful business results.