Owned Media has never been more important for companies
Content-driven marketing at the core of communication – that was one of the main statements at the CMCX 2019 in Munich. But what became even clearer – Owned Media is overtaking Paid and Earned Media. We’ll show you exactly what that means.
Munich as another hot spot and melting point of the European content marketing scene: On 12 & 13 March, CMCX, the most successful trade fair for content marketing, took place for the ninth time.
With over 5,000 participants, around 90 exhibitors and experts and over 100 speakers, CMCX stands, like no other event in Europe, for the growth and significance of content marketing in communication. This is where communication managers meet with marketing decision-makers from international brands to discuss trends in content marketing. This year it became particularly clear that it is no longer possible to communicate without one’s own content. Content is becoming the core of all communication activities.
The core statements of the trade fair are clearer than ever before: Owned media before paid & earned media, B2B content marketing is only successful if the content is also of high quality and fits the target group, no more content silos: companies have to strategically deal with their content.
Companies that have not yet climbed on the Owned Media bandwagon should do so as soon as possible, because content has become the core of all communication activities.
What’s Owned Media all about?
It is the most important task of the marketing and communications departments to create and optimize their own relevant and target group-specific content. This is called Owned Media because it is created, maintained and ideally published by the company itself.
This means that Owned Media is now spreading into different channels more and more in order to be successful. He who owns content is king is no longer valid, but who has sovereignty over the channels to be published is king.
This means that the downstream disciplines such as social media, native advertising, influencer marketing or “classic” online marketing must be linked to precisely these contents. What use is a corporate blog post with exciting tips for the target group to a company if it just gathers dust on the blog? Today, this single content should be used several times – as a social media post, in the next customer newsletter or in a modified form as a press release.
How to measure your content
Whether profit, growth or sustainability – every department has clear targets to meet. Content marketers also have to prove time and time again that their content commitment is worthwhile. When creating corporate content, the most important thing is to produce it in high quality – not always the “techies” are the right contact persons, because such content can quickly become too technical. In the ideal case, the marketing manager coordinates with a colleague from the sales & technology departments and picks the most important information for the target group (in the case of corporate content, the focus is often on decision-makers and managing directors). Buzzwords should certainly not be missing here, but “clickbait content”, which, for example, with its headline, is only out to be clicked, is usually not sufficient for the target group.
How can you tell? On the one hand, of course, by the number of readers on your blog, by the click & interaction rate on your social media channels and, above all, by the length of time you spend on the articles. The longer it is, the more the reader deals with your content. He seems to be interested in the topic, he finds his pain points.
Content Marketing is becoming crucial for B2B
One thing that also became clear at CMCX is that content marketing is in a state of upheaval. It is not only used for B2C communication anymore, but increasingly also for B2B companies.
And that makes sense: Content marketing is becoming more and more individual & personal. Content is better tailored to its target group and the challenges it has to face on a daily basis are placed. In short: You understand the target group. People want to read an exciting guide that gives tips for their daily doings.
As a result, companies are also thinking more and more about content – and only when this content is available can it be scattered across the various channels. Because he who controls and feeds the channels today is king.
Owned Media vs. Paid & Earned Media
Owned as well as paid and earned media are communication channels in the online marketing environment. As a marketing manager or advertiser, you can reach your target group via all three channels. A mix of all three approaches is ideal for a successful online marketing strategy.
Paid Media refers to all chargeable marketing channels in the online sector. The form of advertising most often used by companies here is paid advertising. These include classic banner ads, social media ads, SEA and native ads. Paid media campaigns are easy to control and can be launched at any time. However, the credibility of paid media is still relatively low.
Owned media includes all in-house marketing channels of the advertiser, including the company website, blogs, social media presences of the company or newsletters. The advantage of owned media channels is that if they are professionally managed, companies can build long-term customer relationships through them. In addition, companies have full control over their own channels and operating the channels is often cheaper than paid advertising.
In contrast, Earned Media describes the channels through which users distribute a brand’s content on their own initiative. Good content and a positive image can earn companies exposure on the social web – through customer comments, social interactions with social posts, etc. The special advantage of Earned Media is its credibility when the right target group makes a recommendation.
Owned Media is the basis for a successful online marketing strategy
Owned media is basically the basis of all further marketing activities. The content creates trust in the brand, as successful informative or useful content underlines the own competence of customers and interested parties.
So focus on Owned Media before you wildly advertise your content on the Socials, drive SEA campaigns on Google Ads or book the next banner ad in a prestigious magazine. Ideally, the strategic content marketing used with Owned Media as the basis is the centre from which all other disciplines feed themselves – and this is also confirmed by René Kühn, the creator of the CMCX:
“B2B-Players and the middle class are curently entering the market on a massive scale – synchronously to this industry’s late start into the »digital transformation« – and are discovering the use of content marketing for themselves. The trend to be derived from this is that the market must support these companies with the right content marketing technologies and services.
Content Marketing […] will […] continue to establish itself as a central communication discipline – with all the necessary creativity, professionalism and technology. Companies will first think in terms of content and, in a second step, decide on which channels the dialogue with the customer will take place. Overall, marketing will move closer to one-to-one communication. These developments will also lead to organizational changes in companies.” (Source: contentmanager.de)
Tips from Evernine on how to get there
So, first focus on your corporate content. Often a lot of things are already there, but they lie fallow, gathering dust. Think of your case studies and user reports. Actually TOP contents that offer the target group added value and exactly cover their pain points, but too often these are still stored as PDFs on some server.
Process this content – offer this content its own platform, for example with a short landing page on which the added value, the problem and the approach are briefly teased. And “slaughter” this content. That means, exploit it on several channels – publish it via your social media channels, formulate a short press release from it, spread the message via an editorially prepared post in your blog and get feedback from your customers. This is how you turn Owned Media into Earned Media.
Source title image: © Martin Miseré / Contilla
[plista]
