Prioritizing both earned and owned media together will grow your firm’s visibility and reputation faster than relying on either publishing tactic alone. In this article, we break down the differences between these two publishing approaches and cover why intentionally combining them is the best route for attracting clients and accelerating growth.
If your firm is like most, you’re in one of two camps. Either you’ve solely relied on earned media (placements in business journals) to drive your thought leadership marketing efforts, or you’ve been self-publishing on your own website.
Whether you’re Team Earned or Team Owned, rest assured you can — and should — be Team Both. Bringing the two together expands your reach, establishes trust and credibility, and makes your firm and its people more attractive to potential clients. It’s an approach that yields far greater results than relying on either tactic alone.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT EARNED MEDIA TO GUIDE YOUR FIRM’S MARKETING EFFORTS
Earned media is widely defined by marketers as publicity gained through unpaid efforts. In the context of professional services marketing, we’re specifically talking about getting your firm’s thought leadership content published in high-authority business and industry publications.
This kind of media isn’t cut and dry, though. To increase the chances of your content being published, it’s important to understand how business and industry publications operate.
EDITORS LOOK FOR TIMELY CONTENT WITH UNIQUE POVS
Editors at business and industry publications prioritize articles based on what’s trending in the news cycle. As such, they’re tasked with covering a wide range of trending, relevant topics — and cultivating relationships with authors that can offer a timely and unique point of view (POV) on them.
For instance, you’ve probably read a lot about generative AI over the last 4-5 months. A quick scan of the news media would lead you to believe that it is, has, or will disrupt nearly everything. In fact, in January 2023 when Chat GPT first burst on the scenes, an article on how it could disrupt financial services written by Rattleback client Dev Patnaik of Jump Associates fed right into that news cycle.
Five months later, as I write this article, another perspective piece on how Chat GPT will disrupt {insert your industry, function or job area} is no longer timely nor an interesting POV. General understanding of the topic has grown and editors are looking for new perspectives to keep their readers informed and engaged. They’re looking for insight on what to do about it. A recent article, from the same author, takes a different tact – focusing on how to avoid technology overreaction.
Your challenge? Finding a way to fit your firm into the news cycle in a way that lends value to the news organizations, their readers, and your firm’s marketing objectives.
EDITORS LOOK FOR CONTENT THAT’S RELEVANT TO THEIR AUDIENCE AS INDIVIDUALS
Every firm crafts thought leadership content with their ideal client in mind. Publications do the same. But, usually, their ideal reader looks a little different than your ideal client.
Most firms’ self-published thought leadership content speaks to a key decision-maker about how to solve an organizational challenge. By contrast, publishers are often more interested in topics that speak to the individual reader themselves. For instance, you may want to write about how an organization can eliminate complexity, drive efficiency, or avoid disruption. But publications are often more interested in content that answers those questions for an individual manager.
To increase the chance of your thought leadership piece getting picked up, tailor your topics to the publication’s audience. Consider the ideal reader of the publication you’re pitching to and then address pain points or share insights that will matter to them.
EDITORS HAVE THE FINAL SAY IN HOW CONTENT IS PUBLISHED
Don’t be surprised or disappointed if what ends up getting published isn’t exactly what you submitted. Editors have the final say on headlines, language, tone, accompanying graphics and media, and of course when they’ll publish.
For example, let’s say a publication knows that your article will be featured in the Apple newsfeed for free, and they have an objective to draw readers and convert them into paying subscribers. They may rewrite the headline to make it more compelling and attention-grabbing to meet that need.
Sure, that might seem like they are undoing all your hard work. But the changes aren’t arbitrary. On the contrary — they’re strategically crafted to attract more readers. That’s a good thing. And don’t worry, your core message and expertise will remain intact. In fact, usually it’s elevated.
BUT WHY EARNED MEDIA?
High authority business publications, such as Harvard Business Review or industry publications like American Banker or Entrepreneur, only publish content that meets strict editorial standards. Because of these standards, readers are more likely to trust the content they consume.
So when they read your firm’s published content in publications they already trust, you gain their trust, too. That trust is a wedge that opens the door to a future relationship.
HOW OWNED MEDIA WORKS TO ELEVATE YOUR FIRM’S EXPERTISE
Owned media, on the other hand, is anything that’s self-published. In this case, we’re talking about what you post on your website and promote through social media like LinkedIn and email.
With owned media, you have control over what you say, how you say it, the medium you choose to deliver it, and when you publish it. But that doesn’t mean you should bring any less rigor to your efforts. To start, make sure your owned media content strategy answers these questions:
- What pressing issues does your ideal client face?
- Which of those relevant issues would you like to “own” as subject matter experts?
- How will publishing on those issues enable your firm’s strategic marketing plan to succeed?
Of course, SEO factors like search frequency, search difficulty, and topical white space should shape your owned media strategy, too.
Your goal with owned media is threefold:
- Build a body of work on a handful of topics that matter to your clients in order to demonstrate your firm’s depth in knowledge on those topics.
- Grow your site’s domain authority, get found for those topics, and benefit from the trust that searchers place in Google.
- Develop an ongoing marketing relationship between your firm and its ideal clients.
FUSE OWNED AND EARNED MEDIA FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT
Like creativity and technology, earned and owned media are dynamic on their own — but they’re even better and more powerful when combined.
Earned media allows you to reach larger and wider audiences than you might otherwise reach through your own channels. It also builds your credibility and the perceived authority of your subject matter experts when they address topics as they hit the news cycle.
Meanwhile, owned media allows you to build search authority on critical topics related to your firm. It guides your ideal clients through the buying journey for problems you own, and develops depth and credibility within a select set of topics.
GET OWNED AND EARNED WORKING TOGETHER
There are two types of ideal prospective clients: Those who are aware of your firm and those who aren’t. Owned and earned media work together to engage and nurture both.
Two of the most critical places your ideal clients search for ways to solve their problems is through passively reading trusted business publications and actively performing Google searches. Your goal? To ensure both of those places bring them to your thinking.
Use them to together to earn the attention and trust of clients you don’t know and demonstrate the depth of your expertise over time.
