Capturing the C-suite With Owned Media

There is often very little that is completely in your control when trying to grow your business. The economy, public perception, and trends are examples of areas that are not entirely in your control and the impact a business can make or break.

There are areas that we do have absolute control over and when we do, it is imperative that this is locked down and optimized for the greatest benefit. One such area is owned media.

Owned media is any digital property or marketing channel that a company exercises complete dominion over such as its branded website, blog, YouTube channel, or social media channels. It is your entire online ecosystem and the more quality activity you create and distribute the more likely you will gain brand awareness, and organic traffic, and influence those areas that are outside your control.

In today's digital age, businesses have numerous avenues to promote their products and services to c-suite executives, Owned media unlike earned or paid media, allows businesses to have full autonomy over their messaging, branding, and content distribution. In this article, we will delve into how earned media is an effective method to attract and influence the C-suite to buy your product or services. We will share specific techniques that will help you find an audience with the C-suite and the opportunity to sell them.

How to Create Owned Media

The C-Suite loves and will devour content that identifies solutions for their company’s pain points or concerns. Getting your solutions to the CXO is unquestionably difficult since, like the rest of us, they are turned off by interruptive marketing. To reach them effectively, you’ll want to utilize the channels where they proactively seek information, entertainment, and verification.

The only way you will be able to identify these channels with any certainty is through the Discovery and Assessment Process. The reports generated from this exercise will provide the ability to identify patterns that can be used to help make media creation and dissemination decisions.

It’s important to remember — before you ever create any content — exactly what emotion or action you want to elicit from your audience. Every piece of content you create should be written to address the pain points or concerns of a particular buyer persona at a specific stage in the buying process. For the CXO, content should be CURVED… Credible, Unique, Relevant, Valuable, Engaging and Distributed.

CREDIBLE-Before a CXO will consider your product or solution, they must trust both the information being presented and the source presenting it. To facilitate this trust, it helps to speak in the same language of the business and information being presented.

Focus on strategic solutions to the persona’s pain points. Don’t get hung up on describing the features of your product or service. Be sure to back up your claims with peer-based case studies or independent empirical data that proves the solution you are presenting will actually work.

UNIQUE - The CXO wants a solution that will provide them with a competitive advantage. They want to be enlightened with a future vision that will help to differentiate their company in the market. Behavioral economics has found that economic decision-making is up to 70 percent emotional and 30 percent rational (Gallup). C-suite executives making course-changing corporate decisions are no different. They want to be wowed and intrigued by the future possibilities that your solution offers.

RELEVANT - The information being presented must be timely and actionable to address their concern or problem directly. When content refers to business trends and statistics, it must be current. Using old information can make your solution appear dated, so regardless of whether the information may still be accurate, noncurrent information will not fare well in the C-Suite. In addition - to the extent possible - your content should be vertical-specific in order to maximize relevancy. Remember, like all decision-makers, the C-Suite will rely on shortcuts to verify the value of a particular solution. So case studies, charts, and infographics will allow them to better see the relevance of what you’re recommending.

VALUABLE - Every solution needs to offer a return on investment (ROI) that justifies its implementation. The CXO has a strong financial compass and is focused on a return that legitimizes the investment and provides a measurable solution. You should not begin to engage the C-Suite unless you are able to demonstrate an ROI that will align the leadership behind your ideas.

It’s also important to remember that the C-Suite enjoys being altruistic when it does not negatively impact the bottom line. After you are able to demonstrate a clear and impressive ROI, look for the benefits that the implementation of your solution would have for their employees or community.

ENGAGING - Boring content won’t fly. Period. Your content should tell an engaging story and provide new insights in a manner that makes it appealing and easy to digest. This goes beyond merely presenting aesthetically pleasing graphics: you must consider how the C-Suite will actually consume the material.

Collateral should be prepared in various formats so the CXO can review the information in a way that is most convenient and comfortable for them the moment he finds time to engage with it. Short videos are popular because they can often convey a message with enthusiasm in a way that can’t be duplicated in the written word. A well-produced video can increase the likelihood of engagement, as it provides the capacity to communicate on a more emotional level than text or images. A video implies entertainment and is also more likely to be shared via social media.

DISTRIBUTED - Creating great content is not nearly enough these days. The internet is bursting at the seams with incredible content and information, and most of that content will never end up being seen or appreciated. That’s because creating content is just the first step in a two-part journey.

For content to reach the CXO, it must be distributed effectively to land in the exact places where the C-Suite gathers on the internet. Distribution must be considered as part of an overall paid and earned media strategy that involves you sharing the information or inviting them back to your website to engage with the content on your turf.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION - We would like to share some practical applications of how to implement the above.

Websites - Have a contextually driven website. After all, your website is the epicenter of your online marketing efforts. It’s the focal point from which you explain who you are, offer your unique value proposition, and continuously tell your story, all while simultaneously publishing new relevant content.

If your website is contextually driven, it will morph in real-time based on each individual visitor as they are identified (via persona self-selection techniques and cookie technology) and categorized into defined buyer persona buckets - buckets that can be correlated to well-defined stages in their Buyer’s Journey.

The dynamics and abilities of your marketing program change when your website speaks directly to the CXO. A personalized and customized site engages the CXO persona at each stage of the buying process.

When the CXO arrives on your site for the first time, they should see messaging and content that aligns with the Awareness stage of the Buyer’s Journey. Each time they return to the site after that initial visit, the information should be different, changing dynamically to reflect where they are in the Buyer’s Journey. This ensures that your website is equipped to have a conversation with the CXO and address their needs and concerns each time they visit.

Brand Ecosystem - Your brand ecosystem includes your blog and all your social channels. In these channels, you will publish and distribute high-quality content that will attract the CXO and establish you as an industry thought leader. By regularly publishing long-form blog posts, you will not only continue to reinforce your position as the go-to source for the solution but also find that your website is rewarded by search engines.

To maximize your impact and help position your company as a thought leader, it is recommended that you publish 16 high-quality long-form blog posts each month (HubSpot). If there needs to be a trade-off between the quality and the number, quality always wins. Remember that each blog needs to have a purpose that directly addresses the pain points and concerns of a particular CXO persona at a specific stage in the buying process.

For a blog post to demonstrate thought leadership and get the most shares on social media, it should be over 2,500 words (HubSpot).

How to Disseminate Owned Media

The creation and distribution of content cannot be separated. An effective distribution channel is the only way to truly benefit from the content you create. Providing new, relevant content on an ongoing basis is rewarded in both SEO and engagement by the CXO. Consistency and quality are extremely important in achieving these benefits. Below are several methods that have proven effective in capturing the attention of the C-Suite:

TARGETED NEWSLETTERS — Newsletters that provide strategic business insights can be an effective means of getting content in front of the C-Suite. This approach is substantiated by a Quartz Insights Global Executive Study, which found that “60 percent of the executives read an email newsletter as one of their first three news sources they check daily.”

SOCIAL MEDIA — Social media is the perfect platform to generate Brand Awareness and demonstrate expertise in a given industry by providing great content. An effective social media strategy can not only establish a company as a thought leader in its industry but also facilitate influencer outreach and engagement.

LIVE SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS — Many CXOs attend industry events either as featured speakers or guests. It is important to take advantage of these industry gatherings to make live presentations that demonstrate your thought leadership and vision on the current state and future of matters that affect your industry.

CONTENT SYNDICATION — Identify authoritative magazines that accept blog syndications and have broad credibility with the CXOs in the vertical you are seeking to reach. Syndicating blog content, complete with linkbacks, across these publications, will improve domain authority and help achieve solid organic search results. The publication of these pieces will be accompanied by blogs and social media posts to more widely distribute the content and message.

PAID DEMAND GENERATION — Paid advertising and lead generation programs are an important part of any strategy to reach the C-Suite. Through your Strategic Buyer’s Insight Report, you will determine how your targeted CXOs access media and where they go to find authoritative information.

Effective utilization of a demand generation budget can not only provide a cost-effective way to drive new traffic and leads to the site, but also invite returning leads to share mid-funnel content. It is likely that one avenue you will use for paid demand generation is LinkedIn Sponsored Updates. With Sponsored Updates, you will be able to distribute your content directly to relevant C-Suite professionals in a place where they are already consuming relevant content.

RETARGETING — Once you develop a significant CXO contact list of individuals who have visited your site but who have not engaged, you can begin retargeting them with additional thought leadership content across the Internet. We recommend retargeting CXOs only when you have new and relevant content that will keep their engagement and interest levels high.

With retargeting campaigns, because you’re reaching CXOs who have already shown a prior interest in your company and solutions, you will find the offer is clicked 200-400% more often than an ad that is not re-targeting based. Just keep in mind that no matter how memorable or interesting your business is, most CXOs who visit your site are going to leave without signing up, buying, or contacting you. Retargeting keeps your brand in front of them after they leave, giving you a second, third, and even fourth chance to bring them back to your site to convert.

EMAIL NURTURING CAMPAIGNS — Once your demand generation efforts work and you capture the attention of a targeted CXO, you can begin your lead nurturing work. Lead nurturing is all about moving leads along the Buyer’s Journey from Awareness to Consideration and then from Consideration to Purchase Decision.

Conclusion

Owned media provides businesses with the opportunity to have full control over their messaging, branding, and content distribution. By effectively utilizing owned media channels such as websites, blogs, social media pages, and email lists, businesses can engage with the C-suite audience, build brand loyalty, and drive conversions. By harnessing the power of owned media, businesses can achieve their marketing goals while maximizing their return on investment.