There comes a point in every founder or entrepreneur’s journey when the friends and family list has been exhausted – and a fresh pool of connections is required to grow the business. To get more eyeballs on your service, product, or offering, you want to up the ante on your integrated marketing and communications plans – but you may have no idea where to start.

And if you’re starting to look for agency support, you’ll quickly notice a new vocabulary. In your conversations and sales calls, you’ll hear terms like “paid media,” “earned media,” “owned media,” and “organic” content.

Here, I’ll define paid, earned, and owned media to help you get up to speed quickly – and be better able to make a decision for your business on where to start.

WTF is paid media?

Paid media, simply put, is any marketing or communications activity you pay for.

Duh, right?

This goes for any kind of advertising on any platform (print or online), any speaking engagements you pay to participate in as a speaker, sponsorships at events, tradeshow booths, ads placed in your kids’ school programs, newsletter sponsorships, influencer marketing, etc.

All of these things are considered paid media.

What’s good about paid media is that you can often reach a large number of people quickly.

Typically, in digital paid media, the more you pay, the more eyeballs you get access to. If you’re opting for a print ad in a trade publication, you can easily access information about circulation, and demographics about readership. Data on how online ads are performing can be delivered to you from the platform, but the real datapoint that matters most is how those paid ads are driving *relevant* traffic to your website, resulting in new email addresses received via your contact form, calls to your business phone, inquiries via email, direct messaging, etc.

While you can start an online ad buy relatively inexpensively, it can cost thousands of dollars for some of those other outlets – like sponsorships, billboards, tradeshow exhibits, etc.

Paid media enables you to control the message.

If you have a particular service or product you want to promote, you can do that. If you want to promote a white paper that’s gated on your website, you can do that, too.

You can drive traffic to your tradeshow booth by paid digital ads – and you can make the message whatever you want it to be.

Knowing where you want to place a paid ad is important, so ask questions about placements to your would-be agency. For example, you can elect to opt out of certain types of websites (like political or adult-content sites) if you’re going the Google Ads route. Make sure where your brand shows up is in line with your brand values.

It’s also important that when you’re driving traffic to your website or a landing page, you look legit. Please don’t drive traffic to a site that’s difficult to navigate, not aesthetically pleasing, or looks amateurish. First impressions matter.

WTF is owned media?

Owned media is everything that you produce content for.

Think social media, your website, your podcast, etc.

Here, again, you control the messaging.

Owned media is where content marketing falls. You’re creating content that you’re sharing on your own channels with the aim of educating, persuade or entertain your audience and prospects.

Notice I didn’t say “sell?”

This is where a lot of people get tripped up. They think that every piece of content needs to end with a sales call to action. It doesn’t – and shouldn’t!

Your content should give away everything you know.

Why? Because the goal of owned media is to show you’re an authority in your space. You’re working to build your reputation and trust over a period of time. Owned media is the long game that enables you to showcase your knowledge, your understanding of a prospect’s problem, your trustworthiness and position you as the kind of person your prospect wants to do business with.

What’s good is that while it takes time, it enables you the runway to experiment. For example, if there’s a social media video that you did that went bonkers, you know that content is something you should do more of.

It also builds you a track record. When prospects are doing their research, they’re going to land on your website or social media platforms and they’re going to have a bank of information that backs up that you’ve been in the game.

It’s also good for the algorithms to create content on a consistent basis. And if you do your keywording correctly, you’ll bump to the top of search results with time.

Your would-be agency should provide a way to plan ahead for content ideas and revisit that plan on a regular basis. Remember that you are the subject matter expert in your space and that the agency is the support to get your ideas and expertise distributed through your channels. Said another way, you have to absolutely be an active participant in planning the content topics, offering expertise and opinions, and trust the agency to work with you to find your voice. You shouldn’t be writing anything, but you need to be available for interviews, especially in the beginning.

WTF is earned media?

Okay, the third pillar: earned media.

This is when your organization or product gets covered in the media, earns an award or secures a speaking engagement – without having to pay for it.

I’m often surprised by clients who think they have to pay for every single article, award or speaking engagement that they want to participate in. That’s just not the case!

There are so many opportunities to place bylined case studies, how-to articles, opinion pieces in publications that your prospects are reading or podcasts they’re listening to – without having to drop a dime.

Sure, it take a little bit of elbow grease and sweat equity.

But the great thing about earned media is that it serves as third-party validation of what you do, how you do it, and why you’re great at it.

Also, when things go sideways, earned media – especially with the help of a seasoned public relations or crisis communications firm – can make the best of a bad situation and enable the organization to protect as much of its reputation as possible.

So, where do you find these opportunities?

My first recommendation is to know what publications, podcasts, outlets your ideal prospects are reading, listening to or following. From there, you get familiar with the type of content and articles they’re looking for or running. It’s likely that the agency you’re working with will have a good sense of these, but you will definitely need to weigh in. Again, you are the subject matter expert and should know where you’re prospects are spending their time.

For print publications, many distribute an annual “editorial calendar” in their advertising section of the website. It’s that calendar that shows what topics they’ll be covering during which months. If you know, for example, that one of your publications is running a “multifamily investing” feature or issue in May, you can pitch yourself to be a source for that article (assuming, of course, you’re in the commercial real estate space).

One caveat: print publications close their articles months in advance so it’s best to reach out four to five months before the actual issue date. And a bonus tip: the editorial calendars can be a good way to get inspired for your owned content, as well.

So, WTF is the most important?

You’re going to hate this answer. But the answer is: It depends.

Depending on where you and your organization are in its maturity, it may make sense to start with some paid media and get more eyeballs on your website. Assuming you have a website that looks good and functions well.

However, for most of the entrepreneurs and founders I’ve worked with, I’ve learned that most of them aren’t quite ready to go all in on paid media.

If you don’t have the basic building blocks down, my recommendation is to start with your organic efforts, including earned and owned media. A solid website, public relations, content planning, internal communications, a single, organic social media channel. Start there.

Make it easy for people to understand and connect with you, and do as much organic brand-building, promotion, and networking that you can. Then, with a solid foundation, you can add in your paid efforts by amplifying the content you’ve already created.

Of course, if you elect to work with an agency, they’ll likely be able to support all efforts on parallel tracks. Just remember that paid media isn’t a singular solution and building a trustworthy brand takes consistency in efforts.

A well-rounded integrated marcomms plan requires all three media – paid, earned, and owned – to elicit the best results, build brand trust and awareness, and position your business for greater success.