Owned marketing

One of the drawbacks of doing your marketing in a space that you don’t own is that you have work with the (arbitrary) limitations enforced on you.

This is stuff of character limits and word counts. Of 18-minute rules and 30-second elevator pitches. And, of course, the (recurring) cost of buying visits to your site.

One loophole around all of these limitations is own the medium. Or, at least, as much of it as you can.

This is why it’s often more beneficial to have your own newsletter than to write on Medium or Twitter or Substack. Or why well-made pamphlets or posters outside your door can be more effective than an ad in your local paper.

It’s also why baking your brand into the experiences your customers or clients or would-be fans have with your brand is worth investing in. Because you own the medium—and every experience, from onboarding to closing the sale is an opportunity to create a brand worth talking about.