Are you tricking buyers into opting in and giving you their email address for an ebook, and then you “lead nurture” them into oblivion?

Why do you think Apple created the Hide My Email feature?

Indeed, one of the reasons is that consumers are tired of unnecessary email exchanges for content.

Thankfully, there is a better way to build relationships and trust with future buyers.

Owned media (and really subscription-based content) has been a hot topic over the past year.

Rightfully so.

From the business side, rented media (organic search / PR / organic social) has become much harder.

Paid media channels seem to get more expensive every year.

But what if you could own the media instead of being at the mercy of rented or paid media channels?

In this week’s GTM News episode, I pulled a conversation I had with Bolaji Oyejide at a recent event.

Bolaji lays out a clear strategy for leveraging a subscription-based owned media strategy.

Four things that stood out to me in this conversation:

1. Research your ideal customer profile (ICP) deeply to uncover their real pain points and frustrations. Use this understanding to create content that resonates emotionally.
2. Build content that feels like a “flag” around which your ICP can rally. Position yourself not as the hero but as the flag bearer for their cause.
3. Create stakes and anticipation through devices like contests and competition. Think about formats like reality TV that create drama to hook the audience.
4. Infuse your personality, tastes, and quirks into content to make it “category adjacent”—familiar yet distinct. The most creatively owned media feels like “x but different.”