Each of us has experience with earned media. If you’ve ever tweeted about a brand’s hilarious meme or posted about your new shoes, that was made media for the company.
You don’t post about brands at random, of course. Therefore, even though you have limited control over the earned media you receive from audiences, you also can’t wait for it to come to you. Like most aspects of marketing, honing your earned media strategy takes time and effort.
What is earned media?
Earned media, also known as earned content, refers to any writing about you or your business that was not your work or something you paid for. Marketers can position themselves to take advantage of earned media opportunities even though a third party almost always publishes this type of media.
Earned media is frequently referred to as “publicity.” Your actions “earned” this attention because you did not pay to create this media as you would for an advertisement. But how has earned media changed due to the shifts in how we consume information over the past 30 years?
Despite this, since you did not pay for earned media to exist, you may hear it as “free media.”
What is the importance of earned media?
In a nutshell, earned media is important because it is so successful. It is the best amplification tool used alone or with owned and paid media. Earned media now encompasses a lot more than just conventional media outlets. Public relations and various forms of user-generated content (UGC) and sharing are now included in the list of potential amplifiers.
Anyone in your community can create earned media by tweeting, reviewing, embedding, sharing, commenting, liking, and curating any of your owned or paid media components.
What does this mean, exactly?
Their friends and families greatly influence today’s consumers and the online content they consume. Nowadays, everyone is so connected that whatever they post about a brand (positive or negative) can be seen by hundreds of people, thousands of people, or even millions of people.
Many people will hear those tales and base their purchasing choices on them. When looking for new products, 57% of US adults say they rely most heavily on recommendations from friends and family.
If you still need more evidence to support the importance of earned media, take into account the following:
Earned media is cost-free
This is one of the main benefits of earned media. Exposure to your brand is wholly advantageous. This implies receiving all the additional advantages listed below without spending money on marketing.
Earned media boosts brand recognition.
It is a powerful way to raise overall brand recognition above and beyond what your current marketing campaigns can accomplish. Earned media can also be a great way to connect with prospective customers who aren’t currently using your products or services but are still interested in them.
Earned media has higher credibility.
No matter how well-produced your content is, it will never match the authority of unpaid promotion from fans and devoted customers because you are in charge of creating your own or paying for content and have a vested interest in your company’s success.
Earned media generates a positive spiral.
Word-of-mouth is a potent tool for growing your clientele; earned media can help you tap into it. Earned media gives your business important social capital, frequently encouraging potential customers to contact you after hearing someone they know, respect, or look up to discuss your business positively.
These are some of the basic functions that earned media plays.
Brands can build a powerful lead generation machine by proactively developing procedures and initiatives to turn earned media amplifiers into participants, attendees, and customers.
What is the value of Earned media?
Earned media is precious today. Online content and recommendations from friends and family have a more significant influence on modern consumers. Thanks to technological advancements, people can now broadcast their opinions to a captive audience worldwide much more quickly.
An increasing number of people are doing their research, which significantly impacts their purchasing choices.
A Nielsen study found that 69% of consumers read expert product reviews before making a purchase and that 85% look for reliable third-party reviews when considering a purchase. Another 67% of consumers concur that independent third-party expert recommendations are more likely to influence them to purchase a good or use a service.
This demonstrates how expert content, a form of earned media, significantly affects several purchase cycle factors.
SEO likewise enhances the worth of earned media. Your content’s “freshness” can affect where your page appears in search results. Earned media is a great place to find regularly updated content about your business. Additionally, it may give you more backlinks from reputable pages, improving your rankings.
Strategies to achieve Earned Media
You can use one of these strategies to increase various forms of earned media because many cross platforms and channels.
Create and uphold media relationships
Do you only consider speaking with journalists and other media members when you have a task that needs their attention? Like any other relationship, the one in the media must be nurtured and built on trust.
Create intriguing and captivating content
A crucial part of effective content marketing is creating content people want to interact with and share. They’ll be moved to spread the word if it strikes a chord with the audience. Retweets, reshares, and accounts that independently share content are all considered forms of earned media.
Make use of every avenue of distribution.
Are you disseminating your content in all available channels? Don’t restrict your content distribution to social media alone. Use a newsletter to distribute your content, and tell your staff to spread the word about it.
Develop and showcase your expertise
What tactic can you use to establish your company’s reputation as an authority in articles? With blog posts, social media updates, and other owned content, demonstrate your expertise in the industry. As you designate yourself as a thought leader in your field, people naturally turn to you for information.
Be the best to your clients.
Clients are more likely to be gladdened with a brand that responds to their inquiries or complaints on social media, per Statista. Although social customer care has been around for a while, few brands excel. Therefore, when it does happen, those awesome social shoutouts take place.
Wrapping up
Public relations practitioners should continue monitoring earned media as it changes with digital marketing. Use earned media effectively as a component of your lead generation strategies to attract new clients or customers while fostering loyalty among your current clientele by using the information in this article as a guide.
