Paid media is where you pay to place content in front of an audience. This is done through:
- Advertising
- Influencer
- Endorsement
Owned media is where you create and control your own content. Examples are:
- Email marketing
- Web content
- Social media networks
- Infographics
- Ebooks
- On demand webinars
- Videos
- White papers
- Stories
- Press releases
Earned media is where others publicly share your content. Examples are:
- User generated content
- Mentions, shares
- Reviews
- Reposts
Advantages to using all three to an organization:
First, create owned media content. Blogs, emails, social posts, videos. Great content drive this strategy. Make sure it is relevant to your audience, keyword rich, easily sharable, and consistent.
Then, place your content consistently in front of your target audience and their sphere of influence with invitations to share and requests for user generated content using your brand (ie contests, reviews, testimonials, images, etc.).
Lastly, place advertising in front of target market and sphere of influence to drive increased awareness and conversions.
The biggest take away is to learn where to leverage all three in combination with one another. The sweet spot, so to speak, is where these three strategies intersect. You create great owned content, you use advertising to place content in front of a target audience to create exposure, which in turn creates earned credibility and trust for others to share your content.
The largest advantages to using this three-pronged approach are:
- Increased awareness for your offerings
- Improved search engine rankings
- Increased website traffic and conversions
- Embedded social proof.
- Reaches more people.
- Improved brand equity and credibility.
- Leverages your marketing spend to create less costly and even free media
Need additional assistance creating your marketing strategy? Set up a discovery call with me, Lisa Haas, to discuss strategies and tactics that help you achieve your online goals.