What is Earned Media and What are its Benefits?

Are you wondering how to earn media coverage without burning a hole in your pocket?

Effective marketing strategies typically include suggestions and opportunities for advertising, having an SEO-optimized website, and a social media schedule. To plus-up your marketing mix, leveraging the advantages of earned media can elevate customer engagement to new heights.

Did you know that 83% of people trust recommendations from people that they know before paid channels? Now more than ever, word-of-mouth marketing is king for businesses of any size and it looks like the future of marketing is earned. Earned media combines strategy, the business narrative, and customer experience to produce powerful word-of-mouth results.

What is Earned Media?

In a nutshell, earned media is one of the best brand-building tools to invest in. The term refers to organic publicity that is earned from promotional efforts. These efforts include media pitching, media coaching, media monitoring, and celebrity contracts.

When executed effectively, earned media can manifest in several ways. Some examples of how to gain earned media include;

• TV segments
• Newspaper or magazine features
• News Media Ambassadors
• Social media shares and mentions
• Review sites
• Organic Influencer Partnerships
• Pop-Up Activations and Publicity Stunts
• Search engines

Do these avenues sound similar to public relations? That’s because earned media is often the desired result of a successful public relations strategy.

An experienced public relations agency will offer the triple threat of services: earned media, community relations, and crisis communication.

How Can Earned Media Benefit Your Business?

Be prepared! Zooming in on the many benefits of earned media will have you reaching for your phone to contact your local PR agency in Des Moines, Naperville, and Chicago.

Great Brand-Building Tool

The online world can be an overwhelming space that is overly saturated with content. Sharing a unique narrative that organically bubbles to the surface is the key to catching attention and jumpstarting brand awareness.

In a world of digital tools and platforms, word-of-mouth continues to carry an incomparable weight and is one of the most effective ways to build a positive brand image and increase awareness.

Send Credibility to the Stars

There are many benefits of public relations efforts, including earned media. Building a reliable and credible reputation is one of the most notable ones. Consider how many times you’ve searched a company online before using their services. Potential consumers most likely do the same before hiring yours!

Statistics suggest that 82% of consumers proactively search online before making a purchase. Positive reviews and impactful stories can be the “it” factor that sets your brand apart from competitors, giving consumers the confidence to trust your brand.

If there’s one detail that your potential customers can be certain of, it’s that your business is not fake news!

Increase Web Traffic

In many ways, earned media cannot be controlled. The best that a business can do is create strategic content, share calculated messages and maintain effective customer service.

If these content marketing efforts are successful, then the final message will resemble your intended one and drive customers to your website for more.

Reports indicate that up to 40% of traffic and lead generation come from earned media. Once a customer arrives at your website, they are exposed to your owned media. Here, the business controls the narrative.

This process prompts increased web traffic that contributes to better search engine results and improves the domain authority. Talk about a multi-pronged approach!

Reach New Markets

Earned media places your brand on a mountain and lights it up for all to see. Brands reach new markets when featured in various media formats and are favored by algorithms on social media.

When posts and stories are shared on social media, they often reach entirely new markets. In the process, there’s the opportunity to tap into new markets.

In the same breath, existing customers may feel increased loyalty after reading positive coverage. Deepening your connection with existing customers introduces organic ambassadors.

Impressive ROI

At the end of the day, a business is successful when it makes a profit. Earned media is the organic coverage that contributes to brand building and marketing efforts. There is little investment needed with the opportunity for a big return.

In the past, this ROI was difficult to track. However, with an increased number of analytics tools and tracking measures, it has become easier to review.

Start Earning Media Today

Trusting a reputable media relations agency that understands your brand and follows earned media best practices will help to lay the building blocks for a successful earned media campaign. Unlike paid media and owned media, earned media cannot be controlled. It can only be guided by the best strategies.

As Naperville, Des Moines, and Illinois’s media marketing agency of choice, we pride ourselves in uncovering unique attributes of your business that are worthy of making headlines. Contact us to find out more about our offerings and the awesome team that put them into action.