Marketing campaigns have one primary motive, to raise awareness leading to more customers.
Earned media, paid media or owned media are some of the components marketers use to get their message to their audience.
What is Earned Media Campaigns?
Earned media or organic marketing is done to naturally make the brand publicly visible.
Some of the ways to increase brand visibility are word of mouth, buzz, reviews, comments, feedbacks, impression, news coverage, likes, shares, mentions, tags, etc.
One of the great examples of earned media is organic blogs. For any brand content, interesting informative content can be the key to earn customers naturally. The content strategy must be on point. Blogs, infographics, video, press release or a live video, ultimately it stands on the quality of the content.
What are Paid Media Campaigns?
True to its name, paid media marketing includes services that you pay for a search, display advertising, social ads, PPC campaigns and the like.
Take Facebook Ads for example or post boosts. They are all part of paid media campaigns.
Paid media should be fully strategized, focused & skillfully executed, including compelling calls-to-action in order to deliver exactly what your prospective customer is looking for.
What are Owned Media Campaigns?
There is a difference between paid media & owned media. Owned media covers all of the properties that belong to the brand or business.
It can be your company’s Youtube Channel, your website, your social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, apps & others.
But we will discuss that some other day.
What are the benefits of paid media campaigns?
With digital and mobile are where it’s at today, and using online paid media efforts can bring a huge return on your initial investments.
Some of the advantages of paid media are:
It amplifies your reach
Listen, advertisement on social media is bound to be seen by people. But what’s the harm to give it a little nudge, to make sure that it reaches the right people at the right time?
Paid ads are guaranteed a place in the user’s feed. Despite so much traffic on social media, paid media gives you a direct window to your target audience.
It can be customized according to your budget
Almost all the platforms use a pay-per-click model. Which means that it will be used only if the user wants it.
Therefore, it filters down to only your target audience, in which case, your money will be well spent.
After a few ad cycles, you can refine your targeting to drive greater results and ROI.
It boosts your target
Each platform uses different methods of targeting parameters.
Apart from basic user demographics, you have the options to choose from their behavioral factors like interests, hobbies, personalities & more.
Facebook also lets you retarget social users who’ve already visited your website.
Take this ad by Uber Eats for example.
Maximizing your content marketing
According to Sprout Social, 73.4% of users follow a brand because they’re interested in its product or service.
Ad contents will help you to drive traffic, boost engagement on social media which in turn will increase your ROI.
What are the paybacks of earned media campaigns?
One of the primary advantages of earned media is that it is “free”.
Of course, there is a downside to it as you have very little control over the placement in comparison to paid media. But there are a few benefits of organic media as well.
Increased exposure to brand message
You never know where the opportunities might come.
You can make all the strategies you want, can you ever guarantee that there is no chance of getting a lead from a non-targeted source?
Earned media can reach your message everywhere which gives you more options.
Requires no added money
For people who are just starting with their business or freelancers can easily to earned media campaigns. It is low maintenance great for people with a tight budget.
Gets your brand’s message placed in different media
Earned media is a slower & gradual process.
However, with time it can actually be beneficial. If your content is unique earned media can place your product or services on different platforms. Earned media can bring clients from various corners with an increased level of communication.
Which one is more important?
Well, there are a lot of differences between organic & paid media.
One gives you the full control of your ad placement & content but requires a capital, whereas, the other comes with a more potential organic spread with little or no control over the placement.
To be honest, in this marketing world, nothing can be impossible. There has to a balance between both of them if you want to reach your goal.
Brands often have the misconception that organic strategy doesn’t work.
Yes, it is a lengthy process but earned media has a lot of potentials as well if strategized effectively.
Take Dove soap, for example, they did an organic beauty research about “The Truth of Beauty”. The campaign received a great response as the study showed that only 2% of the women thought they are beautiful and the YouTube video got 65 million views.
As long as you are true to your brand & content, with a well-versed marketing approach your brand can have the right traffic.
In a recent Forbes article, my partner Daniel Newman summarized the approach that’s needed, whatever the size of the brand.
The three components were-
- Create engaging, customer-focused, problem-solving content with owned media.
- Place that content strategically through well-targeted paid media.
- Earn your audience’s trust and support to develop a strong network of brand advocates.
Have you tried earned or paid media marketing yet? Contact us at Skyram Technologies for a well-comprehended expert marketing plan that would be perfect for your business goals.
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