KNOW YOUR MEDIA
Connie Ramos-Williams
Executive Director of Calusa Waterkeeper, Champion for Clean Water, Host SWFL Strong, Entrepreneur, Strategist, Visionary, Innovator, Advisor, Thought Leader, and Writer.
It’s important to know the various types of media as you begin to work on your business’s budget. There are three different categories of media marketing: EARNED, OWNED and PAID. Each one can play an important role in your marketing strategy and will help you to reach your overall goals.
What’s the difference? We’ll break it down for you here:
EARNED MEDIA
Earned media (aka ad-free media) refers to publicity gained through promotional efforts other than paid media advertising, like media mentions in your industry. Earned media can not only help you boost your brand awareness, but also position you as a thought leader. This media is all about growing organically. The best tool to use would be an online community that follows your brand. Customer reviews, local media coverage and engaging, personal social media pages are all examples of earned media that can help your business. Since you aren’t paying for this, you will likely have a higher ROI. Many consider earned media to be the most cost-effective method of marketing. As a result, many companies are investing in earned media.
OWNED MEDIA
Owned Media, like the name suggests, are the media channels you create and control. These will be the building blocks for all your marketing efforts. These could be websites, blogs, email blasts and/or social media pages solely dedicated to your company’s branding. While owned media does allow you more control over your messaging, your target audiences may not consider it as trustworthy as earned media.
PAID MEDIA
Paid media is any media that you pay for to place your brand message and reach your target audience. Businesses can use this as part of their marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, website traffic and revenue. Paid advertising can be a great tool for startup businesses to get their message out in a community. It can also be used to promote major campaigns, product releases or sales promotions.
Most business owners make the mistake of only relying on one type of media when coming up with their marketing strategy. The most successful businesses use a combination of these three media types to get their brand message out and seen by current and potential customers. Having difficulty navigating through the marketing media process? Let CONRIC pr + marketing help!
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