Consumers stumble across your brand due to your clever campaigns, your business and branding itself, or word-of-mouth. No matter the way a new lead comes across your business, each one is as equally important as the others. Three types of media funnel possible consumers towards their purchasing decision:
Paid Media
Paid media is purchased advertising space that reaches a target market, such as PPC marketing, branded content and display ads. The primary purpose of paid media is to gain exposure and generate leads.
Owned Media
Owned media constitutes as content that you produce to provide value to your customers and is usually educational. You would distribute owned media on your website or social media channels.
Earned Media
Earned media is circulated via word-of-mouth and gives recognition to your brand and business. This includes shares on Facebook, press mentions, recommendations, or anything that calls light upon your business that you did not implement.
The Trifecta
These forms of media work best when used together. Generating leads on one of these alone is impossible. The best strategy includes promoting both your owned media and earned media using paid social media.
When using a paid social media strategy, you share what is being said about your company with your target market, while also highlighting your content. The problem with owned and earned media is that without promotion it will hit its limit of traffic generation.
Paid social allows you to amplify your impressions number through promotion. These types of promotional opportunities are accessible on all social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. The idea of a paid social media campaign is to allow you to gain control of your earned and owned media and place it in the correct medium to attract new leads and build your reputation as a trusted brand.
Earned media creates a lot of buzz about your company. Use good earned media to your advantage. Trusted brands receive more credibility from their consumer. Often things such as customer service, community involvement, and reviews on a product/service circulate throughout social media. It only makes sense to recognize the positive feedback your brand is getting, and share it.
Owned media, however, uses other tools to boost its lead generation such as search engine optimization(SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. These tactics will provide a sense of discovery for the consumer. The primary benefit of using paid media with owned media is the ability to target customers. A customer who is already looking for your product/service will be able to find your particular company faster.
Combing Paid, Earned And Owned Media
The other benefit of combining these two forms of media is that the content, given a boost with SEO, captures an audience that may not realize they neede your service. Like mentioned above, owned media aims to teach and educate the consumer. When your article proves to be a valuable source of information, the reader becomes a potential lead and may look into your services to help them in the future. This channel, like earned media, helps build a trusted name and reputation.
It is hard to find the proper balance of these three types of media, but all serve a huge purpose in any campaign or marketing strategy. The use of paid social media provides a great benefit to your reputation when paired with owned and earned. Owned media establishes a brand, where earned media develops a reputation.
To learn more about how these three types of media generate leads for your business, book a free consultation with Edkent Media.
