Earned Media Services

Consumers often rely on reviews from customers to gain insights before trying a product or service. While earned media traditionally refers to press coverage in newspapers and TV, the advent of the internet and social media means it can be found in a diverse range of places, both in print and online. Marketing campaigns often chew up time and resources within marketing teams, but earned media can relieve some of this pressure. Many companies and startups purchase media lists (to get the email addresses of journalists to pitch) and social listening tools (to identify influencers whose radars they want to get on). The journalists who write about your brand, the people who mention you on social media and the YouTubers who review your product all do it for free. The distinguishing trait of earned media is that it is neither paid for nor created by the brand itself.

It’s important to also track other key performance indicators, such as reach, engagement rate and conversion rate. Earned media value, or EMV, is a way to value the different actions people take earned media when they interact with different social media content. It will also help you understand why a complete approach to measurement is important for showing social media ROI.

Still you might also hear earned media referred to as "free media," because you haven't paid for this media to take place. But because the places we get information have changed over the last 30 years, how has earned media changed as a result? In many ways, earned media's nickname is "publicity." You haven't paid for this media to be created — the way you would for, say, an advertisement — and therefore your actions alone "earned" you this attention. But earned media has expanded beyond print and TV, and marketers can harness it in several ways.

The easiest way is to figure out who has reviewed or featured products similar to yours, then reach out and offer them your product for testing. How do you know which publications you should reach out to? Journalists have to choose from these options and report on the few they think their audience will most enjoy (or at least find novel). But of course, don’t assume that you’ll get earned media just because you’re there. There is no doubt that trade shows work in getting earned media mentions.

Financial Services brands sat at or below the median on all four channels we studied this year, despite increasing post frequency across the board. Gift-focused holidays like #FathersDay and #ValentinesDay topped the engagement charts for Fashion brands on Twitter this year. No surprise here that Fashion brands used hashtags on Instagram like #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday to remind followers about opportunities to shop. Fashion brands earned similar engagement rates for video and photos tweets, but were 7x more likely to tweet a photo.

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Historically, one of the biggest struggles with earned media is proving its effect on your brand’s bottom line. If you’re trying to enter a whole new market or reach a demographic that’s never heard of you, it might take months or more (unless you can get Taylor Swift to mention you in a song, that is). One of the most common questions marketers ask is, “How long does it take to see results from earned media efforts? The definition of earned media doesn’t end once your content is out in the world. Creating unique, compelling and entertaining content remains the golden ticket to positive earned media.

Why it matters now more than ever

Testing small variations can help you determine which colors, buttons, design elements, and copy affect metrics like conversion rates and clicks. One of the biggest benefits of using paid media is that you can split-test various elements to determine which combination of copy and design works best. Creating custom landing pages can help you increase conversions because they have a clear purpose — to keep your audience focused on your primary message. If you're investing in social media advertising, what’s most important is finding out which social media channels will resonate best with your audience. For example, you can use display advertising tools to target specific websites or niches with your display ads. Luckily, there are several tools available to ensure your ads end up where they should.

• One great research report can generate more earned media in a year than twelve blog posts combined.
• In many cases, it’s what potential customers trust the most.
• The TVREV article Netflix Doesn’t Need To Go All-In On Live Sports To Be Major Player set up the strategy that live events like the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, which drew millions of viewers, proves that Netflix can compete in the live event space without overextending itself.
• If you check these boxes, your customers will naturally share your content on social media, leave positive reviews, and tell their audience about you.

This gives brands more accurate alerts, better insights, and less time spent digging through irrelevant noise. It combines earned media tracking with press release distribution, journalist database access, and campaign management and measurement tools. It analyzes conversations across social networks, blogs, and news, helping brands zero in on audience sentiment and overall brand image. There are quite a few tools in the “earned media media monitoring” category.

To truly maximize your social media strategy, it’s essential to integrate EMV with other metrics that provide a more complete picture of your efforts. To sum up, earned media value is a useful metric for benchmarking, identifying trends and reporting to stakeholders. While earned media value can be a useful measure for evaluating the success of your social media efforts, it’s important to keep in mind common challenges around earned media value formulas.

Cision is ideal for strong brands that do a lot of media pitching. Built for PR teams, Cision monitors media and manages outreach in one platform. See how Meltwater Media Intelligence makes comprehensive earned media monitoring easy! To track earned media mentions, you need to know where to look. When you align all three, you build a more effective, balanced media strategy your audience can trust. Monitoring earned media ensures you’re not just pushing messages out, but also listening to what’s coming back in.

If you want to boost sales quickly, paid media is your best option because it’s immediate. That said, paid media often has better targeting options, allowing you to reach a wide range of customers with a few clicks of a button. As we’ve mentioned, you can target your earned media strategy toward journalists and publications with a specific niche audience. If you want to be able to target specific audiences, paid media might be the better option for you. On the other hand, paid media is more expensive but, in some cases, may be more effective in helping you reach your goals.

Plus, earned media can influence customers’ purchase decisions as a fellow consumer’s feedback or an influencer’s post acts as social proof. Meanwhile, you don’t have to pay for earned media, which makes it a cost-effective marketing strategy compared to paid advertising. It often results from delivering exceptional experiences, generating compelling content, or having a positive reputation in the market. Learn more about different types of earned media and how they contribute to business success. Hopefully, with this earned media guide, you'll be able to reap earned media benefits for your business. Spot-on earned media placements let you build trust and credibility in the eyes of your customers.