Earned media is one of the most exciting and interesting forms of online marketing. Aaron Lee states it is “the media coverage that your company wishes to gain needs to be earned from your customers.” If you are a brand earned media is the:
- Reviews on a blog about you
- Comments on your company’s Facebook page
- Recommendations of businesses someone texts you
- Tweets about your company.
Earned media is out of your companies control!
Aaron Lee states “earned media requires minimal cost and is probably the cheapest to maintain, earned media is one of the most powerful and the most influential type of media there is today! Your company does not have to pay tens and thousands of dollars for an adspace, but compared to the hundreds of advertisements you see every day, a simple recommendation from your friend about a product that he really loves is much more powerful.” The only problem is that earned media can range from incredibly positive to incredibly negative!
Adage.com states that:
- “Up to 92% of consumers trust word-of -mouth recommendations, but only 24% trust online ads.”
- “A recommendation from a trusted friend conveying a relevant message is up to 50 times more likely to trigger a purchase compared to another recommendation.
- 25% to 40% of all traffic and lead generation comes from earned media.”
- “Shoppers prefer retail web sites that feature online ratings and reviews over ones that don’t.”
People trust other people more than any other source when making a purchase. When eating at a restaurant in my local town I trust what my parents say about a restaurant than what the pictures in their ads look like! Multiview.com states that “Earned media is authentic and allows for customers to raise awareness for a company. Consumers are more trusting of earned media and develop a deeper belief in the products and services when they read, hear or see positive content towards the brand.”
Traffic driven from earned media to owned media sites should be recognized as higher quality leads than any others. In order to establish these media outlets brands should do the following.
- Contact media outlets with content to be created
- Build engaging content on owned media outlets
- Create positive post-purchase experiences for customers so they are more willing to act as a brand advocate
- Use guerrilla marketing techniques to help spread positive word-of-mouth messages
Aaron Lee and the Power of Earned Media
http://askaaronlee.com/power-of-earned-media/
Five Reasons You Need To Focus On Earned Media
http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/reasons-focus-earned-media/227586/
The Power Of Earned Media
http://multiview.com/Advertisers/resources/the-power-of-earned-media
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