If you have ever shared someone's post, or written a review about a business, then you have engaged in what many marketers call ‘earned media’.Other main media types include paid media, owned media, and shared media. It's essential to understand the distinctions between these media types since each one is useful, yet they all function differently within your marketing strategy. Want to learn more? Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll give you all the information you need to get up to speed with earned media, including its benefits and the steps you can take to get it yourself.

Before diving in, let's figure out the difference between paid and earned media. Paid media is any promotional content your business purchases. Simple enough, right? That includes paying an influencer for a post, an ad campaign on social media sites like Facebook, or that billboard your customers see every day on their drive to work. Owned media is anything you create or distribution channels you operate. That means your blog posts, your YouTube videos, and your newsletters. If you own it, that’s owned media.So, what is earned media? Earned media is publicity gained through your brand’s organic and unpaid promotion. You can think of it as a reaction and subsequent action to the content and product/service you put out there. Earned media is the most effective form of content marketing, though it is also the hardest to get. Here are some examples of earned media:

• Customer reviews
• Media coverage and “buzz” around your brand
• Social mentions from peer-to-peer
• Social shares within a network
• Word of mouth marketing.

As we mentioned earlier, earned media is the most challenging type of publicity to produce. That's because it relies on other people sharing your content. And you have to earn that privilege — hence the name!But when you achieve it, earned media can be transformational for your brand reach and reputation. Here are some of the things earned media can do for you:

• People are more likely to engage with products or services shared and validated by a friend or social media account they know. Social proof goes a long way in influencing people’s purchasing decisions.
• The social proof gained through earned media also improves your brand's credibility. People tend to see sources that others vouch for as credible and reliable.
• Earned media plays a pivotal role in generating leads. A truly successful marketing strategy can drive traffic beyond paid leads.
• Earned media creates a level of trust you can't get with paid media. On its own, paid media doesn't pack a heavy punch. Your content truly comes to life through word of mouth. People are way more likely to trust a brand when their friends and idols are raving about it.

Now that you have a good idea of what earned media is and why it’s awesome, let's dive into some of the best ways to get it.

Once your product is market-ready, you need to engage your potential customers with content that inspires action. If you’ve ever tagged a few friends in the comments of an Instagram giveaway post, that’s earned media. You want content that encourages people to like, share, comment, and spread the word.But what is it that gets people to share? Adding a quick line — “Share with your friends” — won’t cut it, the content itself has to motivate and inspire. In a previous blog post, we looked at the ways to give content a “reason to care” — and therefore a reason to share. When it comes to earned media, your content needs to:

• Be emotional and evocative: This doesn’t necessarily mean tear-jerking. Your content might evoke joy, fear, nostalgia, or hope, but it has to be a feeling the viewer wants other people to share with them.
• Form part of an on-going conversation: Tapping into the zeitgeist is a great way to win earned media. It doesn’t have to be worthy or lofty — remember the 2021 case of Colin vs Cuthbert? An incredible display of earned media blowing up in a way that no one could have predicted.
• Tell a gripping story: Stories build connections — between you and your audience, and between your audience and their network. Start a story others want to be part of and your earned media strategy will take off in no time.

One of the most accessible and popular forms of social media marketing is influencer marketing. Brands can reach out to an influencer with a large following on social media and work with them to create a post that talks about their brand or product. They might post a picture of them wearing or using your goods. Or they could post images of your products with a detailed description. In any case, followers are encouraged to share and retweet influencer posts and click on links to learn more about your brand.We should point out that paid influencer marketing falls under the paid media category, while unpaid collaborations fall under earned media.

Media outlets make their money by telling stories the public wants to read: so what have you got to do to convince journalists and media writers that your business is worth talking about?Press releases are good. Releasing a piece of content with a timely PR hook is even better. Take Don’t Panic’s WaterAid campaign film ‘The Girl Who Built A Rocket’, for example. The phenomenon of water on Mars is a global conversation and a link can already be established between the topic and WaterAid, whose mission is to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to clean water. With three Mars missions going into orbit at the start of 2021, launching a campaign simultaneously was the perfect way to put water at the heart of the news cycle and reframe the narrative around searching for water on Mars, reminding people of the issue of finding water here, on Earth. We reached out to journalists with a press release in advance of the launch and as a result, the campaign received 162 pieces of national and regional media coverage with a reach of over 15 million.

PR stunts can sometimes go famously wrong. But there’s a reason people try them in the first place — they often work. When done right, they can cause quite a stir. Being in the middle of a media frenzy is a storm of earned media waiting to happen.The attention from PR stunts can boost your brand awareness and open up a whole host of new opportunities. You just need to do it right. Timing is everything. And remember, people can smell insincerity a mile away.

Even with all the information at your disposal, creating a successful marketing strategy on your own can be overwhelming. Luckily, you don’t need to do it on your own. Have a chat with our team at Don’t Panic to get started on making a digital marketing strategy that will set your brand up for success.