Whether you’re a mid-size hospital, a specialty healthcare practice, or a small home services company, your brand and key messages needs the third-party endorsement on platforms like social media and search engines as well as influential print publications—all of which are known as earned media.
Earned media is any content written about your business that you don’t own or haven’t paid for. It includes the publicity gained through reviews, word-of-mouth, news coverage, feedback, podcast appearances, likes, comments, shares, and mentions. This third-party endorsement acts as a filter in which the most important aspect about your brand, product or service emerges from the content. It paves the way for an open dialogue between your company and your customers.
Earned media is like word-of-mouth marketing that takes place mostly on digital platforms. It places your brand into your media channels at no cost for placement. Earned media can seamlessly weave your brand into a larger discussion among influencers and brand advocates, who, in turn, promote your brand and create more potential brand advocates.
The most trusted source of information about your brand comes from your highly satisfied customers in the form of ratings, recommendations, and experiences. According to a study by the Global Trust in Advertising, 83% of people claimed that they trusted recommendations from friends, family, and even strangers. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that 20-50% of all purchases are influenced by word-of-mouth marketing.
With over 35% of online visitors using adblockers, more companies are shifting towards more authentic marketing approaches that leverage a sense of community because the content is more trustworthy and embedded within organic content.
The trust-ability and growing reach that earned media delivers drives conversion rates and ROI. After all, the only investment you make in earned media is building lasting relationships with customers and rallying them to spread the word.
Earned media needs to be a critical piece of your marketing strategy so here are a few ways we can help you position your company for these opportunities:
Organic find-ability is really the first step making earned media work for you. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website’s pages rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) based upon the quality and relevancy of your content.
By consistently creating engaging and relevant content, you can drive organic traffic to your site and increase the odds of your content being liked, shared, and retweeted.
The expert SEO team at OAK improves your on-site and off-site ranking factors to ensure you’re targeting the right audience, morphing owned media into valuable earned media.
Learn more about how we can drive prospects with SEO and Local Search Marketing [hyperlink to page].strategies.
70% of your consumers refer to three or more social media channels to make a purchase, so it makes sense to use a multi-channel approach and spread your campaign across different platforms.
Social engagement is the holy grail of earned media success. The OAK team can help start a conversation of your brand on social media by creating communities for consumers to engage with you and allow you to give and receive feedback from them. We can also create interactive product catalogs filled with comments and user reviews to further drive engagement.
Earned media fueled by social media and organic search will continue to evolve and drive the attention that grows brands.
The top digital marketing agency in Houston can help you leverage today’s digital landscape to drive organic traffic and enhance your brand’s reputation.
We offer SEO, local search marketing, social media management, reputation management, and email list management services to boost both brand awareness and engagement.
"*" indicates required fields