Owned, Earned, & Paid Media

What is the best way to strategically get your message in front of your target audience?

Create a marketing strategy that combines efforts in each types of media: owned, earned, and paid.

In my last Crash Course on Marketing Channels 101, I outlined a long list of potential marketing channels you could be using to create brand awareness and drive your customers down the marketing funnel.

Well, now we can create a little more strategy around what we know. Knowledge is power, after all! Use your understanding of marketing channels to maximize your reach with intention.

The best way to expand your reach is to integrate the use of the three main digital marketing media outlets: owned, earned, and paid.

Let’s dive in to what these are and how you can use them to your advantage.

What are Owned, Earned, & Paid Media? How Can You Use Them To Maximize Your Reach?

Owned Media

Owned media is content that is in your ownership and published on platforms that are free to use.

Examples:

• Blogs

• Website landing pages

• Organic social posts

• Videos

• Email campaigns

Earned Media

Earned media is the publicity or exposure you receive from a third party.

Examples:

• Mentions

• Shares

• Discussion threads

• News coverage

• Reviews from influencers or third party sites

• Backlinks

• Organic search engine results

Paid Media

Paid media is marketing you pay for.

Examples:

• Paid advertising on platforms like social media, YouTube, Spotify, etc.

• Paid search

• TV and radio ads

• Print advertising

• Billboards

• Sponsorships

• Paying to list your business in a resource list
  

How To Optimize Your Marketing Strategy with Owned, Earned, & Paid Media

You can leverage your owned and paid media to gain extra earned media. The more you publish and share in a strategic and relevant way, the more awareness you will receive. Combining forces across all channels requires consistency in order to see positive results. You can't rush it, but you can take intentional steps toward your ultimate goal.

For instance, if you're after website traffic, publish high quality, relevant content that will resonate with your customers, then share it on your social channels and create ads that point to it. Write as a guest blogger on an adjacent industry website or sit in as a guest on a relevant podcast and link back to or mention your website.

Integrating owned, earned, and paid media to your overall marketing strategy is your best bet for seeing results.

Looking to learn more about owned, earned, and paid media outlets and how to use them? Dive deeper with these resources from trusted sources:

• Paid, owned and earned media: What they are and where social fits into the mix (Sprout Social)

• Owned, Earned, Paid & Shared Media Explained (Meltwater)

Creating an intentional strategy doesn't have to be overwhelming.

I enjoy creating effective marketing strategies and analyzing results. I can take it off your plate.