There are essentially three elements to a search media strategy; paid media, owned media and earned media. All three of these channels can work together to help achieve the online strategic goals of your business.
Most businesses work towards the following three general goals for their digital marketing strategy in some form:
- Drive more leads to their website
- Grow their audience size
- Establish and maintain a position of authority in their industry
So how does paid, owned and earned media help to deliver the above goals? We can look at them individually to see how they each have a different role to play.
Paid Media
A paid media strategy will often include search ads, display ads and social media advertising methods like the example below. Paid media is primarily used as a platform for driving more leads from a popular website or social media platform to your websites through advertising. Most companies that use paid media will be using it to bring new prospects into their websites that can then be converted through their on-site content.
There are three main types of paid media
- Search ads – whenever a search is completed on Google, the results will feature a number of paid adverts. These are usually given prominent positions at the top or to the side of the organic results
- Display ads – these are most frequently seen as banner ads appearing around content. You can target these on competitor websites or based on users interests and demographics
- Social media ads – these can be placed around content, and also within feeds
Paid adverts are also a great idea for companies that have a lot of competitors advertising – if you are an Electrical or Security company we have specific techniques to get you seen by more customers – visit Electrical Marketers to find out more.
Owned Media
Owned media is defined as the platforms, digital assets and online property that you possess, which encompasses search engine optimisation (SEO), organic social media and content marketing.
SEO is the process of improving your online platforms to generate as much organic traffic as possible. Recent developments in SEO include elements like featured snippets and structured data.
This is an example of the structured data for Intent Marketing which demonstrates the kind of key information that can be presented by a business.
Finding and pursuing these opportunities for your business ensures that searchers are more likely to find your website, driving additional traffic and leads through your business.
Organic social media involves any content that you produce and post directly on a social media network, whether it’s a photo on Instagram or an article you are sharing on Twitter. Social networks rely on being able to share strong organic content so that users keep returning to the network to keep seeing that network’s unique content.
Earned Media
Earned media is the acquisition of free-of-charge publicity (unlike paid advertising) for your business online. Earned media is attained by getting press mentions, reviews or links to your content. The key objectives are to drive awareness, build authority and widen your audience of potential customers.
Whilst there are many differences between paid, owned and earned media as a whole they can be a powerful element in your marketing strategy helping to grow awareness for your business online.
If you would like more information on how Intent Marketing can help grow your online marketing presence, please contact us today for more information.
