Standing out in today’s quick-paced online world can prove to be challenging. That’s where earned media comes into the picture. Earned media examples can be your game-changer for marketing strategy.

By accessing reviews, testimonials, and media coverage, you can build credibility, drive engagement, and establish brand awareness on a tight budget. So why is earned media so influential, and how do you harness it to take your brand to the next level?

From reviews to media mentions, we’ll showcase the greatest examples of earned media that can be applied to build trust, drive conversions, and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.

Let’s dive in and explore the greatest examples of earned media that can be applied to take your brand to the next level.

What is Earned Media?

Earned media is publicity your brand achieves naturally, without paid advertising. This includes mentions in the press, social media shares, customer reviews, and influencer endorsement or fan endorsement. It is the recognition that your brand achieves through word of mouth and genuine interest by other individuals.

As opposed to paid media whereby you literally pay for the exposure, earned media is attained by virtue of your product or services being good and the relation that you form with your public.

For example, our erstwhile student “Ngozi Okwudiri” voluntarily left a review about our unpaid service that’s earned by the media.

The best thing about earned media is that it’s reliable, everybody tends to believe it more than regular advertisements since it is not presented from internal sources. Media possesses an excellent ability to enhance your brand awareness and credibility and therefore is an integral part of each marketing strategy.

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Why Earned Media Is Important?

Earned media has many benefits to your business and will serve to make you more known and respected in the marketplace. A few of the benefits of earned media include:

Builds Trust and Credibility

Earned media is gold in terms of worth because it comes from third-party sources, like news articles or customers’ reviews, so it is more believable. If prospects read good mentions or comments about your business, they will be more likely to believe in its value and quality, developing trust and loyalty.

Increases Brand Awareness

When others discuss your brand in the news or post it online, others learn more about you. Such exposure is useful because it enables potential clients to discover your products or services. The more individuals see and hear your brand, the more known it becomes, hence the interest and sales increase.

Cost-Effective Marketing

Earned media is a smart marketing choice because it does not pay money like advertising. Thus, instead of spending on ads, you focus on creating great content and interacting with your customers. Even though you will need to invest time and effort, the overall cost is usually much lower than traditional marketing methods.

Expands Reach

When satisfied customers speak well of your good experience of your brand, they introduce you to those who may not have previously heard about you. Such word-of-mouth marketing can help you increase your base, acquire potential customers and make your brand more visible in the market.

No, individuals don’t just want to hear good things; they want to see some evidence of how your services made a difference in people’s lives.

So, instead of telling them, you can show them. You can do this by giving success stories or testimonials, which tells potential buyers that other individuals appreciate your product or service.

Long-Term Impact

In serving customers, you need to develop positive relations with them. That is how you guarantee that they talk about your brand and strengthen the image of your brand in the long term.

If customers continually receive good news about you, they remember your brand. The ongoing exposure creates familiarity, generates confidence, and triggers loyalty, whereby customers will certainly return for your goods or services another time in the future.

10 Earned Media Examples to Boost Your Marketing Strategy

Now that you are aware of its benefits let’s take a closer look at some earned media examples and how you can leverage this form of content for your brand.

1. Media coverage

When your brand is being discussed in newspapers, magazines and online media – and on television or radio – this generates huge amounts of awareness and trust for your brand.

This is where PR comes in. Brands can approach journalists with press releases, unique research and other things of interest to boost their earned media.

2. Review sites

Review sites like Yelp and Google My Business are earned media that naturally occur. So are Amazon eBay and numerous other online marketplaces. Positive reviews on these sites are among the most valuable earned media.

To generate more reviews make sure you maintain quality customer service. You can also ask for reviews through email on social media or with in-package brochures. On Amazon, you can use the Request a Review option too. It’s also intelligent to use a Digital Shelf tool so that you are able to monitor and analyze all your cross-channel feedback automatically.

Your majority of earned social media comes from satisfied customers and brand advocates. Although you can’t make people post something, you can give them something to post – such as nice eCommerce packaging or a surprise present. And don’t forget to leave your brand’s social media handles and hashtags behind as well.

By just retweeting or sharing these shoutouts with your own followers you can also encourage up-and-coming influencers to create content for your brand. This is a highly successful tactic for many fashion brands like Fashion Nova and Motel Rocks.

4. Other UGC content

Apart from reviews, social shares any other form of user-generated content that your brand did not purchase can be hugely valuable. Take forum discussions, Reddit AMA posts, comments and all other organic mentions of your brand.

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5. Search engine snippets

Although SEO is not technically earned media Google’s featured snippets are an excellent example. They come in the form of paragraphs, tables lists and videos and like other earned media they can drive your reach, traffic and brand credibility. Voice assistants also tend to read them out.

Unfortunately there is no method of ensuring your content will be shown in these snippets. But creating high-quality optimized content will enhance your opportunities and your overall SEO performance.

6. Recommendations

Word of mouth marketing can also be classified as a type of earned media. Such recommendations can be stimulated by the likes of social media and viral marketing. Referral programs are also being used by a number of eCommerce brands to generate word of mouth recommendations online that can be tracked.

7. Influencer shoutouts

Influencer shoutouts are social media shoutouts on steroids. They happen when an influencer mentions your brand or product on social media as well as in videos while being interviewed or through any other platform.

While brands typically pay for such mentions, they may also arise organically. Companies can provoke influencer-generated earned media by providing them with products providing them with exclusive background information or bringing them to events. This is one of the most ideal examples of earned media.

8. Podcast appearances

When one of your team members is interviewed on a podcast in a video on the radio or on any other platform your brand will get huge earned exposure. To help with this you can offer your specialist expertise to appropriate podcasters and give them access to expert opinion or previews.

Deploying your most lovely and skilled team members will also make them return for more. Several cosmetics brands have been in a position to increase their earned media by exposing the talents of their best makeup artists to creators of content.

When you’re retweeted on something or somebody posts any of your content that you’re creating is earned media. Brands can provoke content sharing by having clear share buttons visible on their product pages and blog posts.

Include loads of different social sites along with the facility of sending through email or WhatsApp. Apart from that you can incentivize sharing by creating videos which have a possibility of going viral.

10. Trade publications

Depending on the category your products fall in you may be able to get covered in a related trade publication. While such publications tend to have fewer readers than mainstream media they are likely to reach very valuable readers.

These may include consumers who are genuinely interested in your niche along with retail professionals who are able to send your brand bigger business deals.

Earned Media Strategies to Get You Started

To power your marketing with earned media, employ these effective strategies:

Create High-Quality Content: Create valuable, shareable content that your target audience is interested in. This encourages sharing and awareness-raising, which leads to organic promotion of your business. Focus on creating informative blog posts, insightful research, and engaging imagery that provide real value to your audience.

Use User-Generated Content (UGC): Encourage and amplify user-generated content to build credibility and trust. Publish good reviews, testimonials, and customer experiences on your owned media channels. Not only does this put forward actual brand experiences, but it also encourages other users to create and publish content on your brand.

Interact with Your Audience: Actively interact with your customers and fans on social networking sites. Reply to comments, join in conversations, and re-share users’ content. Interaction builds relations and can lead to positive word-of-mouth reviews and social media praise.

Leverage Influencer Collaborations: Partner with influencers who represent your brand identity and customer demographic. Their authentic support can massively increase your audience and legitimacy, drawing new supporters and customers to your platform.

Search Engine Optimization: Improve your visibility in the search engines to increase the likelihood of organic coverage and media coverage. Create top-quality, keyword-based content that ranks well for related search terms, making it easy for journalists and industry portals to find and link to your content.

Share Your Expertise with Journalists: Give the reports and journalists some valuable insights by way of channels such as HARO (Help a Reporter Out). While sharing your expertise with them, you may hope to be mentioned in an article, acquire brand mentions, and opportunities to be backlinked by your site.

Amplify Earned Media: Once you have earned media coverage, maximize its potential by sharing it through your owned media. Repurpose the content in other formats, such as blog posts, infographics, or videos, to extend its shelf life and target new audiences.

By executing these tips, you will be able to build your marketing efforts with earned media, resulting in greater brand awareness, credibility, and trust among your target audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can earned media improve my marketing plan?

Earned media can promote brand awareness, trust, and credibility, result in conversions and sales, and support relationship building with partners, customers, and influencers.

How do I acquire media for my brand?

To acquire media, focus on creating newsworthy content, building relationships with influencers and media, and participating on social media to become more visible.

What is the difference between earned media and paid media?

Earned media is natural and no-cost, while paid media involves paying for advertising or sponsored content. Earned media is likely to be more trusted and credible than paid media.

How do I measure the success of my earned media?

Track metrics such as social media engagement, media impressions, web traffic, and conversions to measure the success of your earned media.

Can earned media be utilized to build brand awareness?

Yes, earned media can be utilized to build brand awareness by reaching new audiences and earning credibility through third-party endorsement.

Conclusion

Adding earned media examples to your marketing strategy can be a total game-changer. By using the best earned media examples, you can earn credibility, drive engagement, and increase brand awareness.

Remember, earned media is all about showcasing your brand’s value through third-party endorsements.

So, start exploring these examples and watch your marketing efforts soar to new heights. With earned media, the possibilities are endless.

10 Earned Media Examples to Boost Your Marketing Strategy

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What is Earned Media?