<div class="wp-block-group"> <p>You’ll often hear earned media described as “free advertising.” There is truth to that statement, but it can be misleading. By no means are media pickups easy to get; to land one requires strategy, effort and expertise. Knowing which publications and outlets to target and how to angle the story to appeal to editors and readers—are skills that take time to develop. <a href="https://marketmentors.com/expertise/public-relations/">Public relations</a>, or PR, is persuasion, from pitch to pick-up—and earned media is earned credibility</p>   <p>Above all, quality earned media increases your brand awareness, providing trusted third-party validation of its unique value. It also establishes and confirms your brand’s credibility and position of expertise and influence. Working with an established public relations and communications agency is well worth the investment because you can leverage their talent and experience while benefiting from established relationships with outlets, editors, writers, producers and other media decision-makers and influencers.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is Earned Media?</h2>   <p>Earned media is content about your company and/or product published by an independent organization without requiring payment. This can include:</p>   <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Television (traditional or CTV)</li>   <li>Magazine articles</li>   <li>Newspaper articles (print or digital)</li>   <li>Blog articles</li>   <li>Radio (terrestrial or streaming)</li>   <li>Podcasts</li>   <li>Unpaid social media mentions by influencers</li> </ul>   <p>While opportunities abound for “advertorial” placement—essentially, paying to have an article written according to your own draft or outline—that is not considered earned media. Earned media requires strategy, skill, know-how and effort, but it is not pay-to-play.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is the Value of Earned Media?</h2>   <p>Earned media can be of immense value to your brand on many levels. First, there’s what we call the “earned media value” (EMV), which calculates the actual or anticipated revenue generated by that content. Quite a few factors go into determining EMV, including media format, platform popularity and number of subscribers, viewers or followers.</p>   <p>To estimate a very top-level, broad-stroke value for your earned media, you can start by estimating the cost to place an ad or advertorial on the same platform to reach the same audience. For example, if a top podcaster mentions your brand organically during a segment and would normally charge $15,000 for an ad, you can look at that $15,000 as a very top-level EMV. Drilling down deeper for an even more useful number requires having solid statistics about leads generated by the content, lead-to-sale conversion rate and the average value of a sale—minus the cost of hours spent gaining the coverage.</p>   <p>Less quantifiable, but no less valuable, is the resulting exposure and increased brand recognition—along with the halo effect of being associated with a publication, outlet or personality the audience trusts. People are used to <a href="https://marketmentors.com/expertise/advertising/">paid content</a>—and ads still have a substantial impact if <a href="https://marketmentors.com/expertise/media-buying/">strategically targeted</a> to the right audience—but there’s a trust factor associated with unpaid third-party content that money just can’t buy. Earned media is earned credibility.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">How is Earned Media … Earned?</h2>   <p>Working with a well-established and well-connected agency provides immediate access to talent, expertise and established media relationships that would take years to build in-house. That said, a successful PR relationship is a two-way street. A skilled and talented PR expert can apply gloss and polish to any story to maximize its likelihood of media pickup, building excitement and appeal into the story in the first place is even better.</p>   <p>To maximize value from your agency, invite them to help strategize your brand’s activities from a storytelling perspective. They’ll help you identify your target media outlets from local to national (or even international) and define the kinds of stories those outlets and editors tend to run with most often. When this industry knowledge informs your brand’s activities, the newsworthiness is built in from scratch—and all the more compelling as a result.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Building a PR Program</h2>   <p>Your agency should first walk you through the process of identifying your audience. Who are they? Where do they live? What do they do? What are their needs? Where do they get their information? Who influences them?</p>   <p>The answers to these questions will guide you in identifying the right channels for your efforts. Using knowledge of your target audience and the appropriate channels, you can build out key messages for your brand. How do you want your target audience to see the brand? What, primarily, do you want them to know about your business?</p>   <p>Next, it’s time to build a PR plan. Ideally, a comprehensive, workable plan will start with a situation analysis followed by goals and objectives, then strategies, tactics and activities. Perhaps most importantly, you should work with your agency to clearly define the methods of evaluation you will use to measure impact and progress toward your goals.</p>   <p>If you’re working with an agency, they can handle the heavy lifting around tracking, evaluating and reviewing results. We strongly suggest revisiting your PR plan at least every six months, if not quarterly.</p>   <p>Once all the foundations are built, you can develop a calendar, draft press releases and schedule media outreach.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">We’ll take care of the heavy lifting</h2>   <p>We’ve been doing PR for our clients for over two decades. We have the media connections and the know-how to build a comprehensive, actionable plan for your brand. We’ve achieved impressive growth for our client brands through earned media, helping them maintain control of the public’s perception of the brand identity through reliable 3<sup>rd</sup> party sources.</p>   <p>If you’re interested in growing your brand as effectively as possible, <a href="https://marketmentors.com/contact-us/">reach out to us today</a> and we will be happy to show you everything earned media can do for your business.</p> </div>

Earned Media Is Earned Credibility

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