Brand reputation is among the most valuable assets of a company. This is gained through controlled mechanisms such as paid advertising and owned media. However, earned media represents the unique value proposition of trust. Basically, it’s a testament to what your brand is about—how authentic and quality-minded your brand could be. Often, it proves more effective than paid marketing.
What does earned media do for a brand?
Earned media acts as a bridge linking audiences to brands through third-party endorsement. So, it is seen as unbiased information—the opposite of paid advertising. And this is a major player in shaping public perception.
Ensure transparency
In the current market, customers are savvy. They crave authenticity and tend to distrust ads and would rather take recommendations from peers, influencers, or media. This adds credibility as positive earned media is the best way to build an authentic brand image.
Reinforce brand value
When a customer or media organization conveys a positive experience They will unintentionally endorse the values that the brand represents. For instance, a sustainability-centric company becomes all the more reinforced in its identity as an environmentally conscious brand when referred to on eco-friendly blogs.
Benefits of earned media towards brand image:
1) Gets the ball rolling
Sometimes, just one positive mention in a magazine or on social media can start a chain reaction that can reach thousands of potential consumers, and thousands could turn into millions. Unlike controlled advertising, which one tends to think of as the processional line of performative dirt bathing from which the entire industry earns dollars, earned media grows organically by the customer trust and participation in an entire ecosystem.
2) Advocates for brand support
Before giving the stamp of approval as a satisfied customer, their experiences are usually shared through reviews, testimonials, and social posts. This word of mouth shows the powerful influence of earned media, turning loyal customers into brand ambassadors by putting it out there for others to see.
3) Increases SEO rankings
Earned media, particularly online reviews, and backlinks from authoritative websites, can boost a brand’s online footprint. Search engines prioritize fresh, organic content, which improves rankings and increases the potential visibility of a brand.
4) Cost-effective marketing
Earned media basically rides on organic growth, where paid media charges the customer highly for marketing purposes. It needs to put effort into quality and audience engagement but the financial outlay is minimal compared to the impact.
Earned media through private label vs. white label products
The private label vs. white label discussions often pop up in debates about branding and marketing strategies. While each has its own unique implications in brand reputation and effectiveness in earned media generation, private and white-label products are most often talked about in terms of earned media.
Private Label Products
These are manufactured by a third-party player but are sold under that retailer’s name. So as much as creating a unique identity and loyalty amongst customers allows natural earned media mention, a sterling private-label product may receive such high-grade customer reviews or praise in industry blogs and even further add to the retailer’s credibility.
White Label Products
The white label, however, refers to already produced products that are going to be resold by other companies. They are not unique; they save time and help brands to go quickly to market, but they miss the type of uniqueness that brings in significant amounts of earned media. With good marketing and also phenomenal customer service, such products can still find their way to build a good reputation over a while, however.
A company’s thorough understanding of the differences between these two faces is imperative in ensuring that earned media is effectively purposely leveraged in operations. The kind of private label or white label chosen will depend on the brand’s needs for differentiation, its resources, and commitment to brand and product differentiation.
Strategies to Generate and Maximize Earned Media
1) Focus on Delivering Excellence
The foundation of earned media is having a product or service that truly rocks. Exceeding customer expectations is bound to generate positive word-of-mouth or online reviews.
2) Leverage Public Relations
Public relations have a great power in the way of all earned media. Issue regular press releases, sponsor events, and engage with media organizations to be more likely to score the coverage you want.
3) Tap Global-Reach Influencers
Genuine opinions shared among followers by these influencers result in their true worth in earned media. Collaborating with the relevant influencers increases your brand’s reach as well as credibility.
4) Enable User-Generated Content (UGC)
Encourage users to capture experiences using photos, reviews, and testimony sharing appropriate content online which creates the snowball effect. Take it a stage further into people’s homes with hashtags in your social media campaign.
5) Seek Feedback Response
Responding to reviews–whether positive or negative—sends a message to the audience that they are valued. Transforms situations negatively into opportunities to demonstrate excellent customer service.
Successes in Earned Media
Starbucks
- Starbucks excels in the art of earned media by using earned user-generated content ride season-based campaigns such as the “Red Cup,” which has encouraged consumers to post images about it and that, too, for free publicity across the world.
Tesla
- Most of the time, the news about Tesla and its creations is about the announcements made by CEO Elon Musk. The company spends less on advertising, yet has made it onto the radar of nearly every household.
Airbnb
- This is where Airbnb really makes its way: guest testimonials and hosts’ reviews of an organically growing community where positive experiences and word of mouth make their work shine.
Measuring the Impact of Earned Media
Below are some ways to measuring its value:
- Number of Media Mentions: The count of times your brand is mentioned within articles, blogs, or social media posts.
- Sentiment Analysis: Find out whether mentions are positive or negative or somewhere in between. You can use software for sentiment analysis to produce your results.
- Increased Traffic and Conversion: Track spikes in traffic and conversions as a result of earned media coverage.
- Engagement Metrics: Counts of likes, shares, and comments may provide an indication of how far the content has been shared.
Building a Long-Term Earned Media Strategy
Consistency
Efforts are impressive when they can sustain the earned media’s life over time. Regularly engage your audience, give them value, and get the highest standards going for everything else.
Trend Analysis
Keep your ear to the ground on industry trends and customer inclinations so you remain in the limelight while gaining your rightful place in the organic buzz.
Strategic Co-Partnership
Partnership with brands or organizations with which you have synergies work well to reach entirely new audiences but also create generous earned media for each of you.
Watch Your Reputation
Keep using Google Alerts, Hootsuite, or Brandwatch to find out what is being said and how public perceptions are going. This will check negative moods with some ease.
Conclusion
Earned media is the most priceless treasure in the world for businesses trying to establish and improve their brand name. Authenticity, amplification of visibility, and the creation of loyal customers become critical factors in an increasingly trust-driven marketplace. By combining great products or services with unique approaches, such as influencer partnerships or PR activities or customer engagement efforts, businesses can bring nearly the full potential of earned media to bear on their situation.
While earned media management is riddled with problems-the long-term returns far outweigh the time and effort required. Because in these times at which consumers prioritize faith over everything else, earned media will be the magic wand for any brand.
