There are now more than 3 billion daily internet users, consuming enormous amounts of data and watching millions of online videos every single day. As such, online marketing is big business, and nearly every company is getting in on the act; the trouble is, with so many advertisers creating so much content, you’re fighting an uphill battle to make your voice heard - you need to find a way to make your content stand out from the crowd.

Digital media is quickly becoming the primary channel through which content is distributed, but it’s getting harder and harder to make your message heard through paid media; consumers are becoming more sensitive to ads that feel like ads, so you need to build customer trust by providing high quality content which is relevant to your audience.

What is earned media?

Earned media is content that’s distributed organically, relying on quality and relevance rather than paid placements to induce viewers to share it with their friends. To be effective, you need to place high quality content in front of the right audience by seeding your marketing material in relevant blogs and websites; this method of marketing increases your reputation while building customers’ trust in your brand, since earned media is seen as more trustworthy than paid media.

Define Your Audience

First things first; you need to know who it is you’re selling to – you can’t reach your audience without knowing who they are. Depending on the products you sell, you will be looking for particular attributes in your customers:

· Demographic: A hip-hop artist looking to sell their new album to young male adults
· Interests: A company that sells sporting goods to tennis players
· Wealth: A high-end real estate agent targeting buyers who can afford their properties
· Desirability as a customer: A mortgage provider looking for first-time buyers

Of course, if you’re looking to expand into a new sector, it is vital to conduct market research and analysis in order to understand your new potential customers.

Reach Your Audience

Once you know who you’re selling to, you need to target your content to them. Finding appropriate sites requires a good understanding of your audience, and what their interests are; for example, the tennis company above could reach out to a well-known tennis blogger for placement, or to a widely-followed sports Twitter account. A whole host of data is available on users’ browsing habits, interests, likes and dislikes, which you can use to identify potentially useful placements for your content. Placing your content in relevant media is known as ‘seeding’, and it’s a key component to any successful online marketing campaign.

Engage Your Audience

Acquiring earned views requires high-quality, engaging material: the sheer mass of media that internet users are exposed to means that only great content stands a chance of making an impression. Maximise your chances of cutting through the content soup by creating emotionally engaging content that’s relevant to your audience: for example, our short film ‘Who’s Lenny?’ about Bristol’s See No Evil street art festival was featured in 110 articles, including some of the world’s largest street art websites and blogs.

 

By creating high quality content and seeding it in relevant blogs and websites, we were able to drive thousands of views by directly approaching bloggers and site owners - a great example of what can be achieved through earned media.

Engaging content must be relevant to the viewer, which is where smart content placement and a closely-defined audience come in: it’s no good spreading your content as widely as possible, because it won’t be relevant to the majority of viewers. Instead, identify placements where your content will be interesting and entertaining for viewers, then approach these outlets for seeding.

A successful marketing campaign relies on placing engaging content in front of consumers who find it interesting: the three key elements are a well-defined audience, appropriate placement, and high-quality content.

 

 

By Jon Mowat, Hurricane Media

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