Paid, Owned & Earned Media – What Your Business Should Be Using

[holo_row][holo_column size=”col-sm-12″][holo_text margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” unique_id=””]

Depending on their background, we come across many clients with their own media preferences. Those who have been using print media for years enjoy having something tangible with their brand that is distributed to a large volume of consumers. Another client may be drawn entirely to their own channels of digital media. It can be cheaper, more efficient and they get to focus on existing customers. The final client wants everyone talking, they want to release a video or image and for it to “go viral”. They see blogs, forums and consumers talking about products and they want to take advantage of it.

So which client has the right strategy?

The simple answer – none of them.

We say it time and time again, effective marketing is about doing all the little things correctly. Each strategy has its merits, they are all very effective ways to reach existing and potential customers. To market successfully you want to be using a number of these techniques as a holistic strategy. To do this, first you need to understand the difference between Paid Media, Owned Media and Earned media .

Paid Media

Paid media is when you purchase ad space or access to the consumers of that particular medium. If it is a magazine, you purchase a certain amount of space in order to deliver your chosen message to the readers of that issue. With social media, you may promote your own post to reach further users or to simply have your content viewed within their news feed (this can now be very targeted). Effectively, when using paid media, you are paying for the right to access someone else’s consumer base. This is highly effective for reach, just make sure you put the time and effort in to create the right message!

Owned Media

“It is cheaper to retain customers than find new ones”

With owned media your focus is placed on your existing communication channels. Your website, your email database, your own social media. Owned media is one of the most efficient ways to maximise your existing customer base. Why spend money on reaching 300,000 new potential customers if you are not fully utilising the 2,000 you already have following your business? Let existing customers know what you are doing, what current specials you have and find out what could be improved to service their needs further.

Earned Media

These are the campaigns you hear about, they are the ones that get plenty of media attention and generate talk at the water cooler. The thought often is that these campaigns are quick, easy and they just happened to be picked up and go viral. With the invention of Social Media these style campaigns have been becoming increasingly popular. You do not need to pay to reach consumers, instead the idea is that your content is interesting enough that it will be shared and distributed by interested consumers. Earned media is all about the strategy and the execution. You aren’t able to pay your way into the headspace of potential customers. You need to earn their attention through careful strategy and delivering quality, engaging content that is relevant to the values of your brand.

Now you know the difference between the different strategies. Take a look at how you market your automotive business. Which strategies do you currently use? Which ones could you utilise better? Look at your entire marketing efforts and break it down into each group, the most effective campaign will utilise elements of each to deliver your message clearly to the greatest amount of consumers.

Want to talk about developing effective strategies for your automotive business?

Contact us today to setup a meeting!
We would love to meet with you and see how we can help.

[/holo_text][/holo_column][/holo_row]