For a longtime the marketing world has talked about having a media mix which meant having a sampling of various media – each working separately to contribute to an overall marketing goal or strategy. In today’s media world, there must be a new approach to all media assets and that is leveraging. Leveraging allows you to combine your Paid Media with Earned and Owned Media to create a powerful multiplier effect to all your media and thus, improve your results across all types of media.
Let’s start with a quick definition of each type of media:
- Earned Media refers to media exposure you’ve earned through word of mouth, fantastic content or the influence of your SEO efforts
- Examples include Public Relations (traditional media articles or interviews), positive reviews on various digital platforms i.e. Yelp, Facebook, Google, Organic Searches
- Owned Media refers to content you are in full control of
- Examples include your company website, blog posts, white papers, Email Marketing
- Paid Media refers to media exposure that you invest in
- Examples include TV/radio commercials, newspaper ads, paid posts on digital media (Facebook, Twitter, Google AdWords, Banner Ads, etc.)
The traditional media mix at an overall marketing level allows each element to contribute by reaching separate audiences with a similar message. Media leveraging is the effort to get your various media sources to amplify one another, not just your marketing message. It has always been challenging in television and radio, for instance, to get people to remember a phone number, so that they can take action. But, if you use broadcast media to direct people to your website, you not only have the opportunity to interact and sell to that consumer, but it also increases the impact of your website if it has powerful, well-crafted content and design.
If you earn mentions in various Social Media channels that generate new ‘likes’ or fans on your page/profile, you can then use Paid Media to reach this new group of potential customers. With Facebook specifically, you can use your own email lists and integrate them into Paid Media to create a custom audience and hopefully, better target and market to these individuals.
Taking your media to the next level by understanding how you can leverage each type of media will ultimately grow your results and create greater efficiency.
