Advertising is a huge part of any interactive marketer's budget. Banner, search, video, and mobile ads cost a bundle to purchase.
But expensive "paid media" is becoming less effective as consumers turn their back on ads that blatantly try to "sell" them something. (A recent Deloitte & Touche study found that three-quarters of US consumers consider Internet ads intrusive, and more than one-quarter would be willing to pay for advertisement-free online content.)
The good news is that a new marketing category—"earned media"—is emerging. It costs next to nothing and has an increasingly powerful impact on branding, consumer engagement, and return on investment (ROI).
Unlike paid media, which, as its name suggests, requires a significant financial investment, earned media is generated by the news, tweets, blogs, videos, and more that companies create for free.
In today's socially connected Web, people pass along informative, entertaining, and useful brand content through email, blogs, and social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter—spreading a brand's message authentically and driving valuable traffic to its websites and paid campaigns.
The main problem with earned media is that it has been difficult to measure and track its effect on traffic volumes, engagement, and conversion. But several new inexpensive tools are now available that allow marketers to accurately track the effect that passed-along links and word of mouth have on a campaign's overall ROI.
In our research that tracked the flow of shared content for brands, we found some eye-opening data: namely, 20% of unique visitors arriving at a brand's websites or landing pages come directly from shared links.
In short, when people share your branded content via email, social networks, mobile messaging, etc., the passed-along links drive one out of every five visitors to your site.
And, even more important, that traffic is of very high quality. Visitors who come to sites or campaigns from a shared link convert one-and-a-half to four times more often than those who come from other sources, including paid advertisements.
However, an effective earned-media program is not without challenges. To get people to share your content, it has to be compelling. And to find out whether it's working, you need to measure your earned-media program with the same metrics and precision that you apply to your paid-media programs.
Want to get started with an effective earned-media marketing program? Here are three tips for launching, measuring, and monetizing a low-cost earned-media program that will drive a surge in online word-of-mouth traffic about your brand.
1. Make your content king
The first step to creating an earned-media strategy is to create content that people will want to pass along. Work with your creative team or agency to develop entertaining, informative, or useful content that draws in and engages potential customers.
The content you create should entertain, with only a subtle hint about your brand. Videos, games, and contests work well. Or create content that gives consumers something in return for engaging with it: Offer a coupon, a prize, or a promotion if they provide their email address or click through to your site to sign up for a newsletter; that information is valuable for your future marketing efforts.
