What Is Paid, Owned, and Earned Media in Marketing?

Your marketing strategy includes paid, owned, and earned media, even if you are not aware of it. That’s why as a business owner, it is essential to understand the different media types and how to use them to increase your reach in the market. This blog will give you the definition, benefits, and examples of each media type.
What Does Paid, Owned, and Earned Media Mean?
When most people hear the term media, they think of either the mass media or the major print media publications. However, the term media refers to any outlet used to deliver or store information. As a business owner, your traditional and digital marketing strategy includes the following types of media:
- Paid
- Owned
- Earned
Employ a winning strategy by familiarizing yourself with the following media types and how to use them.
What Is Paid Media?
If you have ever run an ad in the newspaper or paid for a digital ad, then you’ve used paid media. Traditional paid media includes media such as print advertising, TV ads, and sponsorship. It also consists of the following:
- Social media ads
- Display ads
- Pay-per-click (PPC) ads
- Paid social media ads
Paid media can help your small business expand its brand reach.
What Is Owned Media
Owned media pertains to any of your online assets your brand owns. The more owned media you have, the more effective your paid and earned media will be. When developing a content strategy for your owned media, create content that you can leverage via the different marketing channels.
What Is Earned Media?
Earned media is any publicity gained outside of paid advertising or materials you’ve created yourself. Earned media is written by a third party. Consider it earned media since you do not have to pay for it.
This type of media has evolved from a segment on the news highlighting a new product or service to includes content such as a tweet, online review, or a blog post about your business.
What Is Owned Media?
Own media is the online assets you control and is unique to your brand.
Why Does a Small Business Need Earned, Owned, and Paid Media?
It is virtually impossible to run your business without considering digital strategies. Earned, owned and, paid media work together to:
- Increase social shares of owned content
- Get your content distributed online
- Amplify your message by increasing your brand mention shares
Benefits of Using Paid Media
Why pay for exposure when you can blog, have a social media presence, and use word of mouth? Organic reach is powerful and effective. However, paid media is the quickest way to expand your reach. Other benefits include:
- You can amplify your reach
- It increases brand awareness
- It gives your access to a mobile audience
- You can gain access to more market analytics
- It’s cost-effective
- Get instant results
- Generate leads
- Strengthens your brand credibility
- It has a positive influence on your conversion rate
- Increase the chance of reaching your target audience
Benefits of Owned Media
- You control the media, the timing, and the message
- It is cost-effective
- It’s a great way to stay in touch with loyal customers
Benefits of Earned Media
Earned media is free. But the benefits do not end there. According to HubSpot Research, almost 60% of your clients trust their family’s and friends’ recommendations for a new product the most. And in today’s market, people like to share their opinion online.
Examples of Paid, Owned, and Earned Media
The media types work together to expand your reach. Knowing when to use the different types of content is vital to your marketing strategy. For instance:
- A press release may lead to a local news channel highlighting your company on the news
- Your youtube channel content may go viral by earning you a large number of shares
- Running an ad on a blog post can increase your brand awareness
Keeping the above in mind, let’s review some examples of paid, owned, and earned media.
Examples of Paid Media
- Paid sponsorship
- Ads run on social media channels
- Search engines ads
- Banner ads on websites
- Native ads
Examples of Owned Media
- Your website
- Your social media profiles (known as share media in the PESO model)
- Blogs
- Email marketing
Examples of Earned Media
- Social media mentions
- Media coverage
- Search engine optimization
- Reviews on Google, Yelp, Your Site, or Facebook
- Mentions on social media
- Word of mouth
Improve Your Visibility With Content Marketing
The quality of your online content depends on how well you know your market that’s why we at Jowanna Daley, LLC help our clients define their market with our Quantum Leap Program. We will help you identify your audience to get the right message to the right people.
Give us a call at 678-833-1850.