Broaden your marketing

For marketers who want to truly leverage today’s new media, paid marketing is the least-desirable route to travel.

A few years ago an article was published in the McKinsey Quarterly that changed the way we view marketing efforts. Now instead of simply acknowledging “paid” media, such as newspaper ads or billboards, savvy business owners also include two other areas known as “owned” and “earned” media in their strategic thinking.

Before the Internet and the era of the informed consumer, marketers focused on producing effective paid media. But paid media doesn’t always reach today’s informed and impatient consumers. In fact, the ROI of paid media continues to decline:

n In a recent BIA/Kelsey survey, only 25.7 percent of users were pleased with the ROI of newspaper campaigns.

- Advertisement -

n Recent research by Accenture shows that 82 percent of TV ads generate negative ROI.

n Data from Nielsen and Kantar Media indicates that TV ads are typically seen by only 20 percent of marketers’ targeted audience.

Simply put, “interrupting” your customer through paid media just doesn’t cut it anymore. The time has come to diversify your marketing. To craft an effective marketing plan in the age of New Media, you need to broaden your approach and begin leveraging three distinct marketing paths to build and enhance your brand versus relying solely on paid media.

n Owned media. These channels are the extensions of your brand that you control, including your website, Twitter account, Facebook, LinkedIn page, etc. By filling these channels with quality content such as emails, blog posts, whitepapers or eBooks, you can gain credibility and foster long-term relationships with your audience. This makes owned media the best channels to invest in for long-term results.

n Earned media. This is the attention, publicity and word-of-mouth you earn when your content is shared by customers, the press and the general public. If you produce quality content, you will earn the respect of your prospects and customers and turn them into brand advocates.

n Paid media. These are the traditional third-party channels such as television, radio and print ads – along with newer paid media options such as Google pay-per-click, digital display ads for mobile, and advertising on social networks. Paid channels still have an important place in marketing, but should only be used in conjunction with owned and earned channels.

In today’s world, paid media is not only the most expensive – it is also the most short-term in terms of its effect.

Paid media often seems like the direct and easy fix. However, owned media and earned media have been shown to generate higher conversion rates, at a lower cost, for a longer period of time.

The old days of advertising may be over, but that’s actually good news. The explosion of owned and earned channels provides new opportunities that are worth the extra effort of marketing departments willing to create relevant, interesting content that strengthens brand connections.

Once you create great content, you can promote it across owned and paid media channels. When possible, modify similar content for different channels to increase ROI.

n The Takeaway: Think about your marketing team. What are they doing every day? Are they producing content that is substantive and that provides value to your audience? Are there systems in place to vet content before it is released?

Use your owned assets to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, not make a sales pitch by mentioning your own product to excess. •

Chris Ciunci is founder and managing partner of TribalVision, which has offices in Warwick, Boston and New York.

No posts to display