Earned Media, the only strategy left when your budget crumbles
E-commerce brands are constantly seeking to multiply the points of contact with their audience. Earned media offers a powerful alternative, capitalizing on trust and organic recommendations. But what exactly is earned media, and why has it become an essential lever for boosting brand awareness and loyalty? Let's explore its specific features, advantages and limitations.
What is Earned Media?
Earned media is the visibility you gain organically, without spending money directly. It's based on the trust your brand inspires among your audience. This type of media is often perceived as the most credible, because it reflects an authentic perception.
For e-commerce brands, this is a valuable asset: every recommendation or mention reinforces credibility without having to invest in paid advertising. If someone talks about you, that message has a much stronger impact than an ad, because it's perceived as disinterested and reliable. In other words, earned media plays a key role in building awareness and trust, while reducing acquisition costs.
What are the differences between Earned, Paid and Owned Media?
Owned Media are channels that you own and control, such as your website, blog or social networks. This content is entirely your responsibility, enabling you to deliver messages that are consistent with your marketing strategy.
Earned media, on the other hand, refers to the advertising or media coverage you receive without having to pay for it directly. This can take the form of mentions on social networks, blog posts or reviews left on online forums. It's a form of media that you can't control, but which brings a great deal of influence and credibility to your company.
Finally, Paid Media encompasses everything you finance to gain visibility, such as online advertising, partnerships with influencers or sponsored posts.
Using these three forms of media in your POEM strategy (Paid, Owned, Earned Media) creates a complementary dynamic, where each type of media reinforces the others.
Why are Earned, Paid and Owned Media complementary?
These three media types don't work in isolation. To maximize their impact in your business strategy, they must be used together. Earned media often gains in power with a helping hand from paid and owned media. For example, you launch an advertising campaign (paid) that generates traffic to your site (owned), and positive mentions can be earned on social networks (earned).
The aim is to create a virtuous circle where one reinforces the other. It's this synergy between the three pillars that allows you to maximize your communication strategy and achieve results at lower cost.
Why is Earned Media a powerful lever for conversion?
Earned Media boosts conversion because it's based on trust. Consumers are more likely to buy a brand recommended by reviews or credible endorsements than by paid advertising, thanks in particular to social proof. Let's find out what it is, as well as its other benefits.
What is social proof?
Social proof is the idea that people rely on the actions of others to make decisions. This translates into customer reviews, recommendations and testimonials. When a product is recommended by several people, it reassures other buyers and encourages them to buy. Social proof is therefore a pillar of Earned Media, as every recommendation or share reinforces a brand's credibility.
High credibility
Unlike paid advertisements, which are perceived as commercial messages, recommendations and reviews from third parties are considered more authentic by consumers. When a user shares their experience or a media outlet talks about you, it reinforces your brand's image and creates powerful external validation.
Low cost
There's no direct outlay to get mentions or recommendations. By stimulating word-of-mouth and promoting organic shares, this can generate high visibility without having to invest heavily in marketing campaigns.
Organic reach
Organic reach means that the distribution of your messages is not based on advertising investment, but on the natural engagement of your users and the media. The more your audience shares or talks about your brand, the more you extend your visibility to new prospects. This type of exposure is not limited by a marketing budget, and allows you to increase your brand awareness exponentially thanks to a virality effect.
Improved SEO
In addition to increasing visibility, it improves your brand's natural search engine optimization (SEO). Every mention on external sites, every backlink generated, reinforces your site's authority in the eyes of search engines. With better SEO, your traffic increases.
The limits of Earned Media
Earned media, while effective and powerful, is not without its drawbacks.
Lack of control
The main drawback is the lack of control over the messages broadcast about them. Unlike paid media, where you decide on content, timing and format, earned media depends entirely on how users, influencers or media talk about you. This lack of control can lead to unpredictable representations of your brand.
Negative comments hard to control
Positive and negative mentions coexist, and negative comments can quickly damage a brand's reputation. Since you can't stop a dissatisfied consumer or critic from publishing their opinion, this hard-to-control content can have a lasting impact. Discover how you can deal with them.
Time to build a reputation
Building a solid reputation takes time. Unlike paid campaigns, which can generate results almost immediately, earned media relies on organic recommendations that often take longer to spread.
Resources required to monitor and manage
Earned media still requires significant resources to monitor and manage effectively. You need to invest in monitoring and analysis tools to track mentions, respond to comments and manage online reputation.
Uncertain results
Results are never guaranteed. You can't accurately predict which mentions will generate high visibility or have a real impact on your sales. Sometimes an important mention can go unnoticed, while another, more unexpected one, can have a viral effect.
What is Earned Media?
Earned Media encompasses many forms of content that you haven't directly paid for or created, but which contribute to your brand's visibility and credibility. Here are a few key examples:
- User-generated content (UGC)
- Shares and mentions on social networks (Shared Media)
- Collaborations or guest posts
- Media and press mentions
User-generated content (UGC)
User-generated content, or UGC, is made up of opinions, photos, videos or testimonials created spontaneously by your community. This lever is particularly powerful in a digital marketing strategy, as it comes directly from the users of your products. This type of content is perceived as more authentic than paid advertising, and can contribute to a constant flow of engagement and recommendations. By integrating UGC into your media (website, social networks), you increase the attractiveness of your products, which has a positive impact on your bottom line while boosting loyalty.
Shares and mentions on social networks (Shared Media)
Shares on social networks are another important means of earned media. Every mention or share offers free exposure and reinforces your digital strategy. The more your audience interacts with your brand, the more it reaches their own network, amplifying recognition without the need for advertising investment. These organic shares can also improve your search engine rankings, boosting your natural referencing.
Collaborations or guest posts
Collaborating with other brands or experts on guest posts is an effective way of generating organic recognition. It allows you to reach new audiences while leveraging the authority and credibility of your partners. In addition to increasing media coverage, these collaborations also improve your digital SEO by generating quality backlinks. They are part of a trust-based marketing model, reinforcing your brand image.
Enhance your credibility with the media and press
Mentions in the media or trade press offer valuable opportunities for free exposure, boosting your reputation. These articles provide external validation that is often perceived as more reliable than direct marketing efforts. Getting mentions in the press also enhances your digital presence. It also helps strengthen your positioning in online searches, increasing your visibility to new audiences.
How can you boost your Earned Media through Owned and Paid channels?
To maximize the impact of your Earned Media, it's essential to create synergies with your owned and paid channels. By combining them intelligently, you can encourage more mentions, shares and interactions around your brand. Here's how to use each type of media to boost your Earned Media.
Capitalize on your Owned channels to promote Earned Media
Your owned channels (website, blog, social networks) are ideal showcases for encouraging and promoting content created by your consumers. For example, you can dedicate a section to reviews on your site, or share the best UGC photos on your social networks. This encourages your community to get more involved and create more content around your brand.
Turn your Paid campaigns into Earned Media generators
Paid media campaigns can do much more than generate sales. They can become a lever for more Earned Media. For example, a campaign with a specific hashtag can encourage users to share their experiences. By delivering engaging content via advertising, you encourage consumers to relay and share your message, turning paid into earned media.
An engaging loyalty program to stimulate earned media
An engaging loyalty program is an effective lever for boosting earned media. By rewarding members for every recommendation or mention of your brand, you encourage them to talk about you naturally. With Loyoly, you can easily set up a program that offers points or benefits for every share, increasing your visibility while strengthening relationships with your brand ambassadors.
How to measure the reach of Earned media?
Measuring the reach of your Earned Media is essential to assess their real impact on your brand. You can track indicators such as mentions on social networks, the number of backlinks, or reviews. These metrics give you an overview of the extent of your organic visibility. Another key indicator is Earned Media Value (EMV), which estimates the financial value of your organic mentions in relation to what you would have spent on paid advertising to gain equivalent exposure. To find out more, read this detailed article on EMV.
3 examples of Earned Media
Earned media can take many forms, from spontaneous mentions on social networks to media collaborations. Here are three concrete examples of e-commerce brands effectively exploiting Earned Media to boost brand awareness and loyalty.
La Belle Boucle
La Belle Boucle has built an effective communications strategy by actively encouraging its community to share their experiences with its products online. By leveraging these contributions on its proprietary channels, the brand has succeeded in generating organic media coverage. This approach enables the brand to reinforce its influence while remaining authentic. This POEM (Paid, Owned, Earned Media) synergy enabled it to stand out without resorting to intensive advertising.
Terre de Bougies
This e-shop's strategy is based on building strong relationships with its community and showcasing their creations. As an e-shop for raw materials used to make scented and wellness products, it's essential to highlight the end results achievable with what they sell. The presence of a wealth of authentic content helps to establish Terre de Bougie's reputation, while providing a solid foundation of trust for its prospects.
Hydratis
Hydratis, a brand specialized in rehydration, has developed a strategy focused on people. Through collaborations with the athletes they support and user-generated content (UGC), Hydratis benefits from authentic, credible recommendations. By reinforcing the trust of its prospects, they amplify brand awareness without direct advertising costs, while creating a constant flow of content that supports its online reputation.
