A few career goals of mine are to always adapt with modern marketing concepts, never get too comfortable or bring bad habits to the table that drag down a team. Five years ago when I began my journey as an inbound marketer, it all seemed so easy. I'm going to start an awesome blog, people are going to share my posts and I am going to get rich, quality links into my website that will boost my search rankings and attract new visitors, leads, customers and promoters of everything and anything we do. If you're just entering the world of inbound marketing and feel that way, take this with a grain of salt and keep learning and adapting from what you are doing. Like anything in the marketing landscape, without a strategy or plan — earned media is extremely doomed to fail. Before I jump into ways to develop an earned media strategy that can help you expand your online footprint and get you that golden ticket to the inbound link factory, I want to quickly provide some marketing education on the difference between earned, paid and owned media.

Media You Own

If you or anyone you work with made it, then your company owns it. For instance, Cleriti owns this website, this blog, the call to action and contents behind it at the bottom of this post, the one in the sidebar and so on. This content is designed based on what we know about our customers to hit a pain point that may be on your radar, too.

Media You Earn

We all want to be buzzworthy or go viral for the remarkable things we are doing day in and out. Earning media starts with making connections, relationships and being relevant to not only your buyer persona but someone else's audience. For example, this fantastic ​user story that was shared on Piktochart (an easy infographic creation tool) is earned media by Cleriti. It was relevant for their customers and potential customers to see utility of their tool in action, and it was awesome for me to share how we use it at an agency in front of many marketers using the tool. This form of user generated content is easy for your company to produce and own the media. Or, you can collaborate with people at partnering companies you work with and earn media.

Media You Pay For

This is something all digital marketers have worked with — paid media is your typical pay per click advertising on Google Adwords, or display advertising, retargeting — etc. This is an area you should put a lot of thought into and answer questions such as:

• Does your landing page use the same keywords that your ad is targeting?
• Do you have a clear and relevant call to action?
• What is your bounce rate on your paid advertising visits?
• Does your content address a customer pain point or problem your customers are trying to solve, and is timing a factor?

Aligning Your Content, Media and Overall Marketing Strategy with the Buyer's Journey

Media begins with content, and today’s hot trend to earn media is to have an awesome story to share, rather than having the right connections in traditional media practices. Make sure your story connects with your customers at each stage of their journey — including when they are just becoming aware of a problem or opportunity, when they are considering a solution and when they are deciding what is best — leading to an ultimate purchasing decision. Take your most ideal customers and share their journeys to get your best brand positioning in tact.

A Remarkable Example of an Earned Media Campaign

SurveyMonkey Contribute

This is a classic example of a give and take earned media campaign. Since 2012, SurveyMonkey has helped contribute to numerous causes by donating 50 cents on every completed survey to a world-class non-profit of your choice. You can see how much has been raised and how many people have taken surveys that in return contribute. When users complete a survey, it is extremely easy to share with others so they can take the survey and support the cause too, earning SurveyMonkey a whole lot of positive earned media for being awesome, including this post!

In conclusion, don't just expect to blog, post on social media and video platforms with the expectation that links and mentions of you will magically appear. Like all modern marketing concepts, earned media requires having your positioning figured out, relevant content for each stage of the buyer's journey, collaboration and making long-term connections with thought leaders and media sources that your customers trust.