A report from Nielsen revealed that 92% of consumers trust word of mouth and reviews more than advertising from a brand? This stat shows one thing, which is that customers are not ready to compromise on the factor of trust when it comes to their buying decisions.
So, how do you build trust with your customers? Well, one of the strongest ways to do it is to make your brand have credible reviews and other third-party accolades. These two things fall under the category of earned media.
So, to make your brand a trustworthy entity for your audience, we first need to understand the concept of earned media and its importance for your brand.
Understanding Earned Media
It is the engagement, positive reviews, and brand mentions that your brand gets from your audience, journalists, or the general public without the use of paid advertising or paid reviews. Earned media involves the attention and praise received by the brand by utilizing organic methods of advertising and marketing. It helps increase brand visibility and foster a trusting relationship with your audience.
Examples Of Earned Media
Based on the different types of media channels, the following are examples of earned media:
Social Media
The number of likes, post shares, and positive mentions of your brand on social media platforms like X, Instagram, and Facebook.
Media Coverage
Getting your brand, product or execs featured in an online news article, a PR story, an industry blog, a newspaper story, or broadcast segment.
Search Engine Visibility
Through SEO strategies, a high ranking of your website on Google is also a form of earned media.
Customer Reviews
Positive and a high number of views on Google, Trustpilot, Yelp, and Amazon.
Influencer Marketing
Getting brand mentions through influencers enhances your brand visibility.
UGC Based Content
User-generated content like photos and videos shared by customers increases the value of your brand.
Awards And Recognition
Media coverage highlighting the achievement of your brand increases the reach and trust of the audience in your business.
How Earned Media Supports Your Brand
Earned media is a powerful tool to make your brand have a strong image for your audience and the public. It also brings the following benefits to your brand:
Creates Brand Trust
First of all, the biggest benefit of earned media is building brand trust. People prefer making a purchase or utilizing the services of a brand that has positive reviews and media coverage, and is active on social media. Such signs of engagement make the brand trustworthy in the eyes of people.
Earned media is the only way to set your brand image positive for people. Having engagement on your social media through likes, comments and genuine reviews by people will make your brand authentic, and it will build trust in your audience.
Enhances Brand Awareness
Through earned media, you can amplify the brand message to a broader audience. The organically generated media traffic, social engagements like content shares and comments, and brand mentions by press media all help you broaden your audience reach.
Social media is a global platform of connectivity. To extend your audience range, you must have an active brand engagement. With the help of earned media, you can target more audiences and enhance your brand visibility to them.
Builds Customer Loyalty
Earned media can further strengthen your brand by bringing customer loyalty into the picture. Think of it, as people are more openly sharing their positive reviews about your products and engaging with your social media posts, it builds a deeper connection with the audience.
When your audience feels more connected and happy with your content and services, it automatically makes them loyal to your brand.
Enhances Online Visibility
In this era, having a strong online presence is very important for your business. An active social media and website that has organic traffic from your customers makes your brand more successful.
Earned media gives your content a boost through engagement and brand mentions. It also brings backlinks and other positive responses from media outlets. Thus, organic traffic on all social platforms and websites enhances the visibility of your brand name in the market.
Cost Effective Impact
Another great benefit of earned media is its cost-effective impact on your brand. Your business gets organic traffic and reviews from your customers, in this way, you don’t have to spend more on paid advertising and paid reviews to enhance your visibility.
Engagement through your creative content and a strong marketing strategy bring leads to your brand. This allows you to spend less often on paid marketing strategies.
Wrapping Up
Earned media is a powerful tool to bring success to your brand. Through it, you can leverage the benefits of credibility, more engagement, and enhanced brand awareness from the audience. It is always best to invest in the quality of content and marketing strategies rather than using paid media tools to build a fine image of your brand. Thus, earned media is the gateway to a long-term investment that will strengthen your business.
