The Three* Types Of Media

As you look at your marketing budget for 2015, are you budgeting for development of all three* types of media?

You knew there were three*, right?

1. PAID MEDIA – What most people include in their budgets. It’s the type of media for which you develop messaging, then dip into your pocket and spend to a third party. You might budget for broadcast, PPC, direct mail, retargeting, and (hopefully) your own hot air balloon.
2. OWNED MEDIA – More and more companies are coming to realize they can win the organic search game by developing relevant, authentic messaging that they host on their website, blog, and social media channels. (You may be familiar with the phrase “content marketing” – which I loathe almost as much as someone referring to himself as a “thought leader”… but that’s a different story for a different day.) Your company not only controls the development of these messages, but you control their distribution as well.
3. EARNED MEDIA, PART 1 – PR firms regularly help companies get placement with either blurbs or full feature stories about their company’s products, services, promotions or causes. More recently, a new generation of PR firm has popped up – helping entrepreneurs and business owners get articles, videos, and other messages placed on websites and in digital magazines. This effort to help position a company figurehead as an authority can require both a significant investment in time and money.

I asterisked the three because there’s really two ways to look at earned media.

THE OTHER SIDE OF EARNED MEDIA – There’s another side to earned media which I hope you’ll consider in 2015. We call it Shareworthy Service – a customer experience so delightful, your customers share it with their friends and sphere of influence through social media. Your customers – so wowed by your special blend of awesome – become your storytellers. Think Disney. Think Apple. Think Nordstrom’s.

This post may leave you with more questions than answers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing! How much should you spend for each? How do you measure success of each? What type of messaging works best for each?

Great questions. We’ll explore all those things here in the weeks to come. In the meantime, feel free to do your own research now that know what to budget for in 2015.