Digital Marketing

5 min read

27 Jun 2024

Elevate Your Marketing Game with Earned Media Value

Elevate Your Marketing Game with Earned Media Value

Earned media value (EMV) increases a brand's visibility and influence by obtaining natural mentions, shares, and endorsements. Establishing strong connections with journalists, creators, bloggers, influencers and industry experts is essential for achieving EMV.

Other strategies include producing engaging content, promoting user-generated content (UGC), keeping an eye out for brand mentions, creating PR campaigns that target influencers or media outlets that share their values, working with influencers to reach their followers authentically, and using social media to expand their reach naturally.

The earned media strategy can also be improved by monitoring the results of earned media campaigns through sentiment analysis, social sharing traffic, and website traffic from referrals. Without depending entirely on paid advertising, companies can effectively raise their brand's earned media value by concentrating on these tactics, which will improve exposure, credibility, and engagement.

What is Earned Media Value?

What is Earned Media Value?

The worth of publicity or media coverage obtained through natural channels, such as mentions, shares, or features, as opposed to paid advertising, is measured by a statistic called earned media value, or EMV. If comparable advertising space or time were purchased, it would indicate the exposure's estimated financial value.

EMV quantifies the effect of unpaid media coverage, including blog posts, forum mentions, influencer endorsements, social media shares, and news articles. Evaluating the price of obtaining comparable reach and visibility through paid advertising channels, determines the value.

Because earned media comes from independent sources, it frequently has greater reputation and reliability. EMV is essential for evaluating the success of your influencer marketing campaigns, PR initiatives, and brand awareness plans.

Owned media refers to channels and platforms that a brand directly controls and manages, such as company websites, blogs, social media profiles, newsletters, mobile apps, and branded content. These owned media content are used for brand storytelling, customer engagement, and driving traffic to owned properties.

Owned media provides full control over content and presentation, while earned media is publicity gained through word-of-mouth, viral sharing, press coverage, and other organic exposure. Earned media is more credible and social proof, often resulting from compelling content, positive customer experiences, or noteworthy brand activities.

Paid media involves promotional activities where a brand pays to leverage third-party channels or platforms for visibility. These media require budget allocation and ongoing optimization to maximize ROI.

Integration of all three types of media is crucial for effective marketing strategies. Owned media establishes a brand's presence, earned media enhances credibility, and paid media boosts visibility and drives targeted traffic.

By understanding and strategically leveraging these media types, marketers can create a well-rounded approach to achieving their marketing and communication objectives.

Why Earned Media Value Matters?

Earned Media Value (EMV) is a crucial factor in a brand's marketing strategy due to its credibility, cost efficiency, audience reach, SEO benefits, social proof, measurement, and strategic insights. EMV comes from third-party sources like journalists, influencers, or satisfied customers, enhancing the brand's trustworthiness in consumers' eyes.

It also represents exposure and visibility that the brand didn't pay for directly through advertising, making it often more cost-effective than paid media. EMV can expand a brand's reach beyond its own channels, increasing brand awareness and attracting new customers.

Positive EMV coverage can also improve search engine optimization (SEO), signaling the brand's credibility and authority to search engines. EMV also contributes to social proof, demonstrating that others value and endorse the brand, which can positively influence purchasing decisions and brand perception, leading to increased conversions and customer loyalty.

EMV can also provide a tangible metric for marketing dollars by measuring the return on investment (ROI) from PR campaigns and influencer partnerships. By leveraging earned media effectively, brands can strengthen their market position and achieve long-term growth and success.

Earned Media Value (EMV) is a crucial factor in a brand's marketing strategy due to its credibility, cost efficiency, audience reach, SEO benefits, social proof, measurement, and strategic insights. EMV comes from third-party sources like journalists, influencers, or satisfied customers, enhancing the brand's trustworthiness in consumers' eyes.

It also represents exposure and visibility that the brand didn't pay for directly through advertising, making it often more cost-effective than paid media. EMV can expand a brand's reach beyond its own channels, increasing brand awareness and attracting new customers. Positive EMV coverage can also improve search engine optimization (SEO), signaling the brand's credibility and authority to search engines.

EMV also contributes to social proof, demonstrating that others value and endorse the brand, which can positively influence purchasing decisions and brand perception, leading to increased conversions and customer loyalty.

EMV can also provide a tangible metric for measuring the return on investment (ROI) from PR campaigns and influencer partnerships. By leveraging earned media effectively, brands can strengthen their market position and achieve long-term growth and success.

Choose influencers who align with your target demographic and brand values to increase Earned Media Value (EMV). Establish genuine relationships with influencers based on mutual trust and respect, engaging with their content regularly. Collaborate with influencers to co-create engaging content that aligns with your brand messaging.

Encourage user-generated content (UGC) from influencers to promote your brand organically among their followers. Maximize influencers' reach to amplify your brand's visibility and engagement. Measure the impact of influencer collaborations on EMV using tools and analytics to track metrics.

Consider building long-term partnerships with influencers who consistently deliver positive results in terms of EMV and brand engagement. Ensure influencer collaborations comply with relevant regulations and guidelines to build trust with both influencers and their followers.

By strategically leveraging an influencer marketing strategy, brands can effectively increase their Earned Media Value by leveraging the influence, credibility, and reach of influencers to amplify brand visibility and engagement across various platforms.

Calculate Earned Media Value

Earned media value (EMV) is a financial measure that estimates the impact of publicity or media coverage gained through organic means, such as mentions, shares, or features, rather than through paid advertising.

To calculate EMV, one must determine key metrics such as impressions, engagement, reach, and click-throughs. The equivalent cost of each metric if achieved through paid advertising can vary based on industry standards, advertising costs, or benchmarks from previous campaigns.

To get the total Earned Media Value, sum up the values obtained from each metric and consider multipliers and adjustments (optional). For example, if an influencer campaign generates 200,000 impressions, 5,000 engagements, and 2,000 click-throughs, the calculated EMV would be:

EMV = \( \$3,000 + \$1,250 + \$2,000 = \$6,250 \).

Calculating EMV metrics provides insights into the financial impact of organic publicity and media coverage, helping quantify the benefits of PR efforts and influencer campaigns beyond traditional advertising metrics. Adjusting calculations based on specific campaign goals and industry benchmarks can further refine understanding of EMV and its ROI implications.

One important way to gauge the effect of natural publicity or media coverage is through earned media value, or EMV. It involves a number of variables, including as audience quality, reach and impressions, engagement metrics, content kind and placement, source influence, comparative advertising costs, campaign goals, duration and longevity, attribution, and tracking.

Marketers should ensure the relevance and accuracy of their EMV calculations by assessing these criteria, which will allow them to accurately evaluate the impact of PR campaigns, influencer relationships, and other organic social media marketing initiatives. By taking these things into account, marketers can create a more thorough and accurate evaluation of EMV, which will help them gauge the success of influencer collaborations and PR campaigns.

Campaigns:

  1. Dove's Real attractiveness Campaign: This campaign produced a lot of earned media value by showcasing women's inherent attractiveness through social media and emotional storytelling.
  2. Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Campaign: Produced a significant amount of earned media value through the use of humor and compelling content.
  3. Airbnb's "Wall and Chain" Campaign: Designed to coincide with the fall anniversary of the Berlin Wall, it offers a stay in a specially constructed house modeled after the wall.
  4. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: A social media campaign gone viral that raised money and awareness for ALS research.
  5. Oreo's "Dunk in the Dark" Tweet: Gain a lot of earned media value from extensive coverage and conversations after going viral during the 2013 Super Bowl.

Enhancing Your Marketing Efforts with EMV

Enhancing Your Marketing Efforts with EMV

Engaged media value (EMV) can significantly boost brand visibility, credibility, and engagement. To maximize its impact, businesses should set clear objectives, identify key metrics, create compelling content, leverage influencers and advocates, monitor and amplify positive coverage, engage on social media, measure and analyze results, optimize based on analytics, integrate with paid and owned media, and build long-term relationships.

By focusing on these steps, businesses can effectively leverage earned media value to increase brand visibility, credibility, and engagement, without relying solely on traditional advertising methods. By leveraging EMV, businesses can build trust and brand credibility within their industry, ensuring consistent positive EMV over time. By incorporating these strategies, businesses can effectively leverage earned media value to drive sales and increase brand visibility.

Maximizing Earned Media Value (EMV)

  1. Develop compelling storytelling: Craft narratives that resonate emotionally with your audience.
  2. Focus on quality and relevance: Ensure your content is high-quality, informative, and relevant to your target audience's interests.
  3. Use visual and interactive content: Incorporate graphics, videos, infographics, and interactive elements into your content.
  4. Stay timely and relevant: Monitor current events, trends, and conversations in your industry and create content that aligns with timely topics.
  5. Cultivate relationships with influencers and journalists: Provide valuable insights, data, or exclusive access to your products/services to encourage them to share your content.
  6. Encourage User-generated Content (UGC): Foster a community around your brand where customers can share their experiences, reviews, and creative interpretations of your products/services.
  7. Optimize content for Search Engines (SEO): Incorporate relevant keywords and phrases into your content to improve its discoverability through search engines.
  8. Monitor and engage with mentions: Use social media monitoring tools to track mentions of your brand, products, or industry keywords.
  9. Measure and analyze performance: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact of your EMV efforts.
  10. Integrate EMV with Paid and Owned Media: Combine earned media efforts with paid advertising campaigns and owned media channels to amplify your message and reach a wider audience.

The measurement of earned media value (EMV) is undergoing significant changes due to technological advancements, consumer behavior, and media landscape changes. Advanced analytics and AI tools are increasingly used to analyze and interpret large volumes of data related to earned media, enabling sentiment analysis and predicting consumer behavior.

Companies are also integrating data from various sources, such as social media platforms, web analytics, CRM systems, and media monitoring tools, to provide a comprehensive view of how earned media contributes to marketing goals and business outcomes.

Engagement metrics are shifting from traditional metrics like impressions and reach to likes, shares, comments, and time spent interacting with content. Attribution modeling is gaining importance in understanding the impact of earned media on customer journeys and conversion paths.

Quality over quantity is being prioritized, with brands prioritizing social media mentions and placements that align with their target audience and values. Real-time monitoring and response are also becoming more important, allowing brands to respond promptly to positive or negative coverage and capitalize on opportunities for proactive engagement with stakeholders.

Ethical considerations and transparency are also becoming increasingly important, with brands adhering to ethical standards in their measurement practices. Cross-channel measurement allows brands to assess the cumulative impact of earned media across successful campaign at various digital and offline touchpoints, enabling more informed decision-making in resource allocation and campaign optimization. Customized metrics and reporting dashboards are also emerging, facilitating actionable insights and strategic planning.

The Influencer's Impact: Decoding Earned Media Value

Influencers significantly impact earned media value (EMV), generating publicity through promotional efforts rather than paid advertising. Their credibility, authenticity, and reach extend a brand's reach to new audiences. Measurement of influencer-driven EMV involves engagement metrics, reach, impressions, and conversion rates.

Challenges include transparency, measurement standards, and long-term impact. Strategic collaboration with influencers, fostering strong relationships, and continuous evaluation and optimization maximize the effectiveness monetary value of influencer-driven EMV. By leveraging these factors, brands can harness the full potential of influencer-driven EMV in today's competitive digital landscape.

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Diane Eunice Narciso

Diane Eunice Narciso is a content marketer, strategist, and writer who's skilled and passionate about marketing, social media, eCommerce, etc. And is also an expert in sales and business development nurturing strategic partnerships and collaborations.

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