Building a B2B communications strategy around owned, earned, paid and shared

By Tim Asimos
Trends and insights
Mature businessman with laptop in a hotel room.

The benefits of B2B content marketing are numerous but how can you find a balance between owned, earned, and paid? Strategic Marketing and Design Firm, @circleSstudio, shares their insight.

The media landscape has dramatically changed over the last several years. Cultural shifts and the proliferation of digital, social and mobile channels have made a permanent impact, making the need for a fully integrated B2B communications strategy absolutely essential.

 

An effective B2B marketing in today’s ecosystem requires a strategic and integrated approach. A strategy should come before tactics, content before channels, online and offline efforts should reinforce one another and everything marketing does should be aligned with sales. Nowhere is this need for integration more necessary than in a firm’s communication strategy — and the execution.

The new media landscape is no longer just paid and earned

Historically B2B firms had to rely on paid media and earned media as their primary means to get their message across to their target audience. Paid media is obviously attention that you pay to receive, including traditional advertising, direct mail as well as online advertising, search engine marketing, and paid social media amplification. Public relations and earned media have always been a communications plan staple with the goal of receiving attention from the press in the form of articles, mentions, features, and interviews.

Brands become publishers with owned media

But with the explosion of content marketing over the last several years, there has been an incredible opportunity for firm’s to create owned media: the content (such as your website, social media profiles, blog, email marketing, etc.) that your firm produces and owns. So B2B firms are capitalizing on the idea of “brands becoming publishers” because they control the message and they publish the content. And this emphasis has marked a seismic shift in marketing communications because marketers are no longer dependent (or at least significantly less dependent) on advertising and public relations to get their audience’s attention.

Everyone’s a journalist with shared media

Shared media is similar to earned media however instead of earning the attention of the press, you’re earning the attention of your audience. Social media has created a generation of audience-journalists, which means that your firm’s content — whether owned, paid or earned — can be shared by your audience with their networks and thus compounding the reach
 exponentially.

Owned and shared media provide an opportunity for smaller firms

Historically, smaller and mid-sized firms were at a significant communications disadvantage to large firms whose budgets for advertising, public relations, and tradeshows were unmatchable. With owned media, it’s not about outspending your competitors — it’s more about outsmarting them by creating remarkable content that’s relevant to your audience. In this new media landscape, smaller and mid-size firms can have just as much marketing power (and sometimes more) than their peers with deeper pockets.

Your content can generate media coverage

Another amazing thing about publishing content is that owned media also leads to earned media. While still important, the traditional press release and media pitch in many cases have been supplanted by Google and Twitter. Many journalists and reporters use search engines and social media to do their research, look for story ideas and seek out subject matter experts. Which means that your thought leadership content can and will garner media coverage for your firm. Additionally, both paid and earned media can also lead people to find and engage with your content — further amplifying the reach.

Communication efforts need to be integrated and synchronized

Even with the addition of owned and shared to the media mix, many firms make the mistake of continuing to operate their paid (advertising) and earned (PR) media efforts in a silo. In today’s marketing ecosystem, all marketing and communications tactics and activities — including public relations, advertising, content marketing, email marketing and the like — should be operating from the same overarching communications strategy. Each component should be supporting the other and conveying the same consistent message from channel to channel.

Content marketing is a strategy, not a tactic

It’s important to realize that content marketing done right, is not merely another tactic to add to the mix, but rather a philosophy that should permeate every facet of your marketing and communications plan. If your firm is committed to content marketing, your integrated communications plan around owned, earned, paid and shared media should ultimately support the objectives, goals and target audience of your content marketing strategy.

Leverage a combination of owned, earned, paid and shared media

Even though owned media may be the dominant centerpiece of today’s B2B marketing mix, it’s best to leverage the strengths of all media options in order to most effectively reach and engage your target audience. Remember that owned leads to earned and shared, and paid and earned lead to greater visibility of both your firm and your content. In other words, don’t put all your communications eggs in one basket. Diversify your mix and let each component reinforce and compound the effectiveness and reach of the other.

Due to the ever-shifting media landscape, it’s even more critical to communicate — whether online, offline or in the media— from one holistic and integrated strategy. Consistency in both your objective and message will ensure the best possible outcome of your communications efforts.

Additional reading:


This article originally appeared in circle S studio.
This article was written by Tim Asimos from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

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