Building trust and authority online is essential for brands to thrive. Still, with the increasing complexity of digital marketing, deciding which paid and organic efforts best align with your goals can be challenging. One of the most powerful tools for establishing consumer trust and credibility is earned media coverage.
Unlike paid advertising or self-published content, earned media is the organic exposure your brand gains from third-party sources. This coverage significantly enhances your credibility, drives traffic, and expands your reach. In this guide, I’ll explain earned media, explore its relationship with SEO, and share actionable strategies for boosting brand visibility and growth.
Earned, Owned, and Paid Media: Understanding the Differences
Before exploring earned media further, it’s important to distinguish it from two other essential forms of media: owned and paid. Each plays a unique role in digital marketing strategies, and understanding their differences is key to maximizing your brand’s exposure.
What Is Earned Media?
Let’s start with the textbook definition of earned media: It’s the organic exposure your brand receives from third-party sources. This includes press coverage, mentions on social media, backlinks from other websites, and positive reviews.
But to truly define earned media, we must also explain what it is not. Unlike paid media, which involves advertising spend, and owned media, which consists of your brand’s assets, earned media is “earned” through the merit of your content, products, or services. Strong SEO practices significantly contribute to earned media by increasing your brand’s visibility in search results, making it more likely for others to mention, share, or link to your content.
What Is Owned Media?
Owned media includes all the digital assets your brand controls — your website, blog, and social media channels. As an extension of your brand, owned media provides a platform for sharing your message, engaging your audience, and establishing thought leadership. The goal of owned media is to create content that attracts and retains your audience, nurturing a long-term relationship.
What Is Paid Media?
Paid media encompasses any marketing activities that require a financial investment to drive exposure. This can include social media ads, influencer partnerships, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, and display ads. Paid media aims to increase your brand’s visibility and direct traffic to your owned media channels.
Earned Media Examples
So, what does earned media look like in action? It takes many forms, all of which can enhance your brand’s credibility and reach. Here are a few examples of ways to “earn” media.
- Customer Reviews: Platforms like Yelp, Google Reviews, and Amazon are full of customer feedback — each review, whether positive or negative, is a form of earned media, meaning you don’t pay for it or own it, but it is out there working for you.
- Press Coverage and Industry Mentions: Articles, interviews, and mentions in media outlets, blogs, or industry publications that feature your brand help establish authority and drive traffic back to your site.
- Social Media Mentions and Shares: Tweets, Instagram posts, LinkedIn articles, and other user-generated content about your brand contribute to earned media. A single share or mention from an industry influencer can significantly expand your reach.
The earned media definition for social media has a caveat: Social media content can be owned, paid, or earned based on who posts it and whether there’s a financial incentive. For example, if a user posts about your brand without any sponsorship, that’s earned media. If an influencer gets paid to mention your brand, that’s paid media.
Why Earned Media Is Important for Your Brand
Earning media isn’t easy. Many brands opt out due to the effort alone — but that means missing out on some big benefits. Here are key ways earned media helps your brand.
- Builds Credibility and Trust: Third-party mentions and reviews carry more weight than self-promotion, creating authentic trust and validation.
- Expands Reach and Audience:Earned media can help you tap into new audiences without additional costs, significantly amplifying your brand visibility.
- Drives Organic Traffic:Earned media links, mentions, and shares contribute to steady streams of organic traffic, providing sustained growth.
- Boosts SEO: As a byproduct of strong SEO content, earned media often improves search engine rankings and authority over time.
How SEO Content Contributes to Media Earned
Now we know what it is, but what does earned media mean for your searchability? SEO and earned media are deeply intertwined. When you optimize your content to perform well in search engines, you significantly increase the chances of third-party sources discovering and mentioning it. , This enhances your brand’s reach and credibility. SEO serves as a catalyst for earned media, setting the stage for outside sources to see, share, and reference your content. Here’s how SEO content plays a crucial role in driving earned media opportunities.
Create High-Quality, Shareable Content
The foundation of any successful earned media strategy is high-quality SEO content that ranks well, provides value, and is inherently shareable. Content that resonates with your audience and aligns with their interests or pain points is more likely to earn citations from industry publications, influencers, and other authoritative sources. This means focusing on creating in-depth, informative pieces that answer key questions or offer unique insights. For your content to gain traction and increase its chances of being mentioned, make sure it’s optimized to rank well on search engines.
Leverage Keyword Research and Optimization
Thorough keyword research and optimization ensure that your content is easily discoverable by your target audience. When you use keywords that align with the intent of bloggers, journalists, influencers, and potential customers, they are more likely to find your content and mention or link to it. The right keywords amplify the reach of your SEO content, making it more attractive to third parties interested in sharing or referencing your brand.
Build Content for Backlinks
Backlinks play a significant role in both SEO and earned media. When authoritative websites cite your content as a reliable source or unique perspective, it improves your site’s domain authority and increases your brand’s credibility. To attract these backlinks naturally, focus on creating content that stands out — whether it’s through original research, insightful thought leadership, or comprehensive guides that add significant value. Data-driven articles, expert opinions, and how-to tutorials are all excellent examples of content that can organically earn backlinks, driving both SEO performance and earned media exposure.
Incorporate Visuals and Multimedia
Incorporating visual elements and multimedia improves user experience and makes your content highly shareable. Infographics, videos, charts, and interactive tools distill complex information into more digestible bites, making it easier for audiences to understand and share. Engaging visuals add a layer of appeal to your content, increasing its chances of being shared across social media platforms, embedded on other websites, or even mentioned in industry articles. The more shareable and attractive your content is, the higher the likelihood of earning media attention and organic exposure.
Strategies To Maximize Earned Marketing Through SEO
SEO and earned media go hand-in-hand. That’s great news for your brand, since this crossover means the right strategies can maximize both channels. Here are some actionable tips to get you started.
Engage in Guest Blogging and Thought Leadership
Guest posting on reputable websites is a great way to earn backlinks and expand your brand’s visibility. Thought leadership articles that showcase your expertise can also boost your authority.
Build Relationships With Influencers and Journalists
Cultivating strong relationships with industry influencers and journalists can result in more opportunities for earned media. Share relevant content with them, engage in discussions, and be a resource they can cite or link to.
Monitor Mentions and Engage Your Audience
Actively monitor brand mentions across platforms and engage with users who share or talk about your content. Acknowledging and interacting with your audience strengthens relationships and encourages more earned media.
Promote Your SEO Content on Social Channels
Social media platforms are a great avenue for promoting your SEO content. When shared on these channels, your content reaches a broader audience, increasing its chances of being mentioned, linked to, or shared further.
Measuring the Impact of Earned Media
Knowing and implementing earned media best practices is a start. The next step is ensuring your efforts are paying off. To understand the impact of your earned media efforts, track key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter. Tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, Moz, and social media listening platforms help measure:
- Backlinks and referral traffic. How many sites link to your content, and how much traffic are those links driving? Backlinks are a critical metric when measuring the impact of earned media, as they serve as a strong indicator of how third parties perceive your content. A quality backlink from a reputable site drives referral traffic, boosting your site’s authority in search engines.
- Social shares and mentions. Are your posts getting shared across social channels, and are people mentioning your brand? Earned media often finds its roots in social channels, making social shares and mentions an essential KPI to monitor. Using social listening platforms like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or Brandwatch, you can track how often your content gets shared across social platforms, where these shares are happening, and how they align with your target audience.
- Organic traffic growth. How much traffic are you receiving from earned media sources? Organic traffic is a core indicator of the success of both your SEO and earned media efforts. As authoritative third parties mention and link to your brand, you should see a rise in organic traffic as a direct result of this exposure. Tools like Google Analytics are invaluable in tracking traffic sources and trends.
Monthly reporting is essential for ongoing optimization and understanding the return on investment (ROI) from earned media. With in-depth analysis, you can identify which strategies are working, where you need adjustments, and how your earned media efforts contribute to brand goals such as lead generation, sales, and market positioning.
An SEO company like Victorious can provide comprehensive monthly reports that analyze the performance of your earned media alongside other SEO activities, helping to define the ROI and the value earned media clearly brings to your overall digital marketing strategy.
Optimize Your Brand Visibility With Victorious
Incorporating earned media into your SEO strategy is a powerful way to enhance credibility, expand your reach, and drive organic traffic. By pairing earned media efforts with high-quality SEO Content Writing, your brand can achieve sustainable growth and a powerful online presence.
Ready to maximize your online visibility with our experienced SEO company? Schedule a free consultation with Victorious to see how our SEO-first approach can help you stand out in search.
