Three Ways to Leverage Earned Media

By Heather Ripley

Even if they don’t understand all the finer details of a marketing campaign, most plumbing company owners still understand the importance of having a marketing budget.

But fewer understand the importance of also having a strategic public relations plan to help them stand out from their competition.

And one of the most important things a company can do to boost its visibility is by repurposing its earned media.

There are three types of media: owned, paid and earned. Owned media includes things like your website or blog. Paid media includes radio or social media ads. Both of these types of marketing are firmly under your control since both involve your company’s marketing dollars.

Earned media, however, is free. It is produced by media outlets, podcasters or influencers and the content targets their audiences. It is also considered the most trustworthy type of media because it is usually produced by impartial third parties.

So, if you are quoted on how to prevent frozen pipes in a local news story or you make an appearance on an industry-related podcast, you shouldn’t limit your exposure to those outlet. Repurpose your earned media to your advantage.

Here are three ways to do that:

• Social Media

Most studies have shown that as many as 4.9 billion people use social media. With these staggering numbers, any business not using social media to boost their visibility is missing the boat.

If you have recently made an appearance on a local news station or your company’s thought leaders were interviewed in a trade publication, you need to share that content.

Share a snippet from the article or interview and post a link so others can read or watch the entire article or appearance. You should also thank the outlet and tag them in your post.

• Develop an Infographic

Most people are visual thinkers. That’s why articles and posts with images are far more popular and shared more often than content that has no visuals.

The information often found in the news media or trade publications often contains a wealth of solid information, but in today’s fast-paced world, many don’t have time to read all that information. That’s why you should have a graphics designer you trust on hand to develop an infographic or short video that details the information you provided to the earned media outlet.

• Create a Blog Post

You can also repurpose the information from the article or newscast into a blog post for your website.

Not only does that get the earned media spot out to another target audience, it helps you in Google searches. Google’s algorithm is built to push websites that are constantly updated to the top of their search lists. Posting new content in the form of regular blog posts is a great way to refresh your website on a weekly basis.

Maximizing and repurposing your earned media might take a little bit of your team’s time to do well, but the rewards are worth it. Transforming the original content into a variety of formats helps spread the word about your company and your thought leadership.

By repurposing your earned media into social media posts, visuals and blog posts, you will reach a far bigger audience for much less than advertising to a smaller audience would cost.

And increased visibility helps you grow your business.

Heather Ripley is founder and CEO of Ripley PR, an elite, global public relations agency specializing in the skilled trades, franchising and B2B tech industries. Ripley PR is recognized as the top PR agency for the home service industry. It also has been listed by Entrepreneur Magazine as a Top Franchise PR Agency six consecutive years and was named to Forbes’ America’s Best PR Agencies for 2021. Ripley is the author of “NEXT LEVEL NOW: PR Secrets to Drive Explosive Growth for your Home Service Business,” which is now available on all audiobook platforms. For additional information, visit www.ripleypr.com.