A successful strategy for your business needs to include POEM in all digital marketing plans. What is POEM? It is a combination of Paid, Owned, and Earned Media. These three things together constitute the tools you can use to market your business and build your revenue.
What is Paid, Earned, and Owned Media?
**P (Paid): Paid media is advertising, whether it’s on benches, buses, PPC (Pay-per-Click), or any other form you can think of. For example, in digital marketing you will not grow organically on Facebook. You must pay for growth by running ads and/or boosting posts to the best target audiences for your content.
O (Owned): Owned media is “free” and it belongs to you. Examples are your social media platforms and your website. Your podcast or tv show (if you have one) also belongs to you. How you manage them and populate them with content, determines how beneficial they can be to your business.
E (Earned): Earned media is also “free” because it falls under the public relations and publicity umbrellas. You may need to hire a consultant, but the resulting media hits are supposed to be free. A media relations specialist or publicist will secure radio interviews, articles, reviews, and tv appearances on your behalf.
M (Media): It’s the “media” in the P – O – E components.
How Do Paid-Earned-Owned Media Work Together?
Your business needs to include POEM in all digital marketing plans because it represents the trifecta of a successful multi-channel or omni-channel marketing plan. If you put your strategy together well your ideal customers will interact with your business throughout their journeys from idea to purchase. For example:
A consultant offers hourly sessions and paid workshops. They have a website and use Facebook and LinkedIn. Let’s consider the three types of media for this consultant:
Paid: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising on LinkedIn and via Facebook could be a part of their plan. The ads should link pages on their website including a page made specifically for the campaign.
Owned: When a customer is on the website, there is a pop-up form for joining the email list. Maybe they offer a free download or a free workshop to get the customers more involved with their business. Also, every page has contact information and there is a “Contact Us” form in case someone is interested in finding out more, but doesn’t want to subscribe.
Earned: You are interviewed in a trade publication, newspaper, online news outlet, podcast, local TV, etc. In the interview you talk about what makes your services special and specifically how you can help your target customers. When the interview is ready, you put a link on your website, broadcast it on social media, and possibly use it in another PPC ad.
Learn More about POEM and Marketing
There are many resources on the internet that can help you identify what media you can “own” as well as different outlets for “paid” opportunities. Simply stated anything you “earn” is when someone shares their owned platform with you. A mention on Instagram is earned because that influencer is using their platform to amplify you and/or your message.
For more information about using POEM you can visit Smart Insights to read their article on customer acquisition strategy.
Additional resources: Small Businesses, Yes You Need Social Media