The digital nature of our world today impacts numerous variables in the marketing arena. Client communication is changing. Customers utilize many new forms of communication that didn’t exist before the new millennium. Because people are connected to their smart phones, laptops and smart devices from dawn to dark, today’s branding and marketing think tanks must leverage this access to consumers via digital marketing.

Before we go further, we must know the difference between the types of media we are targeting for marketing.

Digital Brands & Paid Media

Paid media – the most traditional form of media – utilizes pre-digital arenas of connecting with consumers. A marketing agency can help a brand to market its product by displaying ads on television air-time. Newspaper advertising also falls into this bracket. Let’s have a moment of silence for radio which once was a leading medium for advertising before the advent of the internet.

Owned Media

Owned media refers to the media access that the client him- or herself possesses. Owned media can include:

• Websites
• Mobile Sites
• Mobile Apps
• Social Media Accounts
• Blog Sites

The more owned media a brand is featured on, the better chance it has of marketing itself to a massive user base from different digital channels.

Earned Media

Owned media leads us to earned media. Here, your consumers themselves help you market your brands. Media exposure is generated from consumer likes, shares, mentions, positive reviews, retweets, app downloads and recommendations on these owned media channels. Either due to the customer experience or your high quality content creation, your brand can become a favorite of your consumers. Earned media can be collectively viewed as your brand’s digital accomplishments.

All three forms of media are targeted today for marketing a brand’s products and services. The shift from paid media to earned and owned media, however, is noteworthy. With the growing success of YouTube and other social media networks at providing a platform for showing video and written ads – something that only TV and newspapers used to do – we might be looking at a future with owned and earned media as the primary or even sole focus for marketing. If your brand is not utilizing digital marketing in 2017, you very likely will be outdone by the competition.

Contact us to learn more about our digital marketing and SEO services in Los Angeles, CA.