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Earned media – Getting started

Earned Media Intro

Earned media coverage can be one of the most powerful tools of any integrated marketing communications campaign.

Unlike paid advertising, earned media coverage often carries more weight and credibility in the minds of consumers because the information is delivered and received through the recognized filter of a credible third-party organization such as a newspaper, TV or radio station.

But earned media is certainly NOT free media. Significant effort, persistence and follow-up are required to successfully generate and sustain earned media coverage.

As you build your earned media program, here are some key questions to consider:
  1. During enforcement crackdowns and mobilizations, do your earned media efforts match up with where you are focusing your paid advertising and enforcement activities?
  2. During other times of the year, are you using social norming messages to bridge your enforcement periods to create a good year-round mix of earned media activity and exposure for your programs?
  3. Are you putting as much planning time and emphasis into earned media, as you are paid advertising and enforcement – and if not, why not?
  4. Are you working your LEL networks and other partnerships and alliances to get others working on delivering your earned media messages? 
  5. How much time is being spent on the phones following up on news releases and advisories, which is key in generating coverage?
  6. Are you collecting and evaluating your news clips after each earned media effort to refine and modify your efforts?

Getting Started: A Quick Earned Media Checklis

Before beginning any earned media effort, see if you can answer the following questions to assist in the development of a simple press promotion plan:

Message Development

  1. What are our behavioral/communications objectives in this assignment?
  2. Who are the primary audiences we are trying to reach and persuade?
  3. What do we want them to do?
  4. What is the key benefit they will get from doing this?
  5. What are three major points, statistics, core messages that may make this benefit more believable/valuable to them or might help stir them to action?
  6. What must we say? Are there any legal, institutional or corporate requirements in delivering this message?
  7. Have we answered the five Ws—Who, What, When, Where and Why—in our materials?

Tactical Development

  1. What media do we want to target with our message?
  2. Do we have contact names, fax numbers or e-mail addresses to reach them?
  3. How should we incorporate relevant blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, other social media into our plan?
  4. Are there partnerships and alliances we can add/include to help attract even more media interest?
  5. What approaches should we use to deliver our message? (e.g., News Release, Media Advisory, Guest OpEd, Letters to the Editor, News Conference, Special Event or Announcement, TV/Radio Interviews, Editorial Boards, Radio Talk Shows, Feature Stories/Testimonials, Web Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
  6. What is our schedule, timeline, deadlines for using these approaches to deliver our messages?
  7. What is our plan to follow-up with our media targets to ensure/encourage maximum coverage and placement?
  8. What is our plan to collect and report on and any all coverage we get from our efforts?