Owned media are the first to build for any brand, with digital examples including website, blog, email, social media posts, YouTube channel, and mobile application.
Since these are your assets, you have absolute control over its manifestation in the present and the future. Therefore it takes less time to make changes on these channels.
Owned media are the backbone of any business during and especially after social distancing.
In crises, businesses can alter the content or message on their owned channels in no time and with virtually no limit to adapt to sudden changes. Also, as owned media are the official communication channel of a brand, its importance is highlighted even more in chaotic situations.
Messaging: If you decide to change your messaging strategy, make sure it’s consistent across all channels, brings real value to the audience and goes hand in hand with your actions.
Transparency: Don’t try to hide your inventory status and delivery delays due to disruptions in the supply chain. Customers may not be so happy to hear about this news, but overpromising and under-delivering is just the worst combo in this time.
Promotion: There’s no restriction on putting up promotions and sales campaigns during a pandemic. Just make it meaningful and avoid hot buttons such as promotional content that evokes fear of the pandemic. The social backlash is well beyond your control and imagination.
Events: Think of how to bring scheduled offline events on the net, especially if they have acquired some reputation for a while. Webinars, podcasts, live streaming… you have all the tools within your reach to keep brand promotion going and growing.
Paid media are ads or sponsorships posted outside owned media, such as PPC, paid social, etc. The main purpose is to drive traffic to owned media or directly to the brand’s POS.
Unlike owned media’s high level of control, paid media wins in the field of exposure. Its effectiveness though depends on which channels you choose to place ads.
As stated in the article about Digital Marketing in Pandemic, worldwide digital ad spending has increased by over 12% after an initial drop at the pandemic outbreak.
In general, many companies have chosen to double down on paid media to increase exposure across channels, especially if their business can sell well despite the effect of the pandemic.
However, when the pandemic persists, the overall ad spending is expected to slide down as most ads can’t break even, let alone increase the bottom line. Companies then must be more selective in their paid marketing strategy.
Know where your customers are, now. The crisis has made your customers different, and those tested and tried methods may not work as well as before. Research your customers and customer segments again to know how to best approach them.
Advertise with moderation. In the article of Doing Business during the Pandemic, we have learned that customers don’t ask brands to stop advertising, as long as their messages are positive, caring and helpful.
However, it doesn’t mean “virtue signaling” is a good choice as it can make the buyers feel like “maybe this brand is really desperate”. And many companies have promised a lot since the onset of the pandemic. Your joining in doesn’t help.
Update paid platform policies. New rules about anti-exploitation of the pandemic have been added, such as Facebook/Instagram’s Controversial Content policy. Be careful in your choice of words as even “virus” or “protection” can be in the list of banned content.
Earned media are born from the word-of-mouth. Some typical examples are social mentions, recommendations, reviews, and user-generated content such as unboxing video, etc.
Audiences put the highest trust in earned media because it is not intended to promote a brand, and it doesn’t look “salesy”.
Earned media is the hardest to get and results from consistent, effective marketing efforts over a period of time.
Earned media is on the rise, simply because people believe more in “people’s talk” than “brands’ talk”. The social media surge in pandemic also fuels this.
Content: As always, valuable and shareable content is the best. Don’t overuse catchy and pandemic-related titles on every piece of content.
Network: It’s great if you can earn shares and mentions from influencers or KOLs. And don’t forget to utilize the power of online communities. If you don’t have one, consider building it as the benefit outweighs the cost.
(Potential) customer experience: It’s not easy to provide high quality customer experience in a pandemic. That’s why those who can make it shine the brightest.
If it’s made impossible by social distancing, you don’t need to follow traditional examples such as a video interviewing real users. Try creative methods to focus on polishing your brand image rather than product quality, especially if you can’t deliver your goods during this time.
If you have invested effectively in digital marketing for a while before the crisis, you should have a right mix of the three media types. During the pandemic, it’s normal to feel an urge of tipping the balance to adapt to the situation. But this is not a must. Don’t follow everything others are doing. Stay alert, objective and forward-looking.
In case your company hadn’t have a chance to fully develop your owned, paid and earned marketing before the pandemic hit, reach for help from an expert digital marketing agency. This helps you save a lot of resources in the time of crisis.
If you decide to change your marketing mix after contemplating, follow these advices:
According to McKinsey, companies that integrate eCommerce into their marketing strategy “see five-times-faster revenue growth”.
The 3-legged marketing model of paid, owned and earned media has long existed and is here to stay during crises. The focus may shift from one to another due to changing priorities, but none should be disregarded.
Digitalization has made it much easier to do marketing effectively during a pandemic. Leverage this power to keep your business afloat, growing and bouncing back stronger after the pandemic ends.
As digital marketing has many disciplines and each requires a certain skill set, consider outsourcing as this is the most economical and effective way in the long-term. Let On Digitals help you embark on the journey to lead your business to sustainable success.
