KPIs for Marketing

KPIs for Marketing: earned media value

Learn how to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns with earned media value as a key performance indicator (KPI).

When it comes to measuring the success of your marketing efforts, understanding your earned media value (EMV) is crucial. By determining the value of your earned media, you can gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, assess your ROI, and make smart decisions to optimize your strategy.

Understanding Earned Media Value

Earned media value is a term that has gained significant importance in the world of digital marketing. In today's digital age, social media shares, mentions, blog posts, and other forms of earned media have become an integral part of any brand's marketing strategy. Unlike paid media, which you pay for, earned media is generated through organic means, usually by customers, fans, and influencers sharing your content with their audience.

As a marketer, it is essential to understand the value that your brand receives from earned media. This is where earned media value comes into play.

Defining Earned Media Value

Earned media value (EMV) is a metric that assigns a monetary value to the publicity and exposure that your brand receives from earned media. By measuring the number of impressions your earned media generates, you can put a financial value on the impact of your social media shares, guest posts, and mentions. This value is calculated by multiplying the number of impressions by the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) of the medium.

For example, if a website features your brand in an article that reaches 10,000 readers, your earned media value would be the amount you would have paid for the same exposure through paid media.

EMV is an essential metric for any marketer as it helps them understand the impact of their earned media efforts. It allows them to compare the effectiveness of their earned media with their paid media efforts and make informed decisions about where to allocate their marketing budget.

The Importance of Earned Media Value in Marketing

Tracking your earned media value is essential because it helps you quantify the impact of your marketing efforts. By identifying which channels and campaigns generate the most value for your brand, you can optimize your resources and focus your marketing efforts on areas that provide the highest ROI.

Additionally, tracking your EMV will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaigns and the engagement levels of your audience. By understanding the value of the content that your influencers are creating and sharing, you can make informed decisions about which influencers to work with and how to compensate them.

Furthermore, tracking your EMV can help you identify potential brand advocates. By monitoring mentions of your brand on social media and other online platforms, you can identify customers who are promoting your brand and engage with them to build a stronger relationship.

In conclusion, earned media value is an important metric that every marketer should be tracking. By understanding the impact of your earned media efforts, you can make informed decisions about where to allocate your marketing budget and build a stronger relationship with your audience.

Key Performance Indicators for Earned Media Value

Measuring the value of your earned media is crucial to understanding the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Earned media value (EMV) refers to the value of the exposure your brand receives through media coverage, social media mentions, and influencer marketing. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), you can gain insights into the value of your earned media and optimize your marketing strategy. Here are some important KPIs to track:

Social Media Engagement

Social media is a powerful tool for generating earned media value. Measuring social media engagement enables you to quantify how active your audience is on social media. Social media engagement KPIs can include likes, shares, and comments on your posts. By generating high levels of social media engagement, you can increase the value of your earned media. To improve your social media engagement, consider creating interactive content that encourages your audience to engage with your brand.

Brand Mentions and Sentiment

Brand mentions are whenever your brand is mentioned on social media or by other online sources. Monitoring brand mentions can help you measure the reach of your branding efforts and your EMV. Sentiment analysis also helps you gauge the attitude of your audience towards your brand. By analyzing sentiment, you can identify areas of improvement and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Additionally, responding to both positive and negative mentions can help you build stronger relationships with your audience.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic is the traffic that comes to your website through sources outside of your domain. By tracking where your referral traffic is coming from, you can optimize your content for the channels that provide the most value. For example, if you notice that a significant amount of your referral traffic is coming from a particular social media platform, you can focus your efforts on creating content that resonates with that audience. Additionally, tracking referral traffic can help you identify potential partnerships and collaborations with other websites or brands.

Influencer Marketing Metrics

Influencer marketing is a popular strategy for generating earned media value. If you are running an influencer marketing campaign, there are several metrics you should track. Influencer-specific metrics can include impressions, engagement rates, click-through rates, and the number of shares generated by the influencer's content. By tracking these metrics, you can identify the most effective influencers for your brand and optimize your campaigns for maximum impact.

Press Coverage and PR

When your brand is mentioned in a news article or a press release, it can have a significant impact on your EMV. Measuring your press coverage and the reach of your PR campaigns can give you insights into the value of your earned media. Additionally, tracking the sentiment of press coverage can help you identify areas of improvement and adjust your messaging accordingly. To increase your chances of receiving press coverage, consider building relationships with journalists and pitching stories that align with their interests.

By tracking these key performance indicators, you can gain a better understanding of the value of your earned media and optimize your marketing strategy for maximum impact. Remember that earned media value is not just about generating exposure for your brand, but also about building strong relationships with your audience and creating content that resonates with them.

Measuring Earned Media Value

Measuring Earned Media Value (EMV) is an essential part of any successful marketing campaign. It helps you understand the impact of your brand and content on your target audience. EMV is the value of the publicity your brand receives through organic or unpaid channels, such as social media, blogs, news articles, and other online mentions.

EMV is a critical metric for businesses looking to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. It helps you understand the ROI of your marketing efforts and the value of your brand's reputation in the market.

Measuring EMV requires the use of tracking tools and techniques. Some commonly used tools for tracking EMV include Google Analytics, social media analytics tools, and PR and media tracking software. By using these tools, you can track the number of impressions, clicks, shares, and other engagement metrics that your content receives across different channels.

Calculating Earned Media Value

Calculating your earned media value is a process that involves quantifying the various KPIs that contribute to your EMV. KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are the metrics that help you measure the success of your marketing campaigns. Some of the KPIs that contribute to your EMV include social media shares, website traffic, backlinks, and mentions in news articles.

To calculate your EMV, you need to assign a dollar value to each KPI, add up the total value, and subtract the cost of your social media and marketing campaigns. This will give you the true value of your earned media. For example, if you received 1000 social media shares, 500 website visits, and 10 mentions in news articles, you would assign a dollar value to each of these KPIs based on industry benchmarks or your own performance history.

Once you have assigned a dollar value to each KPI, you can add up the total value and subtract the cost of your social media and marketing campaigns. This will give you the true value of your earned media. By calculating your EMV, you can determine the ROI of your marketing campaigns and identify the channels that are most effective in driving traffic and engagement.

Setting Earned Media Value Benchmarks

Setting earned media value benchmarks helps you establish realistic expectations for your marketing campaigns. By comparing your earned media value results to industry averages and your own performance history, you can identify areas for improvement and set targets for future campaigns.

Industry benchmarks are the average EMV values for different industries and channels. By comparing your EMV results to these benchmarks, you can determine whether your campaigns are performing above or below average. This can help you identify areas for improvement and set realistic targets for future campaigns.

Comparing your EMV results to your own performance history can also help you identify trends and patterns in your marketing campaigns. By analyzing your past campaigns, you can determine which channels and strategies are most effective in driving engagement and traffic. This can help you optimize your campaigns and improve your overall marketing performance.

Optimizing Earned Media Value

There are several tactics you can use to optimize your earned media value and increase your ROI.

Creating Shareable Content

By creating high-quality, shareable content, you can increase the value of your earned media. Shareable content is content that resonates with your audience and inspires them to share it with their friends and followers, extending your reach and generating more earned media value.

Building Relationships with Influencers

Partnering with influencers who have a large following can help you reach a broader audience and generate more earned media value. By building a relationship with influencers in your niche and creating shareable content tailored to their audience, you can increase your earned media value significantly.

Leveraging User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is content created by your customers or fans. By showcasing UGC on your social media and website, you can demonstrate brand loyalty and generate more earned media value.

Monitoring and Responding to Brand Mentions

Responding to brand mentions and comments on social media can help you engage with your audience and generate more earned media value. By monitoring your brand mentions and responding promptly, you can increase your brand loyalty and enhance your EMV.

Conclusion

Earned media value is an essential metric for measuring the success of your marketing campaigns and optimizing your ROI. By tracking the key performance indicators that contribute to your EMV, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and optimize your resources to get the most value from your earned media. By creating shareable content, building relationships with influencers, leveraging user-generated content, and monitoring and responding to brand mentions, you can maximize your earned media value and drive business growth.