What are the Different Types of Digital Media? Unlock the benefits of each type of digital media for your business.
We are living in the Information Age, where the spread of different mediums is versatile. The term “digital media” encompasses any form of communication that uses formats that you encode in machines, and you can only read them there. It is the sort of medium that you can save, view, modify and create on electronic gadgets of digital origin and the data is characterized by a succession of digits. It broadcasts information to the masses via a screen.
Some of the most common and popular examples of digital media include video games, software, websites, digital data, digital images, digital audio, digital video, web pages, social media, databases and audiobooks.
In short, there are 4 main categories of digital media.
Owned media
What is owned media?
Owned media is the one type of digital media marketing channel that you can completely control. It includes branded websites, social media profiles (like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), and email marketing mediums that include blogs and company newsletters.
According to research, owned media dictates the purchasing power of 78 percent of consumers. Therefore, producing quality owned media will be hugely beneficial to any company.
A company that wants to ensure that their enterprise succeeds in digital marketing should focus on owned media for these reasons:
- Affordability. Social media pages that belong to specific companies never incur extra costs.
- Reach. Through various forms of owned media, the purpose of the business and the products can reach a significant target audience. However, you have to ensure that you have used specific keywords so that they can reliably reach the consumers that you intend to communicate with.
- Flexibility. Entrepreneurs have the option of posting varied information about a brand. It can be formatted differently to talk about the same brand and even target different geographical zones.
- Control. Once you post the content about your product or business online, you don’t have to worry about the specific time that the consumer will see it. Social media and websites are always active, and they can reach different zones at certain times. Additionally, it gives the entrepreneur a chance to control their products and services elicit in their consumers. The type of information displayed on the blogs will also be dictated by what you want your clients to find out about the brand.
- Durability. The Internet and social media never forget the information that you broadcast. Therefore, once you relay anything on this type of media, it will never disappear.
Earned media
Earned media typically grows out of owned media. Marketing experts say that 88 percent of consumers fully trust this kind of media. However, it heavily relies on the authenticity of the type of owned media that a company produces. Brands obtain it from promotions and other mediums that are publicly gotten, published or broadcasted by a third party.
The business doesn’t incur any additional costs for earned media, so it’s ideal for a small budget. However, it’s difficult to leverage earned media to draw attention to a company at will as the company doesn’t create or pay for this kind of medium.
Examples of earned media include the following:
- Review sites. These include product reviews on websites and blogs that deal with the service or the product. They can also include customer reviews on reputable sites like Amazon, TripAdvisor and many others.
- Social media. You can do it through channels like Tweets on Twitter, Posts on Facebook, Instagram, among others.
- Media promotions. Examples include interviews in newspapers and magazines, electronic media segments on TV, radios and online stations.
- Word of mouth (referrals). These come from family, friends or influencers.
- Search engine optimization (SEO). This ensures that your articles, posts and pages are popularized on search engines such as Google.
Businesses can use the following strategies to attract earned media:
- Participate in trade shows that are focused on their industries.
- Build a strong organic search ranking using SEO best practices.
- Generate good content for their websites and create informative blogs.
- Have a reliable mailing list.
- Utilize their popularity and interaction on social media websites. Also, use social media analytics tools to monitor the performance of their service or brand.
- Ensure their customers are happy with their services and products. Allow them to access the business and provide any feedback they feel is suitable.
Paid media
This is digital media that you purchase. Examples of paid media include search engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click ads, advertisements on print and electronic media such as TV, magazines and newspapers, among others. It also includes social media ads, sponsorships, as well as general advertising on websites and blogs.
When you consider the various types of paid media, some are popular and can reach your target market faster than others. However, before you think about the kind of advertising that will be suitable for your marketing campaign, you have to consider the reaction that you want to elicit.
It’s not necessary for paid media to be in a direct form. Entrepreneurs can choose to use promotions and competitions to advertise the brand. They should encourage the consumer to find out more about the product and to use it.
Paid vs. earned media
At times, the concept of paid vs. earned media may confuse consumers. Paid media simply means that you pay for the media attention, whereas earned media you receive freely.
Shared media
Shared media is any type of information about your brand that your company posts to social media. Examples of shared media conduits include social sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
A brand should ensure that the consumers provide feedback for their company through shared media. This will ensure that it builds a reputable status and creates awareness for their brand. This is beneficial because it has the capability to spread within a short time and leads to exposure.
If you’re a business owner and you need assistance with your digital media, reach out to our Atlanta digital marketing experts at Brown Bag Marketing today.