Paid, Earned, and Owned Media: The Modern DigitalMarketing Trifecta:

When your goals involve patient engagement and acquisition, consider these media categories when planning your modern marketing strategy and budget.

Focus­ing your orga­ni­za­tion’s goals on mod­ern dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing solu­tions can take your brand to new heights. Explore suc­cess­ful exam­ples of paid, earned and owned media.

Paid Media

For­mer­ly known as: Adver­tis­ing

What it is: Buy­ing space/time on tra­di­tion­al and online channels

Why you need it: To pro­mote your owned media and gen­er­ate demand for spe­cif­ic services

Exam­ples:

• Search engine advertising
• Social media advertising
• Tra­di­tion­al adver­tis­ing (TV/radio/print)

Here’s a hos­pi­tal doing it right: Bar­ton Health incor­po­rates paid social and search adver­tis­ing in a series of ser­vice line growth strate­gies (exam­ples below). These cam­paigns tar­get com­mer­cial­ly insured patients who are ide­al can­di­dates for elec­tive, high-rev­enue procedures.

Earned Media

For­mer­ly known as: Public/Media Relations

What it is: Recog­ni­tion for exper­tise and thought lead­er­ship through unpaid placements

Why you need it: To increase awareness/preference and influ­ence per­cep­tion for your brand to gen­er­ate new leads

Exam­ples:

• Edi­to­r­i­al place­ment in nation­al pub­li­ca­tions and trade journals
• Physi­cian inter­views on TV/radio
• Pos­i­tive consumer/patient reviews
• “Ask the Doc” col­umn in the local newspaper

Here’s a hos­pi­tal doing it right: Children’s Mer­cy Health in Kansas City is fre­quent­ly fea­tured in nation­al and local media, includ­ing this arti­cle on a Kansas tod­dler who received three heart surg­eries before his third birthday.

Owned Media

For­mer­ly known as: Brand­ed Content

What it is: Con­tent that your orga­ni­za­tion controls.

Why you need it: To dif­fer­en­ti­ate your brand from the com­pe­ti­tion as one focused on mod­ern mar­ket­ing and guid­ing buy­ers move through the deci­sion cycle

Exam­ples:

• Website/Blog
• Social media accounts
• Email newslet­ter
• Print pub­li­ca­tion
• Mobile appli­ca­tion
• Direct mail
• Com­mu­ni­ty events
• Oth­er mod­ern mar­ket­ing directives

Here’s a hos­pi­tal doing it right: Phoenix (AZ) Children’s Hos­pi­tal “Here to Change the World” 2016 Vision Report