Why Engaged and Earned Reach is Cost-Effective
Organic, content-driven online strategies are not only sustainable, they create momentum in real qualified traffic that grows month after month, year after year.
Earned reads, as we call content-driven tactics, are vastly more valuable than paid advertising exposures.
In data from eMarketer, research showed that earned media helps companies “build longer-term effects and increased brand awarenesss, purchase consideration and brand favorability.” The study found that when consumers were exposed to earned reads such as Social Media, revenue per order increased to $280.71 from $206.66 for paid exposures alone.
Exposures Versus “Engaged Reach”
There are two ways to look at reach. First, is the advertising model, which is the paid-for model. In advertising and marketing terms, reach is defined by Nielsen Media as “the unduplicated number of individuals or households exposed to an advertising medium at least once during the average week for a reported time period. It is interchangeable with Cumulative Audience and Net Reach.” Typically, you budget this reach in cost per thousand (CPM) reached in your audience. Reach in non-targets should be excluded.
The second way to view reach is in the dynamic of the web and social tapestry. Although reach can still be thought of in terms of exposures, web is a more interactive. At Blogertize, we focus on what we call “Engaged Reach.” The goal of Blogertize campaigns is to increasingly engage audiences in activity: actual purchases, inquiries from audiences, return visits, commenting, bookmarking, forwarding content, social interaction, “Likes” on Facebook, tweets of our content. This requires the content-based model of generating exposures.
Like “Earned Reads” versus “Paid Exposures”, Engaged Reach adds more value to your investment, and contains the self-sprouting seed of brand-controled viral activity online.
Earned Reads Versus Exposures and Going Viral
Exposures do not amount to reads. Major media, ad agencies and marketers simply don’t know if an exposure adds up to an actual read of the content.
Organically generated (also called Natural) inbound traffic to your content, driven by search engine results, assure the read. At least a part of your content was read, proven by the search, link click and time on the page. This is a valuable exposure that can lead to three outcomes:
Audience is fully engaged and inquires further or acts as desired by your brand.
Audience is not engaged, in which case they’re likely unqualified, but at least they read your material, and — potentially — passed on the information to associates. This is why relevant content is vital.
Audience participation goes viral due to a tight alignment of strong, relevant content, and a trending interest in key audiences. This is the sweet spot, where brands go positive and viral online.
Analyzing Value
Clearly, the value of an Earned Read is substantially higher than a paid exposure. Generally, earned reads are qualified, since they came off of keyword searches driven by that need. The potential for a full read, activity, inquiry or sale are vastly higher.
In content-driven models, you generally source your own content (hire writers, use internal and external writers, freelance talent) and organize and distribute it strategically — in a way that will meaningfully drive qualified and engaged traffic to your proposition.
The problem is you need daily content, and that makes the cost somewhat prohibitive. If you hire writers (typical average 30 cents per word for professional copywriters), or a team salaried writers, your costs might limit you to an insignificant volume of quality content to make a difference. Even with the content, you’d need the distribution model, and editors to manage the campaign.
Blogertize Makes it Cost Effective
We have access to hundreds of quailty writers in all fields, and many editors, distribution experts, SEO teams who practice White Hat or non-spam SEO — generally content-driven methods and natural links — and our unique anchor platforms as Social Zines. We bundle these into flat rate packages based on daily content.