Unlocking the Power of the PESO Model in Digital Marketing

Chances are, you’ve probably heard of the PESO model.

Even though the PESO model originated from Public Relations, most industries have adapted it to help organize different forms of media to organize marketing efforts. 

In this blog, I’ll break down where the PESO model came from, what it is, why it’s important, some pros and cons, and how you can use it to create a robust marketing strategy for any business. 

Where Does the PESO Model Come From?

As I mentioned, the PESO model originated in the world of Public Relations (PR).

PR and Marketing used to be two separate entities. These professionals often put walls up to keep advertising away from editorial content. 

PR professionals stayed busy building and maintaining strong relationships with journalists while practicing crisis communication.

Marketers and ad agencies focused their efforts on creative elements and paid media efforts. 

The main distinction here is that PR agencies never paid for content distribution, whereas ad agencies did. 

As the Internet was widely adopted, we saw the emergence of owned media, content that brands created and published themselves. 

Fast forward to 2014 and Gini Dietrich published the book, Spin Sucks, proposing the PESO model, a new way of organizing media efforts. 

So, What Exactly Is the PESO Model?

PESO stands for paid, earned, shared and owned. 

It functions as a way to organize efforts of different marketing channels, allowing marketers to integrate them and create a holistic strategy that reaches target audiences at various touchpoints. 

There’s no “right way” to start with the PESO model, but I’ll break down each form of media based on who owns it, starting with owned media, moving to paid media, jumping into shared media, and closing with earned media. 

Owned Media

Definition: Owned media consists of any content a business owns or creates to publish on its own channels. 

Pros:

1. You own your content so you can change and edit it as you see fit.
2. There’s a lower risk of your content being removed or taken down.
3. Evergreen content will continuously drive traffic to your sites.

Cons: 

1. It takes time to craft and create quality content.
2. It also takes time to gain steady traffic and build a loyal audience. 

How to Amplify Your Owned Media

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Marketers should be using SEO strategies to help their owned content stand out online by ranking higher across search engine results pages. 

Rely on incorporating best practices such as proper use of keywords, metadata, and linking practices across all your content. 

Voice search assistants answer nearly 93% of search queries. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity by optimizing for keywords that are conversational. 

Focus on E-E-A-T. Build your experience, expertise, authority, and trust online by posting quality content. By focusing on E-E-A-T, part of Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines, you have a greater chance of ranking higher in SERPs.

2. Content Marketing

Not to be confused with SEO, content marketing is another facet of owned media. 

Content marketing is used to attract, engage, and retain audiences by planning, crafting, distributing and sharing quality content. 

When done correctly, content marketing will help increase your site traffic, build your social media following, retain customers, and promote your business.

3. Videos, Webinars, and Podcasts

Videos, webinars, and podcasts can be awesome formats to help build brand awareness.  

Ask yourself, “What content topics would fit best into these formats?”

Use them to help answer frequently asked questions, walk customers through your business services, demo products, interview experts, and share industry news or insights. 

Measuring Your Owned Media Efforts Through the PESO Model

Measuring the success of your owned media strategies is simple since you have access to all the data. Here are a few metrics to track:

• Unique Visitors – the average number of individuals visiting your domain, within a time period. It doesn’t matter if a user lands on your site once or 20 times, is still a single unique visitor. 
• Time Spent on Your Site – the total amount of time someone spends navigating through your site. 
• Bounce Rate – the percentage of visitors who come to your site and leave, without visiting any other page. 

Paid Media

Definition: Paid media includes marketing efforts that revolve around paid placements. Paid media campaigns often include PPC or pay-per-click advertising, branded content, display ads, social media ads, and more.

Pros:

1. The more money you invest, the more distribution your content will see. 
2. You’re guaranteed exposure for your message, making it more reliable.
3. Your media messages can be placed in front of audiences almost instantly. 

Cons: 

1. There’s still skepticism about paying to receive exposure for your content.
2. As your reach increases, so do your costs.
3. As soon as you pull money out and stop investing, you won’t see a return on your investment. 

Example of a Paid Media Process

In order to create awesome paid media ads follow this process:

Step 1: Define your performance goals and review historical data. Look at your cost per click, conversion rate, and revenue. 

Step 2: Implement proper tracking through Google AdWords and Google Analytics

Step 3: Build a proper keyword and targeting strategy. Also, focus on removing poor ads and listing keywords you want to avoid.

Step 4: Develop your ad copy and creative 

Step 5: Optimize the landing pages you direct your ads to. Use conversion rate optimization methodologies to increase conversions for your page.  

Step 6: Create your bidding strategy, monitor your progress, and report on analytics consistently

Measurement

Depending on where you are running your ads, you’ll want to look to a few of the following sources to evaluate your tactics: 

•  Social Media Metrics – broken down by each platform you’ve run ads on 
• Landing Pages – pay attention to how many people download your content 
• Overall leads and conversions

  

Shared Media

Definition: Shared media is your content that is shared across various third-party platforms.

Pros:

1. People trust when their peers share content, often more than the media or through ads.
2. The momentum of shares behind your content is tied to quality > dollars.

Cons: 

1. It is hard to predict what content will be shared in advance.
2. It is hard to scale your content. Creating more content doesn’t ensure it will be shared.

Types of Shared Media to Focus On

Organic Social Media

Work smarter, not harder. Repurpose your top-performing owned media content, for social media. If it’s seen traction on your website, chances are the topic will trend well on social media. 

Reviews

Pay attention to reviews. As I mentioned, people trust their peers when they share content and sources, and recommend businesses. 

Social Forums

Forums function similarly to reviews but should be used to gauge brand sentiment. How do people feel about your company? What insights can you take and bring back to your company? 

Company Partnerships

Dive into company partnerships where applicable. By partnering with other companies, there’s a good chance they will also share your content, helping you reach a new audience. 

Brand Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors can be integral to your brand. They can be employees, celebrities, influencers, or simply loyal customers. When influential people share your content, there’s a better chance of getting more eyes on it. 

Measurement

Measuring shared media can be difficult, but there are ways to quantify it:

• Follower Trends: by tracking increases or decreases in your follower count, you’ll know what is working, and consequently, what isn’t. 
• Brand Ambassador Metrics: look into any brand ambassador metrics. How much traffic are they driving to your site? And how much of that traffic is meaningful or actually converts? 

Earned Media

Definition: Earned media is generated engagement through activities that you do not pay for. Put simply, earned media is the attention you earn online through others sharing your content. 

Pros:

1. When other entities share your content, you build authority.
2. Experience a cost-effective reach by leveraging your audience’s size and trust.
3. Past mentions or placements can be referenced or linked to for long-term SEO benefits. 

Cons: 

1. Since you can’t control what’s being said about your brand and content, earned media is often seen as unreliable.
2. It’s hard to scale since it’s impossible to guess what will go viral.
3. It can be costly and time-draining to build effective partnerships.

Earned Media Process for Your PESO Model

Earned media focuses on building and cultivating relationships with industry, bloggers, journalists, and influencers. Here are a few strategies you can try in hopes of earning media coverage: 

Step 1: Create outreach lists of users you want to collaborate with, on each platform you are on. Make sure you qualify your lists, putting your time and resources into outlets you believe might pick up your story.

Step 2: Begin engaging with content from bloggers or influencers on your outreach list to build and then maintain a positive relationship.

Step 3: Craft unique pitches by building creative stories and content pieces about your products or services that can be pitched to media outlets in your industry. 

Step 4: Conduct outreach by sending pitches and following up on any requests.

Measurement

Measuring earned media efforts can be difficult. You’ll find all of your results based on the relationships you cultivate with the bloggers, journalists, and influencers you work with.

• Referral Web Traffic – Are any news outlets or blogs helping drive visitors to your site?
• Domain Authority – Are you seeing an increase in domain authority?
• Share of Voice – Look at topics surrounding your business and compare how much of the conversation is about your brand vs. competitors

Wrapping Tt Up: The Outcomes of PESO Model Efforts

By integrating your paid, earned, shared, and owned content together, you’ll create an organized media strategy, that allows you to implement tactics across various services.

But there are more benefits that the PESO model can bring to your business.

• Reputation: Your reputation consists of the beliefs and opinions that are held about your company. By using the PESO model, you’ll be able to track potential clients’ sentiments about your company.
• Credibility: When other outlets share your content, that communicates safety and trustworthiness to your customers, resulting in an increase in credibility.
• Thought-Leadership: By creating helpful educational content published in your name, you can be seen as an authority not only within your organization but within your industry.
• Authority: By using the PESO model to help you promote your content across the web, you’ll be able to build authority through links from references and other reliable sources.

PESO Model FAQs

1. What is the peso model in digital marketing?

The PESO model in digital marketing is a model that businesses use to leverage their Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media.

2. What is the purpose of the PESO model? 

The purpose of the PESO model is to integrate your paid, earned, shared, and owned media together in order to achieve marketing goals by utilizing different forms of media.