If you think that public relations success only revolves around media relations and placements, think again! As of late, journalists and brands alike are evolving and moving towards data-driven metrics to measure the success of branded content. To understand how public relations, marketing and advertising can work in tandem to produce multifaceted content strategy that results in sales, we recommend adopting the “PESO” model.

Allow us to break it down for you:

Paid – Any piece of content that has a monetary spend attached to it. This can be content such as boosted Facebook posts, boosted Tweets, or sponsored influencer posts. While the goal for PR professionals is to have organic placements, paid placements can be used as a stepping stool to reach that goal. Also, attaching a spend to a piece of content will bolster the chances of getting in front of the right people at the right time.

Earned – Content that has been chosen by a third-party as valuable and is shared through to their audience. While the PR industry still cares about media placements, there are other avenues that can utilize to reach the same end goal – one of which being influencer marketing. When influencers are mentioning a brand, this creates validation to their audience which in turns brings in more potential consumers for that brand.

Shared – A brand’s content that has been shared through another social media account. For instance, when a brand engages with consumers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, other brands or influencers may see that and share the content to their audiences – resulting in more brand awareness.    

Owned – Content that was created by the brand for the purpose of educating consumer’s on its product. This is usually content that a brand has created internally consisting of branded images, videos, statistics and even charts. Owned content is typically the gasoline that keeps the brand machine running because without it, creating any marketing materials can be tricky.

The key to understanding the PESO method is that all parts overlap, creating a symbiotic relationship for public relations and marketing efforts to flourish in. The overlap creates credibility, authority and validation which can be the secret ingredient to a successful marketing campaign and your overall content strategy.

For example, an influencer (like a food blogger) who is creating paid content will not have a good foundation to fully-grasp key messaging without owned content from the brand. Without a positive initial relationship with an influencer, earning content for the brand in the future might be a stretch. So you see, while public relations and marketing are rapidly-changing, maintaining positive relationships along with a well-rounded content strategy keeps all of the working parts of the PESO method fluid.