What is the PESO model in technical PR?

The world of marketing is full of acronyms and buzz words – some more inspired than others. But one acronym worth knowing is the PESO model (and no, we’re not talking some South American currency here!). Simply put, PESO stands for Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned media. So why is this public relations model so important for marketing?

If you are leading an engineering, manufacturing or industrial marketing campaign, then consider using a holistic model that can deliver success across all audience segments. It goes without saying that no one person would be able to produce a strategy and have the expertise in technical content, social, SEO and paid media required for all of the PESO elements. However, understanding the needs you have will allow you to partner with technical copywriters and specialist technical PR practitioners that can provide your campaign with any missing expertise.

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Paid media

Paid media does pretty much what it says on the tin. It involves social media advertising, sponsored content, pay-per-click (PPC), trade magazine advertising, digital retargeting and generally any other form of paid for media content. Paid media is ideal for raising brand awareness and it is now easier than ever to achieve, thanks to the high reach of online advertising – so all you need is a budget!

Earned media

However, earned media, is much harder to achieve, as it consists of content produced and published that is about your business but comes from a third party. This is the type of content that “money can’t buy”. The main benefit is that it builds reputation, brand awareness and trust; and positions your company as a thought leader in the industry. Customer reviews, newspaper/magazine articles, independent news features, social media mentions and link building - are all forms of earned media. Earned media doesn’t happen overnight, as it takes time to build these relationships. It’s a long-term strategy that requires time, effort and patience!

Shared media

Shared media consists of others sharing your content on social media. These can come from customers or other brands, and the bigger their audience, the better for your company. Crucially, shared media supports earned media, owned media and public relations, and is a very cost-effective way of reaching audience segments outside of your traditional followers. The main benefit of shared media is authenticity and the possibility of creating fans or evangelists for your brand that can spread the word about your products or services.

Owned media

Owned media is probably the most common element of the PESO model and it encompasses all the content controlled by a company - be it social media posts, blogs, landing pages, webinars, case studies, website copy, eBooks or email marketing campaigns. Owned media allows brands to control their message according to their vision and supports a coherent communications strategy. This type of media also includes using a wide variety of visual and audio content that hooks the readers: webinars, videos, podcasts, pictures, infographics and even memes!

Applying the PESO model to engineering companies

For engineering companies, the PESO model offers integrated marketing campaigns the ability to extend their reach and can help solidify a brand’s position as an industry leader. The success of the PESO model heavily relies on the quality of content a company is producing, but also how ‘helpful’ this content is for the audience. Engineering, industrial and manufacturing companies can leverage the benefits of PESO through well-designed campaigns that solve problems for their target audience; but in order to be successful it’s crucial that they first understand its constituting elements. We’ll be looking in more detail at each of the individual PESO elements in future posts.

Knowing the demographics of your ideal customers enables you to create an effective strategy to attract, sell to and delight more of those types of people. Learn about buyer personas - what they are, how to use them and how to create them to help fuel growth for your manufacturing, industrial or technical company from our buyer persona guide which is free to download. We've also got a library of many other resources - so make sure you subscribe!