If you’re like most marketers, the last few weeks have been challenging, as many news outlets are reporting about COVID-19 on a 24/7 news cycle. While there is a clear need for this valuable reporting, companies have announcements and news that need to be shared with customers. These news stories are rightfully receiving a lot less attention.

It’s times like these when the PESO content model provides an opportunity to better communicate with customers.

For marketers, PESO stands for Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned media. Gini Dietrich, author of  Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age first penned the relationship between different forms of media as four overlapping circles. Essentially, she describes the PESO model as:

• Paid:The channels in which money is paid to place the message, and control its distribution.
• Earned:Secured coverage of an enterprise, cause or person's message by a credible third party such as a journalist, blogger, trade analyst or industry influencer. 
• Shared: The pass-along sharing and commenting upon a message by the community through social channels. 
• Owned: The editorial content and messages your company writes, publishes and controls through a dedicated channel. 

Over the past couple of weeks, Rainier clients have successfully navigated this new marketing landscape by deploying the following PESO strategies:

• Now is the time to consider investing in reputable paid content opportunities, like the Forbes Tech Council or VMBlog Q&A Series. These organizations offer executives the opportunities to pen high-quality, thoughtful bylines or participate in Q&As for a nominal fee, keeping organizations top-of-mind.
• Rainier’s teams recently reached out to our clients’ top-tier trade magazines to see how agencies like ours can help them navigate the months ahead. We learned that many trade publications say their need for content has not diminished and they will gladly accept free quality content from expert sources. We’re busy writing content for these publications to keep the news flow moving for clients and publications.
• Companies are sharing non-COVID-19 stories and now is the time to invest in social media channels to share content, check in with customers, create new groups and generally promote your company while being sensitive to the global health crisis impacting us all. Customers want to know that your business is operating well in this crisis and continuing to support customers as needed. Now is not the time to go silent on the social media front.
• If your top trades are not accepting written content, that’s OK. Invest in your own publication channel – a corporate blog or company newsletter. Both options provide opportunities to unabashedly share your company’s viewpoint, promote great news (like award wins or customer accolades) and build up your community.

Rainier can help you through this trying time and is able to maximize the PESO method for your organization. Our seasoned team is filled with excellent writers that understand technical audiences and can ensure your story is being told across all channels.