But credibility doesn’t happen on its own — it requires curiosity to uncover the story and empathy to make it resonate.

Here’s how two recent Proven Media Solutions panels provided the formula for the future of public relations – using curiosity and empathy to uncover stories that build trust and have long-term impact with AI algorithms.

Advertising’s Strengths, Earned Media’s Staying Power

While advertising can deliver speed and precision – as well as the certainty of paying for access – earned media delivers reputation, trust, and validation from third parties who cannot be bought. And Nicole Tidei of Pinkston, Sarah Groves of Sentir Consulting, and Jennifer Bowcock of RealPage all agreed that the validation is far more important for long-term brand credibility, especially when crises are waiting around every corner.

Advertising’s results are easy to quantify. Earned media’s value can feel harder to capture. That’s why panelists highlighted “talkability” — the cultural impact of being part of the conversation. Bowcock pointed out that Cracker Barrel’s controversial rebranding drove conversation that reignited consumer attention. That spark is hard to measure – and we don’t yet know if it lit a harmful or helpful fire – but being part of the conversation is important.

The rise of AI is blurring the distinction further. Earned placements fuel the datasets behind ChatGPT and Gemini. Paid opportunities increasingly resemble journalism, with sponsored Forbes and Insider “insights.” Inside corporations, communications and marketing roles are merging into single growth functions. The implication is clear: silos are outdated. Campaigns succeed when earned and paid work together.

Clarity is King

At their core, though, campaigns succeed or fail on clarity. What is the single main idea? What is the value proposition? If leaders can’t reduce a message to one sentence and define an audience in three traits, they aren’t ready to spend on the promise they’re making to the world.

And that promise is key. They’re built on uncovering the right words from the right people, and delivering them to target audiences the right way.

In other words: curiosity to pull out the story and empathy to deliver it. Which was the topic of another recent panel, featuring Lizzy Harris of The Colab and consultants Joshua Mansbach and Reid Wegley.

Why Curiosity and Empathy Matter

Empathy begins with people. Every relationship — from hiring to media pitching — depends on understanding motivations, pressures, and goals. A campaign isn’t about what a company wants to say; it’s about what audiences need to hear. That also includes empathy for the journalist. Don’t flood inboxes; carefully select who to contact and why. Help them do their job better in an era when media outlets are slashing budgets and closing doors.

Curiosity is the “data” of communications. Asking “why” and “how” uncovers the insights that shape strategy. It creates deep dives into a story to find the nugget…and the ability to deliver the nugget to the right people the right way. Even when a product or mission isn’t inherently exciting, curiosity uncovers compelling angles. Siggins highlighted a past client whose VP described its product as “boring.” But curiosity revealed that company was providing lifelines to struggling small businesses that wait months for government payments. That reframing, paired with empathy for those clients, created a campaign.

Can They Be Learned?

One major discussion was whether curiosity and empathy are innate or can be developed. Empathy requires vulnerability, something many professionals resist. Yet skills like listening, reflection, and perspective-taking can be taught and refined.

The distinction matters because communications without empathy risks becoming transactional. Listening with intent, making others feel important, and asking questions that show genuine interest turns tactics into trust.

It’s up to communications leaders to train team members on how curiosity and empathy are part of their success. Everyone learns differently, so leaders must apply these principles to the training. The passionate political activist making a professional transition to B2B public relations may not feel excited about lending, but will they be excited to achieve the client’s goal, or the challenge of breaking through the media noise?

And whether it’s with team members, the media, or clients – doing homework, listening, and coming prepared signal respect. And as Albert Einstein put it: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

From advertising to earned media, from strategy to storytelling, the throughline is unmistakable: PR is people-first. Budgets, campaigns, and AI tools may shift the landscape, but credibility, trust, and influence rest on human connection. Advertising accelerates awareness. Earned validates trust. Curiosity uncovers the story. Empathy ensures it resonates.

But getting that person to actually spend money with you? The online noise of 353 million Twitter users, 1.2 billion websites, 2.7 billion Facebook accounts, and $41 billion spent on U.S. Google ads makes that timeless challenge harder than ever.

We want to help you succeed, so in this post we’ll explain the three types of media necessary to build a great digital brand. We also recently published research on this topic at Forbes.com.

The three medias – paid, earned, and owned

The best digital brand uses three digital medias to reach your target markets, build brand credibility, and begin the sales funnel.

Paid media is advertising – paying money to put your product, service, and name in front of potential buyers. Digitally, it’s what people see first when they Google your company and keywords.

Earned media is getting in the press. Because you’re not paying for it, you have to earn credibility to be in the paper, on the podcast, or on the TV. Done right, it increases the quality of your digital presence when potential buyers search for your company and industry keywords. It also increases the value of your advertising because your target market is more likely to click an ad that has a credible media outlet’s name attached to it.

Owned media is the unique content on your company’s website. It’s what people see when your paid and earned media drive them to your company’s digital home. Done right, it improves your company’s digital presence when potential buyers search for your company and industry keywords.

Together, these three forms of digital media drive more sales and build a great online brand.

Create customers with the right digital media strategy

The best digital strategy:

• Targets potential buyers and algorithms with relevant website content (owned media)
• Drives decision-makers and their influencers to your website with advertising (paid media)
• Increases your brand credibility and improves the value of advertising with press (earned media)

The equation for digital success is different for each person and company. Some companies don’t need all three forms of media. A restaurant or home services company with a local market may primarily rely on word of mouth, paid media, and owned media. A relationship-based company like a law firm, accounting firm, or PR firm may need just earned and owned media because paid media is most valuable for commodity and product firms.

For example, our research included an interview with Salesman Podcast host Will Barron. He hosts has the biggest business-to-business sales podcast in the world, and focuses on paid and owned media. Advertising “initially helped people see our podcast,” but now – five years later – “our podcast drives its own credibility, and advertising amplifies it.” Barron’s podcast is downloaded 750,000 times each month, driving 17,000 website clicks each month – and driving more than half of his company’s revenue.

But for those companies that have a combination of services, products, and intellectual property, the right strategy uses all three types of media to identify your target market, reach your target market, and then convince a critical mass of your target market to become paying customers.

Once your strategy is in place, there’s just one thing left to do…

Invest early, continuously, and substantially

Branding 101 tailors your message and specific offerings to your goals and target markets. The next step is to ensure that your investment happens early, continuously, and deeply. “Users must be exposed to a brand or message seven times to consider taking action,” Joy Riot ad agency founder Jessica McCarthy explained in the Forbes.com article. Those seven touches require substantial investments over a long period of time – even during slow seasons and economic downturns – with:

• Paid media to drive initial website visits and algorithm recognition.
• Earned media to drive user and algorithm credibility and to drive greater value for paid media.
• Owned media with what McCarthy described as “keyword-rich” content to maximize the value of algorithms that connect your website to your target markets.

Many effective digital strategies take at least six months to begin producing more sales. In the meantime, the sales funnel should be taking shape through metrics such as:

• Greater reach into target markets.
• More website clicks.
• More social media followers.
• Greater engagement with social media content.

Turn potential buyers into paying customers

Paid, owned, and earned media are the Three Musketeers for digital branding success. Read our research at Forbes.com, look at our digital branding services, and contact us to turn your potential buyers into paying customers.

We are advising our clients and colleagues to take a counter-intuitive approach to survival: double down on marketing & branding to retain customers, gain market share, and stand out with a unique brand.

First: Stop the bleeding

Desperation breeds creative problem-solving – and few businesses are as desperate as they have been in the last 45 days. Even “essential” businesses are seeing clients and customers disappear due to uncertainty, sudden losses of funding, and fear of coronavirus infections.

It’s hard to see opportunity when customers are bailing, so stem the tide by proving greater value to current clients. This core of your business may not last, so earning more of their business is a both a survival tactic and a best practice.

“Somewhere between 20% and 70% of new customers will decide to stop doing business with you in the first 100 days” of a contract, customer retention expert Joey Coleman recently told us in an interview. Reversing that trend by just five percent often increases profits by 25 percent to 100 percent because “each dollar spent by an existing customer becomes more profitable, and there is no need to spend as much money on sales, marketing, and acquisition.”

In a time when customers are few and revenue is low, Coleman’s approach is the perfect tourniquet for small businesses. Learn more here.

Second: Maintain or increase your marketing budget

One industry which is collapsing during the crisis is advertising. Companies large and small – local theaters and car dealerships to major sports leagues and Disney World – are pulling scarce dollars from newspapers, online, TV, and radio.

This means that supply-and-demand favors the small business owner who chooses to advertise against the tide. Online marketing guru Neil Patel recently encouraged this approach because online ads are cheaper but getting more clicks. Statista specifically noted that Facebook’s average cost-per-click in March was nine cents compared to 11 cents in January. And my business partner is receiving 65 percent more radio ad space than normal — for free! – with one of his companies solely because his firm is not pulling ads from the airwaves.

What this means for small businesses is that just maintaining your current marketing budget brings more value than ever; increasing your marketing when your competitors are doing the opposite could make you the go-to company now and when the economy opens up again.

Third: Stand out with your customers, staff, and network

When everyone else is abandoning marketing, just being present to current and potential buyers gives you a huge advantage. You are the one-eyed man (or woman) on the island of the blind.

Here are four ways to turn today’s marketing into unique long-term branding:

• Take advantage of social distancing to establish deep personal relationships with customers. Check in on how people are doing with their work, health, and families. Earn “know, like, and trust” now so that when the economy opens up, you are their first and only option.

Read more on this strategy from revenue generation specialist Susan Trivers.

• Offer low-cost, high-value services or products.
• Business consultants like financial advisors and PR professionals can provide tailored, COVID-specific strategies to get clients through the current crisis – and earn trust that turns into months or years-long consulting contracts.

• Provide COVID-specific value to your community. Businesses large and small are doing exactly that, and getting significant publicity locally, statewide, and nationally. And whether your distillery is now producing hand sanitizer, you’re feeding medical personnel, or you’re giving savings back to customers, your target market will notice.

• Recommend best practices which clients can use until they hire your company. One PR firm sent a white paper on the industry’s adjustment to the COVID-19 crisis; a law firm’s e-mail newsletter provides valuable analyses of the public policy response to the crisis; and one of my firm’s clients is helping its small business customers navigate the changing financial landscape.

Survival requires thinking differently

Getting through the current crisis may require radically going against the tide. By investing in current buyers, increasing outreach to customers who will become buyers, and seeking to be unique in the marketplace, your odds of survival will increase and you’ll create a strong foundation for long-term success.

This too shall pass. Contact us today to increase your chances of being there when it does.