You have a something to offer. You have a message. You have a marketing budget. Now it’s time to do some media planning.
In choosing media for your promotional efforts, a very important consideration is how well a particular advertising vehicle will reach your target audience at a level that will allow the investment pay off with increased sales.
Generally, you will be considering the following vehicles:
- Television
- Radio
- Newspapers
- Electronic (e-newsletters, broadcast e-mails, pay-per-click, Web banners, etc.)
- Magazines (consumer and trade)
- Outdoor billboards
- Public transportation
- Yellow Pages
- Direct mail
Do more than simply “count noses” in the medium’s audience. Start with a general demographic profile of your customer base, then evaluate all the advertising media in your market to see how well represented those targeted individuals are among the medium’s viewers, listeners or readership. (The media sales reps should be able to provide such demographic information about their audiences.) Calculate how many impressions you’re likely to get for your advertising dollar and determine how the various advertising vehicles stack up against one another.
For example:
Newspaper: Readership 100,000
Readers who are likely potential customers: 10 percent
Full page ad: $10,000
Cost per potential impression: $1
vs.
Targeted Direct Mail: Mail to 10,000 homes
Recipients who are likely potential customers: 95 percent*
Total cost (postage, design, printing, etc.): $8,000
Cost per potential impression: $0.84
These dollar figures are only part of any equation. Take a look at what your successful competitors are doing as well. And naturally, if you’re working with an advertising agency, strongly consider what they have to say on the subject.
Once you have a “winner” from among the advertising media, try to come up with an effective plan for that vehicle alone. Frequency is key. Typically an average of three or more exposures to an advertising message is necessary before consumers take action. Make this your minimum baseline marketing plan. Don’t ignore your “gut instincts” either.
Next, and as your budget allows, plan to have “spikes” in your advertising during the weeks just before consumer activity is likely to increase, or when you feel the time will be right for promotional activity. You can either “double up” on your primary advertising vehicle, or complement that messaging through another fairly effective medium (based on your preliminary analysis). Remember to maintain adequate frequency for the secondary advertising vehicle as well.
Depending on how large your budget is, you can repeat the process with two, three or four different advertising vehicles — first laying down a “primer coat” of advertising and ratcheting up your marketing on top of that during special times of the year.
This layering gives you flexibility. Because your frequency levels are set high enough to give a medium a fair chance, you needn’t hesitate to later divert funds from an underperforming ad investment to another advertising vehicle in subsequent months. Most importantly your message is re-enforced and all-around effectiveness is enhanced.
Tracking the results of your advertising is critical for future media buys. Though an initial assessment may suggest a lot of bang for the buck for a particular advertising medium, reality may show something very different. Constantly refine your advertising campaigns and experiment with the various media. Given some time and thoughtful analysis you will see your advertising investments pay off with big dividends.
*This completely depends on how good your mailing list is.
Links for this subject:
Media Buying and Planning Calculators
Contributing Author: Ginger Reichl Pinstripe Marketing