5 Tips for Do-It-Yourself Media Planners

I’ve seen a number of companies and organizations, in an effort to save-a-buck, forgo bringing in a dedicated media planner and try and do it themselves. When the lack of results follows, they often blame it on the media and not the way it was strategized.

Personally, media buyers can be worth their weight in gold, if you find the right one. Since a large part of the process involves tactics, I would prefer to spend my time on “larger picture” issues, and delegate everything past the strategy and budget to someone who stays current with industry trends and best-practices, and knows the most cost-effective way of finding your audience(s) and delivering your message efficiently. THAT is why you are paying them.

There are many cases where the cost of a media planner / buyer is beyond the budget, or, you simply want to do it in-house. For those of you who find yourselves in the position of putting together a plan, here are a few important considerations that will help you stay on-course, avoid common pitfalls, and develop a schedule that can produce tangible results:

Plan for your audience.

If you’ve been put on a sales rep’s list, no doubt you’ll be bombarded with e-mails, calls and gifts which are meant to persuade you to buy a display ad or web site schedule. Most of them are very nice; however keep in-mind they are primarily looking out for themselves and not totally for your needs. Sure, you might find some compatibility, however how efficient is the media considering the cost? Look carefully at their demographics and psychographics. Does their core audience match with yours? Do your customers prefer to go to their online portal, or read a printed magazine? Would it make more sense to go for a totally-mobile audience?

I’ve done work for a company that has conventionally advertised in print. Their audience is overwhelmingly young and is highly digitally inclined. Yet, decades of “doing it (the old) way” and being afraid to think of the audience first has resulted in declining sales year after year. Think about who buys your product, and how they naturally are exposed to it. Where do they hang-out in the media landscape? I’m not saying transit advertising, print or broadcast isn’t right; it just might not be right for your audience.

Understand how the media works.

It isn’t reach-and-frequency anymore. It’s not spending large sums of money on display ads that spill completely out of your target. If you’ve done your audience research, you’ll know how to reach them. So, if you’re buying a traditional print ad, all you need to do is research the publications that match your demographic and negotiate the best rate. (Be sure to always find a way to drive the reader to a landing page on your site!) The difference that digital advertising has is that you can not only buy “space” for a period of time but also by the number of people seeing it. This is great for companies with limited marketing budget who still want visibility on high-traffic or prestigious sites. Ask your account rep to explain how you can purchase a specific number of impressions for your budget and time frame. Often you can “turn-on” and “turn-off” your campaign by geography, time of day (daypart) or when your daily budget has been exhausted. (TIP: Often in pay-per-click advertising you can spend your entire day’s budget in the first few hours of the day. Consider your audience and target geography (time zones) and plan to be visible when the greatest numbers of prospects are on the site).

Frequently you can ask for bonus (combo) ads on the digital side if you’re buying primarily print. In some instances they will give it to you, or provide a highly-discounted rate if you run your ad online as well. Again, don’t buy a combo if it’s not right for your audience.

Be creative but also persuasive

The best media plans fall apart when some basic advertising rules are violated. Remember that it’s one thing to be creative, and quite another to be persuasive. I might also add “compelling.” In a previous column I wrote about how creative execution is nothing more than killing a good idea through bad creative. You’ve bought the space, now stand out! You’ve only got seconds to create interest and generate a click. The best media buy in the world will produce mediocre results if the second half of the equation is not pulling its weight.

Did I mention call-to-action? Sure you’ve done a good job at creating a compelling layout, so what have you done to compel them to take the next course of action? There’s an entire book I’ve seen that is totally devoted to creating calls-to-action. They’ve done their research; why not follow their lead and assure your ad’s success?

Coordinated landing pages

Whether you’re bought digital or traditional media, no doubt your customer will go to the web to find out more. They may go for a coupon, detailed information, and directions to your business, or simply for hours of operation. Make sure that every ad provides a correlated landing page that not only complements the creative from the ad, but provides the information they are coming to you for. (Don’t know what they want? Go back and do some user-testing research! Never assume you know what the customer wants after they see your ad. Be sure!)

Measurement, monitoring, modification.

It used to be true that the success of an advertising campaign was measured by how many times the cash register rang. While, at the root, this is still true it is not help you understand how your media plan contributed to that register’s activity. You can always sell more, which is why advertising is increasingly more measurable than it ever has been before. A good media plan has measurement, monitoring and modification built into its core. Sure, you cannot change a print ad in a monthly periodical, but you can change the landing page your ad sends them to! Switch-out the offer, or try an immediate test of several incremental offers to see which one pulls better from that print ad driver.

Of course, a digital ad can be modified almost on-the-fly, and unless you’re watching the results daily (if not more frequently) you could be losing the opportunity to turbo-charge your efforts.
There are many media choices competing for your dollar these days. A home-grown media plan (if you must) can be quite successful if you carefully follow these steps and pay attention to the measurement aspect all the way through the process. Of course, if it gets overwhelming you can always get help from a pro!

© 2010 Bob Chernet - View all of Bob's articles at: Bob Chernet's Marketing Best Practices . Reproduction of Bob Chernet's Marketing Insights in any manner is unlawful, without the written permission of the author.