The use of media planning in order to get the maximum value out of your advertising budget should never be underestimated.
Selecting which types of media you are going to use in your marketing strategy is often the deciding factor in determining how success your advertising campaign is how good your ROI turns out to be.
Limited budgets
Every business has an advertising budget and if you run a small business, it goes without saying that you have to make every penny count.
You can quickly erode your marketing cash on the wrong type of media, such as advertising in a national paper when local newspaper advertising may well produce the same level of response or better.
Then there is the question of how to target customers online through social media channels, where you have to decide if something like Google AdWords is right for you or whether a Facebook campaign might be more productive.
Defining your customers
Social media is used extensively by large companies who use Facebook to get people to like their products or services and open up a dialogue with them, and it could be that this type of brand-building approach might work for you.
Getting feedback on your products or service will help you to understand what your customers like and give you the chance to carry out more targeted advertising campaigns as a result of the valuable marketing intelligence you have gleaned.
Understanding how different media works
The use of social media is a good example of why you need to understand how different media works, so that you can work out your budget and also manage expectations.
If you are using direct mail to reach potential new customers and provide existing customers with new offers and incentives, that can be a cost-effective way of generating turnover and can give you a reasonable return on your investment, if the message or offering is persuasive.
The cost of direct mailing and printing your own marketing material can be greatly reduced if you consider someone like Stinkyink for example, who look to keep the cost of printing supplies as low as possible. For more information, go to their website, and with regard to direct mail as a marketing strategy, see whether that could be a cost-effective method of attracting orders.
Newspaper advertising
You will often find that when you run a series of adverts in a local newspaper, it will take about three runs of the advert before you start seeing a tangible return or a noticeable response.
Remember this when formulating your budget and don’t give up on the idea if one advert fails to elicit a response.
Radio advertising
Radio advertising is another form of media where there are often predictable patterns that you can take note of and work out your strategy around this information.
Radio adverts that are aired at certain times of the day and have some relevance to the show that is on air when your advert is broadcast will often give you a better ROI.
Take the time to plan your media campaign and you will ultimately avoid wasting financial resources and improve your chances of achieving a good return on your marketing spend.
John Sollars is a business owner of many years. When he gets the time, he likes to sit down and share what has worked for him. Look for his informative posts on a number of websites and blogs today.
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