March 28, 2021
What is Media Planning?
Media planning is a collective discipline that involves creative, technical, and financial decisions to promote a brand. The media plan’s ultimate aim is to create a unique online presence for your company, which will convert into sales.
Media Planning Stages
Media planning involves various stages, with each having to be carefully strategized. Business budget and resources, timing, type of content, tone of communication, business market, and target audience have to be considered for a successful media plan. Here is a closer look into what media planning is and the process involved.
1. Research the Market Carefully
A target audience is the particular group of people that your business or service intends to cater to. The most important factor when determining the accurate target audience is determining the market’s buying power, spending habits, trends, and the market gap. Data derived from such market research can then determine how the media strategy for visible effect.
2. Rapport Building
Media planning involves more than plain research. Forming rapport with the target audience means insight into preferred tone, language, marketing platforms, and interaction channels. Without forming rapport with the target market, you may run the risk of launching a media plan that won’t be as receptive as expected.
3. Plan Building
Once all the data regarding the target market is gathered, strategic media planning is executed based on target market findings. The strategic plan includes the initial goals, communication strategies, scope, project time-frame, and resources required to achieve the goals.
In this initial stage, the budget should be analyzed and considered for realistic and effective planning. If the budget is overlooked in this stage, you run the risk of depleting funds in the midst of the campaign or have money left over, which you could have diverted into building a more effective campaign.
4. Progress Measurement
Measurement is how you can determine whether the strategy is effective or needs revision. Media planning involves a balanced budget scoresheet. The budget is divided into several categories that include:
- Product cost
- Delivery mechanism cost
- Distribution channels cost
- Revenue impact
The balanced scoresheet illustrates how the campaign is fairing relative to the listed categories. Depending on the results, the strategy can be tweaked, revised, or progressed. Tracking the success of the campaigns not only helps to implement immediate changes, but it also helps you understand what needs to be done in order to obtain much better results. Future campaigns can also build on the results that are reflected from the measuring process.
Final Thoughts
An effective media campaign is executed by implementing strategies derived from planning. The initial step is to carry out market research. Going beyond desk research and forming a rapport with the audience helps to appreciate the preferred communication style. A plan is then built using the initial market information as well as the budget. Measuring progress will help you understand what needs to be changed, so you could plan your campaign accordingly. Hiring expert media planners will help you put all these bits and pieces together and achieve incredible results in no time.
Marketing Agency Network features only the best media planning agencies in the US. In case you’re looking for such an agency, feel free to check out the following list: