What Is Media Planning And How Is It Beneficial
Updated: Jun 1, 2021
In today's world, there are about 7.3 billion people. Unbelievably, half of the population goes online at any given time.Digging deeper, it can be seen that the total digital buyer penetration is projected at around 45%. This number is accompanied by a web sales estimate of a staggering$1.592 trillion globally. So what exactly do these figures imply? Given these stats, one can safely deduce that the world is now reaching the digital age's peak. A lot has changed along with the coming of digital technology, most notably people's shopping and buying habits, to name a couple.
Entering the Digital Age
Amidst the challenges we are now facing in the 21st century, it's about time we think far ahead in the future and start considering what's in store for all of us, technology-wise.Indeed, the ever-changing needs of people have given birth to the proliferation of digital media. This is one of the reasons why businesses and industries are adapting to stay ahead of the competition.
One such example of this is the way businesses do marketing. As people's dependence on traditional media is declining, brands utilize innovative and creative ways to reacht heir customers more effectively. What better way to do so than connect with them where they can most likely be seen: on the internet. This is where digital marketing comes into play.
What is digital marketing?
Since its conception way back in the 90s and 2000s, online-based digital technologies have been placed at most businesses' core. Digital tactics, as well as digital channels, help support a significant marketing effort. Social media and email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, display advertising, and search platforms are some of the more prominent marketing tools that brands are going for. Of course, exactly which of these tools are the best will largely depend on the type of business and the target customers.
At this point in time, digital marketing is an essential component of promoting brand awareness. It seems that each brand out there is trying to maintain a strong social media presence and digital advertising strategy. The majority of consumers are currently relying on these to stay informed about what's going on in the business world.
What is media planning?
One key goal of every marketing campaign is to promote awareness of a company's products and services among potential customers. This can be achieved through the process of media planning. Naturally, regardless of the approach, the end game is the same for all: the customer's purchase. With the help of media planning, ad placements can now be correctly strategized, and an optimized performance can be maintained throughout the entire campaign lifecycle.Media planners have a vital role to play in the media planning process. Most advertising agencies use their skills and expertise to evaluate which among the many media options available can best support a particular brand, product, or service. They have to give much thought to specific details, such as advertising, the marketing campaign objectives, and the ideal target audience. They also decide where to feature a particular advertisement, coming from a list of selected media outlets like websites, magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations, and outdoor placement.
How Media Planning Works
The driving force behind a well-developed media plan is the marketing goal. As with every goal, it should be SMART–specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. This facilitates a proper understanding of what media strategy to use, be it catching new prospects, making sure customers remain loyal to your brand, or retargeting those that you missed the first time.
When comparing various advertising media, there is a need to gather and highlight clients' information to guarantee an effective and creative media plan. This gives the brand a huge advantage in a competitive market. Generally, media planners and clients would go for a media plan covering the following points in detail.
Reach
How much product exposure are you aiming for? This is an essential point to think about. There is also a timeframe or advertising schedule to consider so that ideal results can be achieved in line with the media plan's goals. At times, other media or timing maybe needed. To illustrate this, if you need drive time on the radio, you could go for an extra day and night time slots to connect with a broader audience. Or you could increase the number of ad insertions in your local paper to have more people exposed to your ad.
Frequency
How often do you want the target customer to be exposed to your ad?It may be necessary to repeat the ads as much as you need to just so you can break through the customer's selection process and increase product awareness. The critical point to remember here is that in advertising, once is just not enough.
Cost
On top of advertising reach and frequency, the cost of reaching members of the target audience should be calculated. Under cost per thousand utilized by print media, the publication's circulation is accounted for. Under cost per point utilized by broadcast media, the schedule's value is recorded plus the number of rating points it delivers.
Selectivity
It's also a good idea to determine which media outlet can best reach your target market.Those who could be your most likely prospects may be restricted in terms of media reach. For instance, advertising a luxury car wouldn't work in a local newspaper if the geographical area has limited coverage of potentially interested people.
Impact
Get the most out of your ads by opening the customer's senses. Contrary to popular belief, it's not always the sense of sight that appeals the most. Depending on your goodies, it could be the sense of smell or sound that works best.
The perks of media planning
One noteworthy point of media planning is that you can be privy to valuable information on other brands and industries operating in the same market. This, in turn, puts you onestep ahead of the game when it comes to campaign strategies. Your media planners are also the ideal people to determine which platform/s would work best for you to reach your business goals.To boot, firms with limited budgets can benefit from media planning as it addresses pending inefficiencies. Wasteful advertising can be controlled, and available resources can be used in an optimum manner. Precisely how this is done would be up to your media planning team. Last but not least, standards of performance should not be sacrificed. Customer engagement should be tracked at all times to maximize the success of future campaigns.
Conclusion
With marketing trends that are continuously evolving, modern-day entrepreneurs can get the most out of media planning. Irrespective of the company size, staying current on new developments can ensure that your business receives the best return on investments. By and large, media planning seems to be an indispensable way to ensure a successful marketing campaign. More importantly, it gets the right message to the right people through the proper means.If you are looking to create a media planning strategy but are in doubt of its process, maximise your output by working with an agency such as DFW Creative..
Contact DFW for your press needs,
some of our client's favourite services are:
Market analysis
Establishing the Media Objective
Setting strategy
Budgeting, planning & implementation
Evaluation, follow up and report