2 Do’s in Media Planning (And 2 Don’ts to Avoid)

Media planning is not what it used to be.

Gone are the days of targeting audiences based only on demographics and deciding a limited amount of media placement.

The average marketer is now learning a range of different software and vendors to purchase digital media. Knowing customer behaviors and measuring your metrics while understanding a rapidly changing media landscape and maintaining a budget is a juggling act.

Here is what we recommend to help you prepare your media planning for the future.

Do your market research

The first step in media planning is understanding your audience’s demographics, pain points, objectives, and goals. Market research is the perfect way to learn about your audience’s goals.

A detailed understanding of your market includes knowing how your customers find your business.

Do make the right budget

Analyzing the market and knowing the advertising channels your audience consumes can help you decide how to invest your budget. Can you put more money into online ads and radio or into social media and television?

This is entirely up to you, but ensure you are making the appropriate choice.

Don’t disorganize your media plan

Good media planning is focused on creating a logical strategy and then sticking with it. Forgetting what it involves in your media plan is all too easy. Cutting corners means unanswered questions and a lack of preparedness.

You should record steps during the planning process, not just for your strategy but for later reference and knowledge.

Don’t dismiss an omnichannel approach

In a time of successive apps and much more screen time, people are constantly receiving messages from various channels. Omni-channel ads produce a seamless consumer experience regardless of whether a consumer finds you or when.

Show your audience an online ad when they browse on their smartphone and then repeat it again through a Facebook ad.

Technology and the media are always in flux. Go through the process again this year and the following. If your findings are still the same, then that is great for your audience and you can continue to do the same approach.