Five Steps to Effective Media Buying on a Budget
In frugal times, the best way to maximize media budgets is to make sure money is spent efficiently and in a way that will make investments go further.
Not every company has millions of dollars to spend on traditional and online marketing campaigns. Clients with smaller budgets need to be more selective about how they allocate their funds. Their money needs to work smarter -- not harder -- to generate their desired return on investment without going over budget.
The way to maximize smaller media budgets is twofold: make sure money spent is going to be efficient and work with media outlets to tack on as many extras as possible to make investments go further.
Here are five ways to stretch those ad dollars:
1. Develop a cost-effective and efficient media plan, based on your demographic, geographic and potential customer needs, that's flexible and can react quickly to the changing economy. Take all media - radio, TV, print, outdoor, online and direct mail into consideration. Be up front and realistic about your expectations of the campaign and its desired results from each media.
2. Implement your media plan as far in advance as possible to get the best possible media rates. The further out you book your campaign, the better total package you should get.
3. Integrate the best media mix possible based on your company and product you are advertising. As an example many clients are currently having great success using a combination of electronic and online media. Try and determine what's best for you, but be sure to consider integrating traditional media with new media.
4. If possible try to work promotion into your campaign. Most media are receptive to promotional concepts but usually need a lot of lead time to implement. This will increase your overall impressions and awareness for less cost.
5. Don't let unit rate fool you. Time and time again clients are focused on what a single commercial or ad costs. When you see where and what time your advertising is running, the actual number of listeners / viewers / readers / users may not meet your expectations. Look at the whole campaign and be willing to place yourself in the best possible position to get a return.