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Nine Steps to Making Media Buying Simple

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tue, 10/15/2013

The options to buy media have increased immensely over the last twenty years, with a great deal of that growth coming in just the last ten years. While yellow pages are almost extinct and traditional newspapers are having to adjust to the times, no media has really gone away. At the same time, new media has been added at warp speed. Here are a few tips as a business, on how to deal with this new world of marketing;

1. Know your target market-Many businesses get into business without really targeting. By knowing your target customer, you will be able to eliminate several of the choices right out of the gate.

2. Know your competition-If you know your competition well you will be able to either join them in certain media exposures or try and go down a different path.

3. Know your potential annual gross dollars and expected growth over time-Knowing your dollar goals will allow you to feel comfortable setting aside the proper budget for marketing. Knowing this budget will also give you direction in eliminating certain media of choice.

4. Research the media-By staying on top of the available media in your market, you will be able to be on the cutting edge when it is time to buy.

5. Allow the media reps to help and guide you along the way. The good reps will be consultants to your business, and should be able to advise you on their products and on how to purchase from their competitors.

6. Always ask for extras-Sometimes there may be nothing available but nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you are doing a promotion, it would enhance the promotion if you were able to offer gift with purchase, etc. Many of these gifts can come from your media vendors because you are one of their clients.

7. Be an active participant in the media-If you own a children’s apparel shop it would make sense to understand the media that your target market appreciates. Maybe you should be checking out Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel, etc. It may not be your favorite, but you will gain so much fantastic information that will help you to reach your target market customer.

8. Sometimes paying more is actually less-Just because a radio station has a huge audience, if it does not reach your target customer as much as a targeted publication, it may be wise to pay more per ad in the targeted publication, because of the higher likelihood of return on investment to your business.

9. Don’t stop this process-Everything is changing so quickly so you need to be working on this continuously. I say you, meaning your company. If you can’t do it personally, then hire a person to work for you who can, either internally or externally.

What are your challenges when it comes to buying media? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…