Nine Words of Wisdom about Media Buying

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tue, 7/26/2011

Media buying is definitely not brain surgery or rocket science. At the same time, it is critically important to do your homework before spending unwisely and losing money. Although there are no guarantees, here are a few of my favorite suggestions on improving the chances of successful media buying.

1) Know your target market well! It’s real easy to get persuaded into buying media that you like, versus what your customer likes. This is not a personal decision, but a business decision.

2) Listen to the media reps-they know their products well. Ask them for suggestions for complimentary media. In other words, the newspaper rep may tell you to use a certain radio station. The cable rep may suggest for you to use the same radio station. Your work has been done for you.

3)Find out if your competition is advertising with them. If they are controlling the share of mind and/or time with the audience, and it would take too big of a budget to compete, you may want to go elsewhere with your money.

4)Which media makes sense for your products or services? If your product needs visual then television, newspaper and online advertising may be the answer. If it’s a service that transcends visual needs, radio may be a good bet.

5)Consider the cost of production when buying media. The cost of television production may be too debilitating to your budget, while many print media will set up and design your ads for you with no cost at all.

6)Reaching your target audience is only one part of the media buying equation. The other is frequency. If you can’t afford to reach your customers repeatedly, you might as well throw your money away. It takes a solid combination of both, no matter what media you are considering.

7)Be consistent in the message you send with what your company is actually currently offering. If you having a sale in-store, then advertise that sale. Have displays available for the customer to see when they visit the store, so the transaction can occur.

8)The biggest error companies make when doing their media buying is not creating a tracking system to determine the strength of the media being bought. Why spend the money if you are not going to track it for future use in buying decisions?

9)Lastly, if you do not have the time or inclination to spend on media buying, it may be wise to hire someone to do it for you. These professionals, who spend much of their energies working with the various media for their clients, have up-to-date information that can not only save you time, but money as well.

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

Until next time …