Are you a business owner growing increasingly frustrated by the barrage of media planning advice? One week you’re supposed to be running ads on Facebook, and the next week Facebook is out but Snapchat is in. How is any business owner with a massive to-do list supposed to know what they should do to grow their company? Stick to these basics and you’ll see increased ROI from your media outreach and most importantly your customers will thank you.
– The quality of your media planning significantly impacts the effectiveness of your marketing. Business owners who jump on the latest media trends without carefully planning their outreach strategy are doomed. Everything from your on-air timeliness to your message’s frequency can determine whether your marketing efforts succeed or not.
– The number one thing you can do to improve the effectiveness of your media outreach is to speak directly to your customers. The more you know about the needs of your clientele, the better prepared you are to target your marketing and address their needs. Business owners who zero in on the needs of their customers in their marketing have a substantially greater return on investment from their media strategy.
– Mimicking the marketing of others in your sector is one of the worst things you can do to grow your business. Not only do you look like a copycat, but you also don’t stand out from others in your market. Customers like memorable brands; if your marketing and media outreach is similar to your competitors, you’re not giving consumers a reason to choose you first.
– Think of each component of your media as a competition. From your social media to your content marketing, consider how your outreach efforts stack up against others in your niche. Once you learn to review your media strategy with an analytical eye, you’ll soon begin to spot opportunities to improve your outreach and rise above your competition. Good enough will no longer be good enough; that fact gives extra fuel to your brand-building fire.
– Stop thinking about your audience outreach efforts in terms of segmenting media platforms like radio or television, content marketing or social media. When you start thinking of your online and offline engagements in terms of having real conversations with potential customers, you learn how to strip away all the nonsense that other brands fall for. Customers don’t care about how cool your Instagram images are or how hip you are because you’re using Snapchat; they want to know who you are and how your business can satisfy and simplify their needs. Media is the tool to communicate with them. Period.
The key to building your brand through effective media outreach is to put your customers first in your media planning efforts and you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel about your advertising. Authenticity matters in marketing, it’s who you are, your media strategy is an extension of that. Apply these five tips to your media planning and your brand will reap the rewards for years to come.
